Every Pierce Brosnan Movie Ranked Worst To Best

For over four decades, Pierce Brosnan has been lighting up the screen in roles big and small. Known for his roguish charm, his keen intellect, and his handsome visage, he has a talent for appearing in films that both trade on and play against these qualities. As with every actor who's starred as the famous super spy, he's perhaps most frequently associated with his seven-year run as James Bond, and though his turn in the long-running franchise is certainly beloved, he has a filmography far more impressive than any single character.

Since his film debut in 1980, Brosnan has starred in a wide range of genres. From murder mysteries to romantic comedies, from action thrillers to meditative dramas, there seems to be no limit to what this Irish thespian is capable of. So we've taken the liberty of looking through his entire resume in order to rank his projects from worst to best. We've omitted his TV work (such as "Remington Steele" and "The Son"), as well as some of the more obscure entries that we couldn't find critical citations for. Even still, we're left with a wildly impressive and varied compilation of films that serves to highlight just how much Brosnan has brought to the medium.

"Entangled" is an earlier thriller of sorts that follows a cat-and-mouse game played between two literary rivals. How early are we talking? Early enough that Judd Nelson ("The Breakfast Club") was cast in the lead role of David, a jealous failed novelist who's convinced that his girlfriend (Laurence Treil) is cheating on him, though he gradually uncovers there's a greater mystery that's both deeper and shallower than his otherwise simple explanation.

As for Brosnan? He plays Nelson's rival, Garavan, although the actual nature of his role is a little inexplicable. David Nusair noted in his write-up for Reel Film Reviews that he's "still not entirely sure what [Brosnan's] deal is. He would pop up every now and then, do something sinister, and recede into the night." Not exactly the best use of the actor's talents.

Off the back of her runaway success with "Sex and the City," Sarah Jessica Parker certainly enjoyed a moment in time where she headlined a number of big screen projects in the hopes that she would earn some residual goodwill from her small-screen adventures. This adaptation of Allison Pearson's novel of the same name, however, was a big swing and a miss. Parker plays an investment advisor who struggles to balance her ambitious work life with her family troubles involving two small children and a loving husband (Greg Kinnear).

Thrown into the mix is Brosnan as a successful colleague who also serves as a form of temptation. The review for The Wrap admits, "None of the major performers embarrass themselves here, but neither does anyone especially shine." The major issue with the film is that, in the wake of the Great Recession, the difficulties of rich, successful people living in beautiful homes just seems unengaging at best and tone-deaf at worst. As stated in the review, "One can't help feeling like you've already seen all this too many times and that a bunch of talented, smart folks are just going through the motions."

With this 1999 film, director Richard Attenborough tries to tell the true story surrounding an English man who forsakes his heritage to live in Canada as a Native American. Even though it's very misguided, the film admittedly does have a compelling subject matter. Archibald "Grey Owl" Belaney may have been an imposter, but he was also one of the first environmental activists and wrote several books on the subject in order to convey his newfound beliefs. In Attenborough's version of events, however, the man's complexities are sanded off to the point where he's rendered inert and uninteresting.

None of this does Brosnan any favors in the title role, as The Spectator reports that "he never allows a smile to crack his expressionless face, which ... is meant to suggest the dark secret that lurks within but instead just results in a wooden performance." Indeed, the film was so underwhelming to its own U.S. distributor that it became one of the most expensive movies at the time to wind up going straight-to-video.

A long-delayed fantasy epic that was originally set for release in 2015 before being left on the shelf for seven years, "The King's Daughter" is a stylish mess. Brosnan plays Louis XIV, a decadent monarch who alternates between confessing his sins to a spiritual advisor (William Hurt in one of his final roles), arranging a marriage for his newly uncovered daughter (Kaya Scodelario), and attempting a ritual sacrifice of a mermaid (Fan Bingbing) that will somehow grant him eternal life.

If that synopsis sounds like it has a lot going on, the film itself is even more so, with a flailing tone and unconvincing special effects dampening its already muddled impact, resulting in one of the worst films of 2022. Richard Roeper confirms as much in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, stating, "Brosnan and Hurt have some fun together as two powerful and world-weary cynics who aren't yet beyond redemption but are skirting close to the edge –- but nothing that transpires in the final, admittedly well-filmed series of events is particularly surprising or thrilling."

