Matt Damon Top 5!!

In honor of one of my favorite actors working today I wanted to do my top 5 Matt Damon films. Anyone that knows me knows that I love Matt Damon and will find my way to the theater to see just about anything that he is in. For this blog and my top 5 I wanted to keep it to movies that star Damon. If I was were to just do his movies in general I would have included Oceans 11 in this list. I believe that Damon is one of the most versatile actors working today, and can play just about any role, Comedy (Stuck on you), Drama (Behind the Candelabra), Action (Jason Bourne), Sci Fi (The Martian) you get my point. I just caught up on some older movies of his that I have not seen yet such as Good will Hunting and Saving Private Ryan which has made love him as an actor even more. However since I can remember I have loved Damon even in his smaller roles like in Euro trip (Scotty dosen’t know is a song that we will never forget) and Stuck on You a very underrated film starring Damon and Greg Kinnear as conjoined twins who move to Los Angeles so one of them can pursue an acting career. It is directed by the Farrelly brother so you know that the movie has great comedy. I highly recommend checking out this lesser known film.  After all of that let’s get into my man Matt’s top 5 films!!!!

I want to include one honorable mention that was just outside my top 5.

Honorable Mention: Behind the Candelabra

This TV movie stars Matt Damon, and Michael Douglas and follows the sometimes turbulent six year relationship between Liberace (Douglass) and Scott Thorsan (Damon). This movie was over the top, funny, and sad. Everything starts out well until Liberace turns into a controlling father figure type lover to Thorsan. People will want to turn into this just because of the over top romance and chemistry between these two actors.

5. Good Will hunting

I was late to the party on this film, but once I watched it a few months ago it instantly became one of my favorite Damon films. This follows Will a janitor at M.I.T. who is awesome at mathematics but has to get help from a psychologist (Robin Williams) to help find some direction in his life. Damon and Williams play off of one another perfectly, and involves one of Williams more serious roles which he plays magnificently, which is no surprise because he is great actor.

4. True Grit

I am not a big fan of western films, but this is hands down my favorite western movie today. This movie has an all star cast led by Jeff Bridges who gives an A list performance, and stars, Hailee Steinfeld, Damon, and Josh Brolin. It is Directed by Joel and Ethan Cohen (No Country for Old men, The Big Lebowski) and was nominated for Best picture at the Oscars and saw Bridegs nominated for an Academy Award for Best male actor in a leading role, and Stienfeld for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. The film follows a U.S Marshall and a Texas ranger Labeouf (Damon) who help a stubborn teeanger track down her fathers Murderer.

3. Rounders

This film stars Matt Damon, Edward Norton, John Malcovich, and John Turturro. It is about a reformed gambler who has to return to the world of high stakes gambling to help his friend who was just released from prison pay off his debt to some loan sharks, all the while balancing his relationship, and his commitments to law school. This is the best poker movie out today and shows the real struggle between having to choose between friends and women, and a life you once loved and lost everything but wanting to return and show you are one of the best card players around.

2. The Bourne Series

I know some people will kill me on this but I had to include the whole Bourne series in this as I could not just choose 1. This is my favorite movie franchise so far to date and I love every single film in the series. Whenever I need something to watch we all have our staples and this is mine. I find myself just coming back and back again to this franchise. If I had to pick my favorite it would probably be the Bourne Ultimatum. I liked the Bourne Identity but 2, 3, and 4 that Paul Greengrass directed are by far the best in the franchise. Those movies are well shot, and have Greengrasses staple action scenes and frantic camera movement. These movies accomplish a lot without Damon having to say hardly any words. Since I chose the series I wont go into a synopsis of every movie but it follows Jason Bourne who is picked up by a fishing boat unconscious and riddled with bullets who wakes up with amnesia and has to race to elude assassins while trying to regain his memory.

1. The Martian

My number 1 is The Martian which stars Matt Damon and is Directed by Ridely Scott (Alien, Aliens). This is about Mark Watney an astronaut who becomes stranded on the planet Mars who his team presumes is dead and must rely on his smarts, and creativeness to stay alive and signal to earth that he is alive. This film is just perfection from the cinematography, to the set pieces to the acting. This movie lives and breathes on Damon’s performance and he comes through in every scene. It is very hard to almost single handily have to carry a film like Tom Hanks did in Cast Away but Matt does it here. He is charming, charismatic, and shows that he put his all into this role and did not just phone it in for a paycheck and Scott got every ounce of performance out of Damon. This movie shows off all of Matt Damon’s acting chops and why I love his films so much.