- Home
- entertainment
- news
- Steve Martin's best movies ranked, according to critics
Steve Martin's best movies ranked, according to critics
Entertainment- Steve Martin is a comedy legend who has starred in hilarious movies for decades.
- His highest-rated film by critics is his 2018 Netflix comedy special, "Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life," according to Rotten Tomatoes' scores.
- It's followed by "L.A. Story" from 1991 and "Parenthood" from 1989.
Steve Martin's acting career began in the 1960s, and he's been cracking us up ever since. The comedy legend is also a Grammy Award-winning musician, screenwriter, director, and producer who has both hosted the Oscars and won an honorary award in 2013.
In honor of his 75th birthday this month, here are Martin's 20 highest-rated movies, ranked according to critics' scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
20. "Father of the Bride" (1991) scored an average 70% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Synopsis: "With his oldest daughter's wedding approaching, a father finds himself reluctant to let go." — IMDb
Critics say: "This is a movie with heart, and there are little moments in it when Martin is deeply moved by the fact that this perfect creature he brought into the world is now going to start a family of her own." — Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun Times
Audience score: 70%
19. "My Blue Heaven" (1990) has a rating of 71% fresh.
Synopsis: "An all too uptight FBI agent must protect a larger than life mobster with a heart of gold, currently under witness protection in the suburbs." — IMDb
Critics say: "The movie itself, with the exception of a few scenes, doesn't really have the wit it's aiming for, and among Steve Martin vehicles it's middle-drawer, at best. Yet that mood of silly exuberance reigns through most of the picture." — Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Audience score: 59%
18. "The Man with Two Brains" (1983) has a critics score of 76%.
Synopsis: "A brain surgeon marries a femme fatale, causing his life to turn upside down. Things go more awry when he falls in love with a talking brain." — IMDb
Critics say: "Even if this isn't Steve Martin's best role or his best film, it holds up pretty well, offering a glimpse of a comic genius at a wonderfully experimental stage of his career." — Mike McGranaghan, Aisle Seat
Audience score: 64%
17. "Grand Canyon" (1991) has a score of 77% from critics.
Synopsis: "Director Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon is a gathering of random events, uniting the film's wildly divergent protagonists. ... The title is symbolic, referring to the class-imposed chasms which would normally separate the characters." — Rotten Tomatoes
Critics say: "For long stretches of this offbeat and innovative film, the viewer truly has no idea what will happen next and many reasons to care." — Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Audience rating: 70%
16. "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" (1982) has a rating of 79%.
Synopsis: "Affectionately spoofing 1940s film noir and detective dramas, this comedy follows a private investigator's attempts to solve the murder of a scientist. The central gimmick allows the film's modern-day stars to, through clever editing, interact with scenes and characters from actual period thrillers." — Rotten Tomatoes
Critics say: "This territory has been spoofed before, but Reiner-Martin and co-author George Gipe have sprung a new gimmick ... The novelty value wears thin, and attention wanders as the plot turns grow more obscure. But there are enough outrageous gags to, please the faithful." — Bob Thomas, Associated Press
Audience score: 72%
15. Martin voiced the Egyptian magician Hotep in "The Prince of Egypt" (1998).
Synopsis: "Egyptian Prince Moses learns of his identity as a Hebrew and his destiny to become the chosen deliverer of his people." — IMDb
Critics say: "The movie's proudest accomplishment is that it revises our version of Moses toward something more immediate and believable, more humanly knowable." — Stephen Hunter, The Washington Post
Audience score: 76%
14. "The Jerk" (1979) earned an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Synopsis: "A simpleminded, sheltered country boy suddenly decides to leave his family home to experience life in the big city, where his naivete is both his best friend and his worst enemy." — IMDb
Critics say: "An oddball odyssey so strange, filled with non-sequiturs so funny, and decorated by a romance so sweet, it was an inevitable star-maker." — Simon Miraudo, Quickflix
Audience score: 84%
13. He narrated Fantasia 2000 (1999), which has an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Synopsis: "Sixty years after the release of Disney's classic 1940 experiment in sight and sound, a new generation of Disney animators and filmmakers offer an exciting showcase for today's audiences as they visually interpret classical compositions by Beethoven, Shostakovich, Respighi, Gershwin, Dukas, Saint-Saens, Elgar, and Stravinsky." — Rotten Tomatoes
Critics say: "It provides some fine artists the chance to stretch and frolic, even as it reminds today's audiences of animation's limitless borders." — Richard Corliss, Time
