Matt Damon Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked'-where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related accolades. This week, I'm profiling the work of Matt Damon-whose latest project "The Last Duel" hits theaters tomorrow.   

Matt Damon's Filmography Ranked:

29.Ocean's Twelve (D-)

28.The Legend of Bagger Vance (D)

27.Stuck on You (D)

26.Interstellar (D+)

25.Jason Bourne (C)

24.Invictus (C)

23.The Monuments Men (C)

22.Suburbicon (C)

21.The Bourne Supremacy (C)

20.The Bourne Ultimatum (C+)

19.The Great Wall (B-)

18.No Sudden Move (B-)

17.The Informant! (B-) 

16.Green Zone (B-)

15.Titan A.E. (B)

14.The Bourne Identity (B)

13.We Bought a Zoo (B)

12.Chasing Amy (B)

11.Contagion (B)

10.The Adjustment Bureau (B)

9.Elysium (B+)

8.The Martian (B+)

7.Ford v. Ferrari (B+)

6.Rounders (A-)

5.Dogma (A)

4.True Grit (A)

3.Saving Private Ryan (A)

2.Good Will Hunting (A)

1.The Departed (A+)

Top Dog: The Departed (2006)

Martin Scorsese is a mob movie virtuoso and The Departed is the most complete masterpiece in his decorated collection. There's a degree of complexity, unpredictability and ruthlessness driving these characters and the dangerous lives they've committed to that makes every frame of this story compelling to the point where it's impossible to even consider looking away or thinking about anything else until the credits start rolling.

Lowlight: Ocean's Twelve (2004)

Ocean's Twelve is an all time bad sequel that betrayed the simple entertainment pleasures of the original by sucking every ounce of fun out of the proceedings with a convoluted plot, half-assed central caper and a deliberate pace that prevented any energy from building.

Most Underrated: Elysium (2013)

Elysium is one of those movies that just couldn't get out of the shadow of its director's past efforts. Neill Blomkamp had straight up taken the film world by storm with his masterful debut District 9 and when Elysium didn't quite reach those heights, it kind of got lost in the shuffle. This relegation to the vast wasteland of forgotten film is kind of shame because Elysium is still a very good film on its own terms. The cocktail of bloody sci-fi action and blunt social commentary that drives the film is impactfully delivered by Blomkamp and demonstrates the mix of intelligence and spectacle that made him such a promising voice in film before the polarizing bomb Chappie completely killed his upward trajectory.

Most Overrated: Interstellar (2014)

After putting together a monster run of films from Memento through The Dark Knight Rises, the ambitious guardian of all things blockbuster cinema also known as Christopher Nolan managed to completely fall on his face with Interstellar. The combination of lethargic pacing, awkward performances from typically good actors (Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, John Lithgow, Michael Caine, Wes Bentley) and overwhelmingly sentimental writing resulted in a boring, often painfully corny film that was really brutal to sit through.  

Origin of Every Bad Action Movie Trend of the Past 20 Years: The Bourne Franchise

The popular take of positioning the Bourne franchise-namely the original trilogy-as the gold standard for action movies is something that I've strongly pushed back against for years. While its financial success and the influence its had on the industry isn't debatable, I firmly believe that the franchise isn't just highly overrated, but has been hugely detrimental to the entire craft of action filmmaking. I often think about what the genre would look like if the shaky cam and frantic editing techniques Paul Greengrass utilized in these movies were never introduced. The whole "revolutionary" clean shooting/editing style that John Wick and Atomic Blonde have made popular Stateside could've entered the fold at an earlier date or at the very least, something that make didn't make every fight, shootout or chase scene completely incomprehensible would've had the opportunity to become the norm. Just remember anytime you see staged action with a million quick cuts and more loud noises than clearly visible shots of what's happening on screen, that Bourne is the reason that shit is happening.   

Best Movie That I Flat Out Refuse to Watch Again Right Now: Contagion (2011)

Contagion was a tense, engaging medical disaster thriller that I viewed pretty favorably until the nightmarish events depicted in the film began manifesting in real life in late 2019/early 2020. While the virus in Contagion is significantly more lethal than COVID (at least 12x more to be exact), the societal disorder, spread of misinformation and poor government response depicted in the film mirrored the human response to the first real world pandemic to occur since it was released to an uncomfortably eerie degree. The people that were renting this in droves at the beginning of the pandemic are far braver and more depraved souls than I.