Summary
FromDeath ProoftoBone TomahawktoExecutive Decision, there are a ton of great underrated Kurt Russell movies that deserve a lot more love from audiences. Russell has been acting since the age of 12. He started his career in the 1960s with the title role in the western seriesThe Travels of Jaimie McPheeters. This led to a 10-year contract with Disney, under which he starred in such cult comedies asThe Computer Wore Tennis Shoes,The Strongest Man in the World, andNow You See Him, Now You Don’t.
Throughout his career, Russell has developed strong working relationships with some of the greatest filmmakers in Hollywood, from John Carpenter to Quentin Tarantino. He’s starred in such bona fide classics asTombstone,The Thing, andEscape from New York. He’s appeared in massive blockbuster franchises likeFast & Furiousand the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But not all of his movies have received the love they deserve. Russell’s “buddy cop” pairing with Sylvester Stallone and his gory, subversive horror western should be a lot more beloved than they are.
10Captain Ron
Russell went back to his Disney comedy roots with 1992’sCaptain Ron. Martin Short stars as a tightly wound, upper-middle-class suburban family man who inherits a sailboat and decides to embark on an adventure through the Caribbean with his wife and kids. Russell plays the eponymous eccentric sailor, who the family hires to sail the yacht. This clash of personalities is a classic comedic setup, and Russell’s chemistry with Short sells the whole thing.
Although it was panned by critics on its initial release,Captain Ronis a surprisingly strong comedy that holds up today. It was criticized for putting Russell in the comedic role and Short in the “straight man” role. But Russell does a terrific job with the wacky comedic role, carrying the movie with enough charm and hilarity to overcome the film’s bigger flaws.
9The Hateful Eight
Russell’s second collaboration with Tarantino,The Hateful Eight, is a rough and gritty revisionist western about an ensemble of ne’er-do-wells being forced to spend a night in each other’s company after being snowed into a haberdashery. 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’s determined to get his latest notorious bounty to the gallows.
While it was a little too brutal for some critics and audiences when it arrived in 2015,The Hateful Eightdeserves to be reappraisedas a cult classic. It’s the closest that Tarantino has come to making a horror movie. It has a really eerie, chilling atmosphere, thanks to Tarantino’s claustrophobic direction and Ennio Morricone’s creepy, Oscar-winning score. It’s as scary asThe Thingwithout any alien intervention.
8Executive Decision
Ever sinceDie Hardemerged as an action movie masterpiecewith a beautifully simplistic story setup, “Die Hard in a…” has become a subgenre of its own. Russell starred in his ownDie Hardclone –Executive Decision, which could be described as “Die Hard on a plane” – in 1996. Russell plays Dr. David Grant, a consultant for U.S. Army Intelligence, who is summoned to the Pentagon to figure out an exit strategy when a commercial flight is hijacked by terrorists.
Executive Decision’s critics had a point – its script is riddled with plot holes – but its action spectacle is exciting enough to make up for that. The movie has an ingenious first-act twist, too, involving then-A-lister Steven Seagal getting Janet Leigh’d as soon as he boards the plane.Executive Decisiondeserves a place as an action movie classic.
7Escape From L.A.
When it first arrived in 1996,Escape from L.A.polarized critics and bombed at the box office, and it’s since been included on a bunch of lists of disappointing sequels. But a small cult following has recognized the film’s merits.Russell reprises his role as Snake Plissken, who is once again recruited by the U.S. government. This time, he has to recover a doomsday device from Los Angeles, which has become an isolated island where criminals are deported.
AlthoughEscape from L.A.is a much sillier and more bombastic movie thanEscape from New York, it’s also a more mature movie. Snake’s cynicism about humanity’s reliance on technology has proven to be surprisingly prescient.Escape from L.A.might not be as badass as its predecessor, but the big, explosive action sequences are just as thrilling.
6Used Cars
When it comes to ‘80s comedies directed by Robert Zemeckis, the title that’s bound to come up first isBack to the Future. And unfortunately, that movie’s legendary status has overshadowed a great comedy that Zemeckis made five years earlier.Used Carsis a slick satire with a much darker comedic sensibility thanBack to the Future. Russell stars as a slippery car salesman working for an affable boss whose more ruthless (and more successful) brother works across the street.
