We’re ranking the movies and shows starring Colin Farrell! Let’s start with his Certified Fresh efforts, including his disappearing act as the Penguin in The Batman, repeat work with directors Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, Killing of a Scared Deer) and Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths), and miniseries The North Water. Next, we list his Fresh films, including breakthrough Phone Booth and broad comedy turn Horrible Bosses. Farrell’s Rotten movies with high Audience Scores include Veronica Guerin (directed by Joel Schumacher, whom Farrell worked frequently with, including Phone Booth and Tigerland), A Home at the End of the World, and American Outlaws. —Alex Vo
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For the entire month of November, dudes everywhere get a free “get out of social jail” card to grow mustaches however they please. We call it “Movember.” So guys, let your upper lip hair prickle forth in order to raise awareness of men’s health issues and… stick it to shaving cream lobbyists in Washington? Anyways, here’s our photo gallery of at least 30 mustaches for 30 days of Movember 2016.
Inspired by Disney’s reimagining of The Jungle Book, get ready to set your heart cockles to “warmed” because here comes 24 Certified Fresh live-action Disney movies!
Rating: PG-13, for intense violence and action, thematic elements and some sensuality.
The movie version of Veronica Roth’s young adult bestseller takes place in a rigidly structured dystopian future, so naturally this means teens are going to have to battle each other for survival. It’s a crucial part of the formula. For the tweens and older who’ve read the book, the film adaptation is probably fine. They (and you) know what to expect. Shailene Woodley stars as Beatrice, or Tris, who must decide which of society’s five factions is the best for her. Once she joins the Dauntless, known for their bravery, she learns to fight, shoot, throw knives and jump from trains. But she also must defend herself from her fellow initiates, who are trying to undermine her, and face her deepest fears within elaborate simulations. A sizable body count builds up during the film’s big action sequences toward the end, but because this is PG-13, there’s very little blood.
Rating: PG, for some mild action.
The Muppets are back in yet another high-energy, star-studded, song-and-dance extravaganza. This time, they’re performing in major cities throughout Europe with an internationally known jewel thief, a frog named Constantine, pretending to be Kermit at the helm. There’s nothing even remotely inappropriate here. Miss Piggy is in slight danger, briefly, and the rest of the Muppets have to put themselves in peril to save her. And much of the action takes place inside a Siberian gulag (where a hilarious Tina Fey is the warden) but even that is depicted so cartoonishly, it’s never frightening. A Monsters University short precedes the feature, which is pretty darn delightful, as well.
Rating: PG, for some action and mild rude humor.
You probably already have “Let It Go” playing repeatedly in your head like a psychotic episode. Now you can own Frozen on DVD and sear the song into your brain permanently. The Oscar-winning Disney animated musical has become a pop-culture phenomenon, and understandably so. It’s extremely entertaining for the whole family, especially if you have little girls in your house. Broadway veteran Idina Menzel lends her voice to the character of Elsa, a newly crowned queen who loses control and turns her idyllic kingdom to ice. Her younger sister (Kristen Bell), Princess Anna, goes on a journey with some new friends to retrieve Elsa from her self-imposed, mountaintop exile. The only vaguely scary element here is the giant snow monster Elsa creates to protect her fortress from intruders, but it’s on screen briefly and might frighten only the youngest viewers.
Rating: Rating: PG-13, for thematic elements including some unsettling images.
A shamelessly sentimental retelling of how charismatic Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) persuaded persnickety Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to let him turn her beloved children’s book into a movie musical. It’s not entirely accurate from a historical perspective, but it’s certainly suitable and sufficiently cheery fare, full of upbeat tunes and cathartic tears. The only reason I can imagine for the PG-13 rating is that Saving Mr. Banks includes some flashbacks to Travers’ childhood with a father (Colin Farrell) whose alcoholism destroyed him. Showing your kids the actual Mary Poppins movie might be a better call.
This week at the movies, we’ve got a group of classy newsmen (Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, starring Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd); a prehistoric family (Walking With Dinosaurs, with voice performances by John Leguizamo and Justin Long); Feds and con-artists (American Hustle, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper); an uneasy artistic partnership (Saving Mr. Banks, starring Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks); and a struggling folksinger (Inside Llewyn Davis, starring Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan). What do the critics have to say?
