Jennifer Lopez 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 Jennifer Lopez-whose latest project "The Mother" releases on Netflix tomorrow.  

Jennifer Lopez's Filmography Ranked:

17.Antz (D)

16.What to Expect When You're Expecting (D+)

15.Enough (D+)

14.The Boy Next Door (D+)

13.Second Act (C-)

12.Selena (C-)

11.Anaconda (C-)

10.The Wedding Planner (C)

9.Maid in Manhattan (C)

8.Home (C+)

7.Money Train (C+)

6.Shotgun Wedding (C+)

5.Marry Me (B-)

4.The Cell (B-)

3.Parker (B)

2.Hustlers (B)

1.Out of Sight (A-)

Top Dog: Out of Sight (1998)

Waiting until the spring of 2020 to check out Out of Sight was an egregious oversight on my part. This romantic heist thriller led by George Clooney and Lopez and backed-up by an incredible supporting coast full of familiar faces (Ving Rhames, Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn, Albert Brooks, Dennis Farnia, Luis Guzman, Viola Davis, Catherine Keener, Nancy Allen, Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson) is a slick, hilarious and invigorating blast that is easily one of my favorites from Steven Soderbergh.   

Bottom Feeder: Antz (1998)

Antz is being handed this distinction for one simple reason: I hated it as a kid. As silly as that sounds, not liking a kid's movie when you're a kid yourself is one of the strongest condemnations of a piece of art possible.  

Most Underrated: Out of Sight (1998)

Soderbergh has made a ton of great movies in his 35-year career, but Out of Sight might be the most overlooked. In terms of style, entertainment value and acting firepower, it's right up there with his crowning achievement Ocean's 11 and the writing from Scott Frank and romantic spark between Clooney and Lopez is also quite strong.

Most Overrated: Selena (1997)

Even as someone who knew nothing about Selena Quintanilla Perez's life going in, I became aware that Selena was a by-the-numbers biopic within the first half hour. Despite Lopez's best efforts to inject some spirit into the proceedings with her performance as the iconic Mexican-American singer, it reduces Quintanilla Perez's life to a collection of flat melodramatic scenes with no real emotion or drama and tells you next to nothing about the person or artist she was. Also, rushing to make a biopic so quickly after her death (Quintanilla Perez was murdered on March 31st, 1995, Selena began production in September 1996 and was released in March 1997) is some really disrespectful, opportunistic behavior from Warner Brothers and everybody involved with making the film.

Movie That I Really Need/Want to Re-Watch, but Didn't Get the Chance to Before This Piece: Anaconda (1997)

Anaconda is a weird horror/creature feature that alternates between being legitimately bad and entertainingly bad. Naturally, that makes it the type of movie I'd like to see again. Some late 90's that fell under a similar category (Wild Wild West, Volcano) became more enjoyable to me on rewatch and I really need confirmation that I didn't hallucinate whatever the hell Jon Voight was doing in this movie.