Ask anyone to name the best Ryan Reynolds movies and Deadpool will come up within seconds. That is fair, but it is only part of the picture. Reynolds, who grew up in Vancouver and broke through in American comedies, has also played a hostage trapped underground, an FBI agent caught in a hail of bullets, a married man drifting through a summer fling and a lawyer taking on a national government. His fast, ironic delivery is the constant, but the films around it vary far more than his public image suggests.
Every film is placed on the strength of Reynolds's own performance, then by how well the movie works overall. That lets a modest drama or a sharp supporting turn outrank a louder action comedy where he coasts on charm. The spread covers his superhero peak, his recent blockbusters and the smaller films that show what he can do when the jokes stop.
Best Ryan Reynolds Movies: Characters, Directors and Release Years
| # | Movie | Year | Role | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Deadpool | 2016 | Wade / Deadpool | Tim Miller |
| 2 | Deadpool & Wolverine | 2024 | Wade Wilson / Deadpool / Nicepool | Shawn Levy |
| 3 | Free Guy | 2021 | Guy | Shawn Levy |
| 4 | Buried | 2010 | Paul Conroy | Rodrigo Cortés |
| 5 | Smokin' Aces | 2006 | Richard Messner | Joe Carnahan |
| 6 | The Hitman's Bodyguard | 2017 | Michael Bryce | Patrick Hughes |
| 7 | Red Notice | 2021 | Nolan Booth | Rawson Marshall Thurber |
| 8 | Just Friends | 2005 | Chris Brander | Roger Kumble |
| 9 | Adventureland | 2009 | Mike Connell | Greg Mottola |
| 10 | Woman in Gold | 2015 | Randol Schoenberg | Simon Curtis |
1. Deadpool (2016): The Defining Role
Deadpool introduces Wade Wilson as a cheerfully amoral gun for hire who finally finds happiness with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), only to be given a terminal cancer diagnosis. Desperate, he signs up for a shadowy program promising a cure. Its overseer, the cruel Ajax, played by Ed Skrein, tortures Wade until a hidden mutation emerges, leaving him almost impossible to kill but horribly disfigured. Director Tim Miller follows Wade's hunt for Ajax through a nonlinear story, with T.J. Miller as his friend Weasel and Gina Carano as the brawler Angel Dust.
Reynolds is a perfect match for a hero who narrates his own movie, mocks its own studio and talks straight to the viewer. The jokes come at machine-gun speed, yet the performance has genuine heart, and the romance gives the irreverence an emotional anchor. The R-rated approach was unusual for a superhero film, and his total commitment is what makes it work. It ranks first because no other film captures his voice so completely, and because Wade Wilson has become the role that defines his career.
2. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024): Multiverse Mayhem
Deadpool & Wolverine opens with Wade trying, and failing, to join the Avengers before settling into a dull job selling cars. Then agents of the Time Variance Authority, led by Matthew Macfadyen's Mr. Paradox, abduct him and reveal that his timeline is doomed. His only hope is a broken, boozy version of Logan, played by Hugh Jackman, whom he drags across realities into the Void, a dumping ground for forgotten heroes ruled by Emma Corrin's terrifying Cassandra Nova. Shawn Levy directs, and Dafne Keen returns as Laura.
The film works best as a buddy comedy, with Reynolds's endless chatter grinding against Jackman's furious exasperation in a series of increasingly violent arguments. Reynolds clearly relishes the chance to mock his studio, his own past roles and the superhero genre itself, but he also finds real feeling in Wade's need to be important to someone. It ranks second because it is the most purely entertaining of his blockbusters, held back slightly by its reliance on cameos and in-jokes.
3. Free Guy (2021): Original Crowd-Pleaser
Free Guy imagines a non-player character who gains a mind of his own. Reynolds plays Guy, a bank teller in the violent online game Free City, who spends his days cheerfully lying on the floor during robberies until he falls for Millie, a programmer who plays the game as the fearless Molotovgirl. Jodie Comer plays Millie, who believes the game's code was stolen from her and her former partner Keys, played by Joe Keery. Lil Rel Howery is Guy's best friend Buddy, and Shawn Levy directs.
This is Reynolds at his most sincere, and the earnestness is refreshing. Guy's delight at discovering choice, kindness and sunglasses gives the film a sweetness that carries it through the video game spectacle. Reynolds plays the comedy wide-eyed rather than knowing, and his scenes with Comer have an easy romantic glow. It ranks third because it is that rarity, an original studio comedy on a grand scale that genuinely works, and it began his fruitful collaboration with Levy.
