Every Richard Donner Movie Ranked From Worst to Best

Every Richard Donner Movie Ranked From Worst to Best

Following the iconic director’s death, we rank his films, from the Lethal Weapon franchise to Superman’s first flight to The Goonies themselves.

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Richard Donner passed away on July 5, 2021, leaving behind an extraordinary and eclectic filmography – but which of these iconic works is his best? After making a splash with the ’70s horror classic The Omen, he became one of the most prolific filmmakers of the 1980s, from the Lethal Weapon franchise to the generation-defining The Goonies.

Donner began his career in television, directing episodes for programs as diverse as Gilligan’s Island and The Twilight Zone. His all-timer episode from the latter, “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” served as a preview for the type of playful, genre-defining exercises he would eventually bring to the big screen. After a lackluster first few films, the director struck gold with 1976’s The Omen, parlaying that into a decade spent flipping from genre to genre, from the influential Superman: The Movie, to crafting a holiday cult classic in the Bill Murray comedy Scrooged.

Donner’s influence is clear in all his best films, and his loss is keenly felt by those who worked with him. Steven Spielberg, who collaborated with him on The Goonies, said this after learning of his death, “Being in his circle was akin to hanging out with your favorite coach, smartest professor, fiercest motivator, most endearing friend, staunchest ally, and – of course – the greatest Goonie of all.” Here are his films, ranked from worst to best.

19. The Toy (1982)

Two of the great comedians of all time, Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason, joined forces in this 1982 comedy to extraordinarily disappointing results. Loosely based on a French film Le Jouet, The Toy tells the story of a spoiled rich kid who requests that the janitor (Pryor) at his father’s (Gleason) department store be his own personal toy for a week. The setup is promising, and could easily be reimagined as a satisfyingly dangerous satire of white privilege and entitlement, particularly with Pryor on board. Alas, this is as cloying and overly-sentimental as the director ever got, far from the high-flying entertainment of Superman.

18. Lola (1970)

The tagline for Lola was “She’s almost 16… He’s almost 40. It may be love, but it’s definitely exhausting.” Such is the odd, striving-for-comedy vibe of Richard Donner’s bizarrely undercooked ode to Lolita. The lackluster screenplay removes any moral complexity from this story of an older man dating a minor, and instead opts for romantic comedy filtered through the counter-cultural button-pushing of the time. The results are icky at best; this is a Donner offering for completists only.

17. Radio Flyer (1992)

Lorraine Bracco plays the mother of a young Elijah Wood and Jurassic Park’s Joseph Mazzello in this fairly reprehensible “family” movie about two young boys coping with abuse at the hands of their mom’s new boyfriend. In a woefully bad choice of a screenwriting device, the children use saccharine flights of fancy as a way to escape this abuse, resulting in a ridiculous climax where Elijah Wood flies off in a radio flyer to safety. It’s cringe-worthy, cloying, and just downright irresponsible from beginning to end.

16. Salt and Pepper (1968)

Peter Lawford and Sammy Davis Jr. play nightclub owners who stumble into a criminal plot in this talent-waster of a comedic caper. The film’s biggest joke is that Lawford, who’s white, is named Pepper while Davis, who’s Black, is named Salt. It’s all downhill from there. Davis remains one of the most divinely talented artists of all time, but he deserved a better vehicle than this.

15. Timeline (2003)

Richard Donner was in the running to direct Jurassic Park, and so immediately seized the opportunity to direct the screen adaptation of this lesser-known Michael Crichton book. Alas, the director clashed with Paramount Pictures over the final cut, and the resulting film left critics mostly cold. Viewed now, it’s a thoroughly charming Big Dumb Action Movie with some fun swashbuckling energy and early-career performances by Gerard Butler and the late Paul Walker.

