Tom Hardy Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out various related accolades. This week, I'm profiling the work of Tom Hardy-whose latest project "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" hits theaters this Friday.

Tom Hardy's Filmography Ranked:

18.The Revenant (D)

17.Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (D+)

16.Legend (C-)

15.Mad Max: Fury Road (C-)

14.This Means War (C)

13.Bronson (B-)

12.Black Hawk Down (B-)

11.Capone (B)

10.Dunkirk (B)

9.Venom (B)

8.The Drop (B)

7.Locke (B)

6.Rocknrolla (B+)

5.Lawless (B+)

4.The Dark Knight Rises (A-)

3.Layer Cake (A)

2.Warrior (A)

1.Inception (A)

Top Dog: Inception (2010)

Hardy's global breakout role just happened to come in one of the most seminal films of the 2010's. By blending crazy action sequences with an ambitious, mind-bending sci-fi premise and incredible visual effects, Christopher Nolan was able to conjure up one of the most dazzling projects of his vaunted career thus far.

Lowlight: The Revenant (2015)

After an opening that features an incredibly intense battle sequence between fur trappers and a war party from the Arikara tribe and a bear attack that leaves protagonist Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) on the brink of death in the opening 30 minutes, I was all in on Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's arctic western survival tale. What followed that standout opening is some of the most meandering, hollow and generally insufferable moviemaking that I've ever endured in my entire life. This hellish 2 hour stretch of cinema is effectively just a grueling loop of DiCaprio foaming at the mouth while trying to crawl back to his fur trapping camp, Hardy mumbling about pelts and pretty nature imagery that I guess Inarritu hopes covers up the fact that The Revenant is ultimately just an artsy 1820's-set revenge movie that suffers from a disturbing lack of the exploitative fun that defines the subgenre.     

Most Underrated: Warrior (2011)

Warrior doesn't nesscairly subvert its cliched melodramatic sports movie setup (two estranged brothers are forced to square off against each other in an MMA tournament), it just manages to find a much more effective way of utilizing its familiar formula than the vast majority of films that fall under the same umbrella. The character development of the brothers (Hardy, Joel Edgerton) as well as their father (Nick Nolte) is terrific, the acting from Hardy, Edgerton and Nolte is so emotionally transparent that they're able to sell even the most potentially contrived moments the script throws out there and the fight sequences have a brutal, visceral edge to them that makes them feel like real MMA bouts.     

Most Overrated: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

As an action movie diehard, the hailing of Fury Road as one of the finest films that the genre has ever produced continues to bewilder me. Outside of a tremendous performance from Charlize Theron, I don't even think there's anything particularly noteworthy about it. There's not a single fight, shootout or chase sequence that's impressively staged, the characters outside of Theron's Furiosa are pretty dull and the villain (Immortan Joe) is a Hall of Fame-caliber lame cornball antagonist that tries embarrassingly hard to be imposing, but just ends up coming off as ridiculous. Both Theron and Hardy have starred in far more engaging, creative and rewarding action projects than this over the years and I'd be willing to wager that they will appear in several more before their careers come to a close.

Top Experimental Biopic: Capone (2020)

A surreal psychological drama about Al Capone's declining mental state caused by his bout with  neurosyphilis-which caused frequent hallucinations and slowly rotted his brain to the point where he effectively reverted back to being a child-in the final years of his life was a hugely ambitious gamble for Josh Trank to make with his first film following the widely publicized Fantastic Four debacle. While it's certainly an uneven project overall, a deep committal to illustrating Capone's steady decline from feared gangster to helpless man whose mind and body are failing him and the strong lead performances from Hardy as Capone and Linda Cardellini as Capone's loyal, but exasperated wife Mae prove to be enough to make it work.

Best Movie That I Forgot Hardy Was In: Layer Cake (2004)

I haven't seen Layer Cake in over a decade and sincerely have no recollection of Hardy even being in the movie. That Guy Ritchie-esque British gangster thriller is overflowing with energy, crackling dialogue and clever twists, so good for Hardy for being able to win a role in something so great at a very early stage of his career.