4. Buried (2010): The Acting Showcase
Directed by Rodrigo Cortés, Buried begins in darkness and never leaves a single coffin. Paul Conroy, played by Reynolds, is an American civilian driver hauling supplies in Iraq whose convoy has been attacked. He regains consciousness underground with a lighter and a phone, and gradually learns that his captors want a ransom. The other characters are only voices on the line: his wife Linda (Samantha Mathis), a government official named Dan Brenner (Robert Paterson) and an employer's representative (Stephen Tobolowsky) whose call is horrifying in its own way.
Reynolds has nowhere to hide and nobody to play against, and he delivers a raw, exhausting performance that swings from terror to bitter sarcasm to quiet resignation. His comic instincts become survival mechanisms, which makes the character feel heartbreakingly real. The film is an extraordinary technical exercise, but it would collapse without him. It ranks fourth because it is his finest pure acting achievement, kept from the top only by how harrowing it is to sit through.
5. Smokin' Aces (2006): Ensemble Chaos
Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces is a hyperactive crime thriller about a Las Vegas entertainer turned mob informant who is holed up in a Lake Tahoe penthouse while a horde of assassins races to collect the price on his head. Reynolds plays Richard Messner, an FBI agent assigned with his partner Donald Carruthers (Ray Liotta) to bring the informant in alive under the direction of Andy Garcia's Deputy Director Stanley Locke. Chris Pine is the unhinged killer Darwin Tremor, and Martin Henderson plays a bail bondsman named Hollis Elmore.
In a cast full of scenery-chewing killers, Reynolds plays the one character with a moral compass, and he grows from cocky sidekick into the film's grieving, furious conscience. The final act gives him his strongest dramatic scenes of the decade, and his intensity cuts through the stylized mayhem. It ranks fifth because the film is overstuffed and uneven, but it is one of the clearest early signs that Reynolds was more than a comedy lead.
6. The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017): Odd Couple Action
Patrick Hughes's The Hitman's Bodyguard pairs Reynolds's Michael Bryce, a once elite protection agent whose career collapsed after a client was assassinated, with the infamous hitman Darius Kincaid, played by Samuel L. Jackson. Kincaid must get from England to The Hague to testify against a brutal Eastern European dictator, Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman), and Bryce's former girlfriend, the Interpol agent Amelia Roussel (Élodie Yung), asks Bryce to keep him alive. Salma Hayek plays Kincaid's ferocious imprisoned wife, Sonia.
The film lives on the friction between Reynolds's uptight, rule-bound professional and Jackson's gleefully chaotic killer, and the pair trade barbs with obvious delight. Reynolds plays the straight man for once, which is a nice change, and his growing exasperation keeps the laughs coming. It ranks sixth because the plot is formulaic and the violence occasionally jarring, but the star chemistry is strong enough to make it a fun, rewatchable action comedy, followed by Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard in 2021.
7. Red Notice (2021): Globe-Trotting Caper
In Rawson Marshall Thurber's Red Notice, Reynolds plays Nolan Booth, a renowned art thief chasing a set of jeweled eggs once said to belong to Cleopatra. When the FBI profiler John Hartley, played by Dwayne Johnson, is framed by the rival thief known as the Bishop, played by Gal Gadot, he has no choice but to team up with Booth. Ritu Arya plays Interpol's Inspector Urvashi Das, who is hunting all of them, and Chris Diamantopoulos is the arms dealer Sotto Voce.
Reynolds is in pure motor-mouth mode, playing Booth as a showman who treats every heist, prison break and gunfight as a chance to perform. His bickering with Johnson and the flirtatious rivalry with Gadot give the film its energy as it hops from one continent to the next. It ranks seventh because it is a lightweight, by-the-numbers caper, but it is breezy fun and a perfect example of Reynolds's modern star persona at work in a big ensemble.
8. Just Friends (2005): Holiday Comedy
Roger Kumble's Just Friends opens in 1995 with Chris Brander as an overweight, lovestruck high school senior whose secret feelings for his best friend Jamie (Amy Smart) are exposed in front of a party full of classmates. A decade later, Chris is a slim, smug Los Angeles music executive who ends up back in his New Jersey hometown at Christmas while chaperoning the unstable pop star Samantha James, played by Anna Faris. He decides it is his chance to win Jamie, but Chris Klein's Dusty Dinkleman, a former classmate, has the same plan.
