Michael Keaton’s 10 Most Underrated Movies

Michael Keaton is an Oscar-nominated actor with decades of success in Hollywood, but some of his best movies still don’t get the audience they deserve. Since breaking through as a comic actor in the 1980s, Keaton has thrived in a variety of roles. His fame reached a new peak a few years later when he starred in Beetlejuice And Batman in back-to-back years. Although he was a bankable star for many years, he did a lot of underrated movies.

Michael Keaton’s best movies showcase his talents as a comedic actor and a performer with serious dramatic chops. He can slip into surprising roles from time to time, because he is not afraid to throw himself into a supporting role. Although they may not be as famous as some of his biggest hits, these are the movies in which Keaton shows a different side to himself and gives something surprising.

10

The Founder (2016)

Ray Kroc

The founderThe mediocre box office returns prove that it was a hard sell to many people, but what may appear on the surface to be a drawn-out advertisement for McDonald’s is actually more layered and interesting than that. While The founder Whether the history of McDonald’s to the history of the United States in the late 20th century, it does not always paint a sympathetic picture. Michael Keaton’s Ray Kroc is a morally ambiguous character who represents the machinations of the free market.

Keaton’s innate likability is part of what makes The founder So interesting. Even as Ray Kroc outsmarts the McDonald brothers from their own family business, he never seems to be a bad guy in the typical sense, or at least he never believes himself to be one. Like every hard-working American, Kroc is the hero in his own story. The founder leaving the broader impact of his stance open to interpretation.

9

Pacific Heights (1990)

Carter Hayes

Pacific Heights is like many psychological thrillers of the 1990s in some ways, but its premise means it has fallen out of fashion. Michael Keaton gets a chance to play the villain, as Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith are two landlords who find that their down tenant is slowly ruining their lives. This setup means that the villain is awfully close to home, even if it depends on the audience caring about property values ​​for a while. Pacific Heights Becomes more violent, more urgent and more compelling as it progresses.

Throughout the movie, Keaton’s performance provides the beating heart that keeps things interesting. Even when his character’s true motives and true identity remain unknown, he is a reptilian presence capable of sending shivers down the spine. There is always the underlying threat of escalation, and this is enough to cause the homeowners to become their own tormentors.

8

The Other Guys (2010)

Captain Gene Mauch

The other guys is a great buddy cop comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as two detectives used to sitting on the sidelines and filing paperwork that throw themselves into the thick of the action. Adam McKay, director of other Ferrell classics such as Anchorman And Step brothersis once again at the helm. Michael Keaton has a hilarious supporting role as the police captain who also works in Bed, Bath and Beyond.

The other guys is filled with funny quotes, as well as some physical humor that highlights the mismatch between Ferrell and Wahlberg. Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson steals the show early on as two hero cops with plenty of pithy one-liners, but Keaton is another great supporting cast member. He gets the funniest running gag of the movie, since he’s constantly quoting TLC lyrics while claiming he’s never heard of the band.

7

Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

Dogberry

In general, William Shakespeare’s tragedies are adapted into movies much more often than his comediesBecause modern audiences don’t connect with Elizabethan English enough to find it funny. While some movies have mapped Shakespeare’s place on modern settings to bridge the gap, vi Anyone but you And she is the man Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 version of Much ado about nothing Is funny without changing too much.

Some of the casting choices are a little unusual much ado about nothing But they work very well. The key is that each actor understands the role they are playing in Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, so Robert Sean Leonard and Keanu Reeves seem perfectly at home. Michael Keaton plays Dogberry, one of Shakespeare’s funniest characters, and his portrayal as inept and inebriated works well.

6

Porco Rosso (1992)

Porco Rosso

Michael Keaton has had a few high-profile voice-acting roles over the years, most notably as Ken Toy Story 3 And Chick Hicks in the Cars Franchise. Away from Pixar, his most memorable voice-acting role was that of Porco Rosso, the eponymous porcine pilot of one of Studio Ghibli’s best movies. Keaton was part of the 2005 English dub, which was released 13 years after the Japanese original.

