Welcome back! Did Part One leave anyone else feeling just a little bit bummed? I know it did for me, and that was kinda the theme of all of those movies when I was watching them. I walked away from most of them just feeling bummed out, because a lot of them could have been a lot better, for a whole host of reasons. Except for the one constant through all of them – Matt Damon! If I had to pick a theme for part two today, it would probably be along the lines of “not too bad!”. We’ve moved up into above-average films here, since all of them got at least 3 stars in my review – but not quite into “great” territory, those are reserved for 4 stars and above. For most of the below movies, I enjoyed the viewing experience, but was left wanting just a little bit more from them. One thing you may also notice about this list – almost all of these movies came out in the 2010s. I’m not saying there’s a reason or a pattern behind that, but thought that it was worth pointing out. Damon had been in the spotlight for 15+ years at that point, and was at the point in his career where he could choose to work with his friends more, work with a director he really liked, or pick a movie because it was a bit of a swing – he was solidified enough in Hollywood at this point that it would take a miracle to tarnish his reputation as an actor. But enough of that, let’s jump into the list!
34. The Monuments Men
- Release date: February 7, 2014
- Budget: $70-91 million
- Box office: $156.4 million
- Letterboxd rating: 2.8 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.0 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 31% (Rotten)
George Clooney is trying his hardest at directing, folks. Another installment where I wish quarter-stars existed on Letterboxd, so I could give this the actual score I want, of 2.75. But I’m happy to round up. It felt like Clooney basically wanted to do Ocean’s Eleven again, but with a more serious tone, base it on something that actually happened, and then kinda didn’t plan out anything past that. The casting is great, and arguably the best part about this movie, but the story can definitely drag at times. There isn’t much character development and it felt like they maybe leaned too much into the humor (or not enough?) so it just was impossible to ever really take it too seriously. All that said, I still relatively enjoyed this. If you would enjoy going to a lecture on the monuments, fine arts, and archives program then I think you would enjoy watching this movie. Just don’t go in expecting a fast-paced heist movie or an action-packed war movie.
33. Promised Land
- Release date: December 28, 2012
- Budget: $15 million
- Box office: $12.3 million
- Letterboxd rating: 3.1 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.0 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 53% (Rotten)
This movie was the definition of “playing it safe”, which usually doesn’t end well, but Van Sant and company managed to make this fairly watchable. Damon and McDormand play really well off of each other, although it felt like they lost some of that as the plot progressed. John Krasinski is electric here and really gets you to invest in his character, but all of that doesn’t save this movie from just feeling relatively bland and not taking the gamble of delving further into the actual subject matter at hand.
32. Suburbicon
- Release date: October 27, 2017
- Budget: $25 million
- Box office: $12.8 million
- Letterboxd rating: 2.6 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.0 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 28% (Rotten)
I really would have loved to have seen this directed by the Coen brothers instead of Clooney. He kinda shoe-horned in a totally different story (the Mayer’s) that didn’t totally go along with the murder-mystery satire story that the Coen brothers originally wrote. I think certain directors could have made the tandem work because there are certain similarities you could use to your advantage, all the while both stories are crescendo-ing at the same time. Instead, we get two fairly clunky stories that are saved by the enigmatic Oscar Isaac (who I could’ve used one more scene with). Overall, I still enjoyed watching this movie because it’s a fun script with talented actors playing their parts really well. It just made so much more sense when I saw that it was written by the Coen brothers, but not directed by them.
31. The Great Wall
- Release date: February 17, 2017
- Budget: $150 million
- Box office: $334.9 million
- Letterboxd rating: 2.3 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.0 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 35% (Rotten)
I don’t know y’all, I had fun with this one. Is it groundbreaking or award-winning? Absolutely not. Does it deserve to be analyzed for a white savior narrative? Yes. Is it actually a white savior movie? I don’t think so. The dialogue wasn’t great, but I liked that they let 98% of the cast speak in their native tongue – it would have been far more distracting if somehow all the Chinese people knew English, or vice versa. But they didn’t, and it was better off because of it. Some really fun action sequences kept this afloat despite some not-so-great CGI. The creatures could have used a bit more fleshing out and history to them so they didn’t end up being so alien, but it’s not like legends like this are unheard of. Overall, I think it helps to go into this movie with the right mindset: this is a Chinese director doing his first English-speaking movie, with a story and screenplay by six Americans, with a really cool concept and some awesome action sequences throughout. Sometimes movies don’t have to be taken so seriously.
30. Courage Under Fire
- Release date: July 12, 1996
- Budget: $46 million
- Box office: $100.9 million
- Letterboxd rating: 3.2 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.0 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 86% (Certified Fresh ?)
To no one’s surprise, Denzel Washington knocks it out of the park in this one. I enjoyed the structure of the film, with multiple flashbacks painting very different pictures of what actually happened to Karen Walden. I couldn’t completely buy Meg Ryan in this role (that accent was hard to get past too), but she had me convinced by the end of the movie.1
29. The Good Shepherd
- Release date: December 22, 2006
- Budget: $80 million
- Box office: $100.3 million
- Letterboxd rating: 3.1 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.0 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 56% (Rotten)
My Letterboxd review for this movie is a joke about Joe Pesci being in this movie for two minutes and that being my favorite part. I can’t remember a ton of other details about this movie, which I think sums up how I feel about it: it’s good enough, but entirely forgettable – which is kinda sad, because this is the only time we’ve gotten to see Robert De Niro and Matt Damon share the screen.
