Dave Bautista‘s comparatively brief acting career has already spanned 15 years, meaning ranking the best and worst of his movies stretches across several genres and prominent franchises. Previously known as WWE superstar Batista, the former heavyweight champion first began acting in 2006, with his first accredited role arriving in Smallville as Aldar that same year. Bautista has since gone on to make several TV cameo appearances, as well as starring in 22 feature films to date.
Originally typecast as purely an action movie figure at the beginning of his career, Dune‘s Dave Bautista has since dispelled these early assumptions regarding his range with a string of high-profile franchise appearances. The American-born Bautista received many plaudits for his work as Drax the Destroyer, who first appeared in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 before playing a prominent role in the MCU’s Infinity Saga. Bautista has also appeared in the James Bond, Blade Runner, and burgeoning Dune franchises, further highlighting his current stock within the film industry.
Dave Bautista’s acting credits elicit a full spectrum of audience and critical ratings, with aggregator Rottem Tomatoes’ trusted consensuses ranging from a certified fresh 94% all the way down to an abysmal 0%. From bit-part, hired muscle characters all the way to leading protagonist roles, Bautista has played them all. Here’s every credited Dave Bautista movie ranked from worst to best.
Choosing to share its name with the iconic The Animals song is about the best thing House of the Rising Sun has going in its favor, with almost every other aspect of Brian A. Miller’s action drama feeling as cumbersome as it does ill-conceived. The premise of House of the Rising Sun sees Dave Bautista (in his first leading role) play an ex-vice cop looking to turn his life around after spending five years in prison who is immediately sucked back into the seedy underworld from which he came. House of the Rising Sun‘s plot is as bland as it is generic, with the film seemingly looking to bring a glut of muscle-bound actors together and fill in the blanks as it progresses. Dominic Purcell, Craig Fairbrass, and Hollywood’s Danny Trejo all act in violent roles without adding any real substance to the movie, and as a result, consign House of the Rising Sun to the straight-to-DVD ignominy it deserved upon release in 2011.
Escape Plan: The Extractors is the third franchise installment that absolutely nobody asked for following Escape Plan 2: Hades‘ unanimously poor reception. Even leading man Sylvester Stallone had to be coaxed to return to the Escape Plan series after his terrible on-set experience on Escape Plan 2, which coupled with a limited budget, essentially marked Escape Plan 3 for failure before production even began. Even Dave Bautista’s continued inclusion hot off the heels of Avengers: Endgame could not ignite a spark in what is a soulless, joyless mishmash of action tropes and names.
The Sylvester Stallone prison movie Escape Plan 2: Hades is a sequel of the worst kind that attempts to add nothing fresh to the franchise following the decent action fare served up by Escape Plan 2013. The film suffers massively from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s absence. However, his character alone cannot save a pedestrian script from start to finish here as big names such as Stallone, Bautista, and Curtis Jackson chase a paycheck onscreen. The grit of the original Escape Plan is replaced in Escape Plan 2 by nonsensical action scenes that marked the film series’ steep and immediate decline into VOD only territory, with its follow-up installment predictably killing off the horribly reviewed Escape Plan franchise completely.
Martin Owen’s L.A. Slasher is quite literally the definition of a film that is so bad it somehow becomes good as it straddles the line between comedy and horror. Andy Dick voicing The Slasher is a hilarious casting decision, but L.A. Slasher is otherwise largely grotesque as it delights in the murder and mutilation of its victims. L.A. Slasher‘s visuals are bright and bold. Still, they cannot make up for the anemic story that is a worrying indictment of Owen’s directorial tastes in this tonally misguided movie.
Rebooting the Kickboxer martial arts franchise after 21 years was always going to prove a gamble which hinged on continued appetite for the original 1989 film. Bringing Jean-Claude Van Damme back into the fray as Master Durand was a good start, but Kickboxer: Vengeance suffers from the lack of originality that also shackled Kickboxer installments two through 5. Dave Bautista stars here as the imperious and menacing antagonist Tong Po, but even several bloody bouts of fighting cannot paper over the fact that the Kickboxer franchise should have stayed down for the count a long time ago.
As with so many contemporary action films, Heist seems content to rest of the laurels of its stellar cast without ever giving a second thought to its paint-by-numbers, unoriginal premise. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Robert De Niro, and Dave Bautista cannot be faulted for committed performances here. Still, Heist’s contrived plot of a casino robbery by an employee who needs to pay for his sick daughter’s treatment does its cast no favors whatsoever. Heist quickly devolves into the standard sleight-of-hand fare, with its twists cataloged so far in advance that many of its surprise plot elements feel like foregone conclusions by the time they belatedly arrive.
