Considering Getting the Resident Evil film Franchise; Good Idea, Bad Idea?

So I'll preface by saying I didn't get into the RE franchise until 4(being born in '91). That said, having experienced RE1 through the remaster and now RE2, thoroughly enjoying 7, and like many die hard RE fans thinking 5 and especially 6 were NOT Resident Evil, I still have a great fondness for the franchise.

I saw the first, second, and third RE movies in theaters and then sort of fell off. I enjoyed those first 3, not as serious masterpieces of film, but as fun dumb action movies. The entire film collection is $45 on blu-ray on Amazon right now, so I'm looking to see what the community(both RE fans and non) what they think of the RE films and think they're worth having just as a dumb fun thing to watch.

On a side note, I really hope they do a Film & 40's of RE now with the resurgence of the classic games among the GBEAST crew.

Considering they're fairly throwaway pieces of entertainment and you'll probably not rewatch them after satisfying this urge I'm going to say they aren't worth $45...

Good idea if you get the concept of a B-movie in that they're usually pretty campy and ham-fisted, but can arguably be more entertaining than a "good" movie.

Bad idea if dumb fun isn't your thing.

Also, thanks for reminding me of TANG:

RedLetterMedia has their reviews of a sorts on the movies, but I think TANG is a bit more relevant to this site.

These movies are incredibly dumb, but generally worth it for a night in with friends. The first one is probably the best at being an actual movie, the 3rd one is just boring, the 2nd and 4th are easily the funniest in all the wrong ways, and the last one, while generally forgettable and not very good, is saved by the hammy, scenery chewing grace of Iain Glenn, who makes it all worthwhile. If you liked the first three enough to consider paying $45 bucks for it all, go for it.

I don't know if you should watch the Resident Evil movies but I do know that you should watch the Red Letter Media review of the Resident Evil movies.

Rich Evans laughing his ass off is one of the most entertaining things on the internet.

There is some fun to be had with RE 1 and 3... the rest are pretty bad.

You most definitely should watch them. Wait until they are chased by a T Virus monstrosity in their Rolls Royce thru F-cking Russia. I feel like you could find it for 25 bucks tho, that seems like a better price for what you're getting.

There are far better ways of wasting your money.

EDIT: I will give those films credit though....the second one, at least....it inspired this memorable moment on Days...

I bought the collection on a digital sale while I was...out of country and not of sound mind.

I watched 1, 2, and 3 years ago. I liked 1 and 3 for the dumb schlock they were. 2 was terrible, though.

I’m sure I’ll get stupid and watch them all someday...

@facelessvixen: this is more or less what prompted this idea, I watched all the TANG reviews almost right before posting this haha

@sparky_buzzsaw: Secretly the greatest of all Giant Bomb content...

Don't forget the animated movies.

If you're fond of the games in any way, shape, or form: don't watch them. The first movie is barely passable but ultimately just weird. The second movie hinges on Nemesis remembering his humanity and hugging someone, then all subsequent movies go downhill in a flaming rocket cart.

No.

Don't watch the animated ones either. There are no good RE movies. Not even close.

I got just as much (probably more) enjoyment out of RedLetterMedia's videos on the series as I did out of watching the movies themselves.

All you really need.

Watch those RLM videos and indulge Rich Evans Laughing Hysterically

if you can get them all for $20 in a package then don't bother. Then can be fun B movies but they are not really anything all that special, even fans of the movies dropped off them by movie 5

If only to save the world from plastic, as in you're buying them away from somewhere to recycle them, then this is this a good idea.

"This is borderline experimental!"

Resident Evil 2 was one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

I liked the 1st and 3rd and don’t care to see the rest.

I don't know what it is about it, but Resident Evil: Retribution (the 5th one) is one of my favorite modern bad movies. I think that one somehow went even more over the top then any of the previous ones, which is a high bar since the 4th one had that hilarious adaption of an RE5 cutscene involving Wesker and Chris/Sheva fighting(Chris/Claire in the movie) and with the third one they just went to "oh I guess the world died and now we mad max".

@panfoot: Is that the one that starts off in reverse slow motion? If so I remember liking it quite a bit, it's dumb as hell in many ways but it just went in so many directions I couldnt look away. My friends and I somehow ended up in this dark pact where we kept going to see these shitty movies regardless of how terrible they were (us and other like-minded idiots are probably why there are six of these movies) and my expectations were so low after the 4th one (Afterlife?) which I remember being so damn boring.

Anyway, I wouldnt spend $45 on the RE movies, i've probably spent much more watching them in the cinema but alas, whats done is done.

@boozak: It's the one that starts off as a direct rip off the of the Dawn of the Dead remake and then is just like...an underground, zombie filled westworld with a subarbs world, toyko world, and russia world(complete with soviet machine gun zombies!!!) It also ends with Jill, Alive, Wesker, Leon, and Ada standing on top of the white house overlooking the monster ridden hellscape of washington DC, which really has no bearing on anything but is a sentence I really wanted to type. I love this dumb, duuumb movie

They can be fun, but I wouldn't say they're worth $45.

They aren't especially fun to be honest. I enjoyed the first one, despite the fact it isn't that good, but they just got more interminable and lame as the series went on. Basically the cooler the movies thought they were, the less I enjoyed them.

Alright, it seems like even at $45(about $7 a movie) even that is a bit steep for some stupid times.

I guess I'll hold off, at least until I have a night out with friends and also happen to have my card and amazon open....hahaha