Top Ten Charlie Sheen Movies
Forget Scary Movie 5. Forget the tiger blood. Charlie Sheen has starred in a lot of great films.
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The Top Ten Charlie Sheen Movies
Charlie Sheen is all set to make fun of himself - again - in the Scary Movie 5 (aka "Scary MoVie") this weekend. But before you laugh at any jokes about his recent career, CraveOnline is looking back at all the really, really good movies Charlie Sheen has made over the years with The Top Ten Charlie Sheen Movies.
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10. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (dir. John Hughes, 1986)
“Drugs?” Charlie Sheen asks. We all know the answer now, but back in 1986 when Sheen made his cameo appearance in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, it was an unironic question. Sheen’s very brief role in the comedy classic remains one of his most beloved performances, acting as an unexpected Zen master to Jennifer Grey, who, in a word, hates her brother, the charismatic school-skipper who sang “Danke Schoen” on a parade float and stole America’s hearts.
Did You Know…?
John Hughes never released an official soundtrack to Ferris Bueller’s Day Off because he thought the film’s iconic songs wouldn't work as a continuous album.
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9. Cadence (dir. Martin Sheen, 1990)
After the death of his father, Pfc. Franklin Fairchild Bean goes on a drunken binge, gets a tattoo on his hand, and winds up in a segregated stockade surrounded by black inmates. Laurence Fishburne leads the strong supporting cast as they endure the harsh treatment by Msgt. Otis V. McKinney, played by Charlie Sheen’s real-life father, Martin Sheen. It’s an earnest film with an obvious message, but Cadence is well made nonetheless and features a strong leading performance by Charlie Sheen.
Did You Know…?
Cadence is the only feature film ever directed by Martin Sheen. He also directed a “CBS Schoolbreak Special” about teenage mothers called “Babies Having Babies.”
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8. Men at Work (dir. Emilio Estevez, 1990)
Charlie Sheen and his brother Emilio Estevez play surfer dude garbage men who find a dead body in the trash. Worried that they’ll be implicated, they begin investigating the murder themselves along with a shellshocked Vietnam vet, played by Keith David. Men at Work is low concept by anyone’s standards, but it’s funny as hell, and until Django Unchained came out it boasted the best phrenology reference in movie history.
Did You Know…?
In Men at Work Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez are brothers with different last names… just like in real life.
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7. Rated X (dir. Emilio Estevez, 2000)
Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez once again play brothers, this time the real-life pornography entrepreneurs Artie and Jim Mitchell, who produced and directed the classic adult movies Behind the Green Door and Sodom and Gomorrah: The Last Seven Days before devolving into drug addiction and fratricide. Produced for Showtime, Rated X remains the best film Estevez has directed, and it’s a strong acting showcase for both performers.
Did You Know…?
Sean Penn originally planned to direct a larger scale production of Rated X starring Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson as Jim and Artie Mitchell.
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6. Red Dawn (dir. John Milius, 1984)
John Milius’s Cold War paranoia fantasy Red Dawn starred Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell and Charlie Sheen – in his film debut – as teenagers forced into guerilla warfare after the U.S.S.R. successfully invades American soil. Unlike the abysmal 2012 remake, Milius’s film is a sobering reversal of pro-war jingoism, and in its way, an unsettling metaphor for America’s involvement in Vietnam.
Did You Know…?
Red Dawn was the first film ever released with the now ubiquitous PG-13 rating, despite the Guiness Book of World Records declaring that it was the most violent film ever made.
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5. Hot Shots!/Hot Shots! Part Deux (dir. Jim Abrahams, 1991-1993)
Charlie Sheen’s first stab at broad comedy, Hot Shots!, is a hilarious parody of Top Gun featuring classic one-liners, sight gags and an unforgettably wacky performance by Lloyd Bridges. The sequel, Hot Shots! Part Deux, is basically more of the same, this time playing more off the Rambo movies than anything else, but it ends with an epic swordfight between President Lloyd Bridges and Saddam Hussein, who at one point becomes half-man, half-dog. It makes sense in context. (Sort of.) They may be lowbrow, but the Hot Shots! movies are some of the best parody films of the last few decades.
Did You Know…?
Hot Shots! was the first on-camera pairing of Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer, twelve years before they co-starred in the hit sitcom “Two and a Half Men.” Their frequent “Two and a Half Men” guest star Ryan Stiles also appeared in both Hot Shots! and Hot Shots! Part Deux, and he played a different character in each film.
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4. The Arrival (dir. David Twohy, 1996)
Charlie Sheen tried his hand at sci-fi thrillers in The Arrival, a smart, unexpected invasion story about an astronomer (Sheen) who discovers a message sent by an alien life form. The trouble is… it came from Earth. Sheen is at his best as the increasingly paranoid hero, who begins to suspect mankind was actually invaded a long time ago, and is probably right.
Did You Know…?
The Arrival was a box office bomb, grossing barely $14 million of its $25 million budget. Some blame The Arrival’s failure on another alien invasion film: Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day, a flashier (and dumber) sci-fi movie that opened just one month afterwards, but had already begun marketing in earnest.
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3. Major League (dir. David S. Ward, 1989)
Major League wasn’t the first underdog sports comedy, and it sure as hell wasn’t the last, but that doesn’t mean it’s not one of the best. The owner of the Cleveland Indians wants to drive down attendance so she can move to Miami, so she assembles a ragtag team of misfits in the hopes that they’ll lose big. The top-notch ensemble cast – including Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Wesley Snipes – are determined to prove her wrong by winning the pennant. The sequel, Major League 2, was okay. The threequel, Major League: Back to the Minors, sucked. Charlie Sheen has been trying to get an “official” Major League 3 into production for years now.
Did You Know…?
The original ending of Major League had a pretty big twist: the villain, Rachel Phelps (Margaret Whitton), reveals that she wanted the team to win all along, and only adopted her mean spirited persona to help motivate them. Test audiences didn’t like that ending, and Phelps remained an antagonist in the sequel.
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2. Wall Street (dir. Oliver Stone, 1987)
If it was topical at the time, it seems like prophecy today. Wall Street was Oliver Stone’s indictment of stock market gambling and apathetic One-Percenters. Michael Douglas stars as Gordon Gecko, whose philosophy “Greed is good” seducers a young stock-jockey played by Charlie Sheen into the world of insider trading. Valuable lessons are learned in this blunt but brutal 1987 classic.
Did You Know…?
Wall Street is the only movie to win an Academy Award and a Golden Raspberry for acting in the same year. Michael Douglas won the Oscar for Best Actor, and his co-star Daryl Hannah won the Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress.
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1. Platoon (dir. Oliver Stone, 1986)
Charlie Sheen should have stayed in touch with Oliver Stone. His two best films were both collaborations with the hot button director, and in the Vietnam War saga Platoon, Sheen even plays a fictional version of Stone himself. Sheen plays Pvt. Chris Taylor, a college dropout turn Vietnam War volunteer who’s torn on the battlefield between the jaded Sgt. Bob Barnes (Tom Berenger, never better) and the more spiritual Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe). Platoon won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and at this rate will probably always be Charlie Sheen’s best movie.
Did You Know…?
Oliver Stone considered Johnny Depp for the role of Pvt. Chris Taylor but decided to cast Charlie Sheen instead. That doesn’t happen too often anymore.
