Lucy Liu 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 Lucy Liu-whose latest project "Red One" releases in theaters today. 

Lucy Liu's Filmography Ranked:

18.Code Name: The Cleaner (D+)

17.Charlie's Angels (C)

16.Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (C)

15.Strange World (B-)

14.Shazam!: Fury of the Gods (B-)

13.Payback (B)

12.The Man with the Iron Fists (B)

11.Jerry Maguire (B)

10.Kung Fu Panda 3 (B)

9.Kung Fu Panda 2 (B)

8.Gridlock'd (B)

7.Kung Fu Panda (B)

6.Set It Up (B)

5.Shanghai Noon (B)

4.Lucky Number Slevin (B)

3.Kill Bill: Volume 2 (B)

2.Detachment (B+)

1.Kill Bill: Volume 1 (A+)

Top Dog: Kil Bill: Volume 1 (2003)

This absolutely immense piece of martial arts splatter vigilante goodness is my favorite thing Quentin Tarantino has made in the 21st century. The energy here is just relentlessly insane even by Tarantino's lofty standards, Uma Thurman's steely, simmering rage makes The Bride an elite vengeance-seeking protagonist and the Crazy 88 fight is probably the best action sequence Tarantino has ever put together. 

Bottom Feeder: Code Name: The Cleaner (2007)

The best part about Code Name: The Cleaner is that sounds like a completely made-up movie. Like what do you mean, there's a comedy where Cedric the Entertainer plays a man who wakes up in a hotel room with a dead body and has to figure out if he's a secret agent or a janitor? In a weird way, it's a peak January movie as it executes a high concept in a deeply questionable fashion, resulting in a bad movie that doesn't even have the courtesy to be memorably terrible.   

Most Underrated: Grid'locked (1997)

Tim Roth and Tupac Shakur make for a great buddy duo in this entertaining crime dramedy about a pair of heroin addicts who encounter a string of absurd hurdles as they attempt to check into rehab that ended up being Shakur's final acting role before his death. If you enjoy stuff like Trainspotting and Go, I'd encourage you to go seek this one out.   

Most Overrated: Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004)

Here's a scorcher of a take: I think this is Tarantino's worst movie besides Death Proof. As terrific as the final sequence with The Bride and Bill is, the glut of flashbacks that make up the bulk of the film's runtime kneecap the urgency of The Bride's mission. It really is a blessing that somebody forced Tarantino to split this into two films because promptly downshifting from the hyperkinetic Tokyo sequence that Volume 1 ends on to this would've sucked the life out of the room.