The 12 Best Brendan Fraser Movies, Ranked
The world may seem like it's gone to hell in a handbasket these days, but one thing that's recently united society is the triumphant career revival of beloved actor Brendan Fraser, whose comeback is affectionately being hailed as "the Brenaissance."
Through the '90s and early aughts, Fraser blessed movie audiences worldwide with his magnetic onscreen presence, bringing his signature earnestness to a plethora of roles both comedic and dramatic, and cementing himself as a bonafide movie star who earned lots of money for the studios. However, after a series of unfortunate events, Fraser sadly dropped off Hollywood's A-list, and his career went painfully quiet. Thankfully, he's now back in full movie-star swing with his forthcoming critically-acclaimed turn in Darren Aronofsky's "The Whale." Fraser also recently appeared in Steven Soderbergh's "No Sudden Move" and can be seen next year in Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.
While his performance in "The Whale" has thrust him into the Oscar race, the truth is that Brendan Fraser has always been hugely talented. While some of us have always appreciated his brilliance and his unique portfolio of films, others may benefit from a refresher. He's starred in some great movies, and let's face it, some not-so-great ones, too, but his charm, talent, and puppy-dog eyes have never failed to jump off the screen (and fill our hearts). So as we happily revel in his return, let's look back and celebrate Brendan Fraser's career highlights. Excluding his newest films and smaller roles in films like "Dogfight" and "Now and Then," here's our ranking of the 12 best Brendan Fraser movies.
12. Mrs. Winterbourne
Released in 1996, "Mrs. Winterbourne" might have been critically panned, but it allowed Brendan Fraser fans to see him star as a romantic lead for the first time. It was a move that was, quite frankly, long overdue.
The somewhat silly plot revolves around a down-and-out young pregnant woman, Connie (Ricki Lake), who stumbles into the train car of Hugh Winterbourne (Fraser) and his pregnant wife. When the train crashes and the Winterbournes are killed, Connie is mistaken for Mrs. Winterbourne and is whisked away by chauffeur Paco (Miguel Sandoval) to meet Hugh's wealthy mother (Shirley MacLaine) and his twin brother Bill (Fraser again). Naturally, it follows that Connie and Bill begin a romantic relationship — but what will happen when he discovers the truth?
Though it might not be his best movie, any film starring Brendan Fraser not once but twice can't be that bad. Plus, Shirley MacLaine is always good. And Ricky Lake! She and Brendan dance the tango! Enough said.
11. Airheads
Brendan Fraser's early career is peppered with comedies and dramas, but his comedic roles are what propelled him into stardom. "Airheads" from 1994 is not the best of Brendan Fraser's comedies, and it might not be considered a great movie by most standards, but there's an undeniable sense of fun in watching its incredibly stacked cast of comedy stars come together and act incredibly dumb.
Fraser stars alongside a long-haired Steve Buscemi and a crop-top-wearing Adam Sandler as Chazz, Rex, and Pip, a trio of wannabe rock stars who break into a radio station in an attempt to get their demo played on the air. The situation escalates when they end up taking the station manager (Michael McKean) and other employees hostage with water guns. Also featuring Chris Farley, Ernie Hudson, and David Arquette, along with some fun cameos, "Airheads" is a harmlessly dumb, reasonably entertaining blast of '90s nostalgia.
10. With Honors
Back in the early '90s, there was a unique two-year period when Brendan Fraser starred as a college student in two different school-themed movies. The latter of the two films, 1994's "With Honors," sees Fraser play Monty Kessler, an ambitious government major at Harvard, who writes a thesis that criticizes people who are on public assistance in the hopes it will impress his uptight professor and allow him to graduate "with honors."
Ironically, his only copy of the thesis paper inadvertently lands in the hands of a witty homeless man, Simon (Joe Pesci), who offers to give Monty one page back per day if he helps house him. The two eventually bond as Simon helps teach Monty a thing or two about empathy, the failures of the system, and how to be less of a bozo.
Consider "With Honors" a lesser-known pre-cursor to "Good Will Hunting." Fraser is good as usual in it, and, as a bonus, '90s mainstays Patrick Dempsey and Moira Kelly star as Monty's roommates. However, Pesci's performance as the witty and world-wise self-proclaimed "bum" is worth tuning in for alone.