As with Heist before it, Marauders seems content from the start to be a decidedly unoriginal piece of crime-thriller fare that lacks any semblance of self-awareness. While many of the fight scenes containing Bautista’s (Army of the Dead) CIA agent Stockwell do sparkle, Marauders‘ twists become increasingly unbelievable as its narrative attempts to resolve. Marauders certainly has a big budget feel despite its lack of theatrical release, with many tight action sequences and sweeping shots. Yet, its standard espionage-style plot is let down, relying far too heavily on unearned twits and turns.
RZA’s directorial debut on paper should have been a roaring success, with so many elements in place to make The Man With the Iron Fists a hit in 2012. Russel Crowe, Lucy Liu, and Dave Bautista add Western star power to an already impressive ensemble of Chinese martial artists, while Eli Roth acts as both the producer and co-screenwriter for the film. RZA even spent months with Quentin Tarantino on the set of Kill Bill in 2003 to learn from the legendary director, which makes the final product of The Man With the Iron Fists all the more disappointing. RZA’s debut contains beautifully choreographed action coupled with Eli Roth’s signature viscera, yet this at times ungrounded period piece ultimately serves as a homage to Bruce Lee’s films that inspired it without ever holding a candle to the martial arts legend’s prowess.
Final Score is an action film done well, containing enough self-effacing moments to justify its slightly ludicrous premise and tongue-in-cheek title. At its core, Bautista’s Michael Knox chasing terrorists around West Ham’s London football stadium to save his niece has the potential to be laughable, yet Final Score contains ample touching moments and bone-crunching fight scenes that make it feel more akin to a Die Hard movie than its storyline has any right to. Fundamentally, Final Score does not offer anything new to the action genre but simply sets out its well-rounded characters, stock bad guys, and touching family drama with enough sincerity to make it a thoroughly enjoyable 104 minutes of cinema.
Billed as Dave Bautista meets The Pacifier, My Spy succeeds in delivering the hilarity expected from a CIA operative being blackmailed by a nine-year-old elementary school student. While My Spy clearly struggles to tread the universally friendly line at times, as evidenced by some bizarre profanity scenes and an odd-looking PG-13 rating, it still succeeds as a largely passable family comedy that is a cut above much of the recent Amazon original genre fare in 2020. Bautista again evidences his broad comedy chops here, with his growing bond with My Spy‘s Sophie (Chloe Coleman) as touching as it is comical.
Master Z: The Ip-Man Legacy was certainly a gamble for the franchise after deciding to move away from Donnie Yen’s beloved (and now deceased) character in Ip-Man 4: The Finale. Yet director Yuen Woo-ping and writer Edmond Wong clearly understand what makes the core of the Ip-Man franchise tick – namely, the immensely satisfying martial arts sequences pedaled across its first three installments. Master Z: The Ip-Man Legacy sees Max Zhang’s Cheung Tin-chi (beaten by Ip in the prologue) take on Dave Bautista’s nefarious Owen Davidson, but while the faces have all now changed, the result is still an enthralling martial arts clinic that shirks the moral responsibilities of the franchise installments tied to its former protagonist.
Taking cues from the buddy cop formula a-la the newly Blu-Ray released Lethal Weapon, Stuber is as much a testament to the funny yet familiar duo of Kumail Nanjiani and Dave Bautista’s performances as it is director Michael Dowse’s vision to pair the mismatched stars. While Stuber‘s script hardly pushes the limits of an already worn odd couple taking on a drug dealer in L.A., Nanjiana and Bautista’s unlikely chemistry makes Stuber a highly entertaining ride. Although a sequel appears unlikely given the film’s mixed critical reception, Stuber is as much an advert for Bautista’s growth as an actor capable of delivering more than gritty action as it is a case to bring Nanjiani and Bautista together again in the future.
Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead does exactly what it says on the tin, delivering a dazzling (if slightly protracted) zombie-heist mashup that allows its celebrated director to shine. Army of the Dead‘s gratuitous and stomach-churning gore is somehow still palatable in the context of Snyder’s bright, glitzy zombie-infested world, with the on-screen violence backed by several stellar ensemble cast performances. While unable to hold a candle to its clear George A. Romero homages, Army of the Dead is an undeniably fun film that coherently brings two disparate genres together for an exhilarating ride.
The decidedly dystopian Hotel Artemis centers on a hotel-turned secret hospital harboring fugitives in a futuristic Los Angeles. Equal parts as absurd as it is gripping, Hotel Artemis brings an impressive cast to bear as dark events unfold within the criminal-infested walls of the insular hotel setting. All other aspects of the movie aside, Hotel Artemis is worth watching simply for Jodie Foster’s virtuoso performance as the Nurse doomed to shuffle the halls of the Artemis forever.
