Idris Elba Ranked

Welcome to Ranked-where I rank a franchise or filmography and hand out related accolades. This week, I'm profiling the work of Idris Elba-whose latest project "Concrete Cowboy" premieres on Netflix tomorrow.  

Idris Elba's Filmography Ranked:

24.Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (D)

23.Avengers: Age of Ultron (D+)

22.The Jungle Book (D+)

21.The Gunman (C-)

20.Zootopia (C)

19.The Dark Tower (C+)

18.Star Trek Beyond (C+)

17.The Take (B)

16.Cats (B)

15.Thor: The Dark World (B)

14.Prometheus (B)

13.The Losers (B)

12.Takers (B)

11.Finding Dory (B)

10.Thor (B+)

9.RocknRolla (B+)

8.Beasts of No Nation (B+)

7.American Gangster (A-)

6.Hobbs & Shaw (A-)

5.Pacific Rim (A-)

4.28 Weeks Later (A)

3.Avengers: Infinity War (A)

2.Molly's Game (A)

1.Thor: Ragnarok (A)

Top Dog: Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

The magician otherwise known as Taika Waititi brought the Thor series out of its established place as a middling Marvel brand with this weird, vibrant and hilarious threequel that set a new creative bar for the MCU. 

Lowlight: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)

A Mark Neveldine/Brian Taylor-helmed Ghost Rider movie really should've been awesome. Applying their comically over-the-top style that they became known for with the Crank films and Gamer to a Nicolas Cage-led superhero movie about a demon biker that's literally fighting against Satan seems like a match in B-movie heaven. That awesome on-paper pitch failed to materialize simply because Neveldine/Taylor chose to play this inherently absurd material completely straight outside of the occasional Cage freakout and Elba's hilarious performance as a drunk blind priest who aids Ghost Rider, which turns Spirit of Vengeance into a painfully dumb bore that's very tough to sit through. 

Most Underrated: 28 Weeks Later (2007)

28 Weeks Later may be a more commercially-accessible product than its proudly desolate, DIY predecessor, but it's still a sneaky great film. By focusing more on zombie action and gore than the bleak hopelessness brought on by a world overrun by bloodthirsty monsters, it's able to clearly distinguish itself from 28 Days Later while still boasting a suffocating atmosphere that honors the spirit of Danny Boyle's masterful original. 

Most Overrated: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Now that the MCU is this full-fledged, untouchable juggernaut of a franchise, a revisionist history has been written that makes it seem like they've never stumbled at any point in their 13 year history. Exhibit A in my denouncing of this silly narrative comes with Avengers: Age of Ultron-which I firmly believe is near the top of the list of terrible superhero movies that have been released since X-Men planted the seeds for the modern genre explosion back in 2000. Noted class act Joss Whedon followed his pretty successful initial Avengers offering with this convoluted snoozefest that haphazardly attempts to stuff an entire trilogy worth of material into a little over two hours worth of actual movie runtime.     

Most Overlooked Prestige Drama: Beasts of No Nation (2015)

Before Netflix became a movie business juggernaut that releases more titles per year than any other distributor in the world and attracted the likes of Martin Scorsese, The Coen Brothers and Alfonso Cuaron to come work with them, they were just a rising streaming service with a few successful TV shows (Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, Narcos) under their belt that were looking to break into the world of cinema. Their inaugural original film Beasts of No Nation offered up a preview of the prestige movie machine they would quickly evolve into. Cary Fukunaga's examination of a group of child soldiers in an unnamed African Country is a harrowing, deeply disturbing look at how a person whose life hasn't even really started yet is impacted by the atrocities of a war that they were forced to participate in. 

Shittiest Villain Turn: The Jungle Book (2016)

From his genuinely horrifying performance as a military commander in the aforementioned Beasts of No Nation to his cartoony, wisecrack-filled turn as an ex-M16 agent turned genetically-enhanced terrorist in Hobbs & Shaw, Elba has successfully covered a lot of ground in the world of on screen villainy. However, not all of his many bad guy roles are winners and the biggest of the few real stinkers he's turned in to date came in the "live action" reboot of The Jungle Book. While there's an argument to be made that the showy overacting he brought to the voice role of Shere Khan was kind of refreshing in a movie that is otherwise very dour and stagnant, he tries so hard to make the character menacing that it becomes unintentionally hilarious.