Famke Janssen Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Famke Janssen-whose latest project "Boy Kills World" releases in theaters on Thursday night. 

Famke Janssen's Filmography Ranked:

17.The Poison Rose (D-)

16.All I Wish (D)

15.Taken 2 (D)

14.Once Upon a Time in Venice (C-)

13.The Vault (B-)

12.Primal (B-)

11.X-Men: The Last Stand (B-)

10.The Wolverine (B)

9.I Spy (B)

8.Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (B)

7.X-Men (B)

6.GoldenEye (B+)

5.Taken (B+)

4.X2 (B+)

3.The Wackness (A-)

2.Rounders (A-)

1.X-Men: Days of Future Past (A)

Top Dog: X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Everything that's transpired with the X-Men franchise (Fox's sale to Disney, Dark Phoenix tanking, the string of disturbing allegations that have come out about individuals not named Gavin Hood, Matthew Vaughn, James Mangold or Simon Kinberg who served as directors for at least 1 film in the series) since the release of Days of Future Past just under 10 years ago has managed to kind of overshadow just how great of a film it is. Days of Future Past's time travel plot isn't some cheap nostalgia exercise to bring together the old and new generation of X-Men stars, it's the crux of a powerful story about how different generations continue to fight the same battles for justice in a world that won't allow it to happen, and the wide array of effects time can have on a person's character, belief system, etc. It also doesn't hurt that the action sequences rip, the performances are pretty great and the scene in the kitchen where Quicksilver (Evan Peters) saves the day is one of the coolest moments in superhero movie history.   

Bottom Feeder: The Poison Rose (2019)

Never mind all of the Aaron Eckhart action vehicles and Pauly Shore comedies, the most depressing brand of shoddy VOD fodder is the serious crime thriller starring a slew of actors that people from several generations will instantly recognize. Of the small number of films that fall into this camp that I've seen, The Poison Rose is hands down the worst. It's like if somebody tried to write an old school noir potboiler immediately after suffering a concussion then called in a bunch of favors or collected a whole lot to blackmail to get the likes of John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, Brendan Fraser, Peter Stromare, Robert Patrick and Janssen to star in it. Few films I've seen in the past five years are this inept from top to bottom and it warms my heart that such a small number of people (it only has 11,140 votes on IMDb and 3,805 on Letterboxd) got duped into watching this cheap, incoherent snoozefest of a movie.       

Most Underrated: The Wackness (2008)

There are several coming-of-age movies that I think are better than The Wackness, but do any of them feature Ben Kingsley as a loser NYC therapist who strikes up an unlikely friendship with an 18-year-old patient (Josh Peck) who pays for his sessions in weed? Exactly. In all seriousness, this is a very funny, bittersweet and moving movie that serves as an excellent showcase for the underrated filmmaking talents of Jonathan Levine. 

Most Overrated: X-Men (2000)

X-Men accomplished plenty of great things. It planted the seeds for the superhero movie boom that really took later in the 2000's and was the first time audiences got to see three of the best portrayals of comic book characters we've ever seen on screen in Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, Patrick Stewart's Professor X and Ian McKellen's Magneto. Where the original X-Men falls well short of the best films in the series is with its inconsistent pacing, middling action sequences and horrendous secondary villains (sorry guys, I think Sabertooth and Toad are lame as hell).