Marlon Wayans 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 Marlon Wayans-whose latest project "Him" releases in theaters today. 

Marlon Wayans' Filmography Ranked:

16.Norbit (D)

15.Naked (C-)

14.A Haunted House (C)

13.Fifty Shades of Black (C)

12.Little Man (C)

11.White Chicks (C)

10.The 6th Man (C+)

9.G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (B-)

8.Scary Movie 2 (B)

7.Above the Rim (B)

6.Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (B)

5.The Heat (B)

4.Scary Movie (B)

3.The Ladykillers (B)

2.Air (B+)

1.Requiem for a Dream (B+)

Top Dog: Requiem for a Dream (2000)

There's a special breed of movie out there that is so hopeless, bleak, etc. that it effectively ruins your day after you've finished watching it. Requiem of a Dream is one of the crowning achievements in this ultra specific category of film. Darren Aronofsky's uncompromising, devastating portrait of the immense psychological, emotional and physical pain that drug addiction causes the people that fall victim to it and how society is more interested in punishing their behavior and/or ignoring their pain instead of finding solution to try and help them overcome their demons. While I'm not sure if I ever want to watch it again, it's a very important movie that everybody should watch at least once.         

Bottom Feeder: Norbit (2007)

During the press tour for The Pickup last month, Eddie Murphy did an interview with Complex where he was asked to name the "Mount Rushmore" of his own movies. His response was that it would be easier to name his four worst movies and after naming Holy Man and The Adventures of Pluto Nash, he launched into a defense of the widely panned Norbit then never circled back to finish answering the question. While I do agree with Murphy that The Adventures of Pluto Nash is worse, Norbit is also very bad. Now, it's been long enough since I've seen Norbit that I can't credibly elaborate on the uh, questionable decision to have so many jokes directed at a very obese woman and a Chinese man (both played by Murphy). What I can say is that I walked out of the theater at 14 going on 15 thinking that what I just witnessed wasn't funny at all and this was a point in time where I thought damn near anything was hilarious.      

Most Underrated: The Ladykillers (2004)

This will come as no surprise to anyone given that I found Drive-Away Dolls to be borderline great and enjoyed the messy but amusing Honey Don't! far more than most, but I tended to like it quite a bit when the Coen Brothers got silly. Their tepidly received remake of Alexander Mackendrick's The Ladykillers is a prime example of them letting their hair down and just telling dumb, absurd jokes for 104 minutes and I'm not ashamed to say that I found it to be a hoot! There's a really infectious manic energy here that's not quite like anything else they ever made and the spirited performances from Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, J.K. Simmons, Tzi Ma, Ryan Hurst and Wayans are all perfectly tune with the cartoonish vibe the Coen built. 

Most Overrated: White Chicks (2004)

White Chicks has become a cult classic among people that grew up with this movie in the mid-to-late 2000's. I wasn't the biggest fan of it then and after watching it for the first time in 20 years yesterday, I can confirm that I'm still not now. While it's not an embarrassment by any means, the silly, slapstick/gross-out humor that the entire movie revolves around is hit-and-miss throughout and I honestly don't think it's notably better or worse than the movies Marlon has continued making on his own (A Haunted House, Fifty Shades of Black, Naked) since his brothers Shawn and Keenen Ivory stepped away from the industry 15 years ago that haven't been received nearly as warmly.