Anthony Mackie 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 Anthony Mackie-whose latest project "Captain America: Brave New World" releases in theaters tomorrow. 

Anthony Mackie's Filmography Ranked:

38.What's Your Number? (D-)

37.Freedomland (D+)

36.The Man (D+)

35.Avengers: Age of Ultron (D+)

34.Miss Bala (D+)

33.Playing It Cool (C)

32.Hollywood Homicide (C)

31.Night Catches Us (C+)

30.Captain America: The Winter Soldier (C+)

29.Outside the Wire (B-)

28.We Have a Ghost (B-)

27.Our Brand is Crisis (B-)

26.Runner Runner (B-)

25.Half Nelson (B-)

24.Point Blank (B)

23.Eagle Eye (B)

22.The Woman in the Window (B)

21.If You Were the Last (B)

20.Ant-Man (B)

19.Seberg (B)

18.Notorious (B)

17.Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (B)

16.Triple 9 (B)

15.Captain America: Civil War (B)

14.Detroit (B)

13.The Adjustment Bureau (B)

12.Real Steel (B)

11.Man on a Ledge (B)

10.We Are Marshall (B)

9.The Hate U Give (B)

8.Synchronic (B+)

7.The Night Before (B+)

6.Gangster Squad (B+)

5.Million Dollar Baby (B+)

4.Avengers: Endgame (A-)

3.The Hurt Locker (A)

2.Avengers: Infinity War (A)

1.Pain & Gain (A)

Top Dog: Pain & Gain (2013)

Calling Pain & Gain Michael Bay's masterpiece would be insulting as the man has crafted many a masterpiece over the course of his 30+ year career. That being said, Pain & Gain is definitely the best thing he's made that exists outside of his maximalist action sweet spot. This wild fact-based story about a group of Miami bodybuilders (Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, Anthony Mackie) known as the "Sun Gym Gang" whose plan to kidnap, extort and kill a wealthy man (Tony Shalhoub) that frequents their gym goes horribly awry is an exceptional satire about the unattainability of the American Dream and the awful things people will do to try and achieve it. Wahlberg, Johnson and Mackie all turn in some of the finest performances of their careers as a group of bumbling morons desperate to break free from the shackles of being broke with no prospects for a brighter future, the script from Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely is bleakly hilarious at every turn and Bay uses his chaotic, hyperstylized direction as a way to hammer home just how warped and hollow the definition of success can be when it's achieved by greedy, selfish pricks. In light of the current state of the world, I have a feeling this movie will continue to age quite well.             

Bottom Feeder: What's Your Number? (2011)

Part of the reason that Anna Faris deserves to make a big Hollywood comeback is due to how much the industry failed her during the peak of her fame. While every comic actor is going to lead a dud movie at some point, there isn't too many that are handed something as bad as What's Your Number? There are dads all over the world cranking out a lower rate of groanworthy jokes than what appears in this major studio movie from the early 2010's and the amount of funny people/solid actors (Faris is joined here by Chris Evans, Blythe Danner, Ed Begley Jr., Ari Graynor, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Andy Samberg, Chris Pratt, Mackie, Zachary Quinto, Martin Freeman, Aziz Ansari, Joel McHale and several others in bit parts) that got dragged down by this hacky material is genuinely astounding.     

Most Underrated: Gangster Squad (2013)

Watching this again a few years back was such an awesome surprise. Gangster Squad is just a super fun slice of cartoonishly over-the-top gangster movie cheese with cool action, solid performances from a stacked ensemble (Josh Brolin, Sean Penn and Giovani Ribisi are the standouts) and style to burn that ranks among the finest entries in the underrated filmography of director Ruben Fleischer.  

Most Overrated: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

A lot of people are excited about the prospect of Captain America: Brave New World potentially taking a page out of The Winter Solider's playbook by taking the franchise back to the spy/political thriller realm. I'm not among them. The Winter Solider has long been my pick for the most overrated MCU movie for a variety of reasons. The plot is convoluted to the point where it's often completely incoherent, it was responsible for establishing the bland gray color palette that Marvel has largely refused to stray from ever since and the pacing is pretty sluggish for the majority of the runtime. Even the really well-choreographed fight scenes that are largely responsible for making the movie watchable don't hit quite as hard as they should thanks to the choppy fashion in which they were edited. Give me something like Eternals, Captain Marvel or Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness over this blah movie any day of the week.