Benedict Cumberbatch 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 Benedict Cumberbatch-whose latest project "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" is in theaters today.

Benedict Cumberbatch's Filmography Ranked:

17.Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (D+)

16.War Horse (C-)

15.The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (C)

14.The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (C)

13.Zoolander 2 (C+)

12.The Mauritanian (B-) 

11.1917 (B-)

10.Black Mass (B)

9.The Grinch (B)

8.Spider-Man: No Way Home (B)

7.12 Years a Slave (B)

6.Doctor Strange (B+)

5.Star Trek Into Darkness (B+)

4.The Power of the Dog (B+)

3.Avengers: Endgame (A-)

2.The Imitation Game (A-)

1.Avengers: Infinity War (A)

Top Dog: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

Avengers: Infinity War is an epic, doom-laden ride where it's abundantly clear that the heroes will not prevail at the end, which makes it a bit of a dangerous outlier in the play it safe MCU. Endgame may've ultimately undone almost all of the bad shit that happened here, but the spellbinding apocalyptic magic Infinity War produced in those 2 and a half hours can never be erased. 

Lowlight: Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (2011)

By ramping up the intensity of the incomprehensible storytelling that is often found in the genre and eviscerating any presence of the inherent excitement that comes with espionage work, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy cements its legacy as the head-splittingly dull unicorn of spy movies.   

Most Underrated: The Power of the Dog (2021)

Yep, that's right I think a movie that was nominated for 12 Oscars and was expected to win Best Picture until CODA barged onto the scene and snatched the trophy right out of Netflix's hands is underrated. Why, might you ask? Well, a sizable amount of people in online film circles have been constantly railing against it over the past few months and despite not being among my top-tier favorites of 2021 (it ranked #21 on my year-end list and remains in that spot today), I strongly disagree with the bulk of the criticisms its faced. Jane Campion's psychological drama is an effective, brilliantly acted (Cumberbatch, Kristen Dunst and Kodi Smit-McPhee are all in top form) slow burn character study that examines resentment, family dynamics and toxic masculinity in the 1920's American West in a really haunting fashion.     

Most Overrated: 1917 (2019)

Save for the seamlessness of its stitched-together single take style and the uniquely tense, visually striking battle sequence that this approach birthed, 1917 is a deeply flawed, largely underwhelming movie that just might be the most overrated war movie of the 21st century thus far. The acting from the leads (George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman) is really shaky, the script is exceptionally cold and underdeveloped for something that's intending to honoring the faceless forgotten heroes that fought in World War I and the CGI-which remarkably was awarded the Oscar for Best Visual Effects-looks like it was slapped together at the last minute by a team of disengaged novices that were only interested in finishing the job as quickly as humanly possible.