The Best and Worst of Clive Owen

“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 “Gemini Man” star Clive Owen.

Films starring Clive Owen that I've seen:
The Bourne Identity
King Arthur
Sin City
The Pink Panther
Inside Man
Children of Men
Shoot 'Em Up
The International
Killer Elite 
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Best Performance: Shoot 'Em Up (2007)
Fresh off the acclaim of a string of prestige projects including Closer, Inside Man and Children of Men, Owen decided to go hang out in the gutter and take the lead role in a truly insane action movie called Shoot 'Em Up. This surprise detour proved to be a move of pure genius. Seeing an actor who had made a name for himself in serious fare fearlessly jump into an over-the-top demented world where cartoonish violence and morbid humor reign supreme is the type of unexpectedly brilliant transformation that is worthy of endless praise in my eyes.

Worst Performance: King Arthur (2004)
Like every other actor (Keira Knightley, Ioan Gruffudd, Joel Edgerton, Mads Mikkelsen, Ray Winstone) involved in this misguided remake, Owen succumbs to the dreary tone of the script-making Arthur a staggeringly dull protagonist that's hard to buy as a fearless warrior of destiny.

Best Film: Sin City (2005)
Outside of Pulp Fiction, no movie has ever blown me away to the extent that Sin City did. Robert Rodriguez's noir crime saga is a masterclass in visuals, acting and atmosphere that brought the feel of a comic book to the big screen in a way that no other film had before or has since.

Worst Film: King Arthur (2004)
For as many issues as I had with the most recent King Arthur adaptation (2017's Legend of the Sword), Antoine Fuqua's 2004 version is a far worse product. While the action scenes are pretty competent, this take on the iconic folk tale is inorganically gritty to the point where it becomes tedious and joyless to watch.

Thank you for reading this week's edition of “The Best and Worst of”. The next victim of my praise and ire will be “Zombieland: Double Tap” star Zoey Deutch.