Every Patrick Swayze Movie Ranked Worst To Best

"Skatetown U.S.A.," released in 1979, was Columbia's attempt to cash in on the roller disco trend. Yet by the time "Skatetown,"and its rival film, "Roller Boogie," hit theaters, disco had already died an ugly death, and both movies tanked. "Skatetown U.S.A." disappeared from theaters quickly.

"Skatetown U.S.A." featured a large C-list cast including Scott Baio, Ron Palillo (Horsshack from "Welcome Back Kotter"), Maureen McCormick (aka Marcia Brady), The Unknown Comic, Billy Barty, and more. Here Swayze, plays a tough guy who always wins the roller disco competition, until a new hot shot on the block threatens to take away his crown.

While the film is indeed dreck, Swayze does a unique roller disco dance that shows he had the moves even back then. It's a highlight in a movie that most involved would probably prefer you'd forget.

"Tiger Warsaw" may be one of Swayze's worst received films among fans, although it's hard to imagine it being worse than "Skatetown U.S.A." It also apparently came out the same year he finally had his big screen breakthrough with "Dirty Dancing," showing how an actor's career can go from the ridiculous to the sublime.

In "Warsaw," Swayze plays a drug addict who shot his father and left him disabled. Swayze returns to his hometown 15 years later, hoping for forgiveness for his self-destructive ways. The cast also featured Piper Laurie ("Carrie"), Lee Richardson as Swayze's estranged father, and Mary McDonnell ("Independence Day," "Donnie Darko").

"Tall Tale" isn't exactly a historical film, but it's a family adventure from Disney about a child trying to save the family farm from being taken over. In comes great western legends Pecos Bill (played by Swayze), John Henry, Calamity Jane, and Paul Bunyon.

While this sounds like a real fun premise, the movie apparently didn't deliver on it. People wrote, "Dang if Disney's latest for kids doesn't seem like 'The Wizard of Oz' in chaps, sharing that classic's structure but minus its imagination, charm and songs." The New York Times also lamented, "This is not the stuff of which legends are made."

In "Three Wishes," a cheerful family movie, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio accidentally hits a drifter, played by Swayze, and she takes him in to heal from the accident. After spending some time with the family, he becomes a good influence and a father figure to her children.

Reviews for the film weren't stellar, ultimately chalking it up to a standard issue feel good movie, and not much more. Roger Ebert noted it "tugs at our hearts, but by the end, I was tugging back. The movie lays it on so thick that even with the best will in the world, I couldn't go along on its slow and soppy ride."

"Jump!" tackles much more serious fare than usual Swayze films. A British–Austrian co-production, "Jump!" is based on a true event about an Austrian boy on trial for murdering his father in 1928. (The real-life case was the Halsman trial, where photographer Philppe Halsman was alleged to committing patricide).

Swayze plays Richard Pressberger, a Jewish lawyer who believes the judge in the case is anti-semitic, and he must continue to defend his client or be held in contempt of court, despite the case feeling rigged. The film is clearly based on an important event, but neither the event nor the film got the attention it needed in modern times.

"George and the Dragon" is a story that's been told many times, where a knight takes on a dragon. In the film, George, played by James Purefoy, is an English knight who tries to settle down after the crusades and live a quiet life, but then he's sent to find a missing princess ... which leads to him crossing paths with the titular dragon. Swayze plays Garth, the princess's fiancé. As we've seen in many stories like this, he's the typical haughty and huffy prince who ends up losing the girl to a character with a kinder heart.

"George and the Dragon" was created by the Syfy Channel. One review compared it to "The Princess Bride" and noted "[the] characters are fun and the good actors make the production standards higher than the usual Syfy fare."

Trucker stories can be hit and miss at the box office. With "Smokey and the Bandit," they were big business, and cashed in mightily on the CB craze. "Black Dog" wasn't as lucky.

In "Black Dog," Swayze plays an ex-con who gets pushed into an under the table trucking gig, yet the truck is filled with volatile illegal weapons, and soon everyone, from the bad guys to the feds, are after him in a harrowing chase. While it sounds like a great premise for a movie, it just didn't deliver with the public or the critics, ultimately being written off as standard issue action fare.

With a title like "Keeping Mum" and Rowan Atkinson in the starring role, you know you're in for some cheeky British comedy. In "Keeping Mum," Swayze is part of an ensemble that features Atkinson, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Maggie Smith. 

Here Swayze plays a golf teacher who's seducing Atkinson's wife away from him. Atkinson's got other problems with his family, and then finally Smith arrives as a new housekeeper who can hopefully right the ship.

Critics found "Keeping Mum" to be neither fish nor fowl, a movie that tries to be a dark comedy, but it didn't quite hit the target. There were critics that liked it, including Richard Roeper, who called it "one of the funniest films to come out of England in years," and The Denver Post, who called it "an endearing hoot."

"City of Joy" was helmed by Roland Joffe, who directed the acclaimed film "The Killing Fields." This film stars Swayze as Max Lowe, a doctor working in Calcutta. Max tries to help people in the "city of joy," which is considered the poorest slum in the area. Max ultimately ends up helping a man after he's been brutally mugged, and helps him restart his life when he heals.

"City of Joy" was clearly made in the Merchant Ivory/Richard Attenborough mold, but for many critics, it tried too hard. Yet Joffe clearly had enough faith in Swayze as a performer to give him a starring role in a serious story that's not in his normal wheelhouse, and Swayze also clearly took risks with his acting when he could have safely done films like "Road House" his whole career.