At the time of its release,Used Carswas a critical and commercial failure. But its cynical, pitch-black sense of humor – which is rarely seen in big studio movies these days – has earned it a cult following over the years. Zemeckis only ever made one other R-rated movie, 2012’sFlight, butUsed Carsproves he could’ve had an awesome career in R-rated comedies.
5Dark Blue
In 2002’sDark Blue, Russell tried his hand at a darker role as a morally ambiguous antihero in a gritty neo-noir police thriller. Based on a story bycrime novelist James Ellroy,Dark Bluetakes place in Los Angeles in 1992, in the days leading up to the verdict of the Rodney King trial. Russell plays a corrupt L.A.P.D. detective whose investigation into a robbery and homicide leads him to question his crooked ways.
WhileDark Blueis a fairly conventional police procedural playing on all the familiar tropes and clichés seen in countless other movies, Russell’s performance is strong enough to make the movie stand out. It doesn’t quite have as much to say as it wants about police corruption and racism in America. But Russell gives an engrossing performance as a dirty cop.
4Breakdown
Russell and Kathleen Quinlan play a seemingly happy married couple embarking on a cross-country road trip to California in the massively underrated thrillerBreakdown. When their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and the wife disappears, the husband frantically tries to find her. But his search uncovers all kinds of intriguing mysteries and disturbing secrets. Although it received positive reviews from critics,Breakdownwasn’t the box office hit that it deserved to be.
The plot unfolds in a really fascinating way, thanks to writer-director Jonathan Mostow’s Hitchcockian command of tension and suspense. Throughout the movie, Mostow keeps his cards close to his chest, drawing the audience to the edge of their seat.Breakdownhas a lot in common with the Dutch thrillerThe Vanishing, but hasn’t earned a cult following of the same size.
3Tango & Cash
Russell teamed up with John Rambo himself, Sylvester Stallone, for a classic “buddy cop” action comedy inTango & 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 break out of prison, track down the saboteur, and clear their names.Tango & Cashis a much goofier movie thanLethal Weapon,a fellow pioneer of the “buddy cop” genre, but it’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 movie is a mess. But it’s an enjoyable mess. The action scenes are completely ridiculous, but they’re a lot of fun to watch, and Russell and Stallone’s banter carries the movie.
2Bone Tomahawk
S. Craig Zahler kicked off his uniquely gruesome vision of the B-movie with his blood-soaked westernBone Tomahawk.Bone Tomahawkstarts off as a pretty typical western movie. Russell plays a small-town sheriff who leads a posse – comprised of such stars as Patrick Wilson, Richard Jenkins, andLost’s Matthew Fox – into the wilderness to locate three missing people. However, it becomes a no-holds-barred horror movie when they realize that these three people were abducted by a vicious cannibalistic cult.
The gore inBone Tomahawkmight be too much for some viewers to handle (that might be why it’s not more well-known), but it’s a wonderfully subversive horror western and a masterwork of the cannibal subgenre. Russell gives a gripping performance as a sheriff pushed to the brink.Bone Tomahawkis essentially a redo ofThe Searcherswith much more blood.
1Death Proof
Tarantino’s self-proclaimed worst movie,Death Proof, is actually pretty darn good. Its premise of a sadistic stuntman using his “death-proof” car to prey on unsuspecting young women is an ingenious blend of slasher and car chase movie. Russell was the perfect casting choice for Stuntman Mike, because he has the leading-man charisma to fool people into thinking he can be trusted, but he also has the dramatic chops to make Mike’s true murderous nature hauntingly believable.
Death Prooffeatures some of the most impressive car stunts ever put on film (and a great soundtrack). It received negative reviews because it captures its exploitation influences a little too closely – but as an entry in that grindhouse B-movie canon, it’s practically a masterpiece. Plus, it seesKurt Russellstepping outside his comfort zone to play a full-blown irredeemable villain.
