Three-time Oscar nominee Woody Harrelson co-stars with Kevin Hart in Netflix's new comedic action-thriller The Man From Toronto, which debuted on the platform on June 24, 2022. While the film has drawn middling reviews, Harrelson once again proves that he is just adept at handling comedic fare as he is with dramatic work.
Despite breaking out in the hit 80s sitcom Cheers, Harrelson has gone on to work with some of the best directors in the film industry, including Terrence Malick, Milos Forman, Oliver Stone, and the Coen brothers. Yet, when it comes to his most popular movies, general moviegoers frequenting fansites like Ranker have spoken loudly about Harrelson's cinematic highs and lows.
Zombieland (2009)
Made during the apogee of the zombie resurgence at the turn of the decade, Zombieland pumped invigorated new life into the tried and true horror movie formula. The movie tracks four strangers who set out on a road trip during a zombie apocalypse to find safe haven at an amusement park. Cue the side-splitting humor and gory head-splitting horror.
Fresh, witty, fast-paced, and hilariously subversive in the way it rewrites the rule of the zombie survival playbook, Harrelson couldn't be better as Tallahassee, the Twinkie-eating, brain-bashing father figure of three who radiates an adolescent machismo that is impossible to dislike. As such, Ranker fans continue to flock to the ferocious frenzy of unadulterated fun that the movie boasts in spades, even supporting the sequel Zombieland: Double Tap by naming it as Harrelson's 24th finest film to date.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Often left in the shadow of Saving Private Ryan, Terrence Malick's lyrical WWII drama The Thin Red Line boasts one of the biggest ensemble casts on record. Several key characters weave in and out of the narrative depicting the skirmish at Guadalcanal in 1942-43, including Sgt. Brian William Keck (Harrelson). He was a gallant infantryman who gave his life for the cause.
The horrific subject matter fuses with lush dreamlike photography that transcends war movies to become a kind of soulful poetic meditation on a soldier's quest and the journey into the heart of darkness. It's quite reassuring to see Ranker fans bestow love onto a form of artistic cinematic expressions that have gone by the wayside in favor of big, loud superhero movies.
Natural Born Killers (1994)
One year after ending his 200-episode run as the ever-lovable Woody Boyd on Cheers, Harrelson boldly stepped out of his comfort zone and delivered one of the most intense, scariest, and convincing against-type characters of his career in Natural Born Killers. Directed with stylish flair by Oliver Stone from a Quentin Tarantino screenplay, the criminals on the run story follows Mickey (Harrelson) and Mallory Knox (Juliet Lewis), a pair of serial killers who become pop-cultural sensations as they continue to evade the law.
Buried beneath the controversial violence, hyper-kinetic visuals, and helter-skelter editing style are poignant themes about childhood abuse that perpetuates a cycle of violence, the influence of violence on television and movies, and how mass media plays a complicit role in the whole shebang.
Kingpin (1996)
Just as adept at drama as he is in comedy, Harrelson gives one of his all-time funniest turns in the Farrelly brothers' hysterical bowling farce Kingpin, in which he plays washed-up bowler Roy Munson. After losing his hand and forgoing his bowling career, Roy recruits a talented Amish bowler named Ishmael (Randy Quaid), trains him, and hits the road to enter a series of tournaments before exacting revenge on Roy's old rival, Big Ernie McCracken (Bill Murray).
The raunchy gross-out road comedy relies on Harrelson's hangdog redemption story, ultimately becoming a tender story of friendship between Roy and Ishmael as well. Bill Murray steals the show as the insolent McCracken, with the scenes between him and Harrelson holding up as some of the funniest scenes in any Farrelly brothers movie.
