With Rush hitting theaters everywhere this week, weve gathered some of the best film writers from the internet to rank the movies of Ron Howards famed directorial career. Since his big splash with, well, Splash, Ron Howard has directed 19 feature films. With his 20th, Rush, opening wide across the country this Friday, we wanted to look back at the career of one of Americas best known filmmakers. Weve assembled an all-star team of movie experts from around the internet to rank everything from 1984s Splash through 2011s The Dilemma. Our panelists submitted their ranked lists and the results have been tallied to arrive at these ultimate rankings, with their notes.
Your panelists: from Deadspin, Will Leitch; from Huffington Post, Christopher Rosen; from The Film Experience, Nathaniel Rogers; from CinemaBlend, Katey Rich; from Hitfix, Guy Lodge; from the New York Times Magazine, Adam Sternbergh; from the AV Club, Todd VanDerWerff; from the UKs Daily Telegraph, Tim Robey; and from right here at Tribeca, Karen Kemmerle, Lindsay Robertson, and yours truly.
#19: Angels and Demons (2009) : The sequel to Howards The Da Vinci Code wasnt received as well as the original which was not exactly a critical smash to begin with.
#18: How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) : Maybe not the best idea to remake a Dr. Seuss book-turned-TV-special that defines "beloved holiday classic," particularly not in a way that gives the impression of a giant cash grab.
#17: Gung Ho (1986): One of five collaborations with screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, this film starred Michael Keaton as a Detroit auto worker looking to deal with the Japanese takeover of his plant.
"I have a strong, enduring affection for this because of a) Michael Keaton; b) Gedde Watanabe; and c) the fact that its a fascinating (and fun! And upbeat!) artifact from Americas strange period of intense Nipponophobia (see also Rising Sun)." -- Adam Sternbergh
#16: The Dilemma (2011): Howards most recent film, pre-Rush, saw him team with bro-comedy stalwarts Kevin James and Vince Vaughn, dealing with relationship issues with their significant others (Winona Ryder; Jennifer Connelly) and their significant others significant others (Channing Tatum).
"I will argue to my last day that Kevin James is actually pretty good in this." -- Will Leitch
" Not nearly as bad as the trailers made it seem. Lets give credit to Howard for remembering Winona Ryder is a movie star and for being on the Channing Tatum bandwagon early." -- Christopher Rosen
"It did give us an immeasurable gift: the first cinematic proof of Channing Tatums major comic chops. Hes the only person in the movie who even seems aware that hes in a comedy, and brings this weird, almost scary energy to all of his scenes. It probably pales in comparison to all the good stuff that came later, but Ill always be grateful for The Dilemma for helping me get on the Tatum train like a solid year before everyone else did." -- Katey Rich
#15: The Da Vinci Code (2006): An adaptation of the bazillion-dollar novel that swept the nation, and the Vatican. It was also, after Splash and Apollo 13, Howards third collaboration with Tom Hanks.
"This is almost worth it for the scene where Ian McKellen speaks exposition for 10 minutes and makes it interesting by sheer virtue of being Ian McKellen." -- Todd VanDerWerff
#14: The Missing (2003): Howards only Western to date featured Cate Blanchett, Tommy Lee Jones, and a very young Evan Rachel Wood.
"Weird and ethereal revisit of The Searchers. Howard rarely works in this mode, and it suits him... somewhat." -- Todd VanDerWerff
"Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett play one of the most cantankerous father/daughter duos in cinema as they set out across the New Mexican plains to find Cate's abducted daughter, Evan Rachel Wood, who has been taken by an Apache brujo. Is it predictable? Yes. Is this movie overly long? Yes. Is Aaron Eckhart in the movie far too briefly as a frontiersman/gigolo? Yes. But did I absolutely devour the extended DVD edition anyways? You bet I did." -- Karen Kemmerle
#13: Far and Away (1992): Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman co-starred in the early days of their marriage as a pair of Irish immigrants looking to make a place for themselves in a land-rush-era United States.
"Tom Cruise ... Irish Brawler!" -- Will Leitch
"People tend to get down on this Cruise/Kidman vehicle, but I think it's a lot of fun. Sure, their accents are terrible, but Kidman and Cruise really put everything they had into the movie. Plus, Howard's masterful direction of the Oklahoma land rush sequence alone is worth the price of admission. It's also important to note that Far and Away was shot in 70mm, a rarity even then." -- Karen Kemmerle
"As a pop-cultural document -- the film that tried to make Tom and Nicole the defining on-and-off-screen Hollywood couple of a generation, and failed in ways that seem more meaningful in retrospect -- it retains more fascination than most of Howards earlier work. And look how pretty!" -- Guy Lodge
#12: EdTV (1999): The year after the release of The Truman Show was either the best time or the worst time to make this movie about a man (Matthew McConaughey) whose entire life is made into a smash hit TV show. You know, like happens all the time on basic cable today.
"I remember almost nothing about this movie. Maybe it would prove in retrospect that McConaughey was a genius this whole time? OK, fine, I doubt it." -- Katey Rich
#11: Cinderella Man (2005): The sports biopic of Depression-era boxer James Braddock (Russell Crowe), whose sporting accomplishments dovetailed nicely with the fighting Americans had to do in the Hoovervilles and other such 1930s iconography.
Sadly, Cinderella Man was released during the great Crowe backlash of 05. Geez, you throw one phone at a hotel clerk . anyways, what I'm trying
