From the first moment he appeared on the screen in the 1996 Indie classic Swingers, Vince Vaughn was a star. The actor’s fast-talking persona played well for audiences. His career that followed is one of Hollywood’s greatest success stories, as the actor was literally pulled from obscurity and thrust into stardom.
Vaughn has done comedy, drama, and sci-fi. He even did a western (South of Heaven, West of Hell) with Dwight Yoakum and Billy Bob Thornton. Vaughn is always challenging himself, even if he does too often fall back on his tired persona. What are the actor’s best and worst performances?
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Worst: Made (2001)
In 2001, director/star Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn tried to recapture the magic of Swingers with another dark comedy, Made. The film told the tale of two friends who run afoul of low-level mobsters.
The film wasn’t well-received and Vaughn’s performance bordered on self-parody, as the actor fell back on his Swingers persona. This time it was more annoying than endearing.
Best: Swingers (1996)
Swingers is one of the more unlikely success stories of the ’90s. Jon Favreau sold his screenplay to Miramax and the film would become a big hit, making instant stars out of Favreau and Vince Vaughn.
The story of a group of L.A. hipster friends trying to make it as actors struck a chord with audiences thanks to the relatable screenplay and its characters. Vaughn’s character Trent was a heightened version of his own persona. Trent was loud, funny, and egotistical but had a heart and was endearing, as his true love for his friend Mike (Favreau) came through.
Worst: Domestic Disturbance (2001)
Domestic Disturbance was the story of a young boy who witnesses his stepfather (Vince Vaughn) kill a man, while his real father (John Travolta) tries to make his ex-wife understand she married a maniac. The film was trashed by critics and did poorly at the box office.
Vaughn was miscast in the sinister villain role. He hadn’t yet reached his full dramatic potential as an actor and failed to pull off the supposedly creepy role. The film’s only claim to fame is a barroom brawl that got Vaughn and co-star Steve Buscemi (who was mildly stabbed) thrown in jail.
Best: Clay Pigeons (1998)
A true gem in the actor’s filmography, 1998’s Clay Pigeons stars Vaughn, Joaquin Phoenix, and Janeane Garofolo and is a wildly entertaining film about mistaken identity, murder, and sex.
Vaughn uses his unique persona to great effect and explores its darker side. Vaughn is seductively dangerous as a Southern charmer who happens to be a serial killer. The film flopped but critics took notice of Vaughn’s exciting performance.
Worst: The Cell (2000)
Tarsem Singh’s visually stunning sci-fi thriller, The Cell, was a critically lauded film about an FBI agent (Vince Vaughn) trying to save a kidnapped woman. He teams with a psychologist (Jennifer Lopez) to use a new technology that lets them communicate with the mind of a comatose serial killer (Vincent D’ Onofrio).
Vaughn’s role as a jaded FBI agent was meant for someone who looked and could play more world-weary. The actor looked as if he had just graduated from the Academy and wasn’t able to pull off the film’s role as a determined cop. In every moment, Vaughn looked lost amongst the more experienced actors.
Best: True Detective Season 2
Season one of HBO’s groundbreaking and critically praised detective series True Detective was a big hit for the network. Its story and characters were a violent philosophical look at murder in the South. Season two wasn’t as well received by audiences but, retrospectively, it is almost as good as that first season. The story, setting, and tone were very different and the producers were smart to not try and repeat the same thing twice. Colin Farrell, a crooked cop working in a corrupt California city, is brought together with a lethal criminal to investigate a murder.
Vince Vaughn is Frank Semyon, the quiet and dangerous head of a criminal organization that works closely with politicians and police to keep his corruption going. Vaughn exuded a palpable danger and used his stone face to intimidate. His character was an unmovable force of unlawful existence and Vaughn brought it off with great skill.
Worst: Psycho (1998)
In the annals of bad movie ideas, Gus Van Sant’s decision to do a shot-by-shot full-color remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic Psycho has to be up there. The film is exactly the same, but with a new cast and one scene of gratuitous masturbation added for sickening shock effect. Enough said about the film the better.
Vaughn played Norman Bates, the role that Anthony Perkins so brilliantly inhabited in Hitchcock’s classic. The actor was lost in the part, trying to mock the mannerisms of Perkins while trying to convey the troubled killer through giggles and cray glances. Vaughn and the film failed on every single level.
Best: Dragged Across Concrete (2018)
S. Craig Zahler’s 2018 neo-noir thriller, Dragged Across Concrete, stars Vince Vaughn and Mel Gibson as cops who get suspended for excessive force. The two men have to go “criminal” and try to rip-off some drug money to make ends meet.
Vaughn excelled in the role of a man with a lot to live for but nothing left to lose. His desperation begets violence, the very world he is trying to escape from, and Vaughn pulls it off flawlessly. It is one of the actor’s finest hours.
Worst: Be Cool (2005)
In F. Gary Gray’s Be Cool, the awful sequel to 1995’s Get Shorty, audiences find Chili Palmer (John Travolta) navigating the corruption of the Los Angeles music industry.
Vince Vaughn co-starred as Raji, a white hustler who has completely appropriated Black Culture. The performance didn’t work and this role could be the most embarrassing work of the actor’s career. It is a ridiculous composite of annoying overabundances and obnoxious posturing. Loud and grating, Vaughn plays the part so over the top that he makes Chris Tucker look understated.
Best: Brawl In Cell Block 99 (2017)
Brawl in Cell Block 99 allowed Vince Vaughn his best performance yet. A drug smuggler tries to get out of “the life” but when a deal goes bad, he ends up in a prison where violence rules and his very existence is questioned.
Vaughn showed a tremendous array of emotions as his character tries to