For chapter 2 of this series, I could only think it’d be appropriate to cover a very famous actor whose ambitions seem to be growing faster than anyone could have guessed, and given the release of Creed 3, he’s a man whose talents are not just limited to the front of the camera.
Michael bakari Jordan
A man who may be more known for being a sex symbol than he is an actor these days. Which is saying a lot because he’s been around for about 20 years or so, believe it or not.
A couple of things before we get started:
1. This is a list ranking the quality of his films first and foremost. But I’ll be adding a side score of his performances in these films. The funny thing with Jordan is that he is a man that often outperforms some of the material that he’s given. This is definitely worth noting as we go along.
2. I won’t be including the low-level supporting roles/cameos that he’s had in films like Red tails, pastor brown, space jam 2, and wakanda forever. All of those are too insignificant to talk about at length. Apologies in advance for anybody who hasn’t seen those movies given the fact that his cameos are supposed to be surprises in at least two of those movies.
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THE MICHAEL B. JORDAN TIER LIST
For further explanation……
GREATNESS 🤩
BLACK PANTHER
What can you say about this movie that hasn’t already been said? A top six or seven MCU movie of all time, easily one of the top 10 comic book movies of all time, regardless of whatever banner the movie happens to be under. An all-time performance, of course, by Chadwick Boseman and the most famous performance to date from Mike B. Jordan. A lot of people think this is his best performance which is absolutely insane. Jordan has a lot of flashy stuff to do and is one of the best marvel villains that we’ve had to date, but this movie is great for many other reasons than him.
Movie: 10 out of 10
Jordan’s Performance: 8 out of 10
CREED
If one is to count these Creed movies as a part of the Rocky franchise, then the first iteration of this trilogy goes right underneath Rocky 1 & Rocky 4 as the best of the entire series as a whole. There are many inventive boxing sequences, including one of the more clever single-shot scenes of the past decade. Oh yeah, and this movie has Sylvester Stallone’s best performance as Rocky EVER. He’s given so much more emotionally to do here than he ever has been before. Stallone earned that Golden Globe and should have won that Oscar for this movie.
Movie: 9.25 out of 10
Jordan’s performance: 8 out of 10
FRUITVALE STATION
The best Mike B. Jordan performance by far. He carries this movie so effortlessly that any question as to him being a leading man from this particular moment can be considered an act of sheer lunacy. This movie also marks the emphatic arrival of Ryan Coogler as a director to look out for. Coogler and Jordan seem as simpatico cinematically as any actor/director duo I can think of. Very Denzel/Spike Lee vibes here. I know those are gigantic names to compare, but just give it some time.
Movie: 9 out of 10
Jordan’s Performance: 10 out of 10
GREATNESS ADJACENT
CREED 2
A brilliant way of putting things full circle with the Dragos. Might very well be the best performance in the history of Dolph Lundgren’s career. The scene where he and Rocky confront each other at the bar might be one of my favorite scenes of the last decade or so. All the fight scenes feel a lot bigger, the stakes are higher, it’s a perfect way to do a sequel to a movie that I loudly proclaimed didn’t need a sequel whatsoever all those many years ago. I’ve been wrong before I can own up to it.
Movie: 8 out of 10
Jordan’s Performance: 8 out of 10
CHRONICLE
One of the most underrated gems of the 2010s, and a movie that goes high on my “why the f*** did this never get a sequel?” list. I never understood the found footage gimmick outside of horror films until I saw this and realized that this is the movie that used that gimmick in the absolute best way. Josh Trank was a gifted director, and it’s a shame that he’s never coming back. Jordan’s performance is really strange in the sense that he does have a lot to do…. but at the same time… not really.
Movie: 8 out of 10
Jordan’s Performance: 7 out of 10
GOOD 😊
JUST MERCY
I can’t help but to believe that this was the movie that was supposed to propel Jordan beyond his sex-symbol status. However, this movie is completely dominated by Jamie Foxx and Rob Morgan, both of whom should have gotten a f***-ton more attention around awards season for their work in this film. No disrespect to the actual real-life people that this movie was portrayed upon, but Walter McMillan (the real-life person portrayed by Jordan in this film) is the most boring character in this movie, unfortunately. Jordan isn’t bad, but he just isn’t that memorable, either.
Movie: 7.5 out of 10
Jordan’s Performance: 6.5 out of 10
CREED 3
MEH…
WITHOUT REMORSE
The hard push for Jordan to be an action star. It seems as if the verdict is still out. Jordan certainly has the ability to do it, but as much as an actor may have the looks, talent, charisma, and screen presence, the character still has to connect with audiences in a certain type of way that his character John Clark just hasn’t as of yet. They plan on doing another one of these John Clark movies. Hopefully, it’ll be better. There’s a really high ceiling for Jordan on this one.
Movie: 6.5 out of 10
Jordan’s Performance: 6.5 out of 10
A JOURNAL FOR JORDAN
Man, I hate saying this about anything even remotely associated with that modern-day sovereign known as Denzel Washington… But man, this movie didn’t hit on any level. It almost seems as if this was the movie to get certain people all across the world to imagine Mike B. Jordan as an overly romantic, essentially perfect husband and father. His sex symbol image is ramped up to 10 on this one, albeit in a very unconventional way.
Movie: 5.5 out of 10
Jordan’s Performance: 6 out of 10
Fahrenheit 451
On the surface, there’s really nothing wrong. Everything seems kind of mid. To me, 451 is one of the best books ever made. However, the more I think about it, this version of Fahrenheit 451 is like a really good band covering a classic song. Jordan and Shannon are not bad, the production value is on point, and the direction isn’t too bad either. But it doesn’t feel right. You can get the best band in the world to do Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones, for example, but even though the notes are played correctly, it just doesn’t have the emotion of the original. That’s this movie in a nutshell.
Movie: 5.5 out of 10
Jordan’s Performance: 6 out of 10
WHAT THE F*** WAS THIS GARBAGE?! 🤮
THAT AWKWARD MOMENT
As routine as it gets. Extremely formulaic. Not funny whatsoever. Oddly, this is a movie with three actors that I really like (Jordan, Zac Efron, and Miles Teller) that have zero comedic chemistry together. A movie that strongly suggests that the studio just put three young handsome actors together and put them in the same movie without even a screen test to see if they could click on screen or not.
Movie: 4 out of 10
Jordan’s Performance: 4 out of 10
*sighs* FANTASTIC 4…
One of the absolute worst superhero movies ever made for a bunch of different reasons other than what’s on screen. A movie that may be the foremost example of studio interference to a final product being put on screen outside of the first suicide squad movie. A movie with trailers that contain a bunch of scenes that are not in the movie whatsoever. A movie that the director himself admitted was the worst version of that movie that currently existed and essentially told the audience that the more awesome version of this movie is something that we were never going to see.
I’m not even going to go into the press run of this movie which only got more and more disastrous on top of everything that was going on with Josh trank in 20th century Fox. This movie was bad for many, many different reasons that had nothing to do with Jordan. He was actually not that bad here, all things considered.
Movie: 2 out of 10
Jordan’s Performance: 5 out of 10
