10 Kurt Russell Movies That Deserve More Love

Summary

  • Kurt Russell’s underrated films deserve more love from audiences, showing his versatility and charm throughout his career.

  • Captain Ron, The Hateful Eight and Executive Decision highlight Russell’s comedic, brave and action-packed performances that deserve more recognition.

  • From Death Proof to Bone Tomahawk, Russell has proven his talent across multiple genres, making him a versatile and underrated actor in Hollywood.

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Of proof of death to bone tomahawk to Executive decision, there are plenty of great underrated Kurt Russell movies that deserve a lot more love from audiences. Russell has been acting since he was 12 years old. He began his career in the 1960s with the lead role in the western series. The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters. This led to him signing a 10-year contract with Disney, under which he starred in cult comedies such as The computer wore tennis shoes, The World’s strongest manand Now you see it, now you don’t.

Throughout his career, Russell has developed strong working relationships with some of Hollywood’s biggest filmmakers, from John Carpenter to Quentin Tarantino. He has starred in such authentic classics as tombstone, The thingand escape from new york. She has appeared in blockbuster franchises such as Fast and Furious and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But not all of his films have received the love they deserve. Russell’s pairing as a “buddy cop” with Sylvester Stallone and his gory, subversive horror western should be much more beloved than they are.

10 Captain Ron

Kurt Russell with a pair of binoculars in Captain Ron

Russell returned to his Disney comedy roots with 1992. Captain Ron. Martin Short plays an upper-middle class suburban family man who inherits a sailboat and decides to embark on an adventure to the Caribbean with his wife and children. Russell plays the eccentric sailor of the same name, whom the family hires to sail the yacht. This clash of personalities is a classic comedic setup, and Russell’s chemistry with Short sells it all.

Although it was panned by critics upon its initial release, Captain Ron is a surprisingly strong comedy that holds up today. He was criticized for putting Russell in the comedic role and Short in the “straight man” role. But Russell does an excellent job with the flamboyant comic role, carrying the film with enough charm and hilarity to overcome the film’s biggest flaws.

9 The Hateful Eight

Oswaldo, John and Daisy talk around a table in The Hateful Eight

Russell’s second collaboration with Tarantino, the hateful eight, is a gritty, gritty revisionist Western about a group of ne’er-do-wells who are forced to spend a night in each other’s company after being turned into a haberdashery by the snow. There are no good guys in this movie, only bad guys, and no one knows who they can trust. Russell plays John “The Hangman” Ruth, who is determined to take his latest notorious bounty to the gallows.

While it was too brutal for some critics and audiences when it arrived in 2015, the hateful eight It deserves to be reappraised as a cult classic. It’s the closest Tarantino has come to making a horror movie. It has a truly eerie and chilling atmosphere, thanks to Tarantino’s claustrophobic direction and Ennio Morricone’s eerie Oscar-winning score. It’s as scary as The thing without any extraterrestrial intervention.

8 Executive Decision

Kurt Russell and Halle Berry on a plane in Executive Decision

Since then die hard “It emerged as a masterpiece of an action movie with a beautifully simplistic story,”Die hard in a…”has become a subgenre in itself. Russell starred in his die hard clone – Executive decisionwhich could be described as “Die hard on a plane” – in 1996. Russell plays Dr. David Grant, a US Army Intelligence consultant, who is summoned to the Pentagon to devise an exit strategy when a commercial flight is hijacked by terrorists.

Executive decisionThe critics were right: its script is riddled with plot holes, but its action spectacle is exciting enough to make up for that. The film also has a clever twist in the first act, in which then-star Steven Seagal lands Janet Leigh as soon as she boards the plane. Executive decision It deserves a place as a classic action movie.

7 escape from Los Angeles

Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken in Escape from LA

When it first arrived in 1996, Escape from Los Angeles polarized critics and bombed at the box office, and has since been included on plenty of disappointing sequel lists. But a small group of fans have recognized the film’s merits. Russell reprises his role as Snake Plissken, who is once again recruited by the United States government. This time, he has to retrieve a doomsday device from Los Angeles, which has become an isolated island where he deportees criminals.

Although Escape from Los Angeles It is a much sillier and more bombastic film than escape from new york, is also a more mature film. Snake’s cynicism about humanity’s dependence on technology has proven surprisingly prescient. Escape from Los Angeles It may not be as badass as its predecessor, but the big, explosive action sequences are just as exciting.

