One of the most popular movie stars working in Hollywood, Ryan Reynolds movies contain some of the best box-office and streaming successes of the past decade. Reynolds' status as a superstar has been hard-fought since he began working in the 1990s. His eventual success is a testament to the fact that no matter how big someone seems to get "overnight," it's likely it took years to reach that peak. After an early career in television — including a leading role on the amusingly titled Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place -
Reynolds made his breakout debut in the 2002 National Lampoon movie Van Wilder, putting him on the map as a disarmingly handsome star with impeccable comedic timing. Ryan Reynolds' movies tend to vary, and the actor has an impressive catalog. Much of his career saw Reynolds genre-hopping from rom-coms to action flicks to more serious drama (sometimes within the same movie). While he was always pegged as an untapped talent even in the biggest of flops, it was 2016's Deadpool that arguably cemented his status — but Wade Wilson is far from the only Ryan Reynolds role.
42 R.I.P.D. (2013)
- Streaming on Netflix & Peacock+
The actor spent many years trying to get a comic book role done right, and one of these Ryan Reynolds movies was with the supernatural comic book series R.I.P.D. The movie followed a Boston police detective killed during a drug bust who ended up a ghost enlisted to join the R.I.P.D., a police agency from the afterlife that hunted down creatures threatening the real world. Reynolds teamed with Jeff Bridges, a former Wild West lawman, and they set out to save the world. The movie ended up as a box office bomb, making only $78.3 million on a budget of almost $154 million. Add in its 12% Rotten Tomatoes score, and it ended up as one of Reynolds's biggest flops.
41 Self/Less (2015)
- Streaming on Hulu
After making the brilliant sci-fi films The Cell and The Fall, Tarsem Singh directed Ryan Reynolds in the mind-twisting Self/Less. Sadly, as brilliant as the previous two movies were, this specific movie took the interesting premise and ended up veering off into a disappointing direction. Ben Kingsley plays a billionaire industrialist who contracts cancer and undergoes a procedure to transfer his consciousness to a healthy body (Reynolds). The intriguing setup quickly turns into a mostly generic action movie. The film barely made back its budget and had rotten scores from critics and the audience both on Rotten Tomatoes, despite its premise.
40 Fireflies in the Garden (2008)
- Rent Now On Apple TV & Prime Video
In this Ryan Reynolds movie, the actor plays a novelist who, while visiting his Midwestern family, learns that his mother (Julia Roberts) has passed away, teeing up a grief drama of the dysfunctional family sort. The movie itself had a stacked cast outside of Reynolds, with Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, and Carrie-Anne Moss all appearing in the movie. Fireflies in the Garden uses a lot of flashbacks, as the melodrama tells the story of the three generations of the family and the fact that none of them had ever really gotten to know each other. The movie was a bomb, making only $3.5 million at the box office, with an $8 million budget.
39 The Amityville Horror (2005)
- Streaming on Showtime
One of the more disappointing Ryan Reynolds movies was the remake of the iconic 1979 horror movie, The Amityville Horror. It's the expected collection of jump scares and things that go bump in the night, except this time augmented with early-aughts CGI and a disparaging lack of subtlety. The true story that inspired The Amityville Horror remains haunting, and Reynolds cuts a nice leading man figure, but he's mostly the standard horror movie lead, moving from one predictable scare to the next. To its credit, the movie was a financial success, making $109 million on an $18.5 million budget.
38 The Change-Up (2011)
- Streaming on Prime Video
In one of the more broadly comedic Ryan Reynolds movies, Jason Bateman and Reynolds take part in this male version of Freaky Friday. Bateman plays a lawyer and family man while Reynolds a slacker, and much of the movie's fun comes from seeing the actors switch roles and play against type. Alas, there's little else remotely inspired in The Change-Up — when a movie's wittiest parts are its most scatological, there's not much to champion. With a lackluster box office and poor reviews, the movie couldn't survive despite the lead actors' charisma.
