The Best and Worst of Bill Hader

Film Starring Bill Hader That I've Seen:
You, Me and Dupree
Knocked Up 
Hot Rod
Superbad
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Pineapple Express
Tropic Thunder
Adventureland
Year One
Paul
Men in Black 3
Monsters University
The To-Do List
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
They Came Together 
The Skeleton Twins

Best Film: Superbad (2007)
I'll never forget how hard I laughed when I saw Superbad in the theater on opening weekend in August 2007. Almost seven years after its initial release, the film has aged incredibly well and is somehow even funnier now than it was the first time I saw it. This film's barrage of colorful characters and nearly endless amount of quotable lines paired with a cast of actors that were mostly unknown at the time of release (Hader, Jonah Hill, Emma Stone, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) giving star-making performances makes Superbad the greatest teen comedy of all-time.

Worst Film: Year One (2009)
The late Harold Ramis was without question one of the finest comedy filmmakers of his generation. During his three-decade long career in comedy he brought the world a number of classics including National Lampoon's Vacation, Groundhog Day and Caddyshack. Unfortunately, his swan song as a filmmaker was not even close to worthy of his rich legacy. Year One squanders a brilliant premise (a pair of Neanderthals are banished from their tribe after eating forbidden fruit and go on to encounter a number of Biblical characters on their journey to find a new home) and excellent cast led by Jack Black, Michael Cera and Olivia Wilde on a film that is almost completely devoid of laughs and is shockingly boring for a slapstick comedy. 

Best Performance: The Skeleton Twins (2014)
After strictly starring in comedies for the first decade of his career, Hader successfully transitioned to drama with his powerhouse performance in The Skeleton Twins. Hader's turn as a gay man who is reunited with his twin sister (Kristen Wiig) after attempting to commit suicide is remarkably powerful and was one of the biggest Academy Award snubs of 2014.  

Worst Performance: Men in Black 3 (2012)
This was a hard choice to make as Hader has never turned in a truly terrible performance up to this point in his career, but his work in Men in Black 3 definitely wasn't up to quality of acting we're used to seeing from him. Hader went a little too overboard with zaniness in his role as a fictionalized version of real-life artist Andy Warhol, who is secretly a member of the titular alien-defense agency, and comes off as more annoying than funny in his brief time on screen. 
  
Thank you for reading this week's installment of "The Best and Worst of". Next Week I'll take a look at the best and worst work of Ted 2 star Mark Wahlberg.