Every George Clooney Movie, Ranked
Whether he's pulling off a heist with old Hollywood charm or running from the law as a bumbling goon, Clooney is the perfect man for the job.
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There's a pretty famous story that George Clooney likes to tell about a dog. In the early 2000s, he'd set up a meet and greet with a rescue he wanted to adopt and was told that the dog had to love him or the shelter would take him back. Clooney, scared the dog wouldn't love him, rubbed himself in turkey bacon before he met the doggo just to increase his chances of success. This is a story that says a lot about Clooney, which is probably why it's often told—in this magazine, even—to illustrate his dedication to the audience, human or otherwise.
If aliens visited this planet and we needed to provide them with an example of a movie star, we would show them George Clooney. His charm is otherworldly, yet he often puts in the effort to mask it, turn it off, or make himself the joke when he needs to for our entertainment. He is, hands down, the number one celebrity to pick if you're ever going to pull off a heist. And that would be an accurate pick even if he hadn't starred in so many heist movies. He is the link between old school cinema and modern Hollywood. He is perhaps the only one whose career would get better after the Batnipples. He is untouchable, and unmissable even when he is indeed missing. He is Amal's husband.
Whether he's meeting a dog, pulling off a heist (in Vegas, in Italy, in the 1930s deep South, in WWII, in the Gulf War), voicing a fox, going into space, or playing a total goon—Clooney puts himself into every single performance. And for that, we have a hell of a filmography, which we have ranked here, of 34 movies, that are all better off with Clooney in them. — Matt Miller
34. The Monuments Men (2014)
Even the greatest movie stars cough up the occasional celluloid hair ball. It’s the law of averages. And sure, you could argue that The Monuments Men is way better made than Grade-Z shlock like early Clooney misfires Return of the Killer Tomatoes and Red Surf. But the reason why this stinkbomb lands at the rock bottom of this list is because of the massive gap between the film’s potential and its execution. With Clooney behind the camera and charismatic actors like Matt Damon, John Goodman, and Bill Murray in front of it, this could have been and should have been something great. And if not great, then at least watchable. Unfortunately, it’s neither—it’s just preachy and dull. The true-ish tale of a team of art historians sent behind enemy lines during WWII to retrieve great artworks stolen by the Nazis, The Monuments Men is a total waste of a juicy bit of history, its all-star cast, and a director who couldn’t even manage to make Nazis exciting. Nazis! — Chris Nashawaty
33. Red Surf (1989)
Once upon a time, ‘straight-to-video’ was where movies like Red Surf went to die quiet, anonymous deaths. And most of these films’ VHS boxes should have come with a warning label reading: Caveat Emptor. Exhibit A is this chintzy Point Break rip-off which deserved to be burned and have its ashes scattered on consecrated ground...and then have that ground salted so nothing could ever grow there again. A pre-ER Clooney (opposite Dedee Pfeiffer and KISS frontman Gene Simmons sans kabuki facepaint) plays a ponytailed, jet-skiing coke dealer out for one last score while facing off against deadly barrio thugs on both surf and turf. Glub, glub! — CN
32. Tomorrowland (2015)
Tomorrowland is really another Clooney jam that could’ve had it all. It was an adaptation of a frickin’ Disney park! About the future! Hyped for years. Directed by The Incredibles director Brad Bird. Ugh. Even though the visuals were as awe-inspiring as a trip to the Tomorrowland park itself, the uneven story didn’t quite live up to what it could’ve been, a good-hearted Clooney performance be damned. From now on, it’s a billion-dollar adaptation of “It’s a Small World” or bust. — Brady Langmann
31. Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988)
We all have gigs on our resume that we’re ashamed of. They’re merely the dues one has to pay to keep working, growing, and keeping the lights on. Here’s one of Clooney’s. A sequel of sorts to the kitschy 1979 cult cheapie Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, this is a junky, winking spoof of ‘50s Atomic Age programmers like The Blob in which a town desperately tries to fend off an uprising of giant mutant vegetable-men—or are tomatoes fruit…? Either way, with his period-appropriate mullet and half-smirk that lets you know he’s at least in on how god-awful this mess is, Clooney at least seems to be having fun. At least someone is. — CN
