The 10 best Chris Evans movies of all time
Marvel’s Avengers are a rag-tag group of heroes known for their muscular physique and strapping good looks, yet, whilst they have helped the superhero series to reach unprecedented financial dominance, the actors aren’t known for their critical acclaim, despite their artistic brilliance. Even still, individuals like Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr, Chris Hemsworth and, indeed, Chris Evans are capable of cinematic excellence in every sense of the word.
Though Evans may be best known for his portrayal of the patriotic warrior Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the actor has been present in the industry ever since the late 1990s, appearing in a number of romantic comedies and throwaway action movies. Most recently, he has thrived in a plethora of different roles, where he’s able to flex his comedy chops and his natural charm.
Marvel aside, Evans has collaborated with the likes of Danny Boyle, Marc Webb, Bong Joon-ho, Edgar Wright and Rian Johnson, proving himself as a multi-faceted star in each and every new role he takes on. Below, we’ve explored the very best roles he’s taken on, honouring his time as Captain America just once in the name of cinematic parity.
Take a look at our list below, which includes Oscar-nominated movies and box-office behemoths, below.
The top 10 Chris Evans movies:
10. Lightyear (Angus MacLane, 2022)
Taking the mantle of a beloved Pixar character voiced by an iconic actor was always going to be a daunting task, but for Evans, he had an added complication; he would, technically, be portraying the real, human character of Buzz Lightyear upon which the toy, voiced by Tim Allen, was based.
So, rather confusingly, the Lightyear film that we received in 2022 is meant to be the same film that Andy and millions of other kids would have watched back in the 1990s that caused them to beg their parents to buy them the toy. Taking all this into consideration, Evans manages to pay tribute to Allen’s performance and all the prior versions of Buzz Lightyear we’d seen whilst also giving us enough added depth and charisma to make it believable that this character would have launched a whole line of action figures.
In keeping with the modern trend of big-budget action blockbusters, Evan’s version has more of a sense of humour and innate knack for comic quips than the stiff, no-nonsense toy version, which ultimately makes it a refreshing and worthwhile performance to a film that would have otherwise had its reason for existing called into question.
9. The Losers (Sylvain White, 2010)
In close competition with his moustache in The Gray Man comes the goatee worn by Evans in DC’s 2010 film The Losers. Just a year before the first Captain America movie would launch him into stratospheric levels of fame and make qualities such as nobility, patriotism and selflessness synonymous with the actor, Evans had dipped his toe into the DC world — with hilarious results.
Playing Jensen, computer hacker and intelligence specialist, Evan’s role very much provides comic relief for the rest of the titular ‘Losers’, an elite group of black-ops military who get double-crossed by the CIA and forced to take the fight to the American intelligence agency. The opposite of Marvel’s Captain in almost every sense, Jensen is somewhat awkward and nerdy, yet selfish and up for a good time.
Unlike other films, this one doesn’t quite showcase the range that we believe Evans has; instead, he appears to dial it in with the rest of the ensemble cast on a fairly uninspired, unoriginal and uninteresting action film that has been largely forgotten by audiences for good reason.
8. The Gray Man (Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, 2022)
This delectably villainous performance makes us wish that Evans played more baddies. Sporting a rather unsettling moustache, Evan’s role as the psychotic ex-CIA agent Lloyd Hansen proved to be a wonderfully entertaining foil to Ryan Gosling’s eponymous Grey Man.
Giving off the same criminally-insane-jock vibes that Logan Ash did in No Time To Die, which is a sub-brand of villain that we’re absolutely here for, Evan’s Hansen made for exceptionally engaging viewing with Netflix’s big-budget answer to Bond. From the mannerisms to the tight-fitted knitted polo, every element of the Hansen character was carefully crafted to ensure that the Grey Man met his match in terms of physical prowess, special-ops intelligence, fashion style and sense of humour.
Whilst the rest of The Gray Man may have been somewhat forgettable, and the film itself got quite easily lost in the aether of the streaming giant, Evan’s performance remains the most enduring aspect of the Russo brother’s latest cinematic offering and has us excited to see what other unknown territories Evans could prove great at next.
7. Not Another Teen Movie (Joel Gallen, 2001)
The amalgamation of various popular ‘jock’ characters from previous teen comedies, the role of Jake Wyler does not demand much from Evans, but what little it does ask of him, he does it extremely well. Channelling the same parody energy that also gave us the Scary Movie franchise, Date Movie and Superhero movie, Not Another Teen Movie riffs on 1980s classics like The Breakfast Club whilst also more recent offerings like American Pie.