14. Inside Moves (1980)

John Savage plays a depressed man whose failed suicide has left him disabled in this sensitive but surface-level drama. Donner exhibits a real sense of compassion, but the film has frustratingly little to say about the psychology of those who have become disabled or the societal stigma placed on them. Diana Scarwid was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for the kind woman who helps rehabilitate Savage’s character. However, this is mostly a decently observed and capably performed bit of sap.

13. Assassins (1995)

Assassins was dinged at the time of its release for being an overly grim actioner missing the fun of Donner’s own Lethal Weapon films. The comparison isn’t necessarily fair; while the film is a bit too long and moody, it’s also a stylishly made thriller with some exciting setpieces and a wild performance from Julianne Moore as an “info thief” named Electra. Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas play against type, Stallone giving one of his most understated turns as a hitman craving retirement and Banderas having a ball chewing the scenery as the young up-and-comer who wants to be the best.

12. Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)

The third Lethal Weapon is hardly great, but it’s a masterpiece compared to this sputtering fourth and final entry in the series. Donner is clearly at a loss for what new territory to explore here, so he just winds up recycling all the greatest hits from the previous three films, but with a robotic delivery lacking any of those movies’ charms. Joe Pesci is forced to spin his wheels, Chris Rock delivers a series of grating riffs on his standup routine, and the less said about the bizarre monologue about the pet frog the better. Still, even with their charm largely neutered, it’s still pleasant to see Mel Gibson and Danny Glover together onscreen, and Jet Li (making his American debut) makes for a fun villain.

11. Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)

The series would peter out completely with the fourth installment, but the third showed it was already running on fumes and ranks almost as low in the Lethal Weapon franchise. The dynamic between Danny Glover and Mel Gibson betrays signs of auto-pilot mode, Gibson in particular mugging to his heart’s content (and to diminishing returns). Joe Pesci, such a knockout delight as Leo Getz in Lethal Weapon 2, is elevated from Gibson and Glover’s babysitting charge to a full-on partner, and the results are instantly obnoxious. The action and explosions are as great as ever, but the elements around them that made the prior two entries transcend the genre are sorely lacking.

10. 16 Blocks (2006)

Donner’s last film sounds like a typical late-career Bruce Willis action flick but it actually is a pretty inventive, enjoyable ride. Willis plays Jack, an alcoholic cop who’s charged with transporting trial witness Eddie Bunker to court. When forces arise attempting to kill Eddie and prevent him from testifying, Jack fights back in a desperate quest to get Eddie to the courthouse 16 blocks away. Clear stakes and a controlled environment make for a wildly fun lark from the experienced action director, with a remarkably present performance from Willis and solid work from the always-underrated Mos Def.

9. Conspiracy Theory (1997)

Followers of Mel Gibson’s more recent public persona may find a certain dark irony to his portrayal here of a paranoid conspiracy theorist. Gibson plays Jerry Fletcher, a New York City cab driver who shares his harebrained hypotheses in a weekly newsletter, but his life is thrown into overdrive when he realizes one of the conspiracies actually has some truth to it. Donner keeps the lengthy run time moving with his typical gift for setpieces and wicked sense of humor, tapping into one of Mel Gibson’s most underrated and engaging aspects as an actor: his mania.

8. Ladyhawke (1985)

Rutger Hauer will forever be known for his iconic performance in Blade Runner, but his other best turn is in this Donner-led foray into the sword and sorcery genre. Here, he’s paired with an entrancing Michelle Pfeiffer as the star-crossed lovers who have fallen under a spell that transforms them into animals. He becomes a wolf at night, her a hawk during the day, and together they join with a petty thief played by Matthew Broderick to confront the evil bishop and reverse the curse. Broderick is admittedly miscast, but Hauer and Pfeiffer are stellar, and the film has rightfully found a cult following.

