Bacon plays Valentine McKee in the 1990 horror classic "Tremors."
Rotten Tomatoes score:87%
Bacon stars as Valentine McKee alongside Fred Ward as Earl Bassett, two Nevada-based handymen who want to escape the dullness of their lives. They get more than they bargained for when they encounter monstrous worm-like creatures living underground with a taste for humans.
"It's a zippy melodrama for small-town America and small-towners at heart: well-executed kitsch for audiences that will still be amused at the notion that the bugs are getting so big, they'll drag us all down," wrote Michael Wilmington for the Los Angeles Times.
He played a convicted child molester fresh out of prison in the 2004 drama "The Woodsman."
Rotten Tomatoes score:88%
Bacon earned critical acclaim for his portrayal of Walter, a convicted child molester who is released from prison and struggles to rebuild his life. Bacon's wife, Kyra Sedgwick, co-stars in the film with him as Vicki, a co-worker at a lumber mill and one of the few people who doesn't mistreat him off the bat.
"Often cast in high-energy, borderline manic roles, Bacon creates here a sad, lank-haired, introverted character who doesn't fish for sympathy and, for that very reason, and against all odds, ends up winning it," wrote Sheila Johnston of the Evening Standard.
He collaborated with Christopher Guest on the 1989 comedy "The Big Picture."
Rotten Tomatoes score:88%
Bacon stars as Nick Chapman, a film student who wins a student film contest and is flown out to Los Angeles to make his dream movie, but learns more than a few lessons about what it means to stay humble in the face of success.
"You keep rooting for this Hollywood sendup to make it, even as the bad ideas start gaining on the good," wrote Rolling Stone's Peter Travers.
Bacon was one of three leads in the Oscar-winning neo-noir film "Mystic River."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%
Bacon co-stars with Sean Penn and Tim Robbins as three childhood friends who are still haunted by events from decades prior, and have all tried to cope in different ways but their paths all cross once more when a young woman in their town is murdered. Bacon plays Sean Devine, a detective for the Massachusetts State Police.
"Violence and revenge have been a staple of Eastwood's work from the beginning, but here he explores his subject from a new, more ambiguous angle, with no regard for macho titillation," wrote David Ansen of Newsweek.
Bacon narrated the 2004 documentary short film "Natural Disasters: Forces of Nature."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 89%
"Forces of Nature" examines three common natural disasters: earthquakes, tornadoes, and volcano eruptions, all narrated by Bacon.
"With its terrifyingly beautiful images of molten lava and clouds of ash, shattered cities and whirling storms, 'Forces of Nature' is spectacular, engrossing, and at times almost overwhelming in its power," wrote Louise Kennedy for The Boston Globe.
Bacon made his film debut in the 1978 all-time comedy classic "National Lampoon's Animal House."
Rotten Tomatoes score:90%
Bacon has a smaller role in "Animal House" as Chip Diller, one of the ultra-preppy, ultra-snobby Omegas that dedicates his time to taking down our heroes, the Deltas.
"You may not care to take up permanent spiritual residence at Animal House, but it's funny place to visit," wrote the Washington Post's Gary Arnold.
Bacon has a memorable one-scene part in the 1987 comedy "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."
Rotten Tomatoes score:92%
Fittingly, Bacon has a transportation-themed cameo he races against Steve Martin's Neal Page to grab the only taxi in sight, besting him thanks to an ill-timed trip on Neal's part.
"Mainstream audiences should readily identify with the series of tribulations and woes that befall the Everyman Martin in this good-natured, albeit predictable comedy," wrote Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter.
In the 2008 historical drama "Frost/Nixon," Bacon plays Nixon's post-White House chief of staff Jack Brennan.
Rotten Tomatoes score:93%
"Frost/Nixon," based on the play of the same name, dramatizes the real story behind the infamous 1977 interviews between former president Richard Nixon and British journalist David Frost in the aftermath of Watergate. Bacon's Brennan is suspicious of Frost's motives.
Deborah Ross of The Spectator wrote, "This is a splendid film that's genuinely fascinating and gripping, and you don't get many of those for the pound these days."
"Diner," released in 1982, was Bacon's sixth-ever film, and remains his second-best of all time.
Rotten Tomatoes score:93%
Bacon is part of "Diner's" ensemble cast, which focuses on a group of friends in 1950s Baltimore reuniting to celebrate one of their own's impending nuptials. Bacon plays Fenwick, one of the more mischievous members of the group.
"All in all, 'Diner' is a worthwhile dish, certainly the best thing Leo the Lion has had to roar about in some time," wrote Robert Osborne of The Hollywood Reporter.
But Bacon's No. 1 film, according to critics, remains the 1995 space docudrama "Apollo 13."
Rotten Tomatoes score:96%
"Apollo 13," predictably, tells the story of the Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970, starring Tom Hanks as Commander Jim Lovell, Bacon as backup pilot Jack Swigert, and Bill Paxton as pilot Fred Haise. On the ground, Ed Harris played flight director Gene Kranz and Gary Sinise played grounded pilot Ken Mattingly.
"'Apollo 13' captures the wonder of space travel with the wide-eyed zeal of a 10-year-old: They really were heroes, these guys, and the movie shows you why," wrote Rene Rodriguez for The Miami Herald.