28. Jason Bourne
- Release date: July 29, 2016
- Budget: $120 million
- Box office: $415.5 million
- Letterboxd rating: 2.9 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.0 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 54% (Rotten)
As much as it pains me to say this, the more that I watch this movie, the more I wish it hadn’t been made. It just makes me sad – this is not the way to send Jason Bourne riding off into the sunset – they had already accomplished that with Ultimatum. Bourne figures out who he is, gets to end it where it all started, and gets to expose the CIA for who they really are. It was perfect! But then Hollywood entered it’s villain arc of rebooting every franchise that made them a pretty penny, and Bourne was no exception. I can’t fault Paul Greengrass or Matt Damon for signing on though, what with a $120 million budget that also made them over $400 million at the box office. They both did what they could, but man, it wasn’t a lot to work with. The screenplay was disastrous and oftentimes, entirely meaningless. What was the point of Riz Ahmed’s character, or his entire subplot? It added nothing to the larger picture and just felt like a way to shoehorn the timely talking point of “privacy = freedom” into the mix. Tommy Lee Jones seemed entirely uninterested in being involved the entire time, and Alicia Vikander was totally wasted in her role. There are still some really great action sequences and car chases, and they played all the hits from the franchise, but it just wasn’t anything new at this point. The new characters all fell flat because they had no arcs and we knew this was the only time we’d see any of them. It just made it even harder to invest in. I love this franchise and it’s not even like I hate this movie – it just makes me kinda sad and feels pretty unnecessary. ?
27. Stillwater
- Release date: July 30, 2021
- Budget: $20 million
- Box office: $19.8 million
- Letterboxd rating: 3.3 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.0 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 75% (Certified Fresh ?)
This movie took me by surprise – it got relatively no attention due to being released in the midst of the pandemic, but it should have absolutely been talked about more. Damon provides a charged performance as Bill Baker, with the supporting cast surrounding him with admirable performances. The ending of the movie left me feeling like money was left on the table, but the more I’ve sat with it, the more I’ve enjoyed that aspect. Not every story (real or not) is tied with a bow at the end – sometimes you just go home and keep living your life.
26. Behind the Candelabra
- Release date: May 26, 2013
- Budget: $23 million
- Box office: n/a (released on HBO)
- Letterboxd rating: 3.5 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.5 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 94% (Certified Fresh ?)
I still don’t fully know how I feel about this. At times, it felt like a 4.5 ★ film that was entrenching you in the dramatic, over-the-top, and tumultuous relationship between Liberace and Scott Thorson. At other times, it felt like a 2.5 ★ movie that was an uninformed, weirdly written Oscar-bait. So I landed somewhere in the middle by the end, feeling blown away by the performances of Michael Douglas and Matt Damon, but underwhelmed by the writing and, at times, directing. It felt like Soderbergh needed to just lean more into either the snappy, black comedy or the dramatic, heart-breaking biopic. I would have preferred the latter.
25. We Bought a Zoo
- Release date: December 21, 2011
- Budget: $50 million
- Box office: $120.1 million
- Letterboxd rating: 3.1 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.5 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 65% (Fresh)
I don’t really understand how or why this movie gets so hated on. It’s a family film y’all, it’s not supposed to be Citizen Kane. It’s perfectly adorable and cheesy, as it should be. You don’t have to take every movie so seriously and complain about how “predictable” this is – just enjoy it for what it is!
24. Green Zone
- Release date: March 12, 2010
- Budget: $100 million
- Box office: $94.9 million
- Letterboxd rating: 3.1 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.5 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 53% (Rotten)
I bumped my review up a half star after re-watching this for the first time since it came out. I think a lot of people just don’t like Greengrass’ shaky cam style which is fine, but to say that it is objectively bad is just immature. I think this movie has a compelling story and great acting from Damon, but I will never understand why any director would want Brendan Gleeson to talk in any accent but his own.
23. Syriana
- Release date: November 23, 2005
- Budget: $50 million
- Box office: $94 million
- Letterboxd rating: 3.3 ★
- My Letterboxd rating: 3.5 ★
- Rotten Tomatoes: 73% (Certified Fresh ?)
I’m still not entirely sure I understand how all the parallel storylines had to do with each other? There were just a few too many moving parts in this film that held it back from having a better flow and being a much better movie. The acting is really inspired in this and I enjoyed the overall feel of the movie, but the parallel narratives felt just a little too perpendicular at times. All in all, I think this movie is well-worth a watch; the story that is the thru-line of the whole movie is really interesting and still feels quite relevant to this day. George Clooney delivers one of the best dramatic performances of his career, Damon is great as always, and director Stephen Gaghan doesn’t pull any punches.
Not too bad, right? Obviously with this being a ranking of movies, they are only going to get better as we go along. One thing that this section of the list made me appreciate was the breadth of films that Matt Damon has chosen to be a part of. Whether you enjoyed them or not, this section alone consisted of him playing a 1940s museum curator, an 11th-century Irish mercenary, an unemployed Oklahoman roughneck, an energy analyst, a senior CIA officer, Liberace’s longtime lover, and more! You have to hand it to him for constantly trying new things, and challenging himself with the roles he played. Stay tuned for Part Three next week, where we will take a look at numbers 22 – 11 on the rankings!
- Massive props to Meg Ryan for being able to convincingly play an Army Captain in this movie and then two years later capture your heart as a hopeless romantic bookstore owner being put out of business in You’ve Got Mail. ↩︎