Reynolds commits completely to the humiliation comedy, whether in a fat suit as the teenage Chris or as the vain adult whose plans keep backfiring. His physical comedy is surprisingly fearless, and Faris matches him scene for scene. Beneath the slapstick is a story about learning to be yourself that will feel familiar to anyone who loves romantic comedies. It ranks eighth because it is uneven, but it has become an enjoyable holiday rewatch and a showcase for his early comic energy.
9. Adventureland (2009): Against Type
Set in Pittsburgh in 1987, Greg Mottola's Adventureland follows James Brennan, a recent college graduate played by Jesse Eisenberg, who takes a summer job at a run-down amusement park when his travel plans fall through. He falls for his coworker Em, played by Kristen Stewart, without realizing that she is involved with Mike Connell, the park's married maintenance man, played by Reynolds. Martin Starr is the dryly funny Joel, and Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader play the park's eccentric managers, Paulette and Bobby.
Mike is a small, quietly melancholy role, a musician who peaked young and now trades on his faded cool with impressionable employees. Reynolds plays him without any of his usual charm turned up, letting the audience see how hollow the man is beneath the swagger. It ranks ninth because the part is limited, but it is one of his most interesting choices, and the film itself is a gentle, perceptive gem that belongs among the best coming of age movies of its decade.
10. Woman in Gold (2015): Courtroom Drama
Simon Curtis's Woman in Gold dramatizes the real legal fight of Maria Altmann, an elderly refugee played by Helen Mirren, who sets out to recover Gustav Klimt's portrait of her aunt, seized by the Nazis and later displayed in Vienna. Reynolds plays Randol Schoenberg, a young Los Angeles lawyer and family friend who reluctantly takes on the case against the Austrian government. Tatiana Maslany plays the young Maria in wartime flashbacks, Max Irons is her husband Fritz, and Katie Holmes plays Randol's wife, Pam.
Randol starts as an inexperienced attorney chasing a payday and gradually becomes deeply invested in his client and his own family history, and Reynolds plays that evolution with understated sincerity. His scenes with Mirren have an affectionate, bickering rapport that keeps the legal detail engaging. It ranks tenth because the film follows a familiar prestige-drama pattern, but it remains his most grown-up straight dramatic role and a reminder that he is persuasive without a quip in sight.
How Deadpool Reshaped Ryan Reynolds's Career
Reynolds first played Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), in a version of the character that bore little resemblance to the comic book antihero. His next superhero outing, Green Lantern (2011), cast him as Hal Jordan in a more conventional role.
Deadpool (2016) changed everything. Its adult humor and self-aware tone turned Reynolds's sarcastic screen persona from a limitation into a selling point, and the character returned in Deadpool 2 (2018), the short Deadpool: No Good Deed (2017) and Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). Since then, many of his biggest films, from Free Guy to Red Notice, have built on the same fast-talking, fourth-wall-nudging energy, even when he is not wearing the red suit.
Where to Start With Ryan Reynolds
Newcomers can choose a starting point based on their mood:
- For superhero comedy: Deadpool is essential, with Deadpool & Wolverine as a riotous follow-up.
- For family-friendly fun: Free Guy and The Adam Project deliver warmth without the profanity.
- For tension: Buried is an unforgettable single-location thriller, and Smokin' Aces offers ensemble chaos.
- For romance: The Proposal (2009), opposite Sandra Bullock, and Definitely, Maybe (2008) show his softer side.
- For something unexpected: Mississippi Grind (2015), a quiet gambling road movie with Ben Mendelsohn, is his most underseen performance.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Ryan Reynolds movie ever made?
Deadpool (2016) ranks first. As the scarred, fourth-wall-breaking mercenary Wade Wilson, Reynolds found the role that defines his career.
What was Ryan Reynolds's first Deadpool movie?
He first played Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), but the standalone Deadpool (2016) was the first film built around the character.
What is Ryan Reynolds's best dramatic performance?
Buried (2010) is his strongest dramatic work. He spends the whole film alone in a coffin as Paul Conroy, an American driver kidnapped in Iraq.
Who does Ryan Reynolds play in Woman in Gold?
He plays Randol Schoenberg, the young Los Angeles lawyer who helps Helen Mirren's Maria Altmann fight to recover a Klimt painting from Austria.
