The Best and Worst of Jon Hamm

“The Best and Worst of” series chronicles the career highlights and lowlights of an actor starring in one of the week's new theatrical releases. This week, I take a look at the filmography of “Bad Times at the El Royale” star Jon Hamm.

Films starring Jon Hamm that I've seen:
The Day The Earth Stood Still
The A-Team
The Town
Sucker Punch
Bridesmaids
Million Dollar Arm
Keeping Up with the Joneses 
Baby Driver
Beirut
Tag

Best Performance: The Town (2010)
Hamm's first sizable movie role after the breakout success of Mad Men remains my favorite performance of his. FBI Agent Adam Frawley is the perfect, hard-nosed foil to the band of blue-collar bank robbers (Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Slaine, Owen Burke) that are wreaking havoc on Boston's sacred financial institutions  and every heated exchange between them is exactly the type of grand macho theater I want out of a crime drama.

Worst Performance: Beirut (2018)
Beirut is the type of straightforward political thriller catered towards the AARP audiences that I quite simply just couldn't care less about. Hamm succumbs to the production's bland semi-competency with a phoned-in performance as a former US diplomat forced back into action after a decade-long hiatus that lacks the grizzled emotion and palpable magnetism that defines his best dramatic work.

Best Film: Baby Driver (2017)
Edgar Wright has a gift for consistently delivering awesome popcorn flicks and Baby Driver is easily one of his greatest success to the date. Adding a music-like rhythm, some Steve McQueen-esque car chases and a surprisingly well-constructed love story to the usual heist movie formula made this a colorful, electric slice of movie magic that set a bar that will be very difficult for future entries in this genre to clear.

Worst Film: The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
Few blockbusters from the late 2000's stink as hard as The Day the Earth Stood Still. This agonizing alien invasion flick features a Hall of Shame-caliber wooden performance from Keanu Reeves in the lead role, sloppy action sequences and worst of all, a sober tone that prevents any of the ridiculous narrative developments from being entertaining.

Thank you for reading this week's edition of “The Best and Worst of”. The next victim of my praise and ire will be “Halloween” star Judy Greer.