White Men Can't Jump (1992)
Few movie endings are as well earned and genuinely satisfying as when Billy Hoyle (Harrelson) dunks the basketball at the end of White Men Can't Jump, one of the best sports movies on record. The story follows broke small-time hoop hustler Billy Hoyle and his Jeopardy-studying girlfriend Gloria (Rosie Perez) as they try to scrounge money to pay a debt to low-rent gangsters. But when Billy gets a dose of his own medicine from the slick-talking Sidney Deane (Wesley Snipes), the two overcome a heated rivalry to become best friends on and off the court.
Vibrant, clever, colorful, and supremely rewatchable, the chemistry between Harrelson and Snipes is so genuinely palpable that it's no surprise the two became close friends in real life while making it. The movie holds up 30 years on, providing such a fresh take on race relations that the movie is rife for a remake with Jack Harlow starring in Harrelson's role.
No Country For Old Men (2007)
In terms of technical craft, movies rarely get more superlative than Joel and Ethan Coen's Best Picture-winning No Country For Old Men. The story follows Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a modest Texas rancher who stumbles on a trove of blood money and finds himself hunted for it by a malevolent man called Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who in turn is pursued by outmoded Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones).
In his only time working with master filmmaking siblings, Harrelson gives a memorable turn as Carson Wells, a man who becomes entangled in the pursuit of the $2 million at large and has one of the scariest showdowns with Chigurh in the movie, proving he can go toe to toe with the best actors around. Seeing eye-to-eye with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and the rest of the moviegoing population writ large, Ranker feels so strongly about No Country For Old Men that it has named the film on over 50 various compilations.
The Cowboy Way (1994)
It's somewhat of a pleasant surprise to see The Cowboy Way among Harrelson's finest movies to date, especially considering how the movie was a box office flop at the time of its release. Still, the charming trifle centers on Pepper (Harrelson) and Sonny (Kiefer Sutherland), two childhood rodeo pals who venture cross country from New Mexico to New York on their trusty steeds to find an old friend.
As forgotten has the film has become by many, it's great to see Ranker users support the droll onscreen rapport and witty repartee between Harrelson and Sutherland, with director Gregg Champion imbuing the entire proceeding with a breezy pace and lightweight tone that makes the movie very easy for the whole family to enjoy.
War For The Planet Of The Apes (2017)
Harrelson got a chance to flex his villainous muscle in War For The Planet of the Apes, the commercial and critical hit blockbuster from director Matt Reeves. In the third and final entry in the rebooted franchise trilogy, Harrelson plays The Colonel, the head of the Alpha-Omega military outfit that intends to eradicate Caesar and his tribe in order to ensure humanity's survival.
Lauded for its breathtaking visual FX, strong character development, epic scope, scintillating set-pieces, and Reeves' ability to draw salient parallels between the apes and humans, war has never been more compelling in the eyes of most moviegoers.
The People Vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
Earning the first Oscar nomination of his career for playing the polarizing title character, The People vs. Larry Flynt solidified Harrelson's talent as a bona fide dramatic actor. Helmed by Milos Forman, the Supreme Courtroom drama gets to the heart of free speech under the first amendment in the United States as it relates to Flynt's ability to publish pornographic material.
Bolstered by an A-list supporting ensemble, Harrelson daringly nails the role of a flawed but proud, brash, and iconoclastic businessman willing to stick to his values as he twists his controversial public image into advocacy for free speech.
The Highwaymen (2019)
According to Ranker voters, The Highwaymen is the best movie Woody Harrelson has starred in thus far in his career. The biographical crime drama centers on Maney Gault (Harrelson) and Frank Hamer (Kevin Costner), the unsung heroic Texas Rangers who brought notorious outlaws Bonnie and Clyde to justice during the 1930s.
While nowhere near as sensationalistic or industry-changing as the hyper-violent 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, Ranker users still feel that The Highwaymen amusingly honors a piece of American history that is often glossed over in favor of the criminals themselves. Hailed for the terrific chemistry between two iconic movie stars, The Highwaymen once again proves that Harrelson can handle true-crime drama just as convincingly as any other genre under the sun.