Isla Fisher 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 Isla Fisher-whose latest project "Strays" is in theaters now. 

Isla Fisher's Filmography Ranked:

16.Scooby-Doo (D)

15.Rango (C)

14.Keeping Up with the Joneses (C+)

13.Bachelorette (C+)

12.The Brothers Grimsby (B-)

11.Life of Crime (B-)

10.Definitely, Maybe (B-)

9.Rise of the Guardians (B)

8.I Heart Huckabees (B)

7.Nocturnal Animals (B)

6.Wedding Crashers (B+)

5.The Lookout (B+)

4.Now You See Me (B+)

3.Tag (A-)

2.The Beach Bum (A-)

1.Hot Rod (A+)

Top Dog: Hot Rod (2007)

When I stepped into the AMC Liberty Tree Mall 20 in Danvers, Massachusetts on a rainy day in August 2007, I didn't know that my life would change forever. Comedy was a genre of movie that spoke to me from an early age and especially once I became a teenager, I had a tendency to gravitate towards the particularly silly and absurd projects (stuff like Anchorman, Zoolander and Super Troopers were all favorites of mine by this point). This love of silly, absurd comedy grew exceptionally once I experienced the magic The Lonely Island gang (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Akiva Scheffer) and the cast of like-minded lunatics (Fisher, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Will Arnett, Chris Parnell, Ian McShane, Sissy Spacek-the latter two of which I still can't believe agreed to appear in something like this) they got to appear in their movie made. Hot Rod is effectively 85 minutes of full-blown bizarre comedic anarchy. No joke or plot point is too silly, strange or surreal to throw out there and since everybody in the film is on the same weird wavelength, the comedy is so effortless, fearless and consistently effective that it almost feel like it was made on the fly by a virtuoso improv troop giving the greatest performance of their careers.  

Despite all of the love I have for this movie, it wasn't until somewhat recently that I realized it was my favorite comedy of all time. Not only has it held up astoundingly well, but quite frankly, I think it shaped my sense of humor more than any piece of popular culture I've ever consumed. The love I have today for comic voices such as Tim Robinson, Eric Andre and Patti Harrison can be traced back to the comedic DNA of Hot Rod. I'm so glad this movie exists and I'll always have a borderline unhealthy amount of pride that I was one of the few people that saw and loved it in theaters before it became a cult sensation on home video/pay cable a couple of years later.  

Bottom Feeder: Scooby-Doo (2002)

Plenty of people in my generation are really fond of Scooby-Doo and upon a rewatch as an adult, it's completely possible that I would join the club (it was written by the great James Gunn after all). However as a kid, I thought this movie was awful. I actually explicitly remember thinking shortly after I saw it that I would've had more fun if I'd stayed home and watched some episodes of Scoob-Doo, Where Are You? on Cartoon Network instead of going out to see the movie-which is about as scathing of a review as a 10-year old could conceive.  

Most Underrated: The Beach Bum (2019)

Harmony Korine really did the unthinkable with The Beach Bum. The polarizing surrealist hedonistic auteur made a full-blown stoner comedy that isn't just hilarious and psychedelic, but legitimately heartfelt and life-affirming. A couple rays of sunshine omitting from Korine's unapologetic degenerate soul is a beautiful sight to see and hopefully this won't be the last time he shows this side of himself in his work.   

Most Overrated: Rango (2011)

Like Scooby-Doo, bestowing this dishonor upon Rango needs to carry an asterisk since I haven't seen the film in over a decade. As cool as it is that Gore Verbinski basically made a trippy western for kids, I felt that Rango didn't offer much more outside of striking animation and the occasional moment of inspired weirdness.