Ben Affleck's Best Movies
In this week's Total Recall, we count down the best-reviewed work of the Runner Runner star.
Once upon a time, it looked like Ben Affleck might spend the rest of his career in little-seen duds like Jersey Girl and Surviving Christmas -- a precipitous fall for a guy who won an Oscar at the age of 25 and starred in blockbusters like Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, and The Sum of All Fears. Now just look how things have changed: Having reinvented himself as a critically lauded director with 2007's Gone Baby Gone, Ben's back in front of the camera this weekend in Runner Runner, playing the sleazy head of an online gambling empire who lures a college student (Justin Timberlake) into his operation. What better time to take a fond look back at Mr. Affleck's critical highlights, Total Recall style?
69%
10. Hollywoodland
Ben Affleck knows a thing or two about actors who take jobs for the wrong reason and end up paying for it -- and that knowledge, along with his lantern-jawed good looks, made him a natural for Hollywoodland. Helmed by first-time feature director Allen Coulter, this fact-based drama looks at the final days of George Reeves, the actor who played Superman in the long-running Adventures of Superman television series. Reeves' mysterious death is probed by a private detective named Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), whose own messy private life shadows the investigation; though the case was never solved, Simo's sleuthing traces an outline of what might have been for the audience. A modest commercial success, Hollywoodland earned Affleck a Golden Globe nomination and strong praise from critics like Andrew Sarris of the New York Observer, who urged his readers, "Take my word for it: Hollywoodland is well worth seeing."
71%
9. Going All the Way
Not one of Affleck's most widely seen pictures, this adaptation of Dan Wakefield's 1970 novel won a Sundance award (for production design, but still). It also warmed the thorny cockles of most critics -- no small achievement considering that the story, about the small-town struggles of a pair of Korean War vets (Affleck and Jeremy Davies), hits many of the same beats as plenty of other coming-of-age dramas. While recognizing its derivative aspects, most critics found Going All the Way ultimately worthwhile -- like Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle, who conceded, "Even if it's too self-conscious, Going All the Way, set in 1950s Indianapolis, nevertheless has a mix of the sweet and the forlorn that somehow works."
77%
8. Changing Lanes
Notting Hill director Roger Michell tackled a decidedly more serious topic with 2002's Changing Lanes, a tension-filled drama about the war of attrition that erupts after a car accident involving a beleaguered insurance salesman (Samuel L. Jackson) and a lawyer (Affleck). Examining uncommonly thorny themes of race and privilege, wrapped up in good old-fashioned high-octane Hollywood thrills, Lanes wasn't quite the box office smash it seemed poised to become, but it enjoyed praise from critics like Robert Koehler of Variety, who appreciated the way it "combines a knack for storytelling with a rare instinct for exploring ideas within the framework of a major, star-driven Hollywood movie."
84%
7. State of Play
Affleck joined a star-studded cast for this adapation of the BBC miniseries, appearing alongside Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Robin Wright Penn, and Jason Bateman in the story of a reporter (Crowe) investigating the murder of a woman who worked (in more ways than one) for a Congressman (Affleck) who just happens to have been his college roommate. Like most conspiracy flicks, State of Play hinges on a multitude of plot twists and unlikely coincidences, but most critics were too happy to find a rare adult thriller to complain. "The journalist in me loved State of Play," wrote Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "The moviegoer in me even more so."
90%
6. Chasing Amy
Before Good Will Hunting made him a household name, Affleck came into his own with Chasing Amy, Kevin Smith's frank tragicomedy about the unlikely romance between a comic book artist (Affleck) and his lesbian crush (Joey Lauren Adams). The sort of small, thoughtful feature that Affleck would slowly drift away from after achieving his post-Hunting success, Amy found Smith regaining his critical mojo after Mallrats, and gave Affleck some of the best dialogue of his career. "What really makes the film special," posited Kevin N. Laforest of the Montreal Film Journal, "is that, while still being packed with foul language and pop culture references, this film is the only one in which Smith really seems to care about his characters and their lives."
Dave J
Affleck will never be in a better movie than "Good Will Hunting"!
Oct 2 - 04:35 PM
Dr. Decker
Chasing Amy.
Oct 2 - 04:49 PM
Dave J
You may think so... but "Chasing Amy" only has 90% from RT and scored 80% from the users rating!
Oct 2 - 04:54 PM
Lance Reeder
Ending wasn't great for Chasing Amy though it's what most people remember it for now.
Oct 2 - 05:05 PM
Dave J
The percentage of a movie sometimes determines viewers whether or not it's worth watching or not, so when you say that percentages doesn't matter, that is completely false! And although, "Hugo" was enjoyed much more with critics than with users scoring it only 78%, this doesn't change the fact that more users liked "Good Will Hunting" than "Chasing Amy"!
And I still stand by what I initially said! I mean just because you think so it still won't change the overall consensus or in simplistic terms what the general audience really thought about them!
