After being mired in controversy for a few years, writer/director James Gunn has returned with a bang via his new hit film The Suicide Squad. In addition to the film performing well at the box office and earning positive reviews from critics and fans alike, Gunn is currently filming a spin-off series focusing on Peacemaker (John Cena). Gunn also has Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and a Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special in his sights as well.
All told, Gunn has directed 14 projects on the big and small screen (and the internet via web series) to date, most of which are firmly entrenched in either the horror or superhero genre.
Movie 43 (2013) - 4.3
While the movie's collective rating is hardly his fault, the fact remains that Gunn helmed the crass and cartoonish short about a jealous housecat named Beezel who tries desperately to become between his owner Anson (Josh Duhamel) and his girlfriend Amy (Elizabeth Banks) in Movie 43.
The comedic omnibus features 14 different vignettes, with Gunn lending his trademark risque and irreverent sense of humor to the mix. Beezel fuses animation with live-action in a very broad, slapstick manner that tonally isn't too far off from what Gunn would later do with the Guardians franchise. It may be the lowest-rated project he's directed thus far but the seeds of Gunn's signature creativity are on display.
The Tromaville Cafe (1997-2000) - 4.6
It's no secret that Gunn got his start by writing low-budget horror movies for Lloyd Kaufman and Troma Films. Gunn's very first directorial credit came in 1997 when he began helming episodes of the BBC horror series The Tromaville Cafe.
The series brought back classic Troma movie characters such as Toxie, Sgt. Kabukiman, and Felix the French Trickster and placed them in various comedic scenarios as a way to maintain interest in the Troma brand. In addition to hosting several episodes, Gunn also starred as himself in the show, which helped him foster his own unique brand of mordant humor and campy horror that he continues to explore to this day.
Troma's Edge TV (1999-2001) - 6.2
Troma's Edge TV was a short-lived and forgotten horror TV show that consisted of 26 half-hour episodes and ran from 1999 to 2001. Gunn directed the pilot episode of the behind-the-scenes series that features various Troma Entertainment employees discussing current events as related to their brand of low-budget horror schlock.
As in The Tromaville Cafe, Gunn pushed his kind of shocking, controversially racy sense of humor forward on Troma's Edge TV, coming up with ideas that were too extreme for the TV release but were still featured as extras on the DVD. The early development of Gunn's caustic edginess has been extremely important to inform the kinds of stories he's most comfortable telling.
Slither (2006) - 6.5
Gunn made his big-screen directorial debut via Slither, a pitch-perfect horror-comedy in the vein of the 1986 sci-fi B-movie Night of the Creeps. The morbidly humorous creature feature concerns a flaming meteorite that crash-lands in a small town and unleashes a deadly parasitic alien incursion. When the slimy alien slugs enter a human body, they feast on their brain and turn them into zombified hosts.
The film has all the hallmarks and sensibilities of a Gunn horror-comedy. The gross-out body mutilations and extreme gore is offset by the campy and kitschy silliness of the characters, making for a wild cinematic slumgullion that provides as many skin-crawling chills as sidesplitting laughs.
Super (2010) - 6.7
Gunn began transitioning from the realm of horror to the world of comics with Super, his sophomore directorial credit. The quirky offbeat action dramedy follows Frank Darbo (a post-Office Rainn Wilson), a cook who remakes his image as an amateur vigilante crime-fighter after his wife leaves him for a drug dealer. Dubbed the Crimson Bolt, Darbo seeks the help of comic-book store clerk Libby (Elliot Paige) when the job proves all too real.
Although Super was a box office flop, it may be the most important movie of Gunn's career in that it proved that he has a very unique vision who knows how to create an original comic-book-superhero tableau full of heart and humor. In a roundabout way, without Super, there may be no Suicide Squad or Guardians of the Galaxy.
The Suicide Squad (2021) - 7.5
Gunn's zany sensibilities and wacky sense of humor have never been on greater display than in The Suicide Squad, a superhero movie that has been praised for its unabashed fun, unflinching vision, and wild anarchic energy. As a major return for Gunn to the director's chair, the filmmaker made a resounding statement that Hollywood is far worse off without him.
With the critical and commercial success of the film, Gunn has reclaimed his powerful position in Hollywood as one of the most inventive and uncompromising comic-book filmmakers around. No longer canceled or boycotted for past indiscretions, Gunn is currently filming the Peacemaker spinoff and has such mainstream projects as Wile E. Coyote and Starsky & Hutch in the works.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) - 7.6
Marking a slight dip from the original as most sequels tend to do, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 still ranks among Gunn's best cinematic efforts to date. The film continues the hilarious exploits of Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Drax (Dave Bautista), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), and Baby Groot (Vin Diesel) as they attempt to stay together in the face of overwhelming personal drama.
IMDb voters generally liked the film a great deal but felt that too much material was recycled from the original, the plot was too thin to be engaging, and that jokes were prioritized over a compelling backstory. Others felt the movie was a great way to expand the characters and still ranks as one of the best MCU sequels as a result.
Guardians Of The Galaxy (2014) - 8.0
Based on the Marvel comics by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, Guardians of the Galaxy is the crowning achievement of James Gunn's directorial career thus far, per IMDb. With enthralling originality and refreshingly flawed superhero characters, the colorful action extravaganza captures the hearts and minds of nearly everyone who saw the film.
In addition to the dazzling visual array and hilariously unique characters, the film was lauded by fans and critics alike for the overwhelming heart and sympathetic pathos elicited for the characters. It's a game-changing blockbuster that restored the joyous good time and entertainment value of a comic-book movie, positioning Gunn as an utmost authority on the subgenre.