Daniel Craig Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", where I rank a franchise or filmography and hand out various related accolades. This week, I'm profiling the work of Daniel Craig-whose latest project "No Time to Die" hits theaters tomorrow.

Daniel Craig's Filmography Ranked:

14.Kings (D-)

13.Dream House (C-)

12.Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (C-)

11.Casino Royale (C+)

10.Spectre (C+)

9.The Adventures of Tintin (B-)

8.Quantum of Solace (B)

7.Cowboys and Aliens (B)

6.Logan Lucky (B)

5.Skyfall (B+)

4.Knives Out (B+)

3.Road to Perdition (A-)

2.Layer Cake (A)

1.The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (A)

Top Dog: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Behind brilliantly atmospheric direction from David Fincher and a powerfully raw performance from Rooney Mara as reclusive computer hacker Lisbeth Salander, the English-language remake of the popular grim, slow burn Swedish mystery thriller soars to higher heights than the already great original.

Lowlight: Kings (2018)

Messy may be the most succinct way to describe this English-language debut from Mustang director Deniz Gamze Erguven, but it feels like too soft of a criticism for a movie that is so thoroughly  inept. Kings is that special unicorn turd of a film that is scattershot and incoherent to the point where it would be fair to question if it was made by a professional filmmaker. It's a story that's set in Los Angeles right before/during the riots that followed the acquittal of the cops that were caught on camera assaulting Rodney King, yet the anger, fear and destruction that defined that moment in time are drowned out by cheap melodrama and bizarre flashes of humor. It's also supposed to be a story about family and building unlikely bonds, yet the relationships between the characters are never really explored or in a lot of cases, even established. It aims to tug at the heart strings and enrich and challenge the mind, but ends up just causing boredom and bewilderment with its clumsy execution. Craig, Halle Berry and the half dozen or so young actors that appeared here are lucky that so few people have seen Kings because it's the type of catastrophic bomb that could've at least temporarily derailed a career if it had been released on a larger scale.        

Most Underrated: Road to Perdition (2002)

Road to Perdition isn't just Craig's most underrated movie, it's probably the most underrated gangster movie of the last 20 years. While its themes including the tragic consequences that come from committing to a life of violence and a father trying to prevent his son from committing the same sins as him aren't particularly groundbreaking, the striking noir-inspired cinematography from the legendary Conrad Hall,, stellar acting from a deep roster of heavy-hitters (Tom Hanks, Jude Law, Craig, Stanley Tucci, Jennifer Jason Leigh, the late Paul Newman in his final role) and the script's slick balance of grit and emotional resonance are enough for it to enter the pantheon of classic mob flicks.   

Most Overrated: Casino Royale (2006)

The world's massive love affair with Casino Royale is something that I've never been able to get onboard with. While Craig flashed plenty of charisma in his debut as Bond and it was definitely a huge improvement over the god awful cheesefest installment that preceded it (Pierce Brosnan's swan song Die Another Day), the uneven pacing, so-so action sequences and total anticlimax make it a very forgettable affair on the whole.     

Best Bond Movie: Skyfall (2012)

Ahead of seeing No Time to Die this weekend, Skyfall is the undisputed high water mark for Craig's Bond films. Javier Bardem's Raoul Silva is the most menacing villain that's appeared in a Bond film that I've seen, the jaw-dropping scale and visual flare present in the action sequences was just beautiful to behold and there's some really terrific quiet character moments here that help provide the proceedings with real dramatic heft.