Both a goofy workplace comedy and a sly media satire, Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy earned a dedicated cult following, though the call for a sequel escalated slowly. Well, the wait is over, and critics say Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is pretty funny stuff; though it’s uneven and less quotable than its predecessor, it’s just as sublimely silly, and the talented cast riffs with energetic abandon. It’s the 1980s, and Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and his old Channel 4 pals have been hired by a new 24-hour news network. Eschewing hard news, they focus on the sensational and the absurd — and garner big ratings in the process. The pundits say that 60 percent of the time, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues works every time; note every joke works, but a good many do, resulting in an anarchic comedy with a thing or two to say about our contemporary media landscape. (Check out this week’s Total Recall for a roundown of memorable movie journalists, and watch our video interviews with the stars of Anchorman 2.)
When you’ve made a movie featuring painstakingly, naturalistically rendered CG dinosaurs, what more do you need? How about wiseacre dialogue and slapstick gags? Critics say that’s exactly the trouble with Walking With Dinosaurs, in which majestic visuals are seriously undermined by pedestrian storytelling. Based on a well-regarded BBC series, Dinosaurs is the tale of a young Pachyrhinosaurus (voiced by Justin Long) who squabbles with his siblings, encounters predators, and falls in love. The pundits say the filmmakers seem to have worried that a quasi-nature documentary approach might have turned off the youngsters, but the narrative is so poorly executed that the end result isn’t all t hat entertaining, much less educational.
Plenty of filmmakers have paid homage to GoodFellas over the years. Critics say that with American Hustle, director David O. Russell has done them all one better: he’s crafted a deliriously entertaining crime picture with enough rich performances and stylistic razzle dazzle to actually earn comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece. Bradley Cooper stars as Richie, an FBI agent who busts Irving (Christian Bale) and Sydney (Amy Adams) for low-level grifting and subsequently enlists them, along with Irving’s unpredictable wife Rosalyn (Jennifer Lawrence), into a sting operation designed to ensnare corrupt New Jersey politicians. The pundits say the Certified Fresh American Hustle is filled with fascinating characters, witty dialogue, toe-tapping 1970s tunes, and a giddy momentum that’s deeply infectious. (Check out our video interviews with Cooper, Adams, Bale, and Jeremy Renner.)
As the old saying goes, never let the facts get in the way of a good story. The critics say that even though Saving Mr. Banks deviates significantly from the historical record, it still manages to be a heartwarming showbiz tale with outstanding performances from Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks. Mary Poppis author P.L. Travers (Thompson) reluctantly agrees to meet with Walt Disney (Hanks), who desperately wants to adapt her book for the screen. Travers is deeply skeptical of Disney’s plans, and he has to pull out all the stops to persuade her to collaborate on the film. The pundits say the Certified Fresh Saving Mr. Banks is funny, poignant, and perfectly acted, even if the sharp edges of the real-life story have been sanded off.
The Coen brothers have made plenty of movies about embattled outsiders, and critics say Inside Llewyn Davis is one of the best of the bunch, a bittersweet, lushly photographed chronicle of a down-and-out folksinger that’s heartfelt and darkly comic in equal measure. Haunted by the death of his singing partner, Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) is in the midst of a personal and professional slump; he has little money, no permanent address, a shortage of gigs, and a knack for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The pundits say the Certified Fresh Inside Llewyn Davis is an absorbing portrait of a struggling artist, stuffed with loving details that will delight music buffs. (Watch our video interviews with Isaac and co-star Carey Mulligan here.)
The New Rijksmuseum (Parts 1 and 2), a documentary between the renovation of the prominent Amsterdam art museum, is at 100 percent.
The Selfish Giant, a drama about two British 13-year-olds who form a bond with a local scrapdealer, is Certified Fresh at 98 percent.
The Past, starring Bérénice Bejo in a drama about a man who tries to get to the bottom of a shocking secret that affects his ex-wife and her family, is Certified Fresh at 95 percent.
Spike Jonze‘s Her, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson in a sci-fi comedy about a man who falls in love with the voice on his computer, is at 90 percent., is Certified Fresh at 92 percent (read our interview with Phoenix here.).
All The Light In The Sky, a drama about a middle-aged actress who becomes unsettled by a visit from her twentysomethng niece, is at 83 percent.
Emma Thompson, Colin Farrell, BJ Novak, Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford, and director John Lee Hancock talk about who their real-life Mary Poppins were. And even if you’re not a hair enthusiast, there’s something for everyone in hearing Thompson discuss her real perm.
Rating: PG-13, for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images.
The second film in Peter Jackson’s trilogy treatment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is ridiculously violent. Yes, it’s all computer-generated fantasy spectacle, but what a spectacle it is – full of piercing arrows, ominous shadows, stabbings and beheadings, with some of those severed heads flying right at the camera. If the giant talking spiders don’t get you, the fierce (and fiercely ugly) orcs will. General peril abounds as Bilbo Baggins and his dwarf pals try and make their way to the Lonely Mountain – and then once they get there, they must contend with the ferocious and fire-breathing dragon Smaug, voiced menacingly by Benedict Cumberbatch. Given the graphic nature of this movie and the extended running time, this really is just for the most mature tweens and up.