Although sandwiched in-between two superior Bond entries in the form of Skyfall and No Time To Die, Spectre is still a highly enjoyable franchise installment that delivers everything expected of a James Bond movie. Complete with slick action sequences, gorgeous settings, and a glittering cast, Spectre does exactly what is expected while setting up Cary Joji Fukunaga’s glorious Daniel Craig-led finale. Dave Bautista’s cold, relentless assassin Hinx is also a Bond villain performance to savor, with Bautista lending a sense of dread to the hired muscle which Bond ordinarily dispatches with such consummate ease.
While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is nowhere near as original and refreshing as its predecessor, it is nevertheless a highly entertaining film that continues to capture the MCU magic sprinkled across the last decade. Each of the Guardians shines brightly in a perfectly balanced ensemble cast that this time finds themselves pitted against Peter Quill’s (Chris Pratt) near-omnipotent celestial father Ego (Kurt Russell), as well as their own personal demons. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was clearly designed to set up the Guardians’ inclusion in the infinity saga, but this knowledge does little to detract from how slickly Guardians of the Galaxy 2 goes about endearing audiences to Peter and company once again.
Thirteen years after David Twohy’s Pitch Black was released to much critical acclaim, the director and Vin Diesel’s return to the Riddick franchise is a direct continuation to the events of Chronicles. Although perhaps not the film to introduce new audiences to Vin Diesel’s silent and deadly character, Riddick successfully captures the franchise’s best in a gritty blend of sci-fi action and homage to alien creature features. Dave Bautista also shines here, portraying the duplicitous Diaz, an engaging narrative wrinkle that provides Riddick with one of his toughest battles to date.
Heading into classic territory now is Avengers: Endgame, the MCU Phase 3’s landmark, record-breaking cinematic event. Avengers: Endgame is quite simply a showcase for the continued quality and love for the MCU franchise since its inception in 2008, backed up by universally stellar performances from an ensemble cast eleven years in the making. While Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame narrowly loses out to its predecessor, Infinity War, in terms of a compelling narrative, its time-heist plot and celebration of the biggest cinematic franchise on Earth is a sight to behold all the same.
Following a period in which many of Marvel’s most valuable IPs were trotted out with maddening regularity every few years, Guardians of the Galaxy proved to be the tonic of freshness the MCU had begun to need. Despite containing many classic superhero tropes, James Gunn’s franchise starter was quite daring in 2014, given the cartoonish, often hyper-comical action sequences and interaction between the Guardians themselves. The Guardians of the Galaxy plot also marked the start of the MCU’s willingness to venture into the unknown, paving the way for other lesser Marvel characters such as Shang-Chi to be considered worthy of inclusion.
Denis Villeneuve’s sprawling sci-fi epic has done the seemingly impossible by finally translating Frank Herbert’s visionary novel to the big screen in a satisfying way. The film is littered with compelling performances, from Chalamet’s reluctant yet fiercely valiant Paul Atreides to Stellan Skarsgård’s horrifying turn as the vile Vladimir Harkonnen, yet it is Villeneuve’s continued ability to build captivating worlds that ultimately ensure his first Dune installment’s success. Dune is as unsettling as it is majestic, leaving so much open for an equally enthralling, now green-lit sequel that promises to also give Dave Bautista’s savage Glossu Rabban some more thoroughly deserved screen time.
While Avengers: Endgame satisfyingly concluded the MCU’s Phase 3, much of its success was built directly on the back of Infinity War, which is about as close to a perfect Marvel movie as one is ever likely to find. Infinity War trades the safety and familiarity of its heroes, triumphing over adversity with a much darker premise and tone as Thanos completes his Infinity Gauntless and snaps half the universe’s population into oblivion. Infinity War is still groundbreaking as it tackles difficult yet genuine themes of overpopulation and the philosophy of humankind while also imbuing the MCU with a sense of genuine dread that is yet to be recaptured since in a simply unmissable modern piece of cinema.
While Denis Villeneuve’s Dune success may be fresh in the memory, his true masterpiece to date is undoubtedly Blade Runner 2049. A worthy sequel by any yardstick to Ridley Scott’s 1982 original, Blade Runner 2049, successfully melds the nostalgia of the franchise (via Harrison Ford) with a new array of heroes and villains that inspire and excite. Part of Blade Runner 2049′s enduring appeal is the cultural commentary it elicits, with the bleak beauty of scenes between Ford’s Deckard and Ryan Gosling’s K indicative of the very best of Philip K Dick’s timeless works. While the concept of K’s soul elicits continued debate, there is no denying the complex artistry that plants the Dave Bautista featured Blade Runner 2049 firmly at the top of any sci-fi genre lists to date.