Time flies when you’re watching a franchise spiral into the crazy nebula: We are now approaching the sixth Resident Evil movie, mercifully dubbed The Final Chapter,none of which have ever been fully embraced by critics. But, hey, just because a franchise is long in the tooth doesn’t mean it’s rotten at the root! There’s plenty of Fresh movies in this week’s gallery: 24 best and worst Part 6s in movie history!
Marvel’s The Avengers (2012, 92%)
The 6th stepping stone in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is the 2nd highest-rated of the series, just behind progenitor Iron Man‘s 94%.
Son of Frankenstein (1939, 91%) The original cinematic universe: a collection of cross-shoving Universal Monsters like Dracula, The Wolf Man, and yes, Frankenstein’s classic monster and his varied genetic hangers-on.
42 UP (1999, 89%)
Michael Apted’s documentary series captures the lives of 14 British citizens from age seven, every seven years; 42 Up sees the still-willing participants at middle age.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991, 84%)
The final movie starring the original crew, and the last ST voyage creator Gene Roddenberry saw before shuffling off for the undiscovered country hisself.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009, 84%)
The third highest-rated movie of the series, behind Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (96%) and Prisoner of Azkaban (91%).
The Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978, 82%)
Peter Sellers’ final performance in the Inspector Clouseau role; the PP series would crash into rotten/reboot/re-purposed unused footage category.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969, 82%)
Not counting 1967 joke smorgsboard Casino Royale, the 6th 007 movie is the first to star George Lazenby. It’s also the only: Sean Connery would return two years later for Diamonds Are Forever.
Curse of Chucky (2013, 81%)
After a nine-year timeout post-Seed of Chucky, character creator Dan Mancini spanked the comedy out of the series, delivering Curse to a series-high Tomatometer score.
Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983, 80%)
Though this Ewok-tastic, Sarlacc-ilicious romp got the lowest rating of the original trilogy, it would remain the best-reviewed SW movie until The Force Awakens 32 years later.
Rocky Balboa (2006, 76%)
After the Italian Stallion got the worst reviews and lowest box office of his movie career, Sylvester Stallone bid his time before resurrecting the champ in this successful comeback bout.
The Wolverine (2013, 69%)
Already an improvement over X-Men Origins: Wolverine by not being completely horrible, The Wolverine convinced studio heads to re-hire James Mangold to guide Hugh Jackman in his final X-Man performance through this year’s Logan.
Fast & Furious 6 (2013, 69%) 6 did well enough foritself, despite lacking Fast Five‘s novelty of being an F&F movie that was finally good, and the emotional wallop of Paul Walker’s 7 sendoff.
Muppets From Space (1999, 63%) The Matrix, a new Star Wars, and, uh, Muppets — it was a big year for science-fiction.
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986, 52%)
After the blood-red herring that was A New Beginning, Jason lived another undead day to dispatch everyone in his lumbering unfortunate path.
Saw VI (2009, 36%) Saw VI demonstrated the machinations of Jigsaw were simultaneously running out of steam and overly convoluted, forcing Lionsgate to wrap up several more planned movies into 2010’s Saw 3D.
Survival of the Dead (2010, 29%)
George A. Romero rebooted the original zombie apocalypse into modern times with Diary of the Dead, with some characters carried over into this little-seen sequel.
Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood (2003, 25%)
Wait, there’s a movie called Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood and it doesn’t have a single-digit Tomatometer score? Nor an embarrassed and desperate Jennifer Aniston?
Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991, 20%)
Indeed the last klassic Krueger kut-up before Freddy’s IRL trip in New Nightmare, crossing blades with Voorhees in Freddy vs. Jason, and the bad 2010 reboot.
Alien vs Predator: Requiem (2007, 12%)
The first two movies are classics, but 3 and Resurrection were such facehugs of mediocrity that the xenomorphs deserved to slum it with the Predator series.
Leonard Part 6 (1987, 9%)
So awful, it erased the first five movies out of existence, while closing off a future timeline where Part 7 beats Freejack for Best Picture in 1992.
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995, 6%)
The one-time hallowed series continues its descent into shrill unwatchability with Curse, before redeeming itself with…nope, this series never got good again.
Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989, 0%)
The worst-reviewed series ever: City Under Siege‘s score is just one of the four zero-percents the Police Academy movies have been ticketed.
Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return (1999, 0%)
Because a franchise about kids who peddle veggies to cloud monsters needs continuity, John Franklin returns after 15 years as the murderous cult’s once-leader.
Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002, 0%)
The Hellraiser movies were never critical darlings, but the first one to not star Doug Bradley as Pinhead got the bottom-worst reviews. Let’s stick with what barely works here, folks.