9. School Ties
If "With Honors" was a precursor to "Good Will Hunting," 1992's "School Ties" might be even more so, as this Brendan Fraser-starring, elite-prep school-set drama features both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in supporting roles. Set in the 1950s, Fraser plays David Greene, a working-class high school football player who receives a scholarship to attend a Catholic prep school filled with upper-class students such as Chris Reece (Chris O'Donnell) and Charlie Dillon (Matt Damon), whom he befriends. However, David has a secret. He's Jewish, and when the students find out, they turn on him, taunting him and going so far as to leave a banner above his bed that reads, "Go Home, Jew." Naturally, this prompts much conflict and confrontation.
"School Ties" features a stacked cast and a strong central performance by Fraser, who, after playing a caveman in "Encino Man" the same year, demonstrated his ability to transition between comedies and dramas with ease. Though it wasn't a commercial success, "School Ties" remains one of Fraser's more critically well-received films, and with a recent rise in antisemitism in the United States, it's certainly worth a revisit.
8. Crash
Paul Haggis' 2004 film, "Crash," may have won multiple Academy Awards including best picture, but as a Brendan Fraser movie, it ranks roughly upper middle of the pack, if only for the fact that he's but one part of a larger ensemble cast. That means we don't get as much Brendan Fraser as we would like.
That being said, he does a great job in his fairly small but crucial role as District Attorney Rick Cabot, who gets carjacked along with his wife, Jean (Sandra Bullock), after which he must deal with Jean's heightened racism as well as decide how to respond to the crime from a political standpoint. Featuring a host of great performances from the likes of Don Cheadle, Thandie Newton, and Matt Damon, "Crash" is worth seeing, if only to decide for yourself whether the movie deserved its best picture win over Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain." But if you're tuning in specifically for Brendan Fraser, don't expect to see a lot of him.
7. Encino Man
Some of Brendan Fraser's most notable roles have involved him playing a man seemingly out of time and out of step with society — which is kind of perfect considering he exudes a certain aura that makes him seem just a little too good for this world. This Fraser archetype was first personified in his breakout role as the titular character in 1992's "Encino Man," an extremely silly comedy that introduced the world to his comedic talents. "Encino Man" perfectly showcases Fraser's "game-for-anything" goofy side that would ultimately make him a star.
Sean Astin and Pauly Shore play high school students Dave and Stoney, who discover a frozen caveman (Fraser) buried beneath Dave's parent's swimming pool. After thawing him out and naming him "Link," they make efforts to clean him up and incorporate him into modern high school life, which provides plenty of room for Link to do fun stuff like eat dog food, lead the school in a caveman dance, and drink straight from a slushy machine while Pauly Shore's Stoney encourages him to "weaz the juice." I mean, what's not to like? Critics panned the film but audiences dug what "Encino Man" was selling, making it a box office success.
6. George of the Jungle
One of Brendan Fraser's definitive roles is that of George in Disney's 1997 live-action adaptation of"George of the Jungle." His turn as the goofy but lovable apeman with a heart of gold became almost synonymous with Fraser, bringing with it both financial success and mixed reviews.
The campy action adventure comedy revolves around an heiress named Ursula (Lesley Mann), who has traveled to the Ugandan jungle in search of the mythical "White Ape" with her creeper ex-fiance, Lyle Van De Groot (Thomas Haden Church), following closely behind her. Soon, she encounters and ends up falling for the shirtless, Tarzan-esque, clumsily-vine-swinging George, while also befriending Ape, the talking gorilla who raised him. Lyle, though, wants to capture George and sell him for a fortune.
Keeping in mind that it's a movie aimed at kids (and kids at heart), "George of the Jungle" offers reasonably entertaining low-stakes entertainment and a perfect Brendan Fraser performance in which his physical prowess, hunky good looks, and tender persona are all at their peak. Reviews might have been mixed, but audiences still flocked to theaters to the tune of $174 million at the worldwide box office.
5. Blast From the Past
A sometimes overlooked gem in Brendan Fraser's filmography is the darkly comedic 1999 rom-com "Blast From the Past" in which Fraser continued his track record of playing a man from another era and out of sync with society — this time due to having been extremely sheltered (literally) for the first 35 years of his life.
"Blast From the Past" starts in 1962, when an inventor/scientist (Christopher Walken) mistakenly believes that a nuclear bomb is headed for the United States and takes his pregnant wife (Sissy Spacek) down into their fallout shelter, where they hide out for 35 years waiting for the radiation to clear. When the time comes, their son, Adam (Fraser), who's only learned about the outside world from TV shows from the 1950s and '60s, ventures out to find 1997 starkly different from the world he knows. This is where "Blast From the Past" really shines, serving as a perfect vehicle for Fraser's wide-eyed vulnerability and comedic instincts as Adam learns to navigate the modern world along with the help of love interest Eve (Alicia Silverstone). Written and directed by Hugh Wilson, who also wrote and directed "Police Academy," "Blast From the Past" not only features a great Brendan Fraser performance but also makes some keenly satirical observations about society along the way.