In terms of physique alone, Evans perfectly encapsulates the quintessential American Football player high school heartthrob that we’ve seen in countless other movies, managing to be both purposefully generic and forgettable whilst also still making us laugh.
Neither a revelatory nor embarrassing addition to the actor’s filmography, Not Another Teen Movie demonstrated that Evans had decent acting chops, an affinity for humour and comic timing, which would come in useful for later roles, and a self-awareness of his own looks that would be played upon in the future for the likes of Fantastic Four and Captain America. Not the best performance of his by a mile, but his role as Wyler nonetheless helped put a talented actor on the map.
6. Sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007)
Evan’s role in Sunshine marks one of the very few times the actor has starred in a movie made outside the studio system and by a singularly bold and visionary director. It shows. In the more-than-capable hands of director Danny Boyle, Evans’ performance remains one of the most engaging and compelling we’ve seen from the actor, and considering it is 16 years old, we’re impatiently waiting for him to reach these heights again.
Playing Mace, the spacecraft’s engineer, Evans’ character begins the film as a particularly level-headed and cool scientist. As the movie progresses, it is Mace, more than anyone, who succumbs to the mental taxation of their mission, and the early performance by Evans makes his radical transformation all the more tragic, believable and powerful.
Starring in an ensemble cast of equally talented actors actually serves to bolster Evans rather than dilute him and demonstrates just how diverse the actor can be. Clearly, in an action/comedy role, the actor is able to hold his own, but here we see him with the likes of Benedict Wong and Cillian Murphy, all doing serious, deep, three-dimensional acting, and Evans manages to shine amongst them, confirming that, given the right material and filmmaker, he can prove to be one of the greatest Hollywood actors of his generation.
5. Gifted (Marc Webb, 2015)
Marc Webb is a multi-faceted filmmaker, capable of massive Hollywood blockbusters in the form of 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man and quirky romantic comedies like 2009’s (500) Days of Summer. In 2015, Webb revisited his proficiency for the latter with the release of Gifted, an underrated love story that features Evans in one of his most quietly spectacular performances.
Featuring alongside the likes of Octavia Spencer, Jenny Slate, Mckenna Grace and Lindsay Duncan, Evans plays Frank, a single man who is trying to raise his niece whilst caught amid a furious custody battle with his mother. Touching and emotional, this is one of Evans’ very best.
4. Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
Speaking of eclectic talents, the South Korean director Bong Joon-ho has made a plethora of strange movies over the 21st century, including the 2006 monster movie The Host and the 2019 Oscar-winning drama Parasite. Sandwiched in the middle of these two releases was Snowpiercer, a wild sci-fi about a train speeding around the globe in a post-apocalyptic environment where class struggles to flourish onboard.
Shining beside a spectacular ensemble cast that includes Tilda Swinton, Song Kang-ho, Jamie Bell, Ed Harris and John Hurt, Evans thrives in the lead role, delivering an energetic performance that supercharges Joon-ho’s thriller.
3. Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Anthony Russo, 2014)
Our choice for the greatest Marvel movie in Chris Evans’ filmography is his 2014 film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the second in the character’s cinematic series. Picking things up considerably from the first film, Anthony Russo’s sequel was an espionage thriller in the vein of Robert Redford’s political flicks of the 1970s, with the actor even making an appearance in the movie in a supporting role.
Possibly Marvel’s most original and well-constructed movie, Evans plays the titular hero with aplomb, giving personality to a character who lacks a discernible identity beyond ‘loyal’ and ‘patriotic’.
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (Edgar Wright, 2010)
Far too often overlooked is Edgar Wright’s spectacular 2010 comic-book movie Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, a film which perfectly captures the frenetic nature of the written medium. Fans knew Wright was up to the job, having helmed Shaun of the Dead in 2004 and Hot Fuzz in 2007, but the film, which starred Michael Cera as a young man forced to fight seven evil exes for the love of his life, exceeded all expectations.
Evans starred as Lucas Lee, one of the seven exes, and approaches the role with the perfect tone, embracing the comic nature by delivering a hammy villainous performance which plays appropriately into the film’s hands.
1. Knives Out (Rian Johnson, 2019)
Evans has shined in endless great movies, but our pick for his very best performance is in Rian Johnson’s revolutionary murder mystery flick Knives Out. Unknowingly kicking off an unlikely franchise, Johnson’s Knives Out was a lovely surprise, telling a modern and intricate story of backstabbing and deceit which starred Evans at the core of the story, utilising his comic timing and natural charm.
Alongside Ana de Armas’ Marta and Daniel Craig’s Benoit, Evans shines in a major supporting role, helping to elevate Johnson’s film into a beast that has no right to be as great as it ends up being.