Audience score: 75%
12. Martin teamed up with Eddie Murphy in "Bowfinger" (1999), also earning a critics score of 81%.
Synopsis: "When a desperate movie producer fails to get a major star for his bargain basement film, he decides to shoot the film secretly around him." — IMDb
Critics say: "The best thing about 'Bowfinger' is the way the script by Steve Martin is tooled to his own and Murphy's comic strengths." — Richard Schickel, Time
Audience score: 61%
11. Martin played sheet music salesman Arthur Parker in "Pennies from Heaven" (1981), which has a 82% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Synopsis: "Adapted from Dennis Potter's landmark British TV miniseries and relocated to the United States during the Depression, 'Pennies from Heaven' dramatizes how popular songs both shaped and reflected the thoughts of people living through economic (and emotional) hardship." — Rotten Tomatoes
Critics say: "Literal-minded moviegoers will find it easy to hate 'Pennies from Heaven.' But those willing to go along with the device will find the film a source of constant surprise and delight." — Bob Thomas, Associated Press
Audience score: 65%
10. "All of Me" (1984) received an 85% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Synopsis: "A dying millionaire has her soul transferred into a younger, willing woman. However, something goes wrong, and she finds herself in her lawyer's body — together with the lawyer." — IMDb
Critics say: "Martin vaults to the top of the class with his brazen, precise performance. This one goes in the time capsule." — Richard Corliss, Time
Audience score: 67%
9. Martin played the role of "Insolent Waiter" in "The Muppet Movie," (1979) which has a score of 88% among both critics and audiences.
Synopsis: "Kermit and his newfound friends trek across America to find success in Hollywood, but a frog legs merchant is after Kermit." — IMDb
Critics say: "Jolson sang, Barrymore spoke, Garbo laughed, and now Kermit the Frog rides a bicycle ... If you can figure out how they were able to show Kermit pedaling across the screen, then you are less a romantic than I am: I prefer to believe he did it himself." — Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times
Audience score: 88%
8. "The Spanish Prisoner" (1997) has an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Synopsis: "A gentler, kinder David Mamet ventures into Hitchcock country with this amiable brain-twister about an electronics whiz whose invention gets him caught up in a world of corruption, intrigue and murder." — Rotten Tomatoes
Critics say: "One exceedingly well-crafted piece of manipulation that keeps the audience strung along with every intricate turn of the plot." — Michael Dequina, TheMovieReport.com
Audience score: 80%
7. With an 89% rating from critics and 84% from audiences, "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" (1988) is beloved by both.
Synopsis: "Two con men try to settle their rivalry by betting on who can swindle a young American heiress out of fifty thousand dollars first." — IMDb
Critics say: "Martin, the most eloquent of physical clowns -- the Baryshnikov of comedy -- is at his most inspired here. He parodies feelings, attitudes, states of mind that one would think were exempt from it, and his caricature of dapper suavity is killingly precise." — Hal Hilson, The Washington Post
Audience score: 84%
6. "Roxanne" (1987) received a score of 90% from Rotten Tomatoes critics.
Synopsis: "The large-nosed C.D. Bales is in love with the beautiful Roxanne; she falls for his personality but another man's looks." — IMDb
Critics say: "Light and likable, with hearts unabashedly all over its sleeves, 'Roxanne' is a winning romantic comedy whose appeal should cross age barriers and backgrounds -- giving it an across-the-board promise." — Duane Byrge, The Hollywood Reporter
Audience score: 63%
5. "Little Shop of Horrors" (1986) earned a 90% fresh score with Steve Martin's portrayal of a sadistic dentist.
Synopsis: "A nerdy florist finds his chance for success and romance with the help of a giant man-eating plant who demands to be fed." — IMDb
Critics say: "The best moments in this 1987 release belong to Dr. Steve Martin as a dentist with a professional yen for pain." — Pat Graham, The Chicago Reader
Audience score: 79%
4. "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (1987) is certified fresh at 91%.
Synopsis: "A man must struggle to travel home for Thanksgiving with a lovable oaf of a shower curtain ring salesman as his only companion." — IMDb
Critics say: "Led by the chemistry between Steve Martin and John Candy, John Hughes' 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles' remains a quintessential Thanksgiving classic." — Danielle Solzman, Solzy at the Movies
Audience score: 87%
3. "Parenthood" (1989) is also 91% critic-approved.
Synopsis: "This feel-good ensemble comedy tracks a quartet of suburban siblings and their families over the course of a single summer." — Rotten Tomatoes
Critics say: "'Parenthood' easily could have focused exclusively on yuppie parents and their kids; however, the script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel is more sophisticated than that, remembering that every parent is still a child too." — Gene Siskel, The Chicago Tribune
Audience score: 76%
2. "L.A. Story" (1991) has a rating of 94%.
Synopsis: "With the help of a talking freeway billboard, a wacky weatherman tries to win the heart of an English newspaper reporter, who is struggling to make sense of the strange world of early 1990s Los Angeles." — IMDb
Critics say: "Perhaps Steve Martin's hair went white because his brain radiates with such boundless invention that all the pigment withered off the follicles." — Phil Villarreal, The Arizona Daily Star
Audience score: 75%
1. "Steve Martin and Martin Short: An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life" (2018) is 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Synopsis: "Comedy icons Steve Martin and Martin Short team up for musical sketches and conversations about their legendary lives in show business and stand-up." — Rotten Tomatoes
Critics say: "They still got it. And we're lucky to still have 'em." — Sean L. McCarthy, Decider
Audience score: 70%
READ MORE ARTICLES ON
Get your weekly dose of essential news delivered right to you, plus explore a world of insights with our diverse newsletter subscription options.
- Weekly newsletter
- Uncover the latest in Tech, Finance, Business, and more
- Handpicked web stories, in-depth articles, and expert analyses
Advertisement