30. Leatherheads (2008)
I wanted to dig this one. I really did. Seriously. How could you mess this one up? Clooney, Krasinski, Pryce, and Zellweger starring in a sports comedy about the early days of beat-em-up American football. Leatherheads ended up being just as messy as a lineman in the fourth quarter of a game in the pouring rain. The different-genre-per-minute clip of Leatherheads led to a box-office disappointment, meaning that we’ll never get the great George Clooney hoops drama of our dreams. (Seriously. The man supposedly can ball.) — BL
29. The Good German (2006)
A loving homage to Casablanca and other romantic wartime dramas of the 1940s, Steven Soderbergh’s The Good German has style to burn but, ultimately, little spark. Clooney stars as war correspondent Jake Geismer, who arrives in post-WWII Berlin to cover a historic peace conference, only to become ensnared in a Cold War-instigating conspiracy involving his former mistress (Cate Blanchett) and various other Russian and American players. Soderbergh’s smoky black-and-white aesthetics pay tribute to his chosen cinematic era while his story (adapted from Joseph Kanon’s novel) confronts various issues in a frank manner that never would have been allowed under the Production Code. Yet the filmmaker’s celebration-come-deconstruction never does much with its artifice, and the same is true of Clooney’s performance, which is undone by hollow affectation. Like everyone else, he seems adrift in a gorgeously rendered photocopy. — Nick Schager
28. The Peacemaker (1997)
If The Peacemaker is remembered at all, it’s for being the first film to be released by the then-fledgling DreamWorks Pictures. It was not an auspicious beginning. Clooney plays a dashing, cool-under-fire intelligence officer with the Army’s Special Forces and costar Nicole Kidman turns up as a nuclear scientist. Their mission: To shoehorn as many espionage-flick clichés as humanly possible into this misfire’s bloated 124-minute running time. Actually, they’re out to stop terrorists from smuggling Soviet nukes, not that it matters. Aside from the A-list stars (who have a shocking lack of chemistry), director Mimi Leder’s big-budget, big fat so-what of a film doesn’t have an original thought in its head. It’s just dreary action-flick Mad Libs. — CN
27. Welcome to Collinwood (2002)
This is not a George Clooney movie. This is also very much a George Clooney movie. Let me explain: Welcome to Collinwood is a heist comedy with an ensemble cast: Sam Rockwell, Luiz Guzman, Isaiah Washington, William H. Macy, Patricia Clarkson, and George Clooney, who plays Jerzy, a wheelchair-bound safe-cracker. It’s a funny movie in which the characters, all goofy career criminals, seek to pull off a big score in the Cleveland suburb of Collinwood. Clooney delivers some of the film’s funniest lines. But he does not have the most screen time, hence it’s not a George Clooney movie. Welcome to Collinwood is a remake of the 1958 Italian heist comedy, Big Deal on Madonna Street, which itself is a satire of the 1955 Italian heist drama Rififi. This sort of thing is well within Clooney’s wheelhouse. By 2002, the year Welcome to Collinwood came out, Clooney had been in Out of Sight, Ocean’s 11 (also a remake), Three Kings, and O Brother, Where Art Though? All of which are stylish movies by Brilliant Young Directors with a certain absurd comedic bent. This is how you could describe Welcome to Collinwood, which is directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, who, a decade later, would direct Marvel movies, including Avengers: Endgame. So, yes, Welcome to Collinwood is, indeed, a George Clooney movie. — Michael Sebastian
26. The American (2010)
George Clooney must love the fatalistic neo-noirs of Jean-Pierre Melville (Le Samouraï, Bob le Flambeur), for how else to explain his participation in The American? Anton Corbijn’s feature is a downbeat saga about a contract killer who, after being forced to flee his circumstances (killing his lover in the process), relocates to the mountains of Italy, where he accepts a new job while dealing with pursuing assassins. Clooney is the only American star in this European-flavored thriller, channeling the icy, existential despair of previous generations’ neo-noir antiheroes. Though its deliberate pacing turned off audiences who expected a more action-oriented adventure, its suspense is as chilly as its air of desolation and doom is palpable. Embodying a man whose self-control and proficiency do little to afford him happiness or triumph, Clooney is the alienated, melancholy heart of Corbijn’s ravishing genre film. —NS