Rating: PG-13, for thematic elements including some unsettling images.
I’m actually not quite sure why this movie gets a PG-13 rating – maybe because it includes some flashbacks to a childhood with a father whose alcoholism destroyed him. For the most part, Saving Mr. Banks is a cheery (and not entirely accurate) retelling of how folksy Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) persuaded uptight Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to let his studio make a film based on her cherished children’s book. It’s a shamelessly sentimental infomercial by Disney, for Disney, about Disney, full of upbeat songs and cathartic tears. Fine for most kids.
Rating: PG-13, for sexual references, crude humor and language.
This movie is amazingly terrible — incoherent and sloppily constructed in a way that?s surreal — so if you love your children, you probably shouldn’t take them to see it. But! If you’re at the multiplex trying to find something the whole family can enjoy after a long day of holiday shopping ? well, this still probably isn’t the best choice. Multimedia multi-hyphenate Tyler Perry returns to the sassy drag of his Madea character, a crass and wacky old lady with no internal censor. Most of the stuff she babbles about will go over kids’ heads – references to lingerie, drugs and stripping, for starters. Larry the Cable Guy shows up and magnifies the raunch factor with some sexual innuendos – which, again, probably won’t register with young viewers. There’s also a massively contrived car crash and explosion that might have been vaguely suspenseful in the hands of someone, you know, capable.
Rating: PG, for rude humor and mild action.
Minions, minions and more minions make this sequel to the 2010 international hit such a delight. There isn’t a single thing in this movie that would make it inappropriate or objectionable in any way. When a powerful potion turns some of the babbling, bright yellow creatures into crazed, purple-monster versions of themselves, they’re a little more manic but never truly frightening. This remains my 4-year-old son’s favorite among the many animated films he saw this year.
This gorgeous and wondrous animated fantasy from Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki features a true warrior princess: a fierce young woman named San (voiced by Claire Danes in the English-language version) who can communicate with the spirits. She finds herself in the center of a war between animals, humans (whom she hates) and demons in a mystical 14th century setting. Too intense and complex for the littlest kids but a thrill for everyone else.
From the endlessly creative mind of Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam comes this comic adventure about a boy who time travels with a group of dwarves. Along the way, he runs into historical figures including Robin Hood and Napoleon. It’s got some darkness to its tone, which may disturb very little kids. But with its elaborately detailed production design, it’s always a wonder to watch.
Long before films like Shrek took familiar fairy-tale conventions and turned them on their head, there was Rob Reiner’s cleverly self-referential comedy. A favorite from my own youth, The Princess Bride remains endlessly quotable with its colorful characters and swashbuckling scenarios. It’s charming and subversive in equal measure but, at its core, has an irresistibly sweet heart.
This week at the movies, we’ve got a journey through Middle-earth (The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, starring Martin Freeman and Ian McKellen) and some yuletide shenanigans (Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas, starring Tyler Perry and Kathy Najimy). What do the critics have to say?
OK, so here’s the bad news: critics say The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug is overlong and overstuffed with characters and subplots that are likely to mean little to all but the most devoted of Tolkien fans. The good news? They also say it’s a step up from An Unexpected Journey, in that it’s better paced and more action-packed. This time, our heroes Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) are on a journey to Lonely Mountain, encountering giant spiders, elves, and a human/bear hybrid as part of their mission to wrest control of a lost Dwarf kingdom from Smaug, a terrifying dragon. The pundits say the first two Hobbit movies have yet to approach the depth and sweep of the Lord of the Rings films, but Smaug mostly succeeds as both a middle chapter and a rousing fantasy adventure in its own right. (For lots more on The Desolation Of Smaug and the LOTR films, check out Hobbit Headquarters.)
A Madea Christmas, like most of Tyler Perry’s output, was not screened for critics prior to its release in theaters. When an old friend decides to pay a surprise visit to her daughter, she talks Madea (Perry) into tagging along; soon our irrepressible heroine is shaking up a small town’s Christmas carnival. Time to guess the Tomatometer!
Nuclear Nation, a doc that examines Japan’s dependence on nuclear energy, is at 100 percent.
Liv & Ingmar, a documentary about the personal and professional relationship between Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann, is at 100 percent.
David O. Russell‘s American Hustle, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in a period dramedy about a group of con artists enlisted to help take down several corrupt politicians, is Certified Fresh at 97 percent.
