Patrick Wilson Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Patrick Wilson-whose latest project "Insidious: The Red Door" releases in theaters tonight. 

Patrick Wilson's Filmography Ranked:

18.Moonfall (D-)

17.The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (C-)

16.Insidious (C-)

15.The Switch (C)

14.Bone Tomahawk (C)

13.Young Adult (C)

12.The Conjuring 2 (C+)

11.Morning Glory (B-)

10.Prometheus (B-)

9.The Founder (B-)

8.Anabelle Comes Home (B-)

7.The Commuter (B)

6.Watchmen (B)

5.Little Children (B)

4.Hard Candy (B+)

3.Aquaman (B+)

2.The Conjuring (B+)

1.The A-Team (B+)

Top Dog: The A-Team (2010)

Chaotic meathead auteur Joe Carnahan (Smokin' Aces, Narc) and a big-budget film adaptation of the premier 80's buddy action television series is as perfect of a filmmaker/IP union as Hollywood could possibly put together. This thing is just pure camaraderie (Liam Nesson, Bradley Cooper, Quentin "Rampage" Jackson and Sharlto Copley are terrific as the titular group of Special Forces Members turned convicts turned fugitive mercenaries trying to clear their names), cartoonish action setpieces and adrenaline for 2 hours-which makes it one of the more sincere, effective tributes to 80's genre movies we've seen to date.   

Bottom Feeder: Moonfall (2022)

Sitting through Moonfall in a theater roughly 18 months ago remains the shittiest moviegoing experience I've had in quite some time. A movie about Earth's moon getting knocked out of orbit and rapidly hurling towards the planet shouldn't be so convoluted, self-serious and brutally dull. Roland Emmerich has fallen hard from his glory days of delivering inspired pieces of dumb blockbuster fun like Independence Day, Universal Solider and White House Down and it's really depressing to witness.   

Most Underrated: The A-Team (2010)

Social media sites are populated with small yet vocal groups of people that revere some works by Michael Bay and Zack Snyder that weren't treated kindly by critics or embraced by audiences (stuff like Sucker Punch, 13 Hours, Batman v. Superman and the Transformers movies are among the titles in this camp). The A-Team is one of those titles for me. This big, beautiful ball of self-aware, over-the-top action movie lunacy shoots for the stars and sticks the landing on the moon. In a perfect world, we would gotten at least a couple more of these manic works of maximalist genius, but alas me and the 4-6 other people that are deeply enamored with this movie weren't so fortunate.     

Most Overrated: Insidious (2011)

James Wan has done a lot of great things for the horror genre over his 20-years as a filmmaker. Insidious is not among his most valuable contributions to the medium. In fact, Insidious is easily the most head-scratching missed opportunity he's had to-date. The first half of the movie is a creepy, atmospheric horror flick that establishes a solid framework for an interesting haunted house/demonic possession hybrid. That promise goes out the window early in the second half thanks to one completely absurd narrative choice that quickly turns into an unintentional laugh riot the rest of the way. Wan was able to redeem himself just 2 years later with another supernatural horror movie that you may have heard of called The Conjuring, but the late collapse of Insidious will never fail to shock, mystify and fascinate me.