Craig Robinson Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked"-a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Craig Robinson-whose latest project "The Bad Guys" releases in theaters tomorrow night. 

Craig Robinson's Filmography Ranked:

19.Songbird (D)

18.Miss March (D+)

17.Tragedy Girls (D+)

16.Table 19 (C)

15.Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (C+)

14.Jay and Silent Reboot (B-)

13.The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (B-)

12.Morris from America (B-)

11.Fanboys (B)

10.Pineapple Express (B)

9.An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (B+)

8.Get on Up (B+)

7.Sausage Party (A-)

6.Zach and Miri Make a Porno (A)

5.Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (A)

4.Dolemite is My Name (A)

3.Hot Tub Time Machine (A)

2.This is the End (A)

1.Knocked Up (A+)

Top Dog: Knocked Up (2007)

Seeing Knocked Up in a theater was such an incredible experience. Everybody in the room was audibly reacting to every absurd, vulgar and emotional note Judd Apatow's sophomore directorial effort threw out there and save for Superbad later the same year, I've never seen a theater eat up a comedy like that in my life. While it never quite hit the same on the subsequent home viewings I've had since that Friday night in June 2007, it's still a perfect comedy that packs a whole lot of laughs, heart and magnetic characters into 2 hours.   

Lowlight: Songbird (2020)

Back in the summer of 2020, some actors were extremely eager to return to work after spending a whopping 3-4 months locked in their homes during the initial COVID lockdown. That eagerness led them to accept parts in projects that they probably wouldn't have under different circumstances. Songbird ended up being the most noteworthy of these projects. Basically, a couple of faceless hacks whipped up a disjointed, nonsensical dystopian romance that uses COVID as a plot device during the lockdown period, recruited the aforementioned overeager, typically gainfully employed actors (KJ Apa, Sofia Carson, Demi Moore, Bradley Whitford, Alexandra Daddario, Paul Walter Hauser, Robinson, Peter Stormare) in Los Angeles to star in it, a poorly-run studio in STX bought the distribution rights after it was done filming in August with the belief that they had a timely hit on their hands and by December, it was out in the world. Truly an inspiring story of how laziness, greed and desperation from multiple parties birthed a really shit movie that most people out there aren't even aware exists.     

Most Overrated: Tragedy Girls (2017)

No horror comedy that's generated buzz on the festival circuit in recent years has resonated with me less than Tragedy Girls. The pairing of obnoxious, self-righteous characters with failed attempts at black comedy that are more gross and mean-spirited than morbidly funny made this coming-of-age slasher picture really unpleasant to sit through.

Most Underrated: Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) 

Whether it's a product of nostalgia for this era of comedy movies or simply a case of me romanticizing Kevin Smith's pre-Captive State filmography, Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a film that I unabashedly love to this day. By some form of miracle that's powered by the incredible chemistry between its leads (Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks), scene-stealing turns from its supporting cast (Robinson, Jeff Anderson, Tyler Labine in one of the most impactful 1-scene performances in cinema history) and Smith bringing a ton of goofy passion to the proceedings, Zack and Miri Make a Porno manages to succeed at being a genuinely sweet romantic comedy and filthy, gross-out sex comedy at the exact same time.

Netflix Streaming Recommendation for Fans of Really Silly, Strange Comedy Movies: An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018)

The polarizing nature of An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn can't be emphasized enough. A lot of people won't be able to get on its wavelength and will regret exposing their eyeballs and earholes to something that's so monumentally dumb within 20 minutes of pressing play. But if you want to see a pretty large collection of recognizable faces (Aubrey Plaza, Robinson, Jermaine Clement, Emile Hirsch, Zach Cherry from the current Apple TV+ smash hit Severance, Matt Berry from FX's What We Do in the Shadows) bring their talents to something that journeys really far down the oddball absurdist comedy rabbit hole, An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn could very well end up becoming one of your new favorite movies.