The Best and Worst of Brian Cox

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 "Morgan" star Brian Cox.

Films starring Brian Cox that I've seen:
Airplane II: The Sequel
Braveheart
Rushmore 
Super Troopers
The Rookie
The Bourne Identity
The Ring
X2: X-Men United
The Bourne Supermacy
Red Eye
The Ringer
Zodiac
Red
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
The Campaign
Red 2
Her
Pixels

Best Performance: Super Troopers (2002)
Cox is essentially the Scottish answer to Steve Buscemi as he's one of the most active and respected character actors in the business starring in a number of beloved films over the past 25 years including Braveheart, Zodiac and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Despite building his legacy off of starring in action and drama films, his career-defining moment to-date came in the cult comedy gem Super Troopers. As the commander of an eccentric group of Vermont state troopers, Cox displays a surprising knack for absurd, zany humor and held his own among a group of seasoned comedians. Super Troopers allowed Cox to add inane, dumb comedies to his expansive repertoire and further solidify his standing as one of Hollywood's most versatile and prominent supporting actors.      

Worst Performance: Rushmore (1998)
One of the many pluses of being a character actor instead of a full-blown movie star is that you're usually not on screen long enough to garner much of a reaction from the audience. Of course there are a fair number of exceptions to the rule, but for the most part you're just a small cog in the story that doesn't really get an opportunity to really shine or falter. Cox's only real misfire came as Dr. Nelson Guggenheim, the headmaster at the titular private school in Wes Anderson's douchey, coming-of-age comedy Rushmore. Cox serves as the sparring partner for Jason Schwartzman's arrogant, quirky fuckhead protagonist Max Fischer and you better believe there are numerous scenes of pretentious and completely unnatural banter between the crotchety old authority figure and the rebellious, intellectual 15-year old student. Cox played the character as it was intended to be played, I just wanted to throw him into a car crusher every time he appeared on screen, thus making it an insufferable performance.

Best Film: Braveheart (1995)
War epics simply don't get much better than Mel Gibson's Braveheart. It may be corny as all hell, but the battle scenes are terrific and the story remains interesting throughout is nearly three-hour runtime. 

Worst Film: The Ring (2002)
For reasons I'll never understand, the hype train that builds around horror films is an unrivaled phenomenon in pop culture. The select number of films in a given year that win the approval of the genre's rabid fans receive a word-of-mouth backing so strong that it almost can't be comprehended. The Ring, a remake of the 1998 Japanese film Ringu, is one of those films and I'll never for the life of me understand how it became so beloved among horror movie enthusiasts. I believe that The Ring symbolizes everything that's wrong with modern horror. It favors a barrage of jump scares over building a creepy atmosphere, the script is incoherent and the unintentional comedy value is off-the-charts. It's not quite as cringeworthy as some other supernatural horror movies released around that time (2003's Darkness Falls, 2001's Jeepers Creepers), but it's still really awful.   

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  "When the Bough Breaks" star Regina Hall.