Every actor has movies practically everybody knows, and movies that are forgotten. "Grandview U.S.A." is one of Swayze's early career obscurities, with Jamie Lee Curtis falling for two demolition derby drivers, played by C. Thomas Howell and Swayze.

Being torn between two lovers in a demolition derby didn't light the box office on fire, and critics weren't crazy about it either. Creative Loafing noted that "Swayze manages to create some sympathy for his character, but everything else about this picture, from the tepid romantic triangle to the awkward music-video segments, barely rises above silly," and Reel Film Reviews called it "a forgettable bit of '80s nostalgia."

In 1994, audiences were delighted with "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," a hilarious Australian comedy about a group of drag queens. In 1995 came an American drag comedy, "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar."

Swayze clearly liked to take risks as an actor, and playing in a drag queen ensemble with Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo was a bold career reinvention. But even with this cast and an outrageous premise, audiences and critics weren't as charmed as they were with "Priscilla."

The New York Daily News wrote, "'To Wong Foo' is worthwhile if only for the performances, which are surprisingly good." Janet Maslin of the New York Times, however, felt the directing was flat "even when the actors are funny," and that the script was weak. And Transgender Tapestry felt the film "had its heart in the right place," but that the film's tone was confused.

While "Red Dawn" is probably Swayze's best known war film, he also starred in "Uncommon Valor," which Paramount released in 1983. Starring Gene Hackman, Robert Stack and Fred Ward, the film deals with a Colonel who believes his son is still alive as a prisoner of war, and he assembles a crack team to find him in Laos. (The "Missing in Action" films would cover a similar theme to greater success.)

The film was not a hit with critics, with Roger Ebert noting, "The basic idea of 'Uncommon Valor' is so interesting that it's all they can do to make a routine formula movie out of it. But they do." Yet years later, Brian Mckay of eFilmCritic called it a "cliched, much-maligned but enjoyable post-Vietnam war movie [with an] enjoyable ensemble led by Gene Hackman."

"Red Dawn" is a better remembered film today, but it was the subject of controversy in 1984 for its perceived jingoism and right-wing politics. "Red Dawn" deals with the Russians invading the US and taking over, and follows a group of teens who gather together to fight through guerilla warfare.

"Dawn" was written and directed by the legendary John Milius, who also wrote "Jeremiah Johnson" and "Apocalypse Now," and is a well-known conservative. The film's tone and violence took a lot of heat, but "Red Dawn" provided big featured roles for Swayze — as well as C. Thomas Howell, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson, and his future "Dirty Dancing" co-star Jennifer Grey as they were all breaking into the business.

Critics liked the action scenes, but had problems in other areas. The Hollywood Reporter felt "it packs plenty of rabble-rousing ammunition, but it's sloppy execution is unlikely to win any merit badges for marksmanship." Film Freak Central called it "the stupidest/smartest movie of 1984," while another modern critic, Scott Weinberg, wrote, "C'mon: 'The Dirty Dozen' meets 'The Breakfast Club'? That's just awesome."

Despite the reviews and the criticism of the film's politics, "Red Dawn" did well at the box office – and whatever controversy the film generated, its cast came out unscathed.

A wild action thriller that became a cult classic from cable and video, "Point Break" is a unique crime story of a gang of surfing bank robbers led by Swayze, with Keanu Reeves as the FBI agent itching to nail them. In the film, Swayze describes skydiving as "100% pure adrenaline," and while the movie doesn't exactly deliver that, it's still a fun and respectable action yarn.

Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who became to first woman to win Best Director for "The Hurt Locker," "Break" has many of her trademarks as a filmmaker: A wild storyline, harsh violence, well-crafted action sequences, and unique characters.

"Point Break" is one of those films that has grown better with time, and has a sizable cult following today. Critical reaction was certainly better than "Road House," but similarly, you're advised not to take it too seriously.

The Hollywood Reporter noted, "While the critics may yammer, 'Point Break' delivers the thrills, spills and crunches its action-hungry audience demands," while Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader quipped, "We might as well be watching a blissed-out Bill and Ted caper." As if that's a bad thing.

"Rashomon" is a classic Akira Kurosawa film that shows a crime from three different perspectives, and the viewer has to figure out which version is true. "11:14" had a similar theme, with an accident happening at 11:14, shown from five different points of view.

Swayze was part of a strong ensemble cast that included Henry Thomas, Barbara Hershey, Hilary Swank, Colin Hanks and more. Reviews were largely positive, with Combustible Celluloid noting "the solid screenplay satisfyingly clicks everything together, unraveling little mysteries as it goes and leaving nothing hanging," and the San Francisco Chronicle calling it "an inventive black comedy." It also has Swayze's highest tomato score on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Ghost" is probably the best reviewed and most successful Patrick Swayze hit, and the drama with a spiritual bent that hit the zeitgeist in a big way upon its 1990 release. In the clever script written by Bruce Joel Rubin ("Deep Impact"), and deftly directed by Jerry Zucker ("Airplane!"), Sam (Swayze) dies, but is still stuck on earth. While his spirit is still here, he helps solve a crime, has a romantic pottery session with his widow, and finally gives their relationship closure when his spirit is ready to move on to the next level.

"Ghost" deftly combined many genres together into a pleasing box office hit. It has great moments of comedy, horror, and romance, all melded into a wonderfully crowd-pleasing mix. In addition to the strong storyline, "Ghost" also had a great featured performance from Whoopi Goldberg, who plays a fake medium who suddenly realizes she can actually communicate with Swayze's spirit.

The Philadelphia Inquirer called it "remarkably appealing on a purely personal level," and Empire called it "one of the finest (and weepiest) love stories ever to hit the big screen. Ghost is a fundamental human tale that touches the hardest part."