Deadpool 3 Director Shawn Levy's 10 Best Movies, Ranked According To IMDB
The director's brand of inoffensive popcorn flicks has always gone over so well at the box office, but his brand is about to change in a big way.
Shawn Levy's movies aren't loved by critics, but almost all of them are liked to some extent by general audiences. The director's brand of inoffensive popcorn flicks has always gone over so well at the box office, but his brand is about to change in a big way.
Where Levy's films have always been fun for all the family, he has just recently been hired to direct Deadpool 3, a movie about a foul-mouthed assassin. But his previous films can still provide some indication of the direction in which he'll take the merc with the mouth. While his films aren't classics, Levy is one of the most prolific filmmakers working today, as he has directed 15 feature-length movies, sometimes releasing two in one year.
10 Cheaper By The Dozen (2003) - 5.9
The 2003 Cheaper by the Dozen remake is one of two collaborations between the director and Steve Martin, with the other being the Pink Panther remake. And while the 2003 family comedy is the better of the two, it's only by a slight margin. Though there are ways Cheaper by the Dozen isn't that bad, it was universally hated by critics, and general audiences are pretty hard on the movie too.
Despite being a comedy legend, the remake isn't Martin's finest hour, and the original is much funnier. However, not only was the 2003 movie a remake but it has been remade once again, which will be available to stream on Dinsey+ on March 18th. And hopefully, it'll be better than the previous few attempts.
9 Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian (2009) - 6.0
The Night at the Museum series is a case of diminishing returns on both ends. The movies got worse in quality, and based on the box office intake, there was less of an interest in the series with each consecutive release too. On top of that, based on the average IMDb scores, audiences were less receptive to the comedy with each movie too.
Battle of the Smithsonian is the second film in the franchise and while the premise of the series, which is about inanimate objects coming to life, is tried and true, it had quickly gotten as old as the artifacts in the movie. However, the film isn't exactly made for snooty critics, and the second entry in the series is still more of the same silly fun found in the original movie.
8 Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb (2014) - 6.2
While final movies in trilogies tend to be the worst of the lot, there are some rare occasions where that isn't true, and that's the case with the Night at the Museum trilogy, but that isn't saying much. The third film, Secret of the Tomb, is incrementally better than the second movie and incrementally worse than the first movie.
Even though the idea had run thin by Secret of the Tomb, it's still a wonder why there weren't more Night at the Museum movies after the third entry. The movie's box office gross of $373 million might have been the lowest of the series, but that's still a huge success. And there are fresh and creative ways the series could return one more time.
7 The Internship (2013) - 6.3
With The Internship, Shawn Levy cemented the fact that he's a director for the people. The movie earned him his worst score on Rotten Tomatoes with a Rotten 35%, but it's still enjoyed by general audiences. The movie features one of the cleverest uses of product placement, as the whole film is one big Google commercial.
Not only that, but the film surely had coders drooling at the possibility of working on the advanced, hi-tech Google campus. And Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson's on-screen chemistry and the charisma oozing from them massively help audiences overlook some of the movie's drawbacks.
6 Date Night (2010) - 6.3
Dumb, fun spy movies tend to be a strange kind of subgenre that's totally critic-proof, as Date Night is again another movie that's hated by professional film reviewers but well-liked by audiences. The film puts together two of TV comedy's biggest stars, Steve Carrell from The Office and Tina Fey from 30 Rock, and they shine on screen together.
The film is one of the best mistaken identity movies, as the comedy icons star as a bored couple who are mistaken for two expert criminals. It's a thrilling enough crime caper, but if anything, it makes audiences crave more Carrell and Fey team-up movies.
5 Night At The Museum (2006) - 6.4
Night at the Museum may have peaked at the very beginning of its life span, but that peak is one of the most enjoyable family movies of the 2000s. And though 6.4 might seem low, family adventure movies rarely reach higher scores and it's actually a very respectable rating for the genre.
The series was Levy's baby, and though it's based on a novel of the same name, it was the filmmaker who was committed to directing all three movies. The 2006 movie features Levy's trademark inoffensive but charming humor and a lot of heart, not to mention that it sees the late, great Robin Williams in one of his most underrated roles.
4 This Is Where I Leave You (2014) - 6.6
Levy seems to be a director that studios can only dream of, as he constantly puts out accomplished four-quadrant movies that gross hundreds of millions at the box office. However, This Is Where I Leave You is the director's bad day at the box office.
However, it's not all bad, as it at least made back its budget, and despite its box office performance, it's still one of Levy's most enjoyable movies to date. The film is a dramedy with an all-star cast, as it follows a huge family of siblings forced to live together in their childhood home for a week after the passing of their father.
3 The Adam Project (2022) - 6.9
It seems like Levy and Ryan Gosling are a force to be reckoned with, and they certainly bring out the best in each other. The Adam Project is the second movie in two years that they've worked on together, and fans have been more than receptive to the exciting and romantic, Netflix original time travel movie.
Levy is a master of setting up franchises, whether it's Night at the Museum or Free Guy, as there's a sequel to the 2021 movie currently in development, and it's looking like he's achieved the same with The Adam Project. After the hugely positive reaction to the movie from audiences, fans are begging for an Adam Project 2.
2 Real Steel (2011) - 7.1
The Hugh Jackman-starring Real Steel is one of the few sci-fi movies set in 2020, and while it didn't exactly predict the future, it's one of the most surprisingly entertaining movies of the 2010s. The film follows engineers who build robots and throw them in a boxing ring, and it's like Robot Wars meets Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots in the best way possible.
Given Levy's connections to Hugh Jackman and how they clearly work so well together, the 2011 movie could be an indicator that Jackman will join Reynolds for Deadpool 3 as Wolverine. Fans are still hopeful too, but then again, that could be clutching at straws.
1 Free Guy (2021) - 7.2
Free Guy is one of the most exciting premises for a sci-fi action movie, as it sees a non-player character in a video game get a consciousness. In a sense, it's the same premise as the Night at the Museum movies, but that premise is packaged much better in the recently released movie. And, ultimately, Free Guy was essentially Levy's audition process for getting the Deadpool 3 gig.
Free Guy is very much like a PG-13 version of the very R-rated superhero, as the 2021 film is full of Reynolds' quick-wit, pop-culture references, and self-aware humor. And as the upcoming third Deadpool movie will be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there were enough MCU references in Free Guy to fool an out-of-the-loop parent into thinking it was actually a Marvel movie.