Halle Berry 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 Halle Berry-whose latest project "Moonfall" hits theaters tonight. 

Halle Berry's Filmography Ranked:

20.Catwoman (F)

19.Kings (D-)

18.Die Another Day (D)

17.Movie 43 (D)

16.The Flintstones (D+)

15.New Year's Eve (D+)

14.Kidnap (C-)

13.Bruised (C)

12.Robots (C+)

11.X-Men: The Last Stand (B-)

10.Bulworth (B-)

9.X-Men (B)

8.The Call (B)

7.Monster's Ball (B)

6.Swordfish (B+)

5.Kingsman: The Golden Circle (B+)

4.The Last Boy Scout (A-)

3.X2: X-Men United (A)

2.X-Men: Days of Future Past (A)

1.John Wick-Chapter 3: Parabellum (A)

Top Dog: John Wick-Chapter 3: Parabellum (2019)

Parabellum became an unexpected touch the sun moment for the John Wick franchise because it managed to do the seemingly impossible: greatly improve an already terrific product. How did it achieve this? Simple: It upped the ante on the creativity and consistent quality of its signature elaborate action sequences, brought in some amazing new characters (Berry's Sofia, Mark Dacascos' Zero, Asia Kate Dillon's The Adjudicator, Anjelica Huston's The Director) and ended with a bonkers plot twist that set up an epic showdown for the franchise's (reportedly) final two films. 

Lowlight: Catwoman (2004)

This is something that I haven't declared too often on the internet or in real life, so here it goes: Catwoman is easily the worst movie I've ever seen. With its brutally slow pacing, completely incoherent storytelling, abysmal acting from people that really shouldn't be stooping so low (Berry, Sharon Stone, Benjamin Bratt, Frances Conroy, Alex Borstein) and gratuitously frantic editing that induces a headache faster than consuming a bottle of Merlot, Pitof has assembled a fecal fortress so vast and endlessly stinky that it deserves to be preserved in the National Film Registry so future generations of Americans will always a tutorial on how not to make a movie available to them.   

Most Overrated: N/A

The bizarre, hot and cold structure of Berry's career has made her immune to appearing in overrated films. Whether it was via her own questionable decision-making or Hollywood just only offering her garbage to star in at various points of her career, she's appeared in a number of really awful movies (Movie 43, Kings, Die Another Day, New Year's Eve, The Flintstones) that have earned their terrible reputations. At the same time, her most popular/acclaimed work (the X-Men movies, John Wick 3, Monster's Ball) are projects that I enjoyed to varying degrees and there's also some effective-if not notably underrated genre movies (The Call, Swordfish) buried between her more widely recognized hits and whiffs.  

Most Underrated: The Last Boy Scout (1991)

While The Last Boy Scout might be needlessly convoluted for an adrenaline-fueled buddy action comedy, that doesn't prevent it from the being arguably the most slept-on gem from the genre's golden era of the late 80's to early 90's. Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans have an organic-feeling combative rapport that makes them the ideal reluctant buddy pairing, Taylor Negron's performance as primary antagonist Milo is a master class in over-the-top cartoonish villainy, Shane Black's writing is at its cynical, snarky peak and the late Tony Scott directs with the gloriously chaotic flare that made him a beloved cult figure in the action/thriller space.  

Biggest Major Franchise Embarrassment: Die Another Day (2002)

Pierce Brosnan's largely well-liked tenure as James Bond ended on about as poor of a note as it possibly could've. Die Another Day makes the fatal mistake of going too far down into the cartoonish Bond movie rabbit hole and it results in something that's overwhelmingly corny and cheap looking without being even remotely fun. 

The Potential Springboard to Dramatic Acting Stardom That Inexplicably Led to Nothing: Monster's Ball (2001)

Just a hair over 20 years ago, Berry won an Oscar for her performance as Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball. Her work as a widow who develops an unexpected relationship with the prison guard (Billy Bob Thornton) who aided in the execution of her convicted murderer husband (Sean Combs) is vulnerable, powerful and absolutely gut-wrenching. Being showered with awards for a career-defining performance is something that usually brings about many more exciting challenges and opportunities for an actor. For Berry, this somehow never happened.  

Was she denied this chance to become a widely decorated performer because she was a black woman entering her late 30's at a time where discrimination on a race and age basis was even more widespread than it is currently or just an example of her picking a few notoriously bad projects to lead in the immediate aftermath of the win (Die Another Day, Gothika, Catwoman) that subsequently squandered much of the good will she picked up from it? More than likely, it was some combination of the two and that just isn't fair. Even today as her career is trending upwards again, she hasn't received the type of dramatic vehicle that features the quality of material necessary to show off the full extent of her range and ability in quite some time. Maybe Berry's upcoming Netflix sci-fi drama The Mothership from Bridge of Spies writer Matt Charman will prove to be the next serious acting showcase for her and if it isn't, hopefully she'll finally receive that long overdue opportunity sometime in the near future.