Cameron Diaz 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 Cameron Diaz-whose latest project "Back in Action" releases on Netflix this Friday.  

Cameron Diaz's Filmography Ranked:

20.The Other Woman (D-)

19.Very Bad Things (D)

18.The Counselor (D+)

17.What to Expect When You're Expecting (D+)

16.The Sweetest Thing (C-)

15.Any Given Sunday (C-)

14.Sex Tape (C)

13.Charlie's Angels (C)

12.Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (C+)

11.The Green Hornet (B-)

10.Knight and Day (B-)

9.Bad Teacher (B-)

8.Gangs of New York (B-)

7.The Holiday (B-)

6.Being John Malkovich (B-)

5.Shrek 2 (B)

4.The Mask (B)

3.There's Something About Mary (B+)

2.Shrek (B+)

1.Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (A)

Top Dog: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

Just the ultimate adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's borderline unadaptable material. Terry Gilliam flawlessly captures the psychedelic, paranoid absurdist comedy of Thompson's fragmented substance-fueled writing via a wildly entertaining episodic narrative and Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro fully embrace the madness their characters get into with their demented, hilarious performances.     

Bottom Feeder: The Other Woman (2014)

The first of the three Diaz films released in 2014 before she elected to go on a decade-long hiatus from acting, The Other Woman is an awful movie full of unfunny jokes and bad performances from an ensemble cast (Diaz, Leslie Mann, Kate Upton, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Nicki Minaj, Don Johnson) that have zero chemistry together.  

Most Underrated: Bad Teacher (2011)

Are there plenty of other R-rated comedies that I'd rather watch than Bad Teacher? Absolutely. I just happen to think this movie is far funnier than it's given credit for. Diaz is a hoot as the titular selfish, disengaged shitbag teacher who goes to great lengths to try and woo her new co-worker (Justin Timberlake) and Jason Segel does some of the most underrated comedic work of his career as the affable gym teacher who has a crush on her.  

Most Overrated: Any Given Sunday (1999)

Oliver Stone's barrage of frantic editing and camerawork techniques become exhausting before this bloated below average soap opera about a flailing football team whose fortunes reserve when their third-string quarterback (Jamie Foxx) is forced into action reaches the one-hour mark. Adding to its grating nature is Al Pacino turning in his Mona Lisa of ineffective overacting as the team's aging legendary coach Tony D'Amato and a breathtakingly stupid ending that makes the finale of Draft Day look completely grounded.