Porco Rosso It has a lot of Hayao Miyazaki’s signature magic sprinkled throughout, but it’s also grounded in a time and place of huge historical significance. While some other Studio Ghibli movies can be seen as allegories, Porco Rosso is more up-front with its intentions. Stylistically, it borrows from old adventure movies from Hollywood’s golden era, but its animated action scenes are remarkably inventive.

5

Out of Sight (1998)

Ray Nicolette

Three years before directing ocean’s eleven, Steven Soderbergh created another modern heist thriller with George Clooney. Out of sight is based on an Elmore Leonard novel, so it has a lot of humor mixed in with its captivating crime plot. Clooney plays a thief who begins a flirtatious relationship with the detective tasked with tracking him down, played by Jennifer Lopez.

Michael Keaton doesn’t play a huge role, but his appearance is noteworthy since he reprises his role as Ray Nicolette from Quentin Tarantino’s. Jackie Brown A year before. Both movies are based on Leonard novels. Some parts of Out of sight Seems like Soderbergh is warming up for these ocean s franchise, but it stands on its own two feet as a twisty crime drama worth watching.

4

Jackie Brown (1997)

Ray Nicolette

Michael Keaton’s first appearance as ATF agent Ray Nicolette gives him much more to do than Out of sight. Nicolette is one of the agents trying to track down some stolen money and a variety of shady thugs. Keaton makes him a likable character, in way over his head and struggling to understand the various machinations of the criminal world around him. He is a good man in a world of selfish thuggery.

Jackie Brown is arguably Quentin Tarantino’s most underrated movie, released amid the explosive success of Pulp fiction And the epic Kill Bill Duology. It’s a crime drama that plays things relatively low-key. Tarantino’s flair for dialogue still shines through, and he has some action scenes that erupt with violence, but Many of the best parts of Jackie Brown are in her quieter momentsAided by a sumptuous soundtrack.

3

value (2020)

Kenneth Feinberg

Value Takes place in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, but it tells a relatively unknown story about real-life history. Michael Keaton plays Kenneth Feinberg, a lawyer who heads the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, the group that must figure out how to financially compensate the families of the victims. Feinberg tries to do what is best for the victims, but he finds that his efforts are blocked by strict regulations and red tape.

As the title says, Value Examine what value can be placed on a human life, and it raises some interesting ethical questions. There are various cases among the approximately 7,000 victims who were taken from real life, which highlight the problems with the methods of the victim compensation fund, although they are filled with the understanding that giving no restitution would be even more damaging. Value It doesn’t offer simple answers, but there are moments of hope amid the tragedy.

2

Knox Goes Away (2023)

John “Aristotle” Knox

Knox leaves is only the second film directed by Michael Keaton, and is a step-up in quality from 2009’s The gay gentlemen. Keaton plays the role of an aging murderer with a rare form of dementia, who must help his estranged son out of a tight spot. Keaton’s performance and direction combine to create an interesting visual representation of mental decline, and this gives the action scenes more menace.

Keaton’s supporting cast includes James Marsden and Al Pacino, but he remains in the spotlight throughout. Knox leaves. It’s an interesting twist on an action thrillerwith elements of John Wick And The father Balancing each other out, but its long-winded pace makes it a different proposition than the usual actors. first and foremost, Knox leaves is a personal drama about aging and loss, but the action scenes make for some punchy interludes.

1

Night Shift (1982)

Bill Blazejowski

After making his film debut with a non-speaking role in the critically panned comedy rabbit test, Michael Keaton got his first starring role in Night shift. He and Henry Winkler play two morgue workers who start running a prostitution ring. A morgue is not a standard setting for a sex romp comedy, and it adds an extra layer of dark humor when the two friends find themselves pursued by cops and rival pimps.

Night shift Helped turn the kitten into a star. Younger audiences may only know him from movies like Beetlejuice, Batman And birdman, But his early comedies are worth watching. With Ron Howard’s snappy direction, Night shift Keeps the pace up and the gags rolling. Keaton plays the eccentric wildcard in his dynamic with Winkler, and it’s the kind of role that has come naturally to him many times.