Gerard Butler Ranked

Welcome to the latest edition of "Ranked"-where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out related accolades. This week, I'm profiling the work of Gerard Butler-whose latest project "Greenland" hits video on demand services this Friday. 

Gerard Butler's Filmography Ranked:

17.The Bounty Hunter (D)

16.Movie 43 (D)

15.Reign of Fire (D+)

14.Hunter Killer (C)

13.The Ugly Truth (C)

12.London Has Fallen (C+)

11.Machine Gun Preacher (B-)

10.Tomorrow Never Dies (B-)

9.Angel Has Fallen (B-)

8.Gods of Egypt (B-)

7.Geostorm (B-)

6.Olympus Has Fallen (B)

5.Gamer (B)

4.RocknRolla (B+)

3.Law Abiding Citizen (B+)

2.Den of Thieves (B+)

1.300 (A)

Top Dog: 300 (2007)

What proved to be the coming out party for both Butler and director Zach Snyder is blockbuster maximalism at its unapologetic finest. With its cartoonish overacting, frequent bloody battle sequences and exclusively red-and-gray color palette, Snyder is able to create a hyperstylized symphony of mangled corpses, fiery dialogue and frantic energy that captures the over-the-top feel of a graphic novel in striking, visceral detail.         

Lowlight: The Bounty Hunter (2010)

Some exceptionally stupid writing and the reliably inept touch of Andy Tennant (Sweet Home Alabama, Fool's Gold) do wonders in helping to turn a pair of likable lead performers (Butler, Jennifer Aniston) into obnoxious asshat characters with no charisma or comedic ability that are very unpleasant to spend an entire movie with.  

Most Underrated: Den of Thieves (2018)

Declaring Den of Thieves underrated may be considered kind of a wild take as it was warmly received by audiences and was dubbed by most critics as a pleasant surprise when it hit theaters during a traditionally frowned upon portion of the calendar in January 2018. Despite its solid standing in both arms of the court of public entertainment opinion, I still believe that Den of Thieves doesn't quite get the love it deserves. When it comes to heist movies released in the last 20 years, there's only a handful that are better crafted than Den of Thieves. The contentious cops vs. robbers dynamic works exceptionally well thanks to the tremendous performances of each group's leader (Butler as the hard-nosed lawman, Pablo Schreiber as the cunning, efficient career criminal), the climatic heist sequence is a tense, electrics spectacle that pays off its lengthy buildup in near-perfect fashion and the walk-off plot twist is the type of slyly calculated misdirection that leaves an engaged viewer smiling as the credits roll.          

Most Overrated: Hunter Killer (2018)

Hunter Killer is a TNT old man Sunday afternoon special with plenty of submarine combat and ra-ra speeches that will surely rivet the hell out of your dad/grandpa. As great as it is that they're still making movies to make the old men of the world happy, Hunter Killer is about as average as anything on Earth can possibly be. Watching this feels like falling into an inoffensive void for 2 hours then remembering nothing else besides physically being there after emerging from it. Not exactly ideal for a movie to conjure up those type of numbing feelings, but hey at least it's not a complete piece of shit right?!        

Most Disturbingly Unfun: Reign of Fire (2002)

Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale and Butler fighting dragons in a dystopian wasteland that used to be London sounds like a surefire bet for a quality blockbuster. Instead, Reign of Fire is a cheesy and just plain joyless action flick that miraculously manages to do nothing cool or interesting with its collection of human vs. dragon battles.    

Best Semi-Forgotten Guy Ritchie Project: RocknRolla (2008)

The post-Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels/Snatch and pre-blockbuster era of Ritchie's career often gets swept under the rug, namely because it didn't produce any hits on either the cult or box office level. While it doesn't hit the masterpiece status of his aforementioned breakout projects, RocknRolla is still a pretty great film driven by his staple filmmaking elements (colorful characters, London criminal underworld setting, amusing zinger-filled dialogue, frantically entertaining storytelling) that serves as the lone gem from this period of Richie's career and not to mention, a much better rehashing of his vintage formula than this year's The Gentlemen.