37 Green Lantern (2011)
- Streaming on HBO Max
One of the most unfortunate Ryan Reynolds movies in the superhero genre is Green Lantern. Director Martin Campbell seems entirely at a loss here, with the tone all over the place and Reynolds bouncing from snarky to noble. The action sequences drenched in CGI and a green color palette never looked right, and the hero's spandex jumpsuit became a meme. What is most telling was that Green Lantern was supposed to be the start of the DCU, but after the movie failed with critics and the audiences at the box office, Warner Bros. hit the brakes and instead ignored it and re-started with Man of Steel.
36 X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
- Streaming on Starz
Hugh Jackman brought superhero movies roaring back to life with the original X-Men, but X-Men Origins: Wolverine was one of the low points for Fox's X-Men franchise. This was supposed to be the start of a new series of solo movies based on mutants, but the failure of this one at the box office and with critics ended that quickly. Ryan Reynolds was one of the most disappointing parts. When he was Wade Wilson, he was highly entertaining in the movie. However, when it came time to turn him into Deadpool, the movie sewed his mouth shut and gave him weird powers, and comic book fans rebelled.
35 The Captive (2014)
- Streaming on HBO Max
Atom Egoyan's films have long received mixed reviews for their fragmented and opaque but beautifully filmed and atmospheric qualities. The Ryan Reynolds movie The Captive, a murky tale of a convoluted search for a missing girl, is no different. While it excels whenever it's more focused on mood and on Reynolds' surprisingly serious performance, the aesthetic is too often used to try and disguise an overstuffed, pulpy plot that's just not very engaging. While this was in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, it remains one of the mostly forgotten Ryan Reynolds movies.
34 Criminal (2016)
- Streaming on Roku & Pluto TV
In the timeline of Ryan Reynolds movies, Criminal debuted right on the heels of his Deadpool success, and on Gal Gadot's thunderous turn in Wonder Woman, and saw them share a movie years before Netflix's Red Notice. Alas, Reynolds cameos just a few times, and Gadot is unfortunately saddled with the role of the damsel in distress in the story. They are joined by some heavy hitters in Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, and Tommy Lee Jones. Kevin Costner is a serial killer who has the memories of a dead CIA operative implanted in him to attempt to stop a terrorist. Bad reviews and lackluster box office killed its chances for success.
33 Chaos Theory (2008)
- Rent Now On Apple TV & Prime Video
Chaos Theory is a dramatic comedy where Reynolds plays an efficiency expert named Frank who lives his life on a carefully manicured schedule. However, when his wife (Emily Mortimer) mistakenly changes the time on the clock to 10 minutes late, he misses everything and his life starts to fall apart. Reynolds steals scenes as the man who lived a structured life, only to realize he has been living a lie. There is a lot packed into this movie, and it never seemed to hit right, with critics blasting the script. This was one of the Ryan Reynolds movies the studio only gave a limited release before dumping it on home video.
32 The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021)
- Streaming on HBO Max
Those who enjoyed the excesses of The Hitman's Bodyguard will probably have just as good a time at its sequel. The Ryan Reynolds movie is louder, leaner, and more low-brow. For the critics and franchise agnostics, The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard is a fairly eye-rolling exercise in the smug and the crass. Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson, Salma Hayek, and Antonio Banderas all seem to be having a good time, but it's hard not to want more smartly-written material for such heavy-hitting stars like Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson.
31 The In-Laws (2003)
- Rent Now On Apple TV & Prime Video
Ryan Reynolds fills out the pretty-boy part admirably in this comedy movie remake of the 1970s hit comedy. Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks take on parts originated by Peter Falk and Alan Arkin, the fathers about to become in-laws who find themselves bonding during a CIA operation. While these Ryan Reynolds movies are fun, it was yet another box office failure for the star, making only $24 million. Comparatively, the original movie, released 24 years earlier, made $38.2 million at the box office.
