Best-known for his starring role as Michael Scott in the fantastic American remake of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s The Office, Steve Carell is considered one of the finest performers in the comedy of the 2000s. He’s also landed a few iconic roles in film at the same time.
We’ve used IMDb to find out what the five most well-loved roles he has ever taken on have been, and compared them to the five which are rated as the worst. There are a lot of each.
BEST: Despicable Me (7.6)
A huge hit out of nowhere, the Despicable Me franchise took over the world back in 2011. ittedly, this was mostly down to the little yellow Minions as they wandered around trying to be evil while chattering away in a strange hybrid language.
Despite being overshadowed by the Minions for some reason, Steve Carell landed the lead role. He has to put on a Russian accent the whole time, but his performance is in equal parts hilarious and touching.
WORST: The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (5.9)
Steve Carell plays the lead role in Don Scardino’s 2013 comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. From the promotional poster, you can probably tell that it isn’t exactly considered the best film of all time...
In fact, it received almost universal negativity (aside from Carell’s performance) and was a bomb at the box office. This was all a surprise due to the fact it had an all-star cast of Jim Carrey, Olivia Wilde, and Steve Buscemi.
BEST: Little Miss Sunshine (7.8)
2006’s Little Miss Sunshine was released right in the midst of The Office. Its relatively low-budget was beaten twelve times over at the box office and received four Academy Awards nominations.
Carell played Frank Ginsberg and received critical acclaim for his performance, which is unsurprising, given the amount of incredible stuff Carell was gearing up to do in the next few years.
WORST: Dinner For Schmucks (5.9)
Dinner For Schmucks transports Carell into a role that makes him look about as close as he’s ever going to get to play a live-action version of Gru from Despicable Me.
Carell starred alongside Paul Rudd, a pairing that proved very successful in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Anchorman, but clearly was not to be this time around.
BEST: The Big Short (7.8)
Moving away slightly from the outrageous comedy Carell is typically known for an into a (slightly) more serious role, The Big Short managed to garner an incredible critical response, possibly in part thanks to its incredible cast: Steve Carell, Brad Pitt, Ryan Gosling, and Christian Bale.
The film is artistic, full of fourth-wall-breaking and genuinely funny. It’s no surprise that it won an Academy Award.
WORST: Evan Almighty (5.4)
The disastrous sequel to Bruce Almighty was an attempt to capitalize on the success of the Jim Carrey-starring original by making a film following Carell’s character, Evan.
It didn’t work on any level, and the film was panned as pointless and unfunny. But Carell was pretty good.
BEST: The Morning Show (8.4)
The Morning Show came almost out of nowhere, dropping upon the launch of Apple TV+ with Carell starring alongside Jennifer Anniston and Reese Witherspoon.
The show almost completely drops the comedy Carell is known for but became a huge hit with a critical response that has seen it land an impressive 8.4 IMDb average.
WORST: Bewitched (4.8)
Carell doesn’t land a starring role in Bewitched; The Office had only just started after all. The stars of this disaster of a remake were Will Ferrel and Nicole Kidman, leaving them to feel the brunt of the fallout for its horrible critical reception.
Carell is still in there somewhere, though, failing to make much of an impact as uncle Arthur.
BEST: The Office (8.9)
Obviously the highest rating we can see on this list comes from The Office. 8.9 is a truly astonishing average, and it rightly means the show is considered one of the greatest TV shows ever made.
Carell is the leading man, playing the American equivalent to Ricky Gervais’ David Brent, Michael Scott. He’s awkward, rude and offensive, but beneath it all, he means well. If anything is a testament to how good Carell is in the show, just take a look at how much worse things got after his departure.
WORST: Stories USA (2.8)
One of the strangest concepts for a film led to one of the lowest IMDb averages for a film with such an impressive cast. It collects six stories featuring a number of famous actors (including Paul Walker and James Gandolfini), each separate and directed by a different person.
Carell’s is a comedy about a man who wants to get revenge for a dodgeball-related incident, and it’s about as bad as it sounds.