11 times the 4th movie in a franchise was actually good

polygon.com:

It’s hard for any long-running franchises to stay consistent. Good sequels? Rare, but possible. Threequels? Even rarer, but still possible. But the fourth movie in a franchise? Most don’t make it that far, and many that do are by that point unrecognizable from the original.

With the fourth Thor (Thourth?) movie now out in theaters (read our review), what better time to go over some of the rare instances of successful fourth entries in a franchise? From late reboots to early franchises to long-running genre series, here are our picks for the best ones you can watch at home.

It’s incredible that Mad Max: Fury Road exists at all, period. The third sequel to a franchise that had all but evaporated from public consciousness, filmed across 138 days under the grueling heat of the Namibian desert and premiering in theaters nearly three decades after the last installment, Mad Max: Fury Road defied the odds in every way, securing its place as not only one of the best films in George Miller’s oeuvre, but as one of the most celebrated action movies of the 2010s. Tom Hardy does a remarkable service assuming the role of the laconic road warrior Max Rockatansky, but the real star of the film is the brutally capable Imperator Furiosa played by Charlize Theron. The sheer spectacle of the film alone, even apart from the massive vehicular chase scenes and explosive set-pieces, is absolutely mind-boggling. Steven Soderbergh put it best: “I don’t understand how they’re not still shooting that film and I don’t understand how hundreds of people aren’t dead.” —Toussaint Egan

Mad Max: Fury Road is available to stream on HBO Max.

George A. Romero’s earlier zombie movies like Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead are what the horror master