7. Maverick (1994)

Without a doubt Richard Donner’s most underrated gem, Maverick is a refreshingly funny riff on the Western genre based on a classic TV show. Mel Gibson, ever Donner’s muse, plays the skilled card player and con artist Bret Maverick, who battles his way to a high-stakes poker game. On the way, he contends with a dynamite Jodie Foster, playing another hustler. Cleverly directed from a smart, witty script by Princess Bride and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid scribe William Goldman, Maverick deserves to be seen as one of the filmmaker’s best.

6. Scrooged (1988)

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has been adapted an unseemly amount of times, including a plethora of modern twists, but the best of the latter is undoubtedly Scrooged. Donner’s inherent genius manages to capitalize on both the story’s ghoulish darkness and its transformative joy, all while transplanting it into a contemporary context. Bill Murray is one of the best film Scrooges in the canon, his irrepressible joy at dispensing cruelty morphing seamlessly into the giddy man belting “Put a Little Love In Your Heart” on Christmas morning. God bless us, everyone, indeed.

5. Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)

There’s a constant debate amongst Lethal Weapon fans as to which is better: the first or the second. Whichever the choice, it’s hard to find a more out-and-out entertaining ’80s action movie than Lethal Weapon 2. This is the one that kicks off with a killer car chase and never lets up, the one where Riggs saves Murtaugh from a bomb planted on a toilet, and the one that introduced Joe Pesci to the series. His fast-talking money launderer Leo Getz is one of his the actor’s best performances, right up there with Goodfellas, My Cousin Vinny, and The Irishman. How he folds into the unparalleled chemistry of Glover and Gibson is most of the film’s brilliance, and the source of its remarkable power to entertain.

4. Lethal Weapon (1987)

Hands down one of the best action movies of the 1980s, Lethal Weapon totally revolutionized the buddy cop genre with the unlikely duo of Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Beneath the expertly directed setpieces is the palpable chemistry between these two movie stars, who give life to Riggs and Murtaugh’s in performances that set the standard for every action duo to follow. Their combative relationship, which evolves over the course of the film into an unshakable brotherhood, is the beating heart of this undeniable classic.

3. The Omen (1976)

The 1970s were a game-changing decade for the horror genre, and this is one of the undisputed classics. Damien is the gold standard for creepy demonic kids in movies, and it’s all due to Harvey Stephens’ downright chilling performance. Donner directs with his typical speed and sense of humor, all the while creating an ambiance of genuine terror and also capturing one of Gregory Peck’s most underrated screen turns. The final 20 minutes are some of the best in the genre, slamming the lid on a classic chiller that more than earns its place among the horror greats.

2. Superman: The Movie (1978)

43 years later, it’s still the best Superman movie out there. It seems hard to believe in our current superhero-obsessed cinematic climate, but before this film’s release, nobody had the slightest idea how to realistically make Superman fly. That’s just one of the remarkable innovations in this still-remarkable film, a near-perfect distillation of the spirit of its comic book source. Donner’s film lacks the visual grandeur of, say, Burton’s Batman movies, but what it lacks in ambition it makes up for in heart. Donner balances taking things seriously with his usual playful sense of humor, and the result is a film that eschews hackneyed jokiness for a refreshing sincerity. Nowhere is that more present than in Christopher Reeves’ performance, still the ideal film portrayal of a superhero.

1. The Goonies (1985)

A rare generation-defining classic that has continued to define every generation since its release, The Goonies is Donner’s greatest and most far-reaching film. On the surface, this is a standard-issue treasure hunt flick, The Breakfast Club meets Indiana Jones. In Donner’s hands, though, it becomes a primal tale of childhood, of that moment before adolescence when adventure is always nigh and an epic quest is just a bike ride away. The 1980s nostalgia of shows like Stranger Things are at least 85% due to the lasting cultural impact of this film, and it’s because of Richard Donner’s uncanny ability to mix the thrills of youthful exploration with the melancholy of childhood ending that it hits a nerve with every young person who watches it and will continue to do so for generations to come.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/richard-donner-movies-ranked-worst-best/

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