Top 10 Matt Damon Movies

Page 2 Of 2
Continued from Page 1

5. Ocean's Eleven

Flash forward a few years after Rounders, and suddenly Damon is playing a very different sort of card shark in Ocean's Eleven. This remake of the classic 1960 heist film starring "the Rat Pack" brought together an eclectic mix of Hollywood A-Listers and talented characters actors for a slick, engaging, and very stylish adventure.

George Clooney starred as Danny Ocean, a career con artist and recent parolee who decides to target three lavish Vegas casinos owned by Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia). Ocean's partners include best friend Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt), mechanics Virgil and Turk Malloy (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan), and suave casino expert Frank Catton (Bernie Mac).

Damon played the newbie of the group, a talented but unproven pickpocket named Linus Caldwell. What Ocean didn't tell his crew is that the whole heist was really aimed at getting revenge on Benedict for dating his ex-wife, Tess (Julia Roberts).


With Soderbergh at the helm and so many charismatic actors sharing the screen, Ocean's Eleven was a charming, exciting ride from start to finish. The film frequently kept viewers guessing as one hitch after another arose and the lovable criminals were forced to improvise. Never has rooting for the bad guys been so much fun.

The formula proved popular enough to spawn two sequels. Unfortunately, while Ocean's Twelve tried hard to be different, it wasn't nearly as successful a film. And while Ocean's Thirteen was an improvement, it was also the Return of the Jedi of the trilogy in how it basically rehashed the plot of the original.

4. Good Will Hunting

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were still very much up-and-coming players on the Hollywood scene when they wrote Good Will Hunting (or, if you believe Family Guy, Damon wrote while Affleck sat around eating Bryers and smoking pot). With a little help from Affleck's pal Kevin Smith, the script was brought to Miramax, who allowed the duo to star in the film rather than replacing them with more bankable stars like Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad Pitt. And a good thing, too, as it's hard to picture this film succeeding without Damon and Affleck in front of the camera.


Damon played the titular Will Hunting, a "wicked smaht" but emotionally disturbed Boston native content to live a blue collar lifestyle and get drunk with his friends every night. But thanks to a starry-eyed Harvard professor (Stellan Skarsgard), a world-weary psychologist (Robin Williams), and a new love interest (Minnie Driver), Will finally found the motivation he needed to confront his demons and put his intellect to use.

As predictable as Will's character arc was throughout the film, Good Will Hunting proved to be an emotionally resonant story with a sly sense of humor and a  slate of great performances. Will wasn't the typical leading man Damon would play again and again in the years that followed. He was a gruff, emotionally stunted, and in some ways, very childish character. Affleck was the perfect foil as Chuckie, the eternally loyal best friend masking a twinge of jealousy for Will's squandered gift.

3. The Departed

Sometimes when an American director remakes a classic of Asian cinema, we get saddled with Spike Lee's Oldboy. But if we're lucky, we get Martin Scorsese's The Departed instead. Scorsese tackled the popular Hong Kong drama Infernal Affairs, which revolved around an undercover police officer, another officer secretly working as a spy for the triads, and the tense game of wits between the two as each worked to expose the other. Scorsese kept that basic concept but shifted the setting from Hong Kong to Boston and cast Jack Nicholson as a crime lord based on infamous Boston mobster Whitey Bulger.


This would normally be Damon's cue to swoop in and play the good-looking, down-to-earth hero of the tale. But The Departed didn't deal much in black and white. Damon played Colin Sullivan, a respected Massachusetts State Police officer whose true loyalties were to Nicholson's Frank Costello. Leonardo DiCaprio played his nemesis, Billy Costigan, an undercover officer tasked with bringing down the Costello empire and exposing his mole. Unfortunately for him, that mole was just as frantically hunting for him.

The result was a great, tense crime drama packed with more than its fair share of twists and surprises. At times, the symbolism was blatant enough that even The Simpsons' Ralph Wiggum made fun of it ("The rat symbolizes obviousness!"), but that hardly mattered amid all the memorable character drama and intrigue. It's almost a shame The Departed didn't spawn a franchise in the  same way Infernal Affairs did. Almost.

2. The Bourne Trilogy

We're breaking our rule of honoring only one film per franchise in these lists, because who wants to pick just one Bourne movie? The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum all form a nicely cohesive trilogy that explores one man's struggle to escape his mysterious past and expose those corrupt officials who turned him into a living weapon.

Film Title: The Bourne Ultimatum

The Bourne Identity hit in 2002, around the same time that the James Bond franchise was sinking to one of its lower points with Die Another Day. The Bourne Identity offered a leaner, meaner take on international spy intrigue. Jason Bourne played on Damon's good looks and unassuming demeanor. He seemed a completely ordinary protagonist, until the bullets started flying and he went into kill mode.


Bourne's quest to recover his memories and expose the crooked bureaucrats behind the CIA's Operation Treadstone spanned three movies, with many agreeing that the series peaked with 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum. And if you need proof of just how integral Damon was to the success of these films, look at how poorly received critically and commercially the Damon-less spinoff The Bourne Legacy was in 2012. Hopefully the next sequel will bring Damon back into the fold.

Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan is certainly no stranger to these lists by now. It is one of the best WWII dramas ever filmed, after all. And it's a testament to just how good this film is that it tops this list despite the fact that Damon himself is absent for much of the run time.

Damon played the Private Ryan in question. After Ryan's three brothers are killed in action in various conflicts, the Army tasks Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) and a small band of Army Rangers with tracking down the lone surviving Ryan in Normandy and returning him home. It's a task far easier said than done, and the resulting mission is fraught with peril, hardship, bloodshed, and plenty of raw emotion.


Saving Private Ryan is one of director Steven Spielberg's stronger efforts. The movie was lauded for its unflinching portrayal of WWII combat and the Normandy theater. Damon may not have been the star of the show, but he still capably played the part of a idealistic young soldier torn between his loyalty to his comrades, the tragedy of losing his brothers, and the unprecedented opportunity to escape the war entirely.

Honorable Mentions

Several other films bear some mention, even if they didn't make the top 10. Damon delivered one of his stronger performances when he reunited with Soderbergh again for last year's Behind the Candelabra. This Liberace biopic focused on the relationship between the performer (played by Michael Douglas) and his secret lover Scott Thorson (Damon). Only the fact that the film was released as an HBO TV movie rather than theatrically kept it from earning a place in the top 10.


Other Damon gems include EuroTrip, an entertaining teen road trip comedy where Damon played a small role, School Ties, an early Damon film where he played an antisemitic football player at an New England elite prep school, and The Informant!, a comedic biopic about corporate whistleblower Mark Whitacre.


IGN Logo
blog comments powered by Disqus