30 Blade: Trinity (2004)
- Rent Now On Prime Video & Apple TV
After Guillermo del Toro gave some genuine cinematic style to Blade II, David S. Goyer came in with the series' crassest and campiest entry, complete with a disappointing version of Dracula. As with many Ryan Reynolds movies, this is saddled with lots of joke-cracking, while the action rarely rises to the level of the two movies that preceded it. The third entry in the Blade franchise is for diehards only, or for Parker Posey fans who want to see her camp it up as a vampire. The movie was supposed to set up a spin-off that died with the poor critical reception and lackluster box office.
29 Bullet Train (2022)
- Streaming on Netflix
Unlike most Ryan Reynolds movies, he is barely in Bullet Train. The joke is that director David Leitch convinced Brad Pitt to cameo in Deadpool 2 for Reynolds. So, for Pitt's Bullet Train, he called Reynolds and said he owed Pitt. The Reynolds appearance was a surprise, as he wasn't part of the advertising for Bullet Train (as Pitt also wasn't for Deadpool 2), but his character was actually the entire reason that Pitt's character ended up on the bullet train to begin with. The movie was a huge success, making $239 million on a budget of around $85 million, despite average reviews.
28 Red Notice (2021)
- Streaming on Netflix
Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, Red Notice unites Dwayne Johnson with Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot in a spy-themed action-comedy. Johnson plays an FBI agent on the hunt for a notorious criminal (Gadot) and is forced to form an unlikely alliance with another criminal (Reynolds) to catch her. Only getting a limited theatrical release, the movie was one of Netflix's most expensive movie to date at $150 million. Critics hated the movie, but audiences embraced it with the three leads as charismatic as ever.
27 6 Underground (2019)
- Streaming on Netflix
Michael Bay's Netflix debut is exactly the kind of unvarnished, explosions-riddled action film to be expected when the producer-director is given carte blanche. The action sequences are all fans could dream of, with a plot that is incredibly mindless. For fans of the director, there's little to disappoint here. In 6 Underground, Reynolds stars as a billionaire who fakes his own death and creates an anonymous vigilante group that sets out to take down terrorists that the regular law enforcement officials can't stop. It was one of three Ryan Reynolds movies that rank as the most expensive movies Netflix ever made and Reynolds received critical praise for his performance.
26 The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017)
- Rent Now On Prime VIdeo & Apple TV
It's a lot of fun to see Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds movies with them trading banter, but even diehard fans of both must admit that their talent outweighs this schlocky material. The Hitman's Bodyguard has a crowd-pleasing premise on display thanks to the odd couple performances of its co-leads and the charismatic star power they each possess. While it isn't highbrow humor, it did its job and brought in $183 million on a $75 million budget. The Hitman's Bodyguard was yet another of Ryan Reynolds movies that audiences loved more than critics, and it warranted a sequel.
25 Safe House (2012)
- Streaming on Hulu & Peacock+
Another instance of seeing Ryan Reynolds movies with him as an action hero, Safe House rises slightly above average thanks to the participation of Denzel Washington as turncoat CIA operative Tobin Frost. It is the relationship between Reynolds' junior CIA officer and the now-criminal Tobin Frost that elevates this movie above other Reynolds' action flicks. The movie was a commercial success, making $207 million on an $85 million budget, and it was another case where fans liked it more than critics based on Rotten Tomatoes scores.
24 Woman in Gold (2015)
- Streaming on Netflix
Ryan Reynolds tried his hand at prestige drama where a Jewish woman named Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren) is in a lengthy legal battle to gain back possession of Gustave Klimt's iconic "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I" from Nazis. Reynolds is a young lawyer named Randy Schoeberg and the movie is mostly told in flashbacks while the present day shows the battle to retrieve the artwork. The performances are solid, with Mirren picking up a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
23 Turbo (2013)
- Streaming on Netflix
This 2013 animation boasts an inspired premise: a snail is miraculously gifted superspeed and enters the Indy 500. Turbo's voice cast is good all-around, and the small snail with big dreams turns out to be an inspired match for Reynolds' charisma, although the setup is most of the fun here. Aside from a stacked supporting cast within the movie, including Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Samuel L. Jackson, and Bill Hader, this is largely one for the younger kids.