These are Will Ferrell’s best movies, according to science.
Written by Doug Norrie
What is the best Will Ferrell movie? It feels like Will Ferrell has been around forever, and in many ways, it feels like he’s been playing the same character since he burst onto the scene in the early 2000s. This is good for me because I can watch the guy read the phone book and laugh at him.
Fans spend a lot of time arguing about which Will Ferrell movie is the best, but we’ve come up with a final ranking using math. To be included on this list, a Will Ferrell film had to have a greater than 50% critical consensus rating, Ferrell had to have a starring role that was like or close to that of the film, and we did not include any voice work.
We’ve done the math, these are Will Ferrell’s best movies.
1. dwarf | 2003
Will Ferrell’s film is the most reviewed and perhaps most popular film in the world. dwarf It has turned into a staple of the holiday season in my house and many others. The story of Buddy, a displaced “dwarf” who does the lost thing in New York with hilarious results. Elf is just a great movie in every sense of the word, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and a poignant story.
Frankly, it baffles me that even this “low” on the tomato scale and without throwing out the clichés about coal lumps in stocking up on negative reviewers (I did anyway). Those who gave it a thumbs down were simply wrong.
2. The other guys | 2010
The other guys The film starts out on a good note, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson as no-f@#$ cops who take down bad guys, blow things up, and make girls fall into their hands. They almost died before the opening credits finished.
Ferrell steps in as a bean-counting, rule-following cop and his hotheaded partner in Mark Wahlberg. The other guys It has a lot of great one-liners, a great dynamic between the two leads, Michael Keaton TLC references, and a lot of laughs. It could have easily been a stupid mess, but they pulled it off. I will never tire of the film’s gag involving Eva Mendes as Will Ferrell’s wife.
3. Announcer 2: The legend continues | 2013
The rare sequel that surpasses its predecessor in the eyes of critics, Announcer 2 It brings the gang back together for another tour in the wonderful world of “News.” Will Ferrell’s sequel didn’t deviate too much from the formula that worked the first time around, and in this case, I think the critics knew what they were getting into early on.
The team is as ridiculous as ever, the jokes are over the top and the world of 24 hour news has never been filled with more debauchery.
4. Everything must go | 2010
I think on a technical level Everything must go It’s a comedy, but it’s really a story about loss and redemption. Ferrell, from a personal standpoint, doesn’t deviate too much from what he’s done in the past, but this has enough sour to go with the dessert.
He plays a struggling, alcoholic salesman whose wife leaves him and literally throws everything on the front lawn. What ensues is that Ferrell lives on said lawn among the things he once cherished, drinks his way into oblivion and befriends a neighborhood boy who is going through his hardships. It’s a moving story and one of Will Ferrell’s best dramatic turns in a movie.
5. Stranger than fiction | 2006
Marketed as a comedy, Will Ferrell’s film is actually a very supernatural story about a man living the life of a character that the author writes a story about, except they live in the same reality. get it? It plays out smoothly enough on screen, but creating this kind of interwoven, overlapping story without getting bogged down in too many temporal hiccups was almost a feat in itself.
As the lovable loser, Ferrell is very much in his element as he “navigates” a world played on cards in front of someone else. See what I mean? It’s confusing.
6. Talladega Nights: The Ricky Bobby Song | 2006
Did this Will Ferrell movie do more for auto racing than anything else in the actual history of the sport, or did it set NASCAR back a decade? It’s hard to know.
Ferrell and his co-star John C. Reilly showcased it all in a flick that went off the rails as much as it elicited laughs. In many ways, this exemplifies the almost farcical nature of Ferrell’s career. It’s full of rude ads, borderline offensive interpretations of race car culture, people who get involved, and really stupid jokes. It still works. The scene where Ricky says to Bobby that grace is worth the price of admission itself.
7. Blades of Glory | 2007
You’ll notice that Will Ferrell’s films like to take conceptsIn this case, sports, and making films about the subculture. Heck, we won’t even be able to reach it Semi-professional (22%), But these types of films are more or less the hallmark of Ferrell’s career.
in Blades of GloryHe dons his skates and plays Chaz Michael Michaels, who is desperate to get back into skateboarding after being banned for life. So he teams up with Jon Heder, who recently graduated Napoleon dynamiteand they put on a skating show that’s pretty much in keeping with what two guys who look like this would do on the ice.
8. Campaign | 2012
Ferrell has a lot of political satire under his belthaving played the therapeutic version of George W. Bush during the 2000s Saturday Night Live In his solo play, Welcome, America. As far as satirical presidential races go, it may be the most famous.
Here, he and Zach Galifianakis play rival candidates, and Ferrell basically impersonates “W” under a different name as a US congressman. In an ever-escalating series of campaign stunts, these two face off in yet another taunt from Ferrell, this time on the electoral process and the underlying political system.
If Will Ferrell’s films seem so close to the way he depicts these institutions, it’s because he has a gift for the absurd and the wonderful. Campaign It may be the best example of that strategy.
9. Announcer: The Legend of Ron Burgundy | 2004
in Broadcaster, Will Ferrell He takes us into his emotional glass box of this cult and box office favorite about the golden days of the San Diego Evening News. When all is said and done, Ron Burgundy may be Ferrell’s most memorable character, which is really saying a lot considering the list above.
He gives an epic performance as the womanizing, mahogany-loving, jazz flute-playing evening news captain. announcer It goes so far (Brick killed a man!) that you almost lose the sense of reality. In a good way.
10. Step brothers | 2008
Ferrell and John C. Reilly have collaborated on three widely released films, but it sure feels like more than that. Maybe it’s because whenever they do it, it’s a round of utter silliness that feels like we’ve watched a thousand hours.
Here, they are as “close” as ever as middle-aged boys who end up as half-brothers. While they inhabit full-grown adult bodies, they’re just like the rambunctious children you’d expect them to be.
Will Ferrell Honorable mentions
I didn’t add these three Will Ferrell movies to my master list because he didn’t technically have a starring role in any of them, but he certainly steals every scene in all three. Whether it’s through his Frank the Tank line, Mugatu planning to take over the fashion world, or Chaz Reinhold screaming for his mom to cook him some meatloaf, Ferrell seems to be the star of all three.
Old school
Zoolander
Wedding Crashers