This recent heist film shows that even now, Pierce Brosnan isn't above the occasional paycheck. Yes, "The Misfits" is basically what you'd expect from a film of this caliber, but even though the movie never quite keeps up with him, the star brings an air of professionalism to his role as a thief who partners with the titular band of Robin Hood-esque delinquents (played by Nick Cannon, Jamie Chung, Mike D. Angelo, and Rami Jabar) in order to rob a prison baron (Tim Roth) of a fortune in gold bricks.

Despite director Renny Harlin's pedigree of enjoyably dumb thrillers like "Deep Blue Sea" and "Cliffhanger," the results here are frequently derivative. Worse than that is the juvenile humor and unfortunate bigotry that clouds the whole project, which IndieWire highlights by observing that "its big heist depends on Nick Cannon's casually racist character disguising himself as an Arabic sheik (arguably the grossest part of a sequence that also includes hundreds of men suffering from explosive diarrhea at the same time)."

Considering how much of an electric presence Brosnan can bring to the right role, it's a little surprising how often he gets cast as boring dads. But that's exactly what happens in this low-grade romance starring Robert Pattinson (in the throes of his "Twilight" era) as Brosnan's rebellious son with major daddy issues, who starts a half-serious courtship with a fellow student (Emilie de Ravin) that ultimately turns very serious.

The film is pretty by-the-numbers as a rom-com about 20-somethings learning to find themselves, and Pattinson had yet to mature into the brilliantly compelling actor we now know he would become, but there's a distinct reason this film is remembered today. There's a plot twist in the final minutes of the movie that takes advantage of a national tragedy in a way that's profoundly tasteless. As noted by Rolling Stone, "It's all weepy drool until the twist ending, which turns it shockingly offensive."

This 1988 action drama is one of Brosnan's earliest films, and there's definitely a certain throwback quality to watching it now. Based on a series of novels about the title character by Lyndon Mallet, it features the actor as a tough-as-nails debt collector who's forced into action by his community when a group of wealthy industrialists plan to build a chemical plant on top of the local sports arena.

Though the film is likely best known for a viral clip featuring Brosnan's unique delivery of the line "maybe you shouldn't be living here," there is a charmingly basic enjoyment to be had from this unassuming setup. Ed Travis says as much in his review for Cinapse, writing, "It's an entirely familiar kind of lone hero action movie that goes down easy, feels entirely satisfying, and revels in its few eccentricities."

Maybe it's the residual effects of his time as the womanizing 007 or maybe it's just his debonair good looks, but Brosnan has never been able to resist a good love story. Unfortunately, he's often also unable to resist a bad one, which is what we get here. He's paired with Emma Thompson as a divorced couple who team up for an overelaborate plot to recover his stolen pension, enlisting the help of two adventurous friends (Timothy Spall and Celia Imrie) in the process.

The details and execution of the caper leave much to be desired, but what's most frustrating is that the interplay between the two leads hints at a project that would have been far more entertaining. As relayed by the New York Daily News, "We see the potential for a fun rom-com every time Thompson and Brosnan spar. Though they don't share any real chemistry, they do connect with the appealing confidence of two pros." Maybe someday they'll reteam for a project more befitting of their talents.

Though he's worked in a wide variety of genres, one that Brosnan hasn't spent too much time with is horror. Perhaps he was scared off by his early experience in this 1986 film from director John McTiernan (of "Die Hard" and "Predator" fame). The convoluted plot has the actor playing a French anthropologist who moves with his wife to Los Angeles and finds himself under attack by what appears to be a roaming street gang but is actually a group of ancient nomadic spirits spreading evil in human form.

That all seems simple enough, but the presentation of the film is nonlinear and jumbled, dragging in Lesley-Anne Down as a doctor who attempts to make sense of the whole thing. Sense appears to be beside the point, as the only thing more illogical than the story are the characters in it. Roger Ebert describes it as "one of those stories where the characters have only themselves to blame, for going out into dark knights and looking for trouble with the [spirits] and not getting on the next plane back to France."