4. Bedazzled
Of all the Brendan Fraser comedies, Harold Ramis' "Bedazzled" is quite simply the funniest. This remake of a 1967 film of the same name is loosely based on the medieval legend of Faust's deal with the Devil, and it provided Fraser with the opportunity to play multiple characters, each one uniquely memorable and hilarious.
Fraser plays nerdy office worker Elliot Richards, who is targeted by the mischievous Devil (Elizabeth Hurley) as an easy mark. Elliot doesn't have the guts to ask out his crush, Alison (Frances O'Connor), so when he laments that he'd do "anything" to win her affection, the Devil makes him an offer: seven wishes in exchange for his soul. From here, Elliot finds himself living out a variety of situations, including as a basketball player, a Columbian drug lord, and, perhaps most memorably, an emotionally sensitive guy. With each wish granted there's a catch that ends up making him miserable. Like a lot of Brendan Fraser's films, "Bedazzled" received poor reviews, but critics slept on the genius of his performances here. It's a great watch when you need a pick-me-up or just want to turn your brain off and laugh.
3. The Quiet American
One of the best Brendan Fraser films is perhaps also the most criminally underseen. "The Quiet American," based on Graham Greene's classic British novel, is set in 1952 French Indochina (now Vietnam), where the lives of an older British journalist, Thomas Fowler (Michael Caine); his Vietnamese lover, Phuong (Đỗ Thị Hải Yến); and a young American, Alden Payne (Fraser) become intertwined against a backdrop of political intrigue.
Alden comes to the region as an idealistic undercover CIA operative, full of ideas on how to help the country become more democratic. While there, he becomes embroiled in a love triangle, striking up a relationship with Phuong, who is also dating Fowler. Yet, nothing is quite as it seems in this land of upheaval and instability.
Directed by Phillip Noyce, who also directed "Dead Calm", "Patriot Games," and "Rabbit-Proof Fence" and shot by Christopher Doyle, who is known for having shot the films of Wong Kar Wai, "The Quiet American" is a riveting, well-crafted, and thought-provoking drama featuring not only one of Fraser's but also one of Michael Caine's best performances.
2. Gods and Monsters
While Brendan Fraser turned in some great performances before "Gods and Monsters," this is the film in which he proved beyond a doubt his ability to deliver award-worthy dramatic work and prompted his co-star Ian McKellan to compare him to Marilyn Monroe.
Based on the book "Father of Frankenstein," the film tells a partly fictionalized account of the final days of James Whale (McKellan), the legendary director of films such as "Frankenstein" and Bride of Frankenstein." Having suffered a stroke, the retired Whale lives with his housekeeper, Hanna (Lynn Redgrave), who disapproves of his life as a gay man. With his health fading, Whale retreats into a world of fantasy while also taking an interest in his new gardener, Clayton Boone (Fraser), inviting him into his world of privilege and asking him to pose for a series of sketches. While the two form a unique friendship, Whale's passive advances eventually push the limits of the declaratively straight Clayton's comfortability.
"Gods and Monsters" earned three Academy Award nominations, including acting nods for McKellan and Redgrave and a win for best-adapted screenplay. Sadly, Fraser's performance was overlooked, though Academy voters may have an opportunity to make up for it by voting for his performance in "The Whale."
1. The Mummy
When you think of one film that features Brendan Fraser at maximum power, it has to be 1999's "The Mummy," which cast him as an Indiana-Jones-style action-adventure hero in a super fun, franchise-starting blockbuster. It's the role he seemed destined to play.
Fraser plays former French Foreign Legionnaire Rick O'Connor, who, in 1925, leads a team of treasure hunters, including librarian Evelyn (Rachel Weisz), on a quest to find Hamunaptra (aka. the City of the Dead). Little do they know they're about to unleash a 3000-year-old evil by raising the spirit of a cursed ancient priest named Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), whom they must then stop from releasing a plague upon the world.
"The Mummy" is a thrilling blend of action, adventure, and horror that also happens to be wildly entertaining. Fraser used his physicality, range of acting skills, sense of fun, romantic charm, and most importantly, his pure star power to win over global audiences to the tune of over $400 million at the box office.