25. Batman & Robin (1997)
To be fair, the Batnipples weren’t Clooney’s fault—even though he has apologized repeatedly for Batman & Robin over the decades. The real problem is that, somehow, Clooney isn’t particularly believable as either Bruce Wayne or Batman in Joel Schumacher's infamously bad Batman & Robin. Clooney is kind of just Clooney, whether he’s wearing the Dark Knight’s cowl or galavanting through Gotham as the playboy billionaire. DC superfans would probably want this movie to be much lower on the list. However it might be the only so-bad-it’s-actually-kind-of-hilarious movie in Clooney’s filmography. This is an indelible part of superhero movie history. It’s also proven to show what a good sport Clooney can be about even some of his most egregious errors. Twenty years from now he’ll still be apologizing for the Batnipples, and for that this film should be ranked higher than some of his more forgettable outings. — Matt Miller
24. Money Monster (2016)
Money Monster is a cable news nightmare come to life. On paper, it sounds like such a good concept. Directed by Jodie Foster and starring Clooney and Julia Roberts, Clooney leads the cast as Lee Gates, an over the top financial expert who gives advice on his cable show. Of course, everything goes to shit when his bad advice leads a man to lose his life savings and decides he’s going to blow up the studio. Again, interesting enough concept but the execution is dodgy to say the least. It’s the misfortune of having talents like Clooney and Roberts at the helm, both of whom are carrying the film as well as they can, without any idea of how to use them to the best of their ability. — Justin Kirkland
23. Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
For his second go-round with Joel and Ethan Coen (following O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Clooney assumed the part of a high-powered divorce attorney whose skills are put to the test when he faces off against his latest client’s soon-to-be-ex-wife, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. A sharp romantic comedy about marital warfare in a time of pre-nuptial agreements, the Coens’ film blends the goofy and the bleak to winning effect, due in large part to Clooney and Zeta-Jones’ rapport as a pair of cutthroat sharks whose predatory impulses are complicated by their budding amorous feelings for each other. Bolstering Clooney’s Old Hollywood-ish bona fides—in a role that, in an earlier era, might have been played by Cary Grant—Intolerable Cruelty is the sort of idiosyncratic A-list screwball affair that they all-too-rarely make anymore. — NS
22. The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)
Directed by Clooney’s long-time writing and producing partner Grant Heslov, The Men Who Stare at Goats is—like Three Kings and his Hulu TV adaptation of Catch-22—a war satire that revels in the absurd. An adaptation of Jon Ronson’s book of the same name, it concerns a journalist (Ewan McGregor) who travels to Kuwait and lands a bombshell story courtesy of a former special forces officer (Clooney) who was supposedly a member of a covert U.S. army operation that sought to train soldiers to have psychic powers. The ensuing saga is rife with out-there twists, and it benefits from strong supporting turns from Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Robert Patrick, Stephen Lang, and Nick Offerman. Clooney’s gamely loony performance, however, is the highlight of this farcical venture, and once again illustrates that he’s more than comfortable playing the intensely committed fool. — NS
21. The Midnight Sky (2020)
In kind of an opposite of Matt Damon's The Martian, George Clooney's Augustine is alone on a dying Earth and must warn a group of astronauts not to return home. Clooney's directing here is effective—gracefully balancing the post-apocalyptic themes. As is his performance. His gruff exterior shelters a very human pain within. The problem here may be more with the film's source material—a thin sci-fi drama that fails to live up to many of the modern masterpieces of recent years. — MM
20. One Fine Day (1996)
What should have been a throwback to Tracy and Hepburn—or at least Hanks and Ryan—ends up being a rom-com without a spark. At the time, the notion of orbiting a meet-cute confection around the use of cell phones probably seemed very of the moment. But viewed today, One Fine Day finds Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer just frenetically flailing and flirting as a single mom and a divorced dad in go-go New York City. I’m sure this all sounded like a slam dunk in the pitch meeting, especially in the wake of the megahit Sleepless in Seattle. Unfortunately, there’s nothing sleepless about this one. You’ll be out cold well before the end credits roll. — CN
19. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Nothing about the vampire film From Dusk Till Dawn particularly makes sense, especially within the confines of the George Clooney canon. But that's not to say that it should plummet to the bottom of the list. Written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Robert Rodriguez, the action-horror hybrid features Clooney as a convict, who along with his brother (played by Tarantino himself because, hell, why not?) take hostages in an old western saloon that is eventually overtaken by vampires. Of those is preacher man Jacob (played by Harvey Keitel, because, again, why not?) because if your vampire film doesn't have a religious figure, did it actually happen? The film became a bit of an unconventional classic, if for no other reason than the fact that it's a B-movie that had a ton of fun and never took itself too seriously, and it's a rare Clooney movie that dives headfirst into the horror genre. —JK
18. The Thin Red Line (1998)
The Thin Red Line is a masterpiece from a director who’s made a decades-long career churning out masterpieces—but Clooney is barely in it. Terrence Malick’s transcendental meditation on why mankind wages war, set at the Battle of Guadalcanal, features a revolving door of Hollywood heavy hitters, including Sean Penn, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, Woody Harrelson, and John Travolta. Clooney swoops in at the end of the film as Captain Bosche, a new commander assigned to the film’s decimated squadron. Clooney brings grit and no-nonsense charm to a blink-and-you-missed-it role that clocks in at less than two minutes flat. He’s here for a good time, not a long time. — Adrienne Westenfeld
17. Hail, Caesar! (2016)
Hollywood is famous for writing love letters to itself. (See: Mank, La La Land, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, The Artist—you get the point.) But the Coen Brothers aren’t like the rest of Hollywood. Sure, they’ve revisited it, but when they do, they come carrying a big ol’ gallon of kerosene. In fact, 1991’s Barton Fink just about torched the town. Here, they plop themselves down in the decade after that plot’s epic meltdown to poke fun at the fake religiosity of the 1950s studio system. For both his own real-life ancestry and knack for glamour, Clooney was an easy cast as the studio-backed star Baird Whitlock. Where he surprises, however, is in that plenty beautiful men in Hollywood would be afraid to play the role as dumb as it requires. Not Clooney. He’s nearly dizzying as a ditz. — Madison Vain
16. Solaris (2002)
Clooney once again teamed with Steven Soderbergh for 2002’s Solaris, an adaptation of Stanisław Lem’s 1961 novel (which was also the basis for Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 sci-fi classic) that was, tonally speaking, far removed from the duo’s prior crime-centric triumphs. That artistic change of direction was one of the reasons it largely failed to connect with audiences upon its theatrical debut, although its somewhat underwhelming box-office performance isn’t indicative of its quality. The story of a clinical psychologist who travels to a space station where, he discovers, memories of his dead wife have brought her back to life (in a sense), Clooney and Soderbergh’s third collaboration is a haunting meditation on loss, love, grief, and the complicated relationship between our recollections and the truth. It features arguably Clooney’s most soulful performance, and remains the film from his oeuvre most deserving of rediscovery. — NS
15. Burn After Reading (2008)
In his third outing with the Coen Brothers, Clooney stars as Harry Pfaffer (say that five times fast), a married womanizer looking for love online. Harry falls hard for Linda (Frances McDormand), a daffy gym employee who finds a mislaid disk containing the explosive memoirs of Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), a CIA agent disgruntled about getting axed by the agency. In a typically Coen-esque ouroboros of character sketching, Cox is married to Katie (Tilda Swinton), another of Harry’s paramours. The Coens said that Burn After Reading completed their “idiot trilogy,” with Clooney, following O Brother Where Art Thou and Intolerable Cruelty. As a man short on brains and big on charm, Clooney is one of the best things about this screwball comedy. —AW
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