Screen veteran Chris Columbus recently released The Christmas Chronicles 2, but how does this latest film fare against the rest of his many directorial efforts? Over the decades, family film icon Chris Columbus has come a long way from scripting 80s classics like The Goonies and Gremlins.
The screenwriter has gone onto an incredible career as a director, beginning with 1987’s Adventures In Babysitting and continuing through to this year’s The Christmas Chronicles 2. However, like any prolific filmmaker, the director’s career has been studded with occasional duds as well as spectacular successes, especially as a result of the more eclectic mix he's brought to the big screen.
After combing through 90s screenwriting legend Aaron Sorkin’s screen career to rank his efforts, it’s only fair that an 80s screenwriter as iconic as Chris Columbus gets the same treatment. Unlike Sorkin, Columbus transitioned into directing early and never looked back, racking up an incredible sixteen feature films in the last few decades. Like Sorkin, however, these efforts range from blockbuster perfection to… Pixels.
Bicentennial Man
A deeply creepy and misjudged effort, Bicentennial Man tries hard to explore ideas of humanity and technology in its tale of a miscast Robin Williams playing a humanoid robot. Avoid at all costs.
Pixels
Barely better than Bicentennial Man (which is hardly a high bar for any film to cross), the 2015 Adam Sandler vehicle Pixels sees the star fighting the character of 80s arcade games in an action-comedy that’s neither fun nor funny, although it was plenty expensive.
Pixels
Despite the best efforts of reliably great supporting players like Robin Williams, Jeff Goldblum, and Joan Cusack, this 90s Hugh Grant vehicle sank like a stone thanks to a leaden central performance from the actor. To be fair to Grant, he did at least admit that he tanked this one.
Only the Lonely
It’s unclear why anyone involved thought that Paddy Chayefsky’s deeply moving, somber drama Marty needed a rom-com remake, but Only the Lonely endeavors to make the dark, socially conscious classic into a John Hughes-style dramedy. It’s a wrongheaded endeavor, but John Candy is likable as ever, and it’s hard to hate any movie featuring legendary firebrand Maureen O’Hara.
Heartbreak Hotel
Wrongheaded from start to finish, Heartbreak Hotel is a goofy comic "biopic" of Elvis' later life/faked death which sees Columbus at his oddest. By no means a good movie, this one is still superior to a lot of Chris Colombus' other work thanks to its sheer strangeness.
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
Solid but unspectacular, the 2009 adaptation Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief gave early roles to future stars Alexandra Daddario and Logan Lerman, but was an otherwise forgettable fantasy film. There’s a reason series creator Rick Riordan all-but-ignores the movie.
Rent
There didn’t need to be a movie adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Rent, but as far as misguided musical movies go, this is at least no Cats. The cast sounds as solid as ever, and although the moving AIDS drama loses its edge in translation, the music is at least still catchy.
I Love You, Beth Cooper
Released in 2008, I Love You, Beth Cooper was a massive misfire for Columbus. The teen comedy suffered badly due to a misguided PG-13 rating that neutered its raunchy humor and left it unable to compete with the likes of Superbad. That said, despite the movie receiving a critical drubbing, there is a lot to like found within. Hayden Panettiere is superb in the title role, Paul Rust makes a potentially creepy protagonist cartoonish enough to be likable, and the script from Simpsons veteran Larry Doyle is occasionally charming. If only it had an R-rating.
Stepmom
Starring Susan Sarandon and Julia Roberts, Stepmom is a thinly plotted but effectively staged drama that succeeds thanks to its central performers. The plot is a little slow but Sarandon, Roberts, and co-star Ed Harris have great chemistry, and it’s a moving movie despite the evident flaws.
The Christmas Chronicles 2
Although not perfect, the Yuletide sequel The Christmas Chronicles 2 puts Columbus’ background in family films, fantasy, and action-comedy to use and benefits from some superb chemistry between its ageless leads Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.
Adventures In Babysitting
Recently remade as a Disney Channel Original Movie, Columbus’ first film is a cute family comedy that serves as a blueprint for his eventual Home Alone success. Fast-paced and funny with a great turn from Elizabeth Shue at its core, Adventures In Babysitting is still a little too uneven to compare with that later hit. However, while it lacks the edge of Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead, this one still gets by on 80s nostalgia and some child actor performances that are genuinely funny rather than cloyingly cutesy.
Mrs. Doubtfire
Although 1993’s cross-dressing comedy Mrs. Doubtfire really shouldn’t work, given its goofy premise, the pure talent of star Robin Williams manages to propel this comedy into unlikely brilliance. The sight of Williams as a hip hop granny is still one of the actor’s most iconic comic roles, and the inspired supporting work from Sally Field, Harvey Fierstein, and a hilariously deadpan future James Bond Pierce Brosnan make this a classic piece of comedy, even if sections of it have not aged well.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
When Roma director Alfonso Cuaron helmed The Prisoner of Azkaban in 2004, it instantly became uncool to profess a love for the earlier, cornier Harry Potter movies. And indeed, looking back on the first two films of the series, it is striking how much more kid-friendly and saccharine the tone of the first film is. But as a cinematic introduction to the wizarding world, The Sorcerer’s Stone remains a thrilling, funny, and sweet — if somewhat simple — Harry Potter story with an incredible cast.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Upping the action, the pace, and the stakes, Columbus’ second Harry Potter outing succeeds in outdoing his first. Introducing giant spiders, a giant killer snake, and a twisty mystery at its core, this improved Harry Potter sequel also benefits from a hilariously hammy turn by Shakespearean hero and reliably bombastic screen presence Kenneth Branagh.
Home Alone 2: Lost In New York
A rare sequel that manages to (almost) match the original movie’s appeal, Home Alone 2: Lost In New York ups the ante across the board with bigger set pieces than the first, a snazzier location, and far more madcap exploits for its hero. Despite the increased scale, this sequel succeeds by holding onto the original Home Alone’s combination of sweetness, humor, and surprisingly violent cartoony action, as well as typically great work by the large cast.
Home Alone
The best Chris Columbus movie is also a high point of teen movie icon John Hughes’ career as a screenwriter, and a solid contender for the best Christmas movie ever. Not content with writing a Christmas classic in the form of 1984’s Gremlins, Columbus also directed 1990’s Macaulay Culkin vehicle Home Alone. A peerless piece of family comedy, this charming, simple story turning the potentially annoying exploits of a sardonic kid into a movie that is by turns hilarious, heartwarming, and even genuinely suspenseful. Buoyed by a bevy of superb supporting turns from the ensemble cast, the Yuletide classic Home Alone remains the best of The Christmas Chronicles 2 director Chris Columbus’s impressive onscreen oeuvre.