Pierce Brosnan's presence in this Irish Christmas film is admittedly quite limited. He plays the boss of a band of developers who plan to demolish the village pottery factory. He's not the only Irish native to make an appearance. Liam Neeson's voice shows up to add some flavor to an otherwise bland story of a magical little girl (Erin Galway-Kendrick) with magical powers who sets out to save the day from the crooked forces of capitalism.

Though the uniquely Irish setting does make this family-friendly flick stand out a little from the hundreds of similarly themed Hallmark films out there, it's not quite enough to elevate things beyond its target demographic. Time Out reports that it "struggles with the basics of credibility, insulting us with unspeakably bad dialogue and delivering clunky performances by the shovelful."

Ever since Woody Allen made a name for himself with a series of heartfelt cinematic love letters to New York City, many a filmmaker has tried and failed to capture that same sense of romantic and existential ennui. One such filmmaker is Marc Webb — best known for "(500) Days of Summer" and the Andrew Garfield "Spider-Man" series — whose own attempt at this subgenre finds Callum Turner playing a wannabe writer who discovers that his father (Brosnan) is having an affair with a younger woman (Kate Beckinsale).

Though his initial goal is to break them up, the young man finds himself falling for the woman, which serves to further complicate things. Yet despite a game cast (which also includes Jeff Bridges as a wise neighbor), the film can't find anything new to say about either relationships or the city that forms its setting. The Globe and Mail laments that "like love itself, the movie wants so much to be magical. But like the Paul Simon song it pulls its title from, you've heard it too many times before and the ardor just isn't there."

The disaster movie is a well-worn genre at this point, and most viewers know what to expect going in. Something either natural or unnatural is coming to wreak destruction upon innocent civilians, and an ensemble of stock characters will do their best to survive. "Dante's Peak" does not disappoint these modest expectations, offering up Brosnan as a typically handsome scientist who's come to warn a quiet little town of a volcano on the verge of eruption.

When it comes to the chaos that ensues, the film delivers in spades. But where it falls short is in the human department, as the characters played by Brosnan and Linda Hamilton feel unconvincing and one-dimensional. Describing Brosnan's performance, the Associated Press says that he "tries to be rough and tough ... but when he sits in the local bar completely peeved that neither he nor his volcano are being taken seriously, tossing nuts into his mouth with such force you fear he'll hurt himself, you can only feel sorry for the guy."

Reuniting with Roger Donaldson, who directed him in "Dante's Peak," Brosnan submits his own entry into the "older actor gets to be a stone-cold killing machine" subgenre popularized by Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington, among others. In this adaptation of Bill Granger's best-selling series, Brosnan plays the titular November Man, Peter Devereaux, a retired CIA agent who's pulled into a web of murder and intrigue after a botched attempt to rescue his ex-wife.

If you've seen one of these kinds of movies, you've seen them all. Donaldson does what he can to give the material some verve, and the action is equal parts unrelenting and perfunctory. What really gives the film any staying power (as with most of its ilk) is the charismatic presence of the lead actor. In his review, Richard Crouse concedes that "the movie is a somewhat generic thriller buoyed by Brosnan's badass Bondness."

Stephen King adaptations are a dime a dozen, and anyone who's witnessed their fair share know that some are definitely better than others. This loose interpretation of a King short story features Brosnan as an eccentric scientist who uses the mentally challenged man that mows his lawn (Jeff Fahey) as a guinea pig for his radical intelligence enhancement experiments. Though at first the treatment of drugs and VR seem to make an improvement, they soon backfire when Fahey's newfound intelligence turns malicious.

The big selling point of the film at the time were its state-of-the-art VR sequences, which utilized CGI that unfortunately looks hilariously dated now. Still, it was enough to earn the film a begrudging pass upon its initial release, and if you're looking for good cheesy fun, you can't wrong here. The Washington Post describes it as "the first film to capitalize on interest in 'virtual reality' technology." Come for Brosnan, stay for the 1992 CGI that's wrong in all the right ways. 

Though Brosnan's credentials as a leading man are beyond question, sometimes he excels just as much in a supporting or antagonistic role. For example, in the mystery thriller "Spinning Man," he plays a detective on the trail of a professor (Guy Pearce) who's found himself the primary suspect after one of his students is found dead. As it turns out, the professor's alibi may not be very airtight, and his wife (Minnie Driver) suspects that he may in fact have been sleeping with the student.

