12. The 'Matrix' Trilogy
Films: "The Matrix" (1999), "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003), "The Matrix Revolutions" (2003)
Director: The Wachowskis
Best of the bunch: "The Matrix"
Weakest Link: "The Matrix Revolutions"
Why it's a great trilogy: A film becomes a classic if it can stand the test of time. A "great" trilogy has to have at least one classic and in this case it's the Wachowskis' groundbreaking "The Matrix." Their follow ups weren't as positively received at the time, but hindsight is 20/20. If you watch "The Matrix Revolutions" today you'll find a dramatic thriller that features heart-stopping action alongside some very big philosophical ideas. The casual fan of the first "Matrix" was disappointed, but "Reloaded" has aged incredibly well. A decade later and it's still smarter and more sophisticated than half he films nominated for best picture this year. It's well known in the industry that reaction to "Reloaded" prompted the Wachowskis' to dumb down the final part of the trilogy, "Revolutions." Whether the duo ever admit it publicly remains to be seen, but the final product still deserves more credit for being a satisfying conclusion to the series. And how can you not adore an epic that ends with the lines "Did you always know?" "Oh, no. I didn't. But I believed. I believed." - Gregory Ellwood11. The 'Mad Max' Trilogy
Films: "Mad Max" (1979), "The Road Warrior" (1981), "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" (1985)
Director: George Miller
Best of the bunch: There's a narrative economy and visceral ingenuity that make either of the first two movies acceptable answers. I'll take "Road Warrior."
Weakest Link: "Beyond Thunderdome" seemed SO cool when it came out, but time hasn't been kind to what feels more like an '80s relic than it should.
Why it's a great trilogy: "Mad Max" and "The Road Warrior" are two great pieces of pure action filmmaking, like the post-Apocalyptic answer to the Leone "Dollars" trilogy. They're non-stop adrenaline rushes with some of the best car-based stunts ever put on film and one of the iconic leading performances of the past 50 years courtesy of Mel Gibson. After nearly three decades, George Miller is returning to the franchise with "Fury Road," but the Gibson trilogy will always stand alone. -Dan Fienberg 10. The 'Before' Trilogy
Films: "Before Sunrise" (1995), "Before Sunset" (2004), "Before Midnight" (2013)
Director: Richard Linklater
Best of the Bunch: "Before Sunrise" is what made you fall in love -- with the trilogy, with the duo, with the concept -- to begin with.
Weakest Link: Calling any of the three "weak" is practically demeaning, when all three have a 95% or more on Rotten Tomatoes and each has an enuring theme about the fractured tendencies of love. (But, OK then, fine, "Before Sunset.")
Why It's a Great Trilogy: Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke are invested to the drama and simplicity of this romantic journey, which starts with the meet-cute and ends with the heartaching realities of marriage, fantasy, careers and children. - Katie Hasty
9. The Jason Bourne Trilogy
Films: "The Bourne Identity" (2002), "The Bourne Supremacy" (2004), "The Bourne Ultimatum" (2007)
Directors: Doug Liman for "Identity" and Peter Greengrass for "Supremacy" and "Ultimatum"
Best of the bunch: The two Greengrass films work best as a single unit, so the vote here is for the purity of Liman's "Identity," with is a flawlessly arced and executed action film.
Weakest Link: There's a certain messiness to the end of "Ultimatum," which overworks to tie pieces together, even if certain revelations don't fully make sense. Of course, because of that effort at closure, it's really easy to pretend that 2012's "Legacy" is entirely its own thing and not related to the Damon "Bourne" Trilogy.
