John Cusack has been working steadily for nearly a quarter century, and in that time he’s been in more than fifty films. Not too shabby, you might say. Wrong! According to Cusack himself, no more than ten of them are any damn good. “I’m sure you know which ones they are,” says the moody actor. “The ones that suck I tend to blank out. It’s like I never even made them.” The writer of the article offers his own list of Cusack’s ten best performances, and Cusack doesn’t appear to disagree. Really, it isn’t a bad list. (You can see a complete list of Cusack’s films here, just to see if you think there should be any additions or deletions.)
One glaring omission from Cusack’s list is the 1985 movie Better Off Dead. Cusack notoriously regards this as one of the worst movies he’s ever made, but I defy anyone to deny it’s one of the finest Eighties teen comedies of the decade. The style is a bit like John Hughes on mescaline, with more quotable lines than you can shake a stick at. Go on, name three memorable quotes from Bullets Over Broadway.
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Oh yeah – Eight Men Out was a really good one, mostly because the actors knew how to play baseball and looked like it (for a refreshing change in baseball movies).
Kinda nice to see a guy admit stuff sucked but – hey – he’s from Chicago so, he’s gotta be cool.
I’m just glad to see Grosse Point Blank made the list
and, looking over that list, I really liked Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and both he and Kevin Spacey were good in it.
Two dollars – probably the best quote from any movie in the 80s that didn’t have the Governator or Shannon Tweed in it.
My favorite all time John Cusack movie hands down is Say Anything – The almighty Lloyd Dobbler
He’s wigg’n man he’s wigg’n – Lloyd Lloyd all null and void got dished in the Mailibu don’t know what to do.
I like most of his films, although there definitely have been some bad ones. I saw Must Love Dogs on a flight and thought it was TERRIBLE. I think Diane Lane played opposite him. It was downright torturous. Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity and Better Off Dead (he thinks that’s his worst movie? i think it’s a CLASSIC 80s teen flick!) are three of my faves.