(Photo by Universal / courtesy Everett Collection. Thumbnail: Paramount Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection)
All Steve Martin Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer
At the height of his wild and crazy stand-up fame in the late 1970s, Steve Martin called it quits, took off for Los Angeles, and funneled his routine and material into his debut starring movie. A savvy career move, you might call it, because that movie turned out to be 1979’s The Jerk, a classic comedy of sweetly stupid anarchy, and a box office smash that counted Stanley Kubrick among its most ardent fans. Martin and director Carl Reiner would team up three additional times in the ’80s, for Dead Man Don’t Wear Plaid, The Man with Two Brains, and All of Me.
Though Martin has no problem showing off his sinister, cynical side (like in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner, or as a memorably sadistic dentist in Little Shop of Horrors), it’s in sincerely reaching for audience sympathy where he’s produced some of his most memorable characters. You root for Navin Johnson, The Jerk‘s underdog idiot hero, just like you do for his characters in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Roxanne, and L.A. Story.
Martin’s last starring Certified Fresh film was 1999’s filmmaking send-up Bowfinger. With his recent output spotty at best (including a few remakes of The Pink Panther and Cheaper by the Dozen), he has maintained goodwill with a pivot to writing novels, recording bluegrass, and publicly maintaining his friendship with Martin Short through live shows. Whatever he pursues next, we’re looking back with all Steve Martin movies ranked by Tomatometer! —Alex Vo
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