Stanley Tucci Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a filmography or franchise from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Stanley Tucci-whose latest project "Conclave" is in theaters now.  

Stanley Tucci's Filmography Ranked:

24.Jolt (D+)

23.Transformers: The Last Knight (D+)

22.Beethoven (C-)

21.Transformers: Age of Extinction (C-)

20.Big Trouble (C-)

19.Maid in Manhattan (C)

18.Robots (C)

17.Julie & Julia (C)

16.Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (C+)

15.Captain America: The First Avenger (C+)

14.Wild Card (C+)

13.The Daytrippers (B-)

12.The Devil Wears Prada (B-)

11.The King's Man (B)

10.The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1 (B)

9.The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2 (B)

8.Lucky Number Slevin (B)

7.Conclave (B)

6.The Terminal (B)

5.The Hunger Games (B)

4.Easy A (B)

3.Spotlight (B+)

2.Road to Perdition (B+)

1.The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (A)

Top Dog: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

While I've enjoyed every entry in The Hunger Games franchise, Catching Fire remains my pick for the best installment by a huge margin. The tension and urgency levels in this one are cranked up to a really impactful degree and it makes the entire 2.5 hour runtime fly by. Not to mention, it also happens to be Jennifer Lawrence's finest hour as Katniss Everdeen (that scene with Lenny Kravitz's Sinna right before she enters the arena is just devastating).   

Bottom Feeder: Jolt (2021)

As game as Kate Beckinsale is to return to her action star roots, Jolt remains a major dud. Indie comedy filmmaker Tanya Wexler (Buffaloed) completely flubs her transition to the genre film space with this boring, convoluted riff on Crank (Beckinsale plays a bouncer who uses an electroshock vest to try and deal with her intermittent rage disorder who gives into her violent impulses after a man she's recently gotten romantically involved with turns up murdered under mysterious circumstances) that features a slew of incomprehensible fight scenes along with some really terrible supporting performances from the likes of Tucci, David Bradley and Jai Courtney.   

Most Underrated: Road to Perdition (2002)

Despite a pretty decent domestic run at the box office ($104.5 mil, which made it the 24th highest grossing film of 2002), Road to Perdition has managed to get lost in the shuffle of gangster movies. Tom Hanks is terrific as a Chicago-based mob enforcer forced to go on the run with his son (Tyler Hoechlin) after his boss' (Paul Newman in his final role) wild card son (Daniel Craig) murders the rest of his family, the themes of perpetual violence and the role father/son relationships can have in continuing or breaking the cycle is explored with great care and the ending, while slightly corny, is moving nonetheless. One of Sam Mendes' finest works without a doubt. 

Most Overrated: Julie & Julia (2009)

There's nothing horribly wrong with Julie & Julia from a filmmaking perspective, I just never really got on board with its parallel intertwined narratives despite the solid performances from Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie Powell-a call center employee who decides to start a blog where she cooks her way through every recipe in Child's iconic 1961 cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and found it to the lack the humor and heart of the late Nora Ephron's finer works.