Playing the straight man challenging Guy Pearce's increasingly tangled web of mistruths and uncertainty, Brosnan does an effective job interrogating the kind of role he himself would have played just a few years earlier. The film does get a bit bogged down in formula and the complexities of its plot, but the Los Angeles Times vouches that "of the many interchangeable, name-led thrillers and action pictures concurrently premiering these days in theaters and on VOD, this one's definitely a cut above."

One of Brosnan's signature attributes is a sort of rakish charm, which is often used to provide comfort or attract his female co-stars, but it can occasionally be weaponized for more sinister ends. Enter his role as Dr. Hindle in the pseudo-horror thriller "False Positive," which focuses on a couple (Ilana Glazer and Justin Theroux) who've tried and failed to get pregnant. They turn to the good doctor, an old friend of Theroux's, who boasts an immaculate track record for helping women to conceive.

Though Glazer does indeed get pregnant, she begins to suspect that her husband and doctor have ulterior motives and that there may be some unnatural plot surrounding the eventual birth. The San Francisco Chronicle's review for the film indicates that "though not perfect –- logic is stillborn at some point in the second half -– it has two appealing elements: Ilana Glazer, the film's co-writer and star, and Pierce Brosnan, who is perfecting a suave sort of sliminess as of late."

Adapted from John Bingham's 1955 novel "Five Roundabouts to Heaven," this crime drama stars Chris Cooper as a married man who falls in love with an enchanting young widow (Rachel McAdams). Convincing himself that divorce would be too hard on his wife (Patricia Clarkson), he decides that killing her would be the more humane option. Complicating the matter further is his silver-tongued best friend (Brosnan), who also has eyes for his prospective new bride.

This is the kind of film where nasty behavior is played up for entertainment value, where people who think they're doing the right thing end up making horrible decisions that spiral out into any number of unforeseen directions. That's all part of the fun, as the Austin Chronicle states that there's a sense of "wonderful, amoral resignation and gleeful responsibility-dodging that makes 'Married Life' so deliciously different from other modern crime stories."

It was only a matter of time before we hit the films that Brosnan is really famous for. His last stint as James Bond received a mixed critical reception, and the over-the-top nature of its spectacle ultimately triggered a recast (and a full-on reboot), thus ushering in the Daniel Craig era. Yet in recent years, the film has earned something of a reevaluation, and even though its bigger moments are still laughable, its slowly earned its place as a Bond film worth respecting.

Much of that is due to Brosnan's naturalism in the role. As Slate puts it, "He injects a tiny bit of drama into the role –- a tension between the classic persona, with its easy sense of entitlement, and an anxious awareness that it's no longer as easy as all that." For all the invisible cars, melting ice palaces, and ridiculous space lasers, the core of these films always comes back to the character, and Brosnan embodied that through to his final moments.

Despite being known for a certain clean-cut handsomeness, Brosnan has never been afraid to rough it up and get dirty for a role. A great example is in this revenge Western taking place shortly after the Civil War, which features the actor as a trapper being aggressively pursued by Liam Neeson for reasons that we're not initially privy to. Whatever it is, it must be powerful stuff because the hunt is clearly fueled by rage on Neeson's part.

The chase that ensues plays out in a sparse, minimalist fashion, bringing to mind the stories of Cormac McCarthy (especially the pursuit from "No Country For Old Men"). Set against the majesty of the American frontier, the film is visually stunning, even if the setup promises a bit more action than is ultimately delivered. Still, a little bit can go a long way, as The Guardian notes that "the cunning, resourceful, ruthlessly violent Brosnan gives his best performance for a long time."

Some movies require an actor to really dig into the psychology of a role and break down character motivations in order to deliver something meaningful and genuine. Others only require their actors to show up and have fun camping it up, and those are exactly the kind of roles populating Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks!," an alien invasion spoof that hearkens back to the '50s in its depiction of humans as broad caricatures reacting to goofy-looking Martians.

Brosnan is fully committed to the bit as the top scientist to the president (Jack Nicholson), perpetually smoking a pipe and managing to make women fall in love with him even after he's been reduced to just a head by alien experimentation. The film is fun and fluffy and totally inconsequential. But as the Orlando Sentinel puts it, "If 'Mars Attacks!' is a marvelous showcase for some ingenious and kitschy special effects, it's also a movie in which some of Hollywood's most talented actors can show how they behave on the fringes of interplanetary insanity."

