Adam McKay's Films, Ranked

Eleven and a half years ago, writer/director Adam McKay moved from Saturday Night Live into the arena of major Hollywood comedies with his debut feature film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. His creative partnership with Will Ferrell has resulted in four other movies and the rise of Funny Or Die, but tomorrow marks the release of McKay’s most serious movie to date: The Big Short. Ferrell’s amusing buffoonery is nowhere to be found, traded here for backroom dealings of slick hedge fund managers as McKay examines the 2008 collapse of the American economy with righteous indignation. It’s not without humor, but it’s definitely not a traditional “Adam McKay movie” — this is the filmmaker on a mission, and you can sense a passion and fire in the storytelling that’s never burned quite this hot before.

In honor of the release of The Big Short (read my full review here), I thought it’d be fun to rank McKay’s directorial efforts so far and see how your interpretations stack up. Be sure to let me know what you th— wait, I don’t have to tell you what to do. This is a list on the internet. You’re probably commenting already. Let’s get started.

6. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Despite growing up in the South, I’ve never understood the appeal of NASCAR and the culture that surrounds it, so an entire movie centered on the concept never sounded like a great idea to me. There are some decent jokes here (the amusingly foul-mouthed sons come to mind), but Talladega Nights leans so heavily on a sport I simply don’t like, and I was never really able to get past that and appreciate it as its own movie. I suspect I’ll get some heat for including it so low on the list, but what can I say? I just didn’t find it that funny.

5. Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

This bonkers follow-up to the 2004 original came out almost ten years later and is a much weirder film than the first. After the first viewing slightly disappointed me, I returned to it on home video and gave it another shot, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it plays much better on second viewing. Without the loaded expectations that it may surpass the original, its weirdness is a bit easier to swallow, and McKay’s treatment of the story — about the rise of awful 24-hour news coverage and the slippery slope that led to the current state of the journalism industry — allowed him to get a bit more pointed than in some of his other films. Buried among scenes of Ron Burgundy singing to a shark and a ludicrous climactic fight sequence that feels more than a little forced, McKay slips a legitimate message about the state of the news in our country right now.

4. The Other Guys

Though its back half admittedly loses a lot of steam, I find the first half of The Other Guys to be absolutely hilarious. Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s chemistry is spot-on, and I still crack up remembering the scene in which Ferrell explains how if he were a tuna, he’d be able to take down Wahlberg as a lion. It’s a great parody of buddy cop movies and a fun look at the B-team that stays behind and fills out all of the paperwork, and the film’s credits sequence plays like an infographic dress rehearsal for The Big Short, explaining how Ponzi schemes work and taking banks and government bailouts to task.

3. Step Brothers

Here’s a film that would certainly take the top spot on a lot of other people’s lists. Some view movie this as a legitimate comedic masterpiece, and while I wouldn’t exactly go that far, it’s impossible for me to deny its appeal. The pairing of Ferrell and John C. Reilly that didn’t work for me in Talladega Nights fits together effortlessly here, and this seems like a film these guys were all destined to make. In some ways it’s the ultimate man-child movie, and the combination of innocence and petulance in the lead actors couldn’t be better. Memorable moments abound, and it feels like the whole film is powered by a sense of giddy, childish glee. 

2. The Big Short

For a film intent on explaining heady concepts like collateralized debt obligations, The Big Short does so in extremely entertaining fashion. McKay knows that most people don’t understand exactly how the financial collapse occurred, but he breaks it down in ways the audience can understand and adds compelling characters and a slick style to make it feel like much more than just an economics lecture. Read my review to get the full story, but this is absolutely one of his best films.

1. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

In the summer of 2004, I was one of those people who preferred Dodgeball to Anchorman. I just didn’t get Anchorman on first viewing, but in the years since, McKay’s debut film has had a huge impact on me. I now know most of the lines by heart, and Ron Burgundy has become one of my favorite comedic cinematic characters. It’s a film that improves on repeat viewings, and while, again, the last act has some trouble (which seems to be a recurring issue in McKay’s work), the first two thirds are so strong, the characters are so well-drawn, and the comedy is so heightened that it totally makes up for any of its weaker aspects.