James Marsden 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 James Marsden-whose latest project "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" releases in theaters today. 

James Marsden's Filmography Ranked:

22.Hop (D-)

21.Straw Dogs (D)

20.Sugar & Spice (D+)

19.Superman Returns (C-)

18.Unfrosted (C)

17.Welcome to Me (C)

16.The Notebook (C)

15.Unfinished Business (C+)

14.The Butler (C+)

13.Bachelorette (B-) 

12.Sex Drive (B-)

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

10.Knox Goes Away (B-)

9.X-Men (B)

8.Death at a Funeral (B)

7.2 Guns (B)

6.Sonic the Hedgehog (B)

5.Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (B)

4.Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (B+)

3.X2 (A-)

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

1.Zoolander (A)

Top Dog: Zoolander (2001)

While Tropic Thunder and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty are great movies, I think Zoolander is Ben Stiller's finest hour as a writer/director. A satire about the modeling industry makes for an incredible breeding ground for absurdist comedy and the bits that Stiller came up with are frequently uproarious, (the gas station scene is among the hardest I've ever laughed at anything in my life) if not borderline comic genius.        

Bottom Feeder: Hop (2011)

A grating, brutally unfunny family movie that also happens to feature Russell Brand as the voice of the Easter Bunny. We need to shoot this cursed text into the sun ASAP.   

Most Underrated: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)

Is it as good as the first one? No, but there's only 2 or 3 comedies that I find to be funnier than Anchorman, so it would be absurdly unfair to expect it to be on that level. What Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues does do is deliver another weird, stupid and demented round of absurdist comedy hijinks from a collection of actors (Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate, Paul Rudd, Steve Carrell, David Koechner, Fred Willard) that work really well together.   

Most Overrated: The Notebook (2004)

Despite their best efforts, the terrific chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams is ultimately no match for the cringey cheeseball romance power of Nicolas Sparks' source material. The manipulative tearjerker energy in this thing could power all of Earth for the next 10,000 years.