Adaptations of mystery novelist Agatha Christie's work have been a mixed bag, from the original incarnations of "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile" to the recent Kenneth Branagh version of those same stories. Somewhere in the middle is this underseen Miss Marple whodunit, where the famous detective is played by Angela Lansbury (who had obviously had many years of "Murder, She Wrote" to practice for the role).

The plot revolves around a murder that takes place on an American film set that has invaded a sleepy English town. Suspects involve a who's who of big name actors, including Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Kim Novak, and a baby-faced Pierce Brosnan in one of his first roles. It may not rank among the best cinematic murder mysteries, but Spirituality & Practice maintains that "everything about 'The Mirror Crack'd' is just right — from the lovely sets to the b****y repartee among the Hollywood folk."

Brosnan's third time at bat playing James Bond suffers in many ways by comparison to what came both before and after it. Compared to the fresh thrills of "Goldeneye" and the memorable craziness of "Die Another Day," this entry is so mannered as to almost be forgettable. Yet there's a lot that works about this relatively straightforward spy thriller, from the compelling Bond girl turned villainess played by Sophie Marceau to a crackerjack opening speedboat chase across the Thames.

The plot concerns a terrorist (Robert Carlyle) who's targeting an oil pipeline for nefarious ends, but as with most films in the series, it's really just an excuse to shuffle Bond from one action set piece to another. As ever, the theatrics are anchored by the leading man. The New York Times notes that "in his third and most comfortable effort to model the Bond mantle, Pierce Brosnan bears noticeably more resemblance to a real human being. He shows signs of emotion, cuts back on the lame puns, and makes lifelike conversation with fellow characters."

Sometimes Brosnan's role in a given film provides the actor with new depths to explore. Other times, it's just a glorified cameo, there to add gravitas to an otherwise trashy project. The latter is definitely the case in this Dave Bautista vehicle, which features the "Guardians of the Galaxy" star doing his best John McClane impression as he battles against a group of Russian-ish terrorists who are primed to blow up a packed soccer stadium.

There's nothing terribly creative or original about the proceedings, and Brosnan is really only there as a human MacGuffin (Ray Stevenson's terrorist leader initiated the conflict in the hopes of capturing the brother, Brosnan, he believes betrayed him). But it's executed with flair, and Bautista acquits himself as an action hero outside of the Marvel context. Variety's review calls it "an entertainingly over-the-top ride" that "has an air of good-natured, slightly tongue-in-cheek excess rather than formulaic cash-in." Come on, it's Bond and Drax — how can you go wrong?

With Jason Bourne, Ethan Hunt, and of course 007 being the biggest spy names in town, it's easy to forget that the genre is capable of more than propulsive action and death-defying stunts. Sometimes, a slow-burn investigative thriller can ratchet up the tension just as effectively as a series of explosions. In Fredrick Forsyth's adaptation of his own book, we see just how easily atomic warfare can be triggered.

In "The Fourth Protocol," Michael Caine plays a British spy on the outs with his superiors, who's on the trail of a murderous KGB agent (Brosnan) with plans to detonate an atomic bomb in such a way as to make the Americans look responsible. Eschewing bombastic set pieces for grounded detective work, the film features an increasingly evolving plot and sharp dialogue, with The Washington Post describing it as "streamlined and rich at the same time –- like the best of the James Bond films, but serious."

This remake of the 1968 Steve McQueen film of the same name has Brosnan playing the titular billionaire, whose boredom inspires him to steal a priceless Monet painting simply for the thrill of it. Things get complicated when he starts to develop feelings for the insurance investigator (Rene Russo) who's pursuing him, with their attraction to one another providing some extra juice to this cat-and-mouse game.

The film is erotic in a comfortably PG-13 kind of way, and director John McTiernan (who worked with Brosnan on the far less successful "Nomads") films the heist sequence with plenty of flourish. It all adds up to an entertaining romp, with the San Francisco Examiner noting that "Brosnan merely could have glided along on the oily panache he oozes as James Bond ... but Crown's arrogance is a front for his chronic discontent, which Brosnan inhabits with a flaneur's aimless lassitude." It's hard to live up to the cool of McQueen, but "The Thomas Crown Affair" proves that Brosnan can hold his own against all-time legends.

