We don’t even need to include Nick Fury, Frozone or Mace Windu to fill the list.
Samuel L. Jackson is the best motherfucking actor working today.People don’t believe this for some reason. Nerds might say, “Oh, Benedict Cumberbatch is Cumber-terrific,” and that’s ridiculous because: a. “Cumber-terrific” is not a real word and 2. If anybody is Cumber-terrific, it’s Samuel L. Jackson.
Fact: Sam Jack is the most successful box office performer of all-time. Haters like to hate, proclaiming, “He has tiny parts in big movies to pad the numbers.” Well, that’s called playing it smart, dummy. Work a little in a bunch of movies and reap the rewards across the board.
Fans cite Jackson’s performances in “Pulp Fiction,” “Jackie Brown” and “Jungle Fever” as his most acclaimed, and look, those are terrific roles. If you need any evidence that the Oscars are bullshit, consider the fact that Samuel L. didn’t win an Oscar for “Pulp Fiction” and hasn’t been nominated since. That’s hogwash, Academy. Even going by their boring, “Oscar-bait” standards, Jackson should have netted at least seven nominations after “Pulp Fiction,” a few of which will be mentioned later in this piece.
This is not opinion. This is Truth.
In episode 30 of the Old Millennials Remember Movies podcast on 2000’s “Unbreakable,” co-host Angela Yoshiko and I spoke at length about Jackson’s vulnerable and ultimately menacing performance as Elijah Price, aka Mister Glass. Nineteen years later, he reprised the role in 2019’s bug-nut crazy sequel, “Glass.” Even folks who hated the movie concede Jackson once again crushes the role. Because of course he does.
Jackson is always good. Always. He brings his A-game to every project, even when the projects aren’t particularly good. He likes to keep a full-slate of projects every year, and 70-year-olds aren’t exactly offered the best roles all the time. He does what he can, picks cool projects and plays an absolute badass at least once every couple years just to remind us all that he’s the coolest motherfucker around.
In the 19 years between “Unbreakable” and “Glass,” Jackson has been seen by audiences more than anyone else working, racking up memorable supporting appearances in three mega-franchises – he plays ice powered superhero Frozone in Pixar’s “Incredibles” franchise, purple lightsaber-wielding Jedi Mace Windu in the “Star Wars” prequels, and one-eyed superspy Nick Fury in several entries of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He’s great in all those (even in “Star Wars,” despite, uh, well everything). But in between those iconic appearances, he was still working across all genres in roles big and small. Chances are you missed a few of them. Chances are you think about a few of the movies as “BAD!” and forgot that Jackson himself was still pretty good in it.
In celebration of the incomparable Samuel L. Jackson’s huge 2019, in which he appears in “Glass,” “Captain Marvel,” a long-awaited “Shaft” sequel, “Spider-man: Far from Home” and even MORE, the Old Millennials Remember Movies crew submit to you 10 great performances outside of his franchise work.
Romulus Ledbetter, “The Caveman’s Valentine” (2001)
A Juilliard-trained pianist and family man with paranoid schizophrenia winds up living in a cave at Inwood Hill Park in New York City, where he one day discovers the body of a young man. Even despite his unstable mind, Romulus begins to believe the man’s death is connected to the work of a famous photographer.
This type of role could have been a disaster in the hands of a performer looking to pad an Oscar-reel with an all-caps, MENTAL ILLNESS performance, but Jackson keeps the lid from blowing off the top, at nearly every turn, depicting the illness with sensitivity and restraint. The movie itself struggles to retain its own ambition, but Jackson’s a marvel here, even if only for his “caveman” appearance.
Doyle Gipson, “Changing Lanes” (2002)
The trailers for this movie made it look so ridiculous. It pitched handsome Ben Affleck in “Road Rage: The Movie,” pitting Mr. Gigli as a smug lawyer who winds up in a freeway fender-bender with Jackson, a struggling family man seemingly on the edge of a “Falling Down” type explosion.
The actual movie, directed by Roger Michell (“Notting Hill”) is much more introspective, giving both Affleck and Jackson the opportunity to play flawed characters who struggle to maintain their own core sense of morality. Despite the marketing, Jackson plays his character’s desperation on a much smaller scale. Also, Affleck is a totally underrated actor, even during this rugged period of his career. Come and fight me!
Coach Ken Carter, “Coach Carter” (2005)
A fact-based basketball drama about a coach who benched an undefeated high school team because of poor grades, “Coach Carter” was the MTV-produced, feel-good star vehicle Jackson definitely deserved more of in this period of his career. He’s a hardass coach who cares about his kids getting a proper education. He yells because he cares!
