The Russo Brothers 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 The Russo Brothers-whose latest project "The Electric State" is streaming now on Netflix.

The Russo Brothers' Filmography Ranked:

8.The Electric State (D)

7.You, Me and Dupree (C-)

6.Captain America: The Winter Solider (C+)

5.Welcome to Collinwood (B-)

4.The Gray Man (B)

3.Captain America: Civil War (B)

2.Avengers: Endgame (A-)

1.Avengers: Infinity War (A)

Top Dog: Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

The movie that Marvel spent a decade setting up ended up being one of their crowning achievements. Seeing the titular megateam of heroes get overmatched and outsmarted by Thanos for 2.5+ hours provided a feeling of impending doom that masterfully established the elevated stakes of this 2-part, era-ending superhero showdown while also providing the type of edge-of-your-seat adrenaline rush that all of the best blockbusters provide.     

Bottom Feeder: The Electric State (2025)

Kevin Feige tapping them to direct the pair of upcoming Avengers movies (reportedly at the request of Robert Downey Jr., who was hired to play Doctor Doom in a move that definitely doesn't reek of desperation and panic about the future of MCU at all) probably saved the Russo Brothers from getting a nice long stint in director's jail. The Electric State is one of those really special blockbuster stinkers that gets executives fired, actors taken out of consideration for prime roles and audiences pissed off that they bothered to spend the time watching it. It's a hard movie to concisely describe as it has no coherent narrative, tones or messaging, so just try and imagine if somebody who had only heard about movies like Ready Player One, E.T. and Minority Report in passing got handed $325 million to make a movie based on these secondhand recollections. Calling it an AI-generated movie doesn't even feel apt as this is the kind of confused, aloof monstrosity that only humans who bit off way more than could chew could create. Netflix has to be thrilled with its colossal investment as The Electric State is currently being beat out by the universally panned theatrical release Kraven the Hunter-which hit the service 24 hours prior to its releases-on the Top 10 movie charts a week after it was released. If that isn't a perfect distillation as to why streaming exclusives will always play second fiddle to titles that hit theaters first, I don't know what is.       

Most Underrated: The Gray Man (2022)

I don't know about everybody else who's seen both films, but The Gray Man stock is soaring in my eyes post-The Electric State. Could I have done without the shitty MCU one-liners and the bizarre shot selections in some of the action sequences? Absolutely. But gosh darn it, it's got a splashy ensemble cast (Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Rege Jean-Page, Billy Bob Thronton, Jessica Henwick, Julia Butters, Wagner Moura, Alfre Woodard, Dhanush) playing their parts well, a few nifty setpieces and solid visuals-which is enough to place it above at least 75% of the big action blockbusters currently in the Netflix Original catalog.  

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

While there's a real feeling of loneliness that comes with constantly going after The Winter Solider, I've been on this island for just about 11 years now (the 11th anniversary of its release is on April 4th) and I'm not leaving now bitches! Even with the MCU's declining hit rate post-Endgame, I truly believe this not only the most overrated movie in their filmography, but firmly in the bottom quarter-to-third of movies they've ever produced. The plot becomes completely incomprehensible by the halfway point    choppy editing greatly minimizes the effectiveness of the well-choregraphed fight scenes and its pacing is surprisingly sluggish for a movie that driven by action and political/espionage hijinks.