Why it's a great trilogy: "The Bourne Identity" stepped into a cinematic moment in which our greatest long-running action hero, Mr. James Bond, had gone fallow and become a series of mannequin-in-the-window stagnated tableaux starring Pierce Brosnan. Liman and Greengrass worked with Matt Damon to bring intensity and urgency back to the espionage game and forced James Bond to change course, for the better. Although Liman and Greengrass had very different styles, they delivered one bracing set-piece after another in a slew of well-used international locations. What elevates the franchise, though, is the fully grounded performance by Damon, who seemed like a really strange candidate for an action franchise lead when this all began. In the end, Damon was completely convincing at the action side of things and he reminded us that a good hero can be tortured and complicated without ever sacrificing in the quantity of butt he can kick. - Dan Fienberg8. The 'Vengeance' Trilogy
Films: "Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance," (2002), "Old Boy," (2003) and "Lady Vengeance" (2005)
Director: Chan-wook Park
Best of the bunch: "Old Boy," which stands near the very top of everything released during the new wave of Korean cinema.
Weakest Link: "Lady Vengeance," which still manages to pack an amazing satirical gutpunch.
Why it's a great trilogy: Chan-wook Park created three different scenarios in which a desire for revenge seems not only rational but inevitable. You can only push people so far until they break, and when his characters break, it is terrifying to behold. He stages images that are both beautiful and awful, often at the same time, and he isn't afraid to totally demolish his audience after hooking them emotionally. To make tears run hot and blood run cold simultaneously is a gift, one that is on full display in these three films. - Drew McWeeny
7. The 'Dark Knight' trilogy
Films: "Batman Begins" (2005), "The Dark Knight" (2008), "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012)
Director: Christopher Nolan
Best of the bunch: "The Dark Knight"
Weakest Link: "Batman Begins"
Why it's a great trilogy: If Tim Burton's "Batman" films brought superheroes to a critical and popular mass in the early 1990's than Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" trilogy proved the Caped Crusader could reach unexpected cinematic heights in the 21st Century. While "Batman Begins" is unfortunately clunky at times because of the need to fashion an origin story with an extra third act, "The Dark Knight" is a hands down masterpiece and one of the top 10 films of the '00s. The final installment, "The Dark Knight Rises," combines all the themes of heroism and revenge introduced in "Begins" into a great film that is only diminished when standing alongside its predecessor. Many superhero films (including the popular "Avengers" related films) will age quickly. Like the best of Bond and Indiana Jones, "The Dark Knight" will endure for decades to come. - Gregory Ellwood6. The 'Toy Story' Trilogy
Films: "Toy Story" (1995), "Toy Story 2" (1999), "Toy Story 3" (2010)
Directors: John Lasseter ("Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2"), Lee Unkrich ("Toy Story 3")
Best of the bunch: "Toy Story 2," which managed the seemingly-impossible feat of topping the nearly-perfect original.
Weakest Link: "Toy Story 3," but not by much.
Why it's a great trilogy: Pixar changed the feature animation game forever with the release of the first "Toy Story" in 1995, taking a simple premise and jacking it up with cutting-edge computer animation, a crackerjack storyline and a host of wonderful characters. The attention to the latter two elements is what makes the series as a whole work, of course, and it's what separates the "Toy Story" trilogy from inferior animation franchises like "Ice Age" and "Madagascar." Woody, Buzz and the gang may be the products of dazzlingly-sophisticated computer-generated animation, but they're also characters you grow to love and to cherish, to root for and even to cry with (the depiction of Jessie's sad backstory in "Toy Story 2" is an honest-to-god tearjerker), making them vehicles not only for great storytelling but for great art as well. To infinity and beyond, indeed. - Chris Eggertsen5. The 'Dollars' Trilogy
Films: "A Fistful Of Dollars" (1964), "For A Few Dollars More" (1965), "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly" (1966)
Director: Sergio Leone
Best of the bunch: "The Good, The Bad & The Ugly," which manages to tell a ripping yarn on an epic scale working in pure archetype. There is a reason that storytellers still refer to this structure when building films now.
Weakest Link: "For A Few Dollars More," and that's still damn fine.