If the original "Mamma Mia!" was a pleasantly diverting if occasionally grating musical exercise, its sequel doubles down on the joyful exuberance that made its predecessor so memorable. Instead of overstaying its welcome, this approach actually results in a carefree delight of a film that's somehow more enjoyable, despite a significantly reduced role for Meryl Streep.

The wafer-thin plot involves Amanda Seyfried throwing a massive party to celebrate the opening of her Greek island hotel, in addition to a number of flashbacks involving Lily James as the younger version of Streep's character, but it's all just an excuse for further performances of hit ABBA songs. It's light, it's fun, it's incredibly sweet, and Sight & Sound gave credit to Brosnan for "twinkling his way through self-conscious gags about his notorious vocals."

Pierce Brosnan's aptitude for comedy has never been put to better use than in "The Matador," a two-hander with frequent co-star Greg Kinnear, where Brosnan plays an aging hit man who's grown increasingly disillusioned with his line of work. By chance, he befriends Kinnear's beleaguered businessman at a hotel bar in Mexico City, and the two strike up an unusual friendship that ultimately have consequences neither could imagine.

The veteran actors play off each other beautifully, and the film manages a tonal juggling act that leans into the absurdity of their relationship while also embracing its darker implications. The Seattle Times lavishes praise, stating, "Brosnan, who's got impeccable comedic instincts ... saunters through the film with a vaguely sinister ease."

Before they re-teamed for "Evelyn," Brosnan initially joined forces with director Bruce Beresford (best known for "Driving Miss Daisy") in this tale of a Nigerian clerk (Maynard Eziashi) in the 1920s who's so indoctrinated into the British way of life that he imagines himself one of them, dressing in a fancy white suit and conducting himself in a boisterous manner that draws plenty of attention, if not always the best kind.

Mister Johnson gets into hot water when he comes up with an embezzlement scheme to help his boss (Brosnan) fulfill his dream of building a road. Though the boss agrees, when the scheme is found out, it's Johnson who takes the blame. Equally funny and poignant, the Austin Chronicle says that it "maintains a comic tone throughout until it turns tragic at the end, a strategy which allows the audience to root for its resilient hero yet also feel remorseful about the consequences of his actions."

There is a slightly different timeline where Pierce Brosnan would have gotten to play James Bond much earlier than he did. Before Timothy Dalton took over from Roger Moore, Brosnan was actually set to star in "The Living Daylights." But then his contract for "Remington Steele" got renewed and he was taken out of the running. Better late than never, as his first outing as 007 in "GoldenEye" is frequently cited as his best.

This is a more reflective, post-Cold War iteration of the character, who still goes through the expected motions but is a bit more aware of how emotionally stunted they've made him. Though not quite as deep as Daniel Craig's iteration would ultimately prove to be, Brosnan's emergence proved hugely successful, and as The Hollywood Reporter puts it, the film is "two hours of well-executed thrills, high-tech mayhem and one-of-a-kind comedy. Violent, edgy, just a little bloodthirsty and teasingly sexy." In other words, it's everything you'd want a Bond film to be.

For an actor with so many spy films dotting his resume, it's strangely ironic that one of the most effective projects Pierce Brosnan has starred in is one where he is not the investigator but rather the subject of investigation. In this thriller from controversial director Roman Polanski, Brosnan plays a Tony Blair-esque former prime minister with a divisive track record and more than a few skeletons in his closet.

Ewan McGregor takes the lead as an unnamed ghostwriter who's reluctantly hired to polish up the PM's memoirs, although he quickly finds himself sucked into a vast conspiracy where only his wits and intuition can keep him safe. In perhaps a career-best performance, Brosnan plays his cards close to the chest, yet he reveals a three-dimensional character who's both contentious and wounded. This Boston Globe review from Ty Burr says it best: "This Pierce Brosnan is a new one on me: Expansive, dismissive, charmingly cruel, he wields power like a professional athlete." With decades' worth of commanding performances, Brosnan's triumph here is playing a leader with all the authority and none of the power.