The Best and Worst of Jesse Eisenberg

Films starring Jesse Eisenberg that I've seen:
The Village
Adventureland
Zombieland
The Social Network
Rio
30 Minutes or Less
Now You See Me

Best Performance: The Social Network (2010)
The general movegoing community spends so much time ripping Eisenberg for his goofy demeanor and resemblance to Michael Cera that they forget just how great of an actor he can be when given the right role. Eisenberg picked up a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his turn as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in David Fincher's The Social Network. Eisenberg perfectly nails the snark and arrogance of the social media mogul and makes the thoroughly unlikable Zuckerberg a compelling and even somewhat emphatic character.

Worst Performance: 30 Minutes or Less (2011)
I'm not going to lie saying this is Eisenberg's worst performance is kind of unfair because his acting here is perfectly fine. The problem is that Eisenberg isn't nearly as funny as supporting players Aziz Ansari, Danny McBride, Nick Swardson and Michael Pena and largely gets lost in the shuffle despite being the main character in the film.

Best Film: Zombieland (2009)
 Zombieland was not only the movie that exposed Eisenberg to mainstream audiences for the first time, it's the best film he's starred in to-date. The horror comedy brilliantly balances laugh-out-loud comedy with zombie-movie carnage, the cast anchored by a scene-stealing Woody Harrelson and crazy badass Emma Stone is excellent and the cameo from Bill Murray is too perfect for words.

Worst Film: The Village (2004)
This is the second week in a row I've named an M. Night Shyamalan as an actor's career lowlight. I really don't mean to keep rehashing my disdain for his work, it's just that the actors I've chose for these pieces recently have been attached to one of the horrible projects he's released over the past 11 years. The Village was the film that signified the start of Shyamalan's descent from promising young director to the laughing stock of Hollywood. The film starts off decently enough with solid tension and an intriguing mystery at the center of the plot before the second half of the film piles on a series of increasingly ridiculous twists and become a complete and total joke.  Even in a filmography that's as loaded with duds as Shyamalan's, The Village is an embarrassment.

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 "No Escape" star Owen Wilson