The Crash Reel, a documentary about snowboarding champ Kevin Pearce and his recovery from a severe injury, is at 96 percent.
Saving Mr. Banks, starring Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks in a dramedy about the meeting between Walt Disney and the author of Mary Poppins, is Certified Fresh at 83 percent.
What’s In A Name?, a comedy about a group of friends who debate the odd name an expectant father has chosen for his child, is at 73 percent.
Neil LaBute‘s Some Velvet Morning, starring Stanley Tucci and Alice Eve in a drama about an intense meeting between exes, is at 60 percent.
Here Comes the Devil, a psychological horror film about two siblings whose behavior changes drastically after going missing on a family trip, is at 53 percent.
Hours, starring Paul Walker in a drama about a man trapped in a hospital with his newborn son just as Hurricane Katrina strikes, is at 47 percent.
Trap For Cinderella, a drama about a pair of reunited childhood friends whose relationship takes a dark turn, is at 23 percent.
The National Board of Review has named Her the Best Film of 2013. Read through for a complete list of winners.
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Ryan Coogler
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Seemingly overnight at the turn of the century, Colin Farrell went from just another struggling actor to a major Hollywood star — only to retreat into semi-obscurity less than a decade later, after cluttering his filmography with a handful of big-budget turkeys. But while misguided efforts like Daredevil and Miami Vice obscured Farrell’s gifts, he remained capable of superlative work — and he’s proved it with a string of critically lauded appearances in recent films. The latest chapter in Farrell’s reinvention is set to arrive with the forthcoming season of HBO’s True Detective, in which Farrell has just been announced as one of the lead actors. With that in mind, we decided now would be the perfect time to take a look back at the critical highlights of an often underrated career. It’s time for Total Recall!
72%
Farrell reunited with his Tigerland director, Joel Schumacher, for this man-in-a-box action thriller about a publicist (Farrell) who finds himself trapped in a phone booth by an unseen sniper who doesn’t much care for the way he’s been living his life. Written by Larry Cohen, who had originally pitched a loose version of the concept to Alfred Hitchcock during the 1960s, Phone Booth gave Farrell the opportunity to carry most of a film’s weight on his shoulders — and he succeeded according to most critics, including Peter Howell of the Toronto Star, who wrote, “Anyone inclined to argue with the logic of the story — and there’s certainly much to argue about — is advised to just sit back and watch how Farrell’s Stu unravels before our eyes.”
72%
If director Craig Gillespie had polled horror fans in 2011 and asked them if he really needed to remake 1985’s Fright Night, the answer probably would have been a resounding “no;” after all, the original was not only a surprise hit, it had matured into a solid favorite among scary movie lovers, and little seemed to be gained by updating the story of a horror-loving teen (William Ragsdale) who makes the awful discovery that his new neighbor (Chris Sarandon) is secretly a vampire. While it may not have been strictly necessary, the new Fright Night — starring Anton Yelchin as young Charley Brewster and Colin Farrell as the undead addition to the neighborhood — proved surprisingly potent, with Farrell’s charismatic performance matching Gillespie’s confident lens. As Adam Graham wrote for the Detroit News, “Farrell is all darting eyes, facial ticks and macho confidence. He never goes over the top, he’s not a showy actor, but he’s clearly relishing his role and eating it up with abandon. He makes this a Night to remember.”
74%
Director John Crowley made his feature film debut with this ensemble comedy about a group of young Dubliners (including Farrell, Cillian Murphy, and Colm Meaney) whose seemingly disparate struggles share a narrative thread, captured by a filmmaker (Tomas O’Suilleabhain) shadowing a police detective (Meaney) who’s determined to lock up a persistently troublesome petty crook (Farrell). While it wasn’t a big commercial hit, Intermission found favor with critics like Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who said it “bursts with the energy of a documentary filmed on the run with a stolen camera.”
73%
A fact-based film about a group of people trudging their way out of a Soviet gulag might not sound like the most entertaining way of spending a couple of hours in a darkened theater, but there’s an exception to every rule, and according to most critics, Peter Weir’s The Way Back fits the bill. Led by Farrell, Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess, and Saoirse Ronan, this epic tribute to man’s unquenchable thirst for freedom may be pedestrian in terms of focus, but not in execution — and while it was never going to be anyone’s idea of a blockbuster hit, it found a comfortable home with critics like the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Carrie Rickey, who wrote, “Whether it is truth, fiction or, most likely, a little of each, the story Weir tells is a powerful parable of man’s charge for freedom and his humbling by nature.”