And now, for the worst. Starting off "strong," we have the 2000 sci-fi thriller "Hollow Man."
Rotten Tomatoes score:26%
Bacon plays scientist Dr. Sebastian Caine who, after getting exposed to a serum that renders him invisible, is corrupted by the power that comes from going unseen.
Radio Times' Angie Errigo called the film "an exceptionally unambitious sci-fi thriller, in which predictability is alleviated only by some impressive and interesting special effects."
In "White Water Summer," released in 1987, Bacon plays an expert outdoorsman and survivalist.
Rotten Tomatoes score:25%
Bacon plays Vic, a very enthusiastic outdoorsman who convinces the parents of four teenagers to let him take their kids on a six-week outdoor adventure ... but things go south when Alan (Sean Astin) begins standing up to the increasingly manic Vic.
"A jumpy, poorly developed coming-of-age story," wrote DVDJournal.com's Betsy Bozdech.
Bacon plays a college basketball coach who travels to Kenya to recruit a star player in the 1994 comedy "The Air Up There."
Rotten Tomatoes score:21%
Has this film aged very well? We'd guess not, as it focuses on Bacon's Jimmy Dolan traveling to Kenya to recruit Saleh (played by real basketball player Charles Gitonga Maina) and most of the comedy is derived from fish-out-of-water antics.
"Like the multitude of Disney visitors to Africa before (and after) him, he must learn to respect the noble savages he wishes to exploit. Saleh and his Winabis are not for sale at least, not immediately," wrote The Washington Post's Desson Howe.
In the 2007 film "Death Sentence," Bacon tries his hand at cold-blooded vengeance.
Rotten Tomatoes score:20%
After his son is brutally murdered in front of him, Nick Hume (Bacon) makes it his personal mission to take down every member of the gang responsible, no matter the cost to his own safety.
"The morality of revenge is barely at issue in a movie that pushes the plausibility of revenge right over a cliff," wrote Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman.
Bacon directed and starred in the 2005 drama "Loverboy."
Rotten Tomatoes score:18%
Bacon's entire family appears in "Loverboy," as it stars his wife, Kyra Segdwick, as a neurotic woman named Emily. Their daughter Sosie plays the 10-year-old version of Emily, while their son Travis plays an elementary school student. In the film, Emily narrates her life story to her son Paul, with a tragic ending.
"Almost until the end, 'Loverboy' maintains a shaky integrity. But in its final moments it caves in to convention with a mawkish epilogue to a story that ends with an appalling act of selfishness," wrote The New York Times' Stephen Holden.
Bacon plays a man who enacts a ransom plot in the 2002 thriller "Trapped."
Rotten Tomatoes score:17%
Bacon plays a man named Joe Hickey, who breaks into the home of Karen Jennings (Charlize Theron), while Joe's wife Cheryl (Courtney Love) corners Karen's husband Dr. Will Jennings (Stuart Townsend) as part of a ransom plot. But what the Jennings don't know is why Joe and Cheryl targeted them they all share a tragic past.
"Luis Mandoki's movie 'Trapped' is one of the most inept hostage thrillers I've ever seen," wrote The Times UK's James Christopher.
Bacon plays a bike messenger in the 1986 film "Quicksilver."
Rotten Tomatoes score:13%
"Quicksilver" follows a young floor trader named Jack Casey (Bacon) who loses his entire life's savings on a bad business deal, leading him to quit and become a bike messenger.
"The movie has moments when it comes to life, when it threatens to tell a story about interesting people, and then it wanders off into inane scenes designed only to sell records," wrote Rober Ebert.
Bacon entered the comic-book movie world in 2012 with "RIPD."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 12%
"RIPD" is a sci-fi buddy cop film starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges as two officers of the "RIPD," or the Rest in Peace Department. They're tasked with finding "Deados," or the souls of people who died, but somehow escaped judgment. Bacon plays corrupt cop Bobby Hayes, who is revealed to be a Deado.
"Who thought this was a good idea and why are they still allowed out alone at night?" asked The Irish Times' Donald Clarke.
Bacon plays the personification of love in the 2007 film "The Air I Breathe."
Rotten Tomatoes score:10%
"The Air I Breathe" is split into four sections, representing four aspects of life: happiness, pleasure, sorrow, and love. Bacon appears in the section about love, focusing on how his character is in love with his friend Gina, but he never said anything, and she went on to marry his best friend.
"Pretentious at best, risible for the rest of the time, this is most notable for Andy Garcia's staggeringly hammy cameo as the opera-loving moneylender Fingers," wrote The Telegraph's Catherine Shoard.
Bacon's worst filmed has been deemed the 2016 horror film "The Darkness."
Rotten Tomatoes score:3%
In this film, Bacon plays Peter, the patriarch of the Taylor family. The Taylors begin to experience strange things and see apparitions after Mikey (David Mazouz), the teenage son of Peter, brings home cursed rocks from a cave they explored.
"McLean must have believed he was making John Cassavetes' 'Poltergeist,' but this odd fusion of psychodrama and supernatural hokum gets away from him," wrote Variety's Scott Tobias.
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Best and worst Kevin Bacon movies, according to critics - Insider