6 used cars

Kurt Russell launches used car sale

When it comes to ’80s comedies directed by Robert Zemeckis, the title that’s sure to come up first is Return to the future. And unfortunately, that film’s legendary status has overshadowed a great comedy Zemeckis made five years earlier. Used cars is a witty satire with a much darker comedic sensibility than Return to the future. Russell plays a slippery car salesman who works for a mild-mannered boss whose more ruthless (and more successful) brother works across the street.

At the time of its launch, Used cars It was a critical and commercial failure. But his cynical, dark sense of humor (rarely seen in big studio movies these days) has earned him a cult following over the years. Zemeckis only made one other R-rated movie, 2012’s. Flightbut Used cars proves he could have had an incredible career in R-rated comedies.

5 dark blue

Kurt Russell and Scott Speedman in dark blue

in 2002 Dark blue, Russell attempted a darker role as a morally ambiguous antihero in a gritty neo-noir crime thriller. Based on a story by crime novelist James Ellroy, Dark blue It takes place in Los Angeles in 1992, in the days before the Rodney King trial verdict. Russell plays a corrupt LAPD detective whose investigation into a robbery and homicide leads him to question his bad habits.

While Dark blue is a fairly conventional police procedural that plays with all the familiar tropes and clichés seen in many other films, Russell’s performance is strong enough to make the film stand out. He doesn’t have as much to say as he would like about police corruption and racism in America. But Russell gives a fascinating performance as a corrupt cop.

4 Breakdown

Kurt Russell hanging from a truck in Breakdown

Russell and Kathleen Quinlan play a seemingly happy married couple who embark on a cross-country road trip to California in this hugely underrated thriller. Break down. When her car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and her wife disappears, her husband desperately tries to find her. But the search for him uncovers all kinds of intriguing mysteries and disturbing secrets. Although it received positive reviews from critics, Break down It was not the box office success it deserved to be.

The plot unfolds in a truly fascinating way, thanks to writer-director Jonathan Mostow’s Hitchcockian mastery of tension and suspense. Throughout the film, Mostow keeps his cards close to his chest, bringing the audience to the edge of his seat. Break down has a lot in common with the Dutch thriller Missingbut he hasn’t gained a cult following of the same size.

3 tango and cash

Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone in Tango and Cash

Russell teamed up with John Rambo himself, Sylvester Stallone, for a classic “buddy cop” action comedy in Tango and Cash. They play a pair of rival detectives who are forced to work together when a powerful crime boss frames them both for murder. They join forces to escape from prison, track down the saboteur, and clear their names. Tango and Cash It’s a much sillier movie than lethal weapona pioneering companion of the “buddy cop” genre, but he’s just as wildly entertaining.

It had a troubled production, going through four different directors (Andrei Konchalovsky, Albert Magnoli, Peter MacDonald and Stuart Baird), so the resulting film is a disaster. But it’s a nice mess. The action scenes are completely ridiculous, but they are a lot of fun to watch, and Russell and Stallone’s banter is the star of the movie.

2 bone tomahawk

Franklin and Chicory looking at something in Bone Tomahawk.

S. Craig Zahler kicked off his uniquely gruesome vision of the B-movie with his blood-soaked western bone tomahawk. bone tomahawk It starts off like a pretty typical Western movie. Russell plays a small-town sheriff who leads a group, made up of stars such as Patrick Wilson, Richard Jenkins and Lost‘s Matthew Fox: into the desert to locate three missing people. However, it becomes a full-on horror movie when they realize that these three people were kidnapped by a vicious cannibal cult.

the blood in bone tomahawk It may be too much for some viewers (perhaps that’s why it’s not better known), but it’s a wonderfully subversive horror Western and a masterpiece of the cannibal subgenre. Russell gives a gripping performance as a sheriff on the brink. bone tomahawk It is essentially a remake of The search engines with much more blood.

1 death test

Kurt_Russell_smoking_a_death_proof_cigarette

Tarantino’s self-proclaimed worst film, proof of death, it’s actually pretty good. Its premise of a sadistic double using his “proof of death“A Car Preying on Unsuspecting Young Women is an ingenious mix of horror movie and car chase.” Russell was the perfect casting choice for Specialist Mike, because he has the leading man charisma to fool people into believing he can be trusted, but he also has the dramatic chops to make Mike’s true murderous nature disturbingly believable. .

proof of death features some of the most impressive car stunts ever filmed (and a great soundtrack). It received negative reviews because it captures its exploitation influences too closely, but as an entry in that B-movie canon, it’s practically a masterpiece. Plus, it sees Kurt Russell stepping out of his comfort zone to play a full-fledged irredeemable villain.

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