The Best and Worst of Don Cheadle

The "Best and Worst" series profiles the best and worst work of an actor starring in one of the week's new theatrical releases. This week I take a look at the filmography of "Miles Ahead" star Don Cheadle.

Film starring Don Cheadle that I've seen:
Volcano
Boogie Nights
Mission to Mars
Swordfish
Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Twelve
Hotel Rwanda
Crash
Reign Over Me
Ocean's Thirteen
Traitor
Brooklyn's Finest
Iron Man 2
The Guard
Flight
Iron Man 3 
Avengers: Age of Ultron 

Best Performance: Hotel Rwanda (2004) 
Hotel Rwanda is a film that I find to be grossly overrated among the unofficial "awards-friendly historical dramas that dominate cinemas for the last three or four months of every calendar year" genre. While the writing, directing and acting ensemble is strong on the whole, Hotel Rwanda's overall quality and emotional impact would've been far less if not for the incredible work of Cheadle. Portraying Paul Ruseabagina, a hotel manger who housed over 1,000 refugees during the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Cheadle captures the bravery and compassion that made Ruseabagina an unlikely hero during a period of perpetual unease and danger.

Worst Performance: Iron Man 2 (2010)
Cheadle isn't among my favorite actors working right now, but there's no denying that he's turned in consistently solid performances throughout his career. Of the 17 films I've seen of his over the years, Iron Man 2 is the only one where I felt he was phoning in his performance. For the duration of the film, Cheadle seemed reluctant to commit to the character of Col.James Rhodes/War Machine, Tony Stark's best friend and Iron Man's sidekick, and had a wooden presence that completely went against everything he's shown as an actor prior to this film. Iron Man 2 may have been a clear lowlight in Cheadle's career, but he can at least take solace in the fact that he still wasn't nearly as bad as Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell were in the film.

Best Film: Ocean's Eleven (2001) 
I'm generally not one of those people that excessively criticizes Hollywood for the types of movies they put out in the modern era, but I will say that they don't make lighthearted crime movies like they used to. Just about every heist movie that hits the marketplace has to be driven by grit and darkness or else it won't greenlit. This refusal to conform to the heist film genre standards of the past 40 years or so is what made Ocean's Eleven such a welcome retreat from the Dog Day Afternoon and Heat's of the world. The remake of the 1960 classic was a star-studded, flawless throwback to the breezy, good-natured capers that ruled multiplexes in the 50's and 60's and is without question one of the most purely entertaining films to be released in my lifetime to-date.   

Worst Film: Ocean's Twelve (2004)
Cheadle gets the prestigious honor of being the first actor in the history of this series to have their best and worst film be part of the same franchise. The wit, charm and high stakes of the central heist that made the first installment a massive success was swapped out for molasses-esque pacing, convoluted writing and a joyless climax in the second installment of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's trilogy. While the filmmakers were able to get the series back to its infectiously fun roots with 2007's Ocean's Thirteen, it wasn't good enough to undo much of the damage this tedious, pointless film did to this franchise.

Thank you for reading this week's installment of "The Best and Worst of". Next week, I'll take a look at the best and worst work of "The Boss" star Melissa McCarthy.