Why it's a great trilogy: From the very start, these films were of uncommon pedigree. For an Italian filmmaker to remake a Japanese samurai movie in the form of an American Western must have seemed crazy, but in execution, it serves to illuminate both source and subversion. The movies made Clint Eastwood an international star, and for perfectly understandable reason: he is a movie star in every scene in all three films. Leone's casting is nothing short of inspired in role after role after role, and by the time we get to the graveyard at the end of the final film, it feels like he has toured the entire legend of the Old West and laid it to rest, once and for all. - Drew McWeeny4. The 'Lord of the Rings' Trilogy
Films: "The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001), "The Two Towers" (2002) and "The Return of the King" (2003)
Director: Peter Jackson
Best of the bunch: "The Two Towers"
Weakest Link: "Return of the King" (if only for its length)
3. The 'Godfather' Trilogy
Films: "The Godfather" (1972), "The Godfather: Part II (1974), "The Godfather: Part III" (1990)
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Best of the bunch: This is a good way to start a fight. If you like streamlined gangster awesomeness? The original. If you like epic ambition, "Part II." There is no wrong answer. Unless you say...
Weakest Link: "Part III." Duh.
Why it's a great trilogy: The first movie is the greatest mobster movie ever made. The second movie is a fascinating and heartbreaking evocation of the 20th Century immigration experience and the decaying American Dream. And the third movie, while hampered with myriad, variably crippling flaws, still has more on its mind and more filmmaking bravado than 99.999% of all available films. Even if you don't feel like talking about the thematic richness, you can point to the magnificent performances -- Pacino, Brando, Duvall, DeNiro, Cazale, Garcia and so, so, so many more -- or Gordon Willis' boundary-breaking cinematography, Nino Rota's evocative score and dialogue that's as quotable as it comes. -Dan Fienberg2. 'Three Colors: Blue, White, Red'
Films: "Three Colors: Blue" (1993), "Three Colors: White" (1994), and "Three Colors: Red" (1994)
Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Best of the bunch: The Kieslowski films are remarkable human stories, told with wit and empathy, deeply felt and fully realized, and "Red," which was the last in the cycle, makes a powerful case for the healing nature of storytelling. A woman hits a dog with her car and, trying to save him, ends up meeting his owner, a retired jude who spends his days watching his neighbors and listening in on their phone calls. The relationship that blooms between them defies conventional movie wisdom, and it elevates this over two other truly great films.
Weakest Link: "White" is the slightest of the films, and yet it still contains more wisdom than many films even aspire to.
Why it's a great trilogy: Kieslowski had a singular voice, and yet he did not leave behind a long filmography. Some might argue that his best work was done for television in the form of his ten-part meditation on the messages of the Ten Commandments, but I think that was the warm up for his final three movies where he managed to impart his entire worldview over the span of three very intimate stories about the connections between people. Julie Delpy, Juliette Binoche, and Irene Jacob all get career-defining roles as the leads in the films, and they are luminous, each of them laying bare their souls in service of Kieslowski's beautiful belief that we all save each other every day in a million small ways. To tell such different stories in pursuit of one truth is why these stand united as one of the best trilogies ever produced. - Drew McWeeny1. 'Star Wars' Episodes IV - VI
Films: "Star Wars" (1977), "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), "Return of the Jedi" (1983)Directors: George Lucas ("Star Wars"), Irvin Kershner ("Empire Strikes Back"), Richard Marquand ("Return of the Jedi")
Best of the bunch: "The Empire Strikes Back" brought real emotional resonance to the series and has since emerged as the popular favorite among fans.
Weakest Link: After the dark, morally-complex "Empire," "Return of the Jedi" took a turn for the kiddie that anticipated Lucas's wrong-headed devolution into Jar Jar Binks territory in the prequels.
Why it's a great trilogy: Grand in sweep though it may be, what makes Lucas's vision endure is the intricacy of the world he created; from the Mos Eisley Cantina of the first film to Jabba's Palace in "Jedi," the "Star Wars" universe is a fully-realized one, with intriguing details bursting from every corner. It also boasts three markedly-different installments that - "Jedi's" arguable dip in quality notwithstanding - are nevertheless remarkably consistent in their pure inventiveness and sense of fun. And yet all of this could have made for a colorful but emotionally-empty enterprise if not for the poignancy brought to bear in the twisted father-son relationship between Vader and Luke, one of the great tragedies in the history of pop filmmaking.