Elijah Wood has been acting for three decades, but how do his films rank from worst to best? With a bright, boyish smile and big blue eyes, Wood has stolen his way into the hearts of moviegoers in innumerable roles. From his child acting days, to his penchant for gory midnight flicks, to his iconic turn as Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Wood has proven himself as an actor capable of taking on many diverse and intriguing projects.
Wood made his film debut in a walk-on role in 1989's The Lord of the Rings. Such iconic status might have restricted actors, but Wood has found a way to embrace his experience in Middle-earth while parlaying it into a wide range of exciting projects post-Rings.
He's voiced Mumble, the penguin in Happy Feet, featured in critically acclaimed films like Everything is Illuminated and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and found himself in genre oddities like Cooties, Maniac, and Grand Piano. Through it all, Wood has remained a genuine and enthusiastic presence, his forever-young spirit remaining delightfully in tact. Here are his most major films, ranked from worst to best.
40. North (1994)
Director Rob Reiner had one of cinema's most golden miracle runs from 1984 to 1994, directing such landmark films as This is Spinal Tap, Ebert's complimentary "two thumbs up," containing the immortal words, "I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie."
39. The Romantics (2011)
Seven college friends reunite for the wedding of two of their own, and the resulting film mostly comes off as a couple-swapping bit of fluff from writer-director Galt Niederhoffer. Katie Holmes is hardly the compelling leading lady, and most of the romance comes off flaccid and undercooked, with none of the ion that would necessitate intense viewer interest in this type of film. However, the MVP of the whole affair is undoubtedly Elijah Wood, whose performance as the bride's alcoholic younger brother radiates with a refreshingly odd watchability.
38. Radio Flyer (1992)
Elijah Wood plays the son of Lorraine Bracco and brother of Jurassic Park's Joseph Mazzello in this fairly reprehensible "family" movie about two young boys coping with abuse at the hands of their mom's new boyfriend. In a woefully bad choice of a screenwriting device, the children use saccharine flights of fancy as a way to escape this abuse, resulting in a ridiculous climax where Wood flies off in a radio flyer to safety. It's cringe-worthy, cloying, and just downright irresponsible from beginning to end.
37. The Oxford Murders (2008)
The pairing of Elijah Wood and John Hurt in a Da Vinci Code-esque whodunit should elicit a sort of goofy charm. However, Alex de la Iglesia's convoluted film about murder and mathematics neither surrenders to the inherent silliness of its plot nor creates an engaging enough mystery to hook viewers. Wood is likable as ever, but he's wasted in this corny caper, which devolves into an embarrassing, Scooby Doo-esque ending.
36. The Last Witch Hunter (2015)
Vin Diesel has always been a movie star with a singular sort of gravitas to him, so it's no small wonder he found himself at the center of a gargantuan fantasy film inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. He's a fair amount of fun, dispensing baddies and firing off action movie quips as only he can, and it's enjoyable to see his giant stature paired with the small-framed Wood. Unfortunately, The Last Witch Hunter is really only for Vin completists or genre aficionados, with some fans clamoring for a Last Witch Hunter 2, even as it quickly devolves into a headache-inducing CGI fest that swallows its cast alive.
35. Day Zero (2007)
Wood co-stars with Chris Klein and Jon Bernthal in this futuristic depiction of a world so ravaged by global terrorism that America must reinstate the draft. While touching on anxieties felt by citizens in the wake of the September 11 attacks, Robert Malkani's screenplay never rises above baseline "consequences of war" fare, nor does he manage to create flesh-and-blood characters. The result is a sluggish and dull film that squanders three exceptionally talented actors.
34. The Bumblebee Flies Anyway (1999)
Elijah Wood is his usual wonderful, warm self in this achingly sincere but ultimately confused drama from director Martin Huffy. He plays a young man named Barney Snow, who wakes up in a hospital with no memory of why he's there. Inevitably, he befriends several other young people with terminal illnesses, which would be maudlin enough were it not for the film's eleventh hour sci-fi twist.
33. Cooties (2014)
This 2014 comedy-horror film, which also stars Jack McBrayer, has a great premise: elementary school teachers have to defend themselves against a bunch of kids who turn into monsters after consuming contaminated chicken nuggets. Alas, while Wood's clean-cut look and love for all things grindhouse are a good match for the film, it never transcends its one-joke premise. There was a lot of room for midnight movie inventiveness here, but with no wit on hand Cooties just winds up settling for uber-violent ugliness.
32. Green Street Hooligans (2005)
Wood is serviceable and Charlie Hunnam sinks in this thoroughly unnecessary drama about an American journalism student who falls in which a bunch of football hooligans in London. Even looking past Hunnam's cringeworthy Cockney accent, this is a Fight Club knockoff with not a satirical bone in its body.
31. Bobby (2006)
Wood is but one cog in the sprawling ensemble of this Emilio Estevez film about various interconnected lives in the wake of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination. Estevez aims for an Altman-esque epic, but despite some solid performances (a post-Hannibal Anthony Hopkins, William H. Macy, and Sharon Stone are all on hand), these characters never transcend their thinly drawn trappings, and the depiction of Bobby Kennedy as an uncomplicated messianic figure only serves to make the film duller.