Oct 2 - 05:22 PM
Greg Dinskisk
Rotten Tomatoes isn't objectively right... Film enjoyment is subjective. I personally agree with Dave J, I think. GWH is close to better, though.
Oct 2 - 05:47 PM
Bradly Martin
What didn't you like about Hugo? I know everyone is entitled to there opinion but calling a Scorsese film shit should require rational reasoning.
Oct 2 - 11:17 PM
Dr. Decker
The film was overly sentimental. Yeah, I get it Scorsese, you loved films. Some aspects in the plot are just left alone. The characters were boring. I'm not gonna say all child actors suck, but a lot do. That Hugo kid was annoying after the first 10 minutes. He had no chemistry with Moretz or anyone in the film for that.
Oct 3 - 12:30 PM
Meltem Ceyhan
Hugo is a great movie! You have the worst taste in movies if you really think that Hugo is "shit" and Good Will Hunting is "not" better than Chasing Amy.
Oct 4 - 02:33 AM
Dr. Decker
Who are you to tell me my taste is bad? You liked Hugo? That movie was an ass.
Oct 4 - 03:07 AM
Meltem Ceyhan
Yeah, I liked Hugo. I liked it very much. How old are you? I ask this because I think you are a teenager if you did not understand that movie.
Oct 4 - 04:26 AM
Lance Reeder
Who is he? Someone who's not trolling, that's who which entitles him certain rights i.e. not having to create a thousand different accounts to continue posting because people find him so annoying.
Oct 4 - 08:56 PM
Diego Hard With an Anus
Hugo is one of the worst movies ever made. Fuck off, Meltem, you condescending asswipe.
Oct 4 - 10:43 PM
Meltem Ceyhan
Thanks Lance. I am not a he but thanks. :)
Diego, your accounts should be banned..
Oct 6 - 08:17 AM
Arslan Rasheed
Since I started fre+lancing I've been bringing in $90 bucks/h? I sit at home and i am doing my work from my laptop. Th? best thing is that i get more time to spent with my family and with my kids and in the same time i can earn enough to support them... You can do it too. Start here----
www.JO?S53.?OM
Oct 6 - 02:20 PM
Arslan Rasheed
Since I started fre+lancing I've been bringing in $90 bucks/h? I sit at home and i am doing my work from my laptop. Th? best thing is that i get more time to spent with my family and with my kids and in the same time i can earn enough to support them... You can do it too. Start here----
http://www.jobs53.com
Oct 6 - 02:20 PM
Anthony Procopio
Chasing Amy sucks! I mean it really sucks lol
Oct 3 - 01:09 PM
Dr. Decker
Is that a gay joke, or something? Cause Chasing Amy is about a lesbian, no sucking.
Oct 3 - 02:25 PM
Micah Berman
it's an awful movie in general anyways.
Oct 6 - 12:34 AM
Todd Alexander
It is highly unlikely.
Oct 2 - 04:55 PM
Darci Logan
my friend's step-sister makes $77 every hour on the laptop. She has been without a job for six months but last month her paycheck was $19601 just working on the laptop for a few hours. find out here now.... www.works25.com
Oct 5 - 08:35 AM
Bryan Selwood
State Of Play, The Town and Argo are all better than Good Will Hunting imo
Oct 2 - 05:47 PM
Sagar Roy
Sorry dude ... u r wrong ... Argo is good ... if u go by original story ... Good Will .. State of play and the Town are way ahead of Argo ... Argo is very good but true story ... that its only weakness ... They had the plot and story ...
Oct 6 - 09:31 AM
Meltem Ceyhan
The Town is better. Argo is really good too.
Oct 3 - 04:57 AM
Anthony Procopio
Argo is but he wasn't good in it, he literally shows no emotion through the entire film!!
Oct 3 - 01:10 PM
Meltem Ceyhan
I don't agree with that.
Oct 3 - 04:56 PM
Dave J
Some have said that "The Town" is another carbon copy of Michael Mann's "Heat"!
Oct 3 - 01:51 PM
Meltem Ceyhan
But it is not. :)
Oct 3 - 05:00 PM
Dave J
Maybe I should've said something along the lines that Affleck is never going to get a higher score then he got from "Good Will Hunting"!
Oct 4 - 03:24 PM
Gerardo Medina Pérez
Argo, The Town... Many of them are so much better than Will Hunting. Percentage is critics opinion, but we have ours
Oct 4 - 03:57 AM
Dave J
If you mean the users opinion, "Good Will..." still has higher scores than both "Argo" and "The Town"!
Oct 4 - 03:10 PM
Arslan Rasheed
Since I started fre+lancing I've been bringing in $90 bucks/h? I sit at home and i am doing my work from my laptop. Th? best thing is that i get more time to spent with my family and with my kids and in the same time i can earn enough to support them... You can do it too. Start here----
http://www.jobs53.com
Oct 6 - 02:24 PM