Look, it’s your standard inspirational sports drama, but it’s got a charismatic Jackson metaphorically dunking on jerk teenagers. What’s not to love?
Lazarus, “Black Snake Moan” (2006)
Writer/director Craig Brewer followed his breakout “Hustle & Flow” with a story about a former blues guitarist-turned farmer who chains a promiscuous young woman to his radiator in an effort to “save her soul.” From an optics standpoint, the premise (and marketing) didn’t make sense in 2006, and it especially feels icky in 2019, but the movie isn’t as outlandish as it suggests, and Jackson and Ricci develop a sweet (?) father-daughter-type relationship here.
Moreover, the movie is a showcase for Jackson as a singer. He’s a more-than-believable bluesman, and the music in the movie in general is terrific.
Champ, “Resurrecting the Champ” (2007)
Before a certain someone started ranting about fake news, this humdrum drama, about a reporter (Josh Hartnett) who writes a story about a former boxing champ (Jackson), explores the fallout of what happens when a journalist gets it wrong. The movie is a little heavy-handed, but both Hartnett and Jackson give earnest, convincing performances, with Jackson again zagging on big MENTAL ILLNESS tropes when most everyone else would zig.
Louis Hinds, “Soul Men” (2008)
Pitched mostly as a comedy, “Soul Men” suffers a bit from some strained conflict between soul singers played by Jackson and Bernie Mac, but, again, just marvel at how comfortable and charismatic Jackson is as a musician. Side note: I miss Bernie Mac, so the movie plays better now too because it’s one of his final performances.
Black, “The Sunset Limited” (2011)
An adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy play of the same name and made for HBO, “The Sunset Limited” is an intense showcase for Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones, who also directed the film. It all takes place in a single room, where the two men debate the fallout of Jones’ character’s attempted suicide. Bleak stuff, sure, but it’s a marvelous two-man show.
Stephen, “Django Unchained” (2012)
Arriving late in the picture alongside a particularly showy Leonardo DiCaprio, Jackson all but steals Quentin Tarantino’s wild, messy and spectacular Western away from Jamie Foxx, DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz, who won an Oscar for his performance in the film. A house slave to DiCaprio’s blustering plantation owner, Stephen ultimately becomes the film’s secret big bad, playing against Foxx’s hero to brilliant genre-subverting effect. Jackson was so stealthily good in this movie, the Academy predictably settled most of its blanket praise on the showier, less interesting performances in the movie. Go back and reassess.
President William Alan Moore, “Big Game” (2014)
This one’s just fun, and not enough people have seen Jackson play the President of the United States beat up bad guys alongside a bow-and-arrow wielding kid in the Finnish wilderness. Smarter and more entertaining than “Snakes on a Plane” (although I’d defend that movie too), much of the movie actually plays against the “Sam Jack is a bad (expletive deleted) trope, letting the kid do the majority of the cool stuff. Until, of course, Jackson gets to bust into his signature mode near the end.
Valentine, “Kingsman: The Secret Service” (2015)
Jackson chose to utilize a lisp to play the supergenius big bad of Matthew Vaughn’s explicit, adventurous take on the spy genre, and, look, I can totally see that choice being a distraction for a lot of viewers. It’s a bold choice but ultimately a pivotal one in shaping Valentine as a believably terrifying 21st-century supervillain. The movie’s big surprise (you know the one involving Colin Firth) works in large part because Jackson deflated the villain’s stereotypical menace.
Major Marquis Warren, “The Hateful Eight” (2015)
Leave it to Quentin Tarantino to deliver Jackson one of his meatiest, and wordiest, characters in years. “The Hateful Eight” divided audiences maybe more than any other Tarantino movie before it, but Jackson sits at the core of the movie’s challenging ideas on post Civil War race and gender politics. Plus no other actor could believably sell the blistering and profane monologue he delivers before the film’s intermission.
Oh, in case you’re wondering, Jackson should have Oscar nominations for the following movies (in addition to his sole nom in “Pulp Fiction”):
- “Jungle Fever” (1991)
- “A Time to Kill” (1996)
- “Jackie Brown” (1997)
- “Unbreakable” (2000)
- “Black Snake Moan” (2006)
- “The Sunset Limited” (2011) – and okay, technically an Emmy
- “Django Unchained” (2012)
- “The Hateful Eight” (2015)