Michael Pena 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 Michael Pena-whose latest project "A Million Miles Away" begins streaming on Prime Video tomorrow. 

Michael Pena's Filmography Ranked:

27.Moonfall (D-)

26.Fantasy Island (C-)

25.Tom & Jerry (C)

24.Observe and Report (C)

23.Extinction (C+)

22.CHiPs (C+)

21.Crash (C+)

20.War on Everyone (C+)

19.The Lego Ninjago Movie (B-)

18.Fury (B-)

17.Everything Must Go (B-)

16.Battle: Los Angeles (B-)

15.Tower Heist (B-)

14.Ant-Man and the Wasp (B)

13.Jexi (B)

12.30 Minutes or Less (B)

11.Dora and the Lost City of Gold (B)

10.Ant-Man (B)

9.Shooter (B)

8.The Lincoln Lawyer (B)

7.The Mule (B)

6.Gone in 60 Seconds (B+)

5.Gangster Squad (B+)

4.The Martian (B+)

3.Million Dollar Baby (A-)

2.American Hustle (A)

1.End of Watch (A)

Top Dog: End of Watch (2012)

What makes End of Watch standout from so many other cop thrillers is the strength of the bond behind Jake Gyllenhaal and Pena's characters. There's this really natural rapport and rhythm to all of the many conversations they have throughout this film that makes it feel like these guys really are inseparable best friends. Establishing that friendship right away makes it really easy to get invested in these characters and that investment allows the viscerally intense, emotional ride that this film eventually becomes to leave quite the impact once the credits roll. 

Bottom Feeder: Moonfall (2022)

19 months after seeing Moonfall and I still haven't forgiven Roland Emmerich for the sins he committed here. The man behind such fun schlock as Independence Day and White House Down betrays his brainless entertainment ideals by making something that is brutally dumb, needlessly convoluted and far too serious for a movie that has a plot that boils down to "Earth's moon has been knocked out of orbit and is hurdling towards the planet at an alarmingly fast rate". Moonfall is my no-brainer choice for the title of worst movie released in the 2020's so far and I'll be slandering the shit out of it whenever the opportunity arises.    

Most Underrated: Gangster Squad (2013)

Hello! Chief member of the Gangster Squad defense team Chris Maitland reporting for duty. This wildly entertaining gangster picture fully embraces its cartoonish nature with over-the-top shootouts/car chases/heists galore, performances that are either deeply cool (Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Anthony Mackie) or unapologetically hammy (Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Robert Patrick) and a slick visual style that filters classic noir through a lens of modern excess. It's effectively the 21st century answer to The Untouchables and to me at least, that's pretty fucking awesome.  

Most Overrated: Fury (2014)

Fury earns a lot of good will through its unflinchingly brutal, expertly crafted battle sequences and these scenes take up a large enough chunk of the runtime to make it worth watching. However whenever the combat seizes, it majorly stumbles. The five men (Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Pena, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Bernthal) that make up the tank crew that Fury focuses on are all woefully underwritten caricatures with one attribute a piece (Pitt-leader, Lerman-coward, Pena-drunk, LaBeouf-religious, Bernthal-bigot), writer/director David Ayer's attempts to build an emotional core in the latter stages of the film are so contrived and absurd that they come dangerously close to bringing on unintentional laughs and Ayer's normally propulsive pacing grinds down to a slow crawl whenever a dramatic scene pops up. Fury would've been significantly better if Ayer had done something similar to what Christopher Nolan did on Dunkirk and prioritizes the broader struggle and horrors of war over the plights of the individual or a small group of soldiers as it would've allowed him to show off his strengths as a filmmaker instead of extensively exposing his weaknesses.