Jai Courtney 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 Jai Courtney-whose latest project "War Machine" is now streaming on Netflix

Jai Courtney's Filmography Ranked:

16.Unbroken (D)

15.Jolt (D+)

14.Black Site (D+)

13.A Good Day to Die Hard (D+)

12.Jack Reacher (C-)

11.I, Frankenstein (C)

10.Storm Boy (C)

9.Terminator Genisys (C+)

8.Alita: Battle Angel (B-)

7.Suicide Squad (B-)

6.Dangerous Animals (B-)

5.Honest Thief (B-)

4.Insurgent (B)

3.Divergent (B)

2.Buffaloed (B)

1.The Suicide Squad (A)

Top Dog: The Suicide Squad (2021)

Having just rewatched this in late January, I'd like to reaffirm my belief that this is James Gunn's best movie. I don't know if it was the hunger to prove himself after the infamous resurfaced tweets debacle or simply the perfect fit between cast and material, but The Suicide Squad is such a perfectly calibrated mix of humor, heart, horror-esque splatter and sharp political commentary that I honestly can't wrap my head around how Gunn was able to pull it off. Big thanks to the reactionary Disney executives that made this movie and Gunn's eventual ascent to the head of DC's film division possible.

Bottom Feeder: Unbroken (2014)

Plenty of people really loved Angelina Jolie's biopic about the remarkable true story of Olympic sprinter-turned WWII POW Louie Zamperini (Jack O'Connell), but safe to say, I was not among them. Through sluggish pacing and an overreliance on melodrama, Zamperini's inspiring story of survival against all odds is turned into a stiff, cheesy piece of awards bait that does a complete disservice to his legacy.

Most Underrated: Buffaloed (2020)

Zoey Deutch is fucking excellent as a charming, working-class scammer fresh out of jail who gets caught up in the shady world of debt collecting in her hometown of Buffalo in this engaging, relatively clever crime dramedy from Tanya Wexler. Anybody who likes movies like The Big Short and The Wolf of Wall Street should seek out this little indie that has gotten buried in many a streaming library over the past 6 years.

Most Overrated: Jack Reacher (2012)

While it's been overshadowed by the success of the Alan Ritchson-led Prime Video series, Jack Reacher was a WOM hit back in 2012 that is arguably the most warmly received Tom Cruise-led project of the 21st century that wasn't a sequel to a movie that he made in the 20th century outside of Edge of Tomorrow. This overly serious, convoluted crime thriller delivers none of the frenzied action magic that Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie went onto deliver with their four Mission-Impossible collabs and contains one of the worst villain performances I've ever seen in a movie from none other than German filmmaker Werner Herzog.