78%
Farrell — who earned his first noteworthy credit only the year before, with a small part in Tim Roth’s The War Zone — got his big break in this Joel Schumacher war drama, which focuses on the relationships between a group of Army recruits during the waning years of the Vietnam War. By the time Tigerland reached theaters, Hollywood had been producing Vietnam movies for decades, including some true classics of American film, and the familiarity of its subject matter certainly wasn’t lost on critics; on the other hand, it was an unexpected return to form for Schumacher after garish flops like Batman & Robin and 8MM, and Farrell’s performance earned raves from writers such as Matthew Turner of ViewLondon, who wrote, “The hype is justified — Farrell’s performance just screams star quality and has already drawn comparisons with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.”
79%
A holiday season Walt Disney biopic starring Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson and directed by the guy who directed The Blind Side? If you didn’t know any better, you’d suspect Saving Mr. Banks of being a movie marshmallow, but even if the results are guilty of ladling on the Disney formula, hey — it wouldn’t be a formula if it didn’t work. Part of what makes Banks such an easygoing pleasure is the expertly assembled cast that director John Lee Hancock arranged around his stars, including Paul Giamatti, Bradley Whitford, Jason Schwartzman, and — as the alcoholic father whose dark legacy shadows Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers (Thompson) even as an adult — Colin Farrell. “Saving Mr. Banks wraps a seduction inside a seduction with enjoyable results,” wrote the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Morgenstern. “It’s a Disney film in every sense of the term.”
84%
By 2008, Farrell’s career had endured a string of high-profile duds, and plenty of people had written him off — but many of them were forced to think twice after watching In Bruges, Martin McDonagh’s pitch-black comedy about a pair of hit men (played by Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) whose latest assignment from their ill-tempered boss (Ralph Fiennes) doesn’t exactly turn out the way he intended. A Sundance favorite, Bruges earned Farrell a Golden Globe for his work, as well as critical appreciation from scribes like Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel, who wrote, “This dark comedy shifts effortlessly between silly and sobering, and it finally gives Colin Farrell the chance to be as funny as we’ve long suspected he could be.”
82%
Farrell reunited with In Bruges director Martin McDonagh for 2012’s Seven Psychopaths, a similarly black, violent comedy about a struggling screenwriter named Marty (Farrell) whose efforts to complete his long-gestating script (titled, you guessed it, Seven Psychopaths), are complicated by the well-meaning but buffoonish exploits of his friends Billy (Sam Rockwell) and Hans (Christopher Walken), whose latest scheme has enraged a local gangster (Woody Harrelson) that gives Marty more to worry about than writer’s block. It’s crowded in terms of both plot and cast, but McDonagh weaves all of his threads surprisingly smoothly, and although it didn’t make much of an impact in theaters, it found plenty of friends on the critical circuit. “This,” applauded Richard Roeper, “is one of the best times I’ve had at the movies in years.”
89%
Between 2002 and 2003, Farrell appeared in eight films, and they were a rather uneven bunch; his output during this period included such critical misfires as S.W.A.T. and Daredevil. But it wasn’t all bad, and Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report is a case in point. Starring Tom Cruise as a cop framed for a “future crime” he didn’t commit — and Farrell as the Department of Justice agent who doggedly pursues him — this visually distinctive adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short story racked up over $350 million in worldwide box office receipts, provoked political discussion during a time when civil liberties were returning to the forefront of our national news, and impressed critics such as Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle, who applauded, “This is the kind of pure entertainment that, in its fullness and generosity, feels almost classic.”
90%
Jeff Bridges earned some of the best reviews of his career for Crazy Heart — and so did Farrell, who popped up in an uncredited supporting role as Tommy Sweet, the successful former protege of Bridges’ struggling singer/songwriter character, Bad Blake. It wasn’t a big part, but it gave Farrell the chance to strip away some of the baggage that had accumulated around his talent, not to mention allowing him the chance to show off vocal chops no one knew he had. It all added up to an Oscar for Bridges, as well as some of the year’s freshest reviews; as Kyle Smith wrote for the New York Post, “It’s one of the year’s best, most deeply felt films.”
In case you were wondering, here are Farrell’s top 10 movies according RT users’ scores:
1. In Bruges — 86%
2. Saving Mr. Banks — 85%
3. Minority Report — 80%
4. Crazy Heart — 76%
5. Intermission — 76%
6. The Way Back — 72%
7. Seven Psychopaths — 71%
8. Tigerland — 71%
9. Horrible Bosses — 70%
10. American Outlaws — 69%
Take a look through Farrell’s complete filmography, as well as the rest of our Total Recall archives. And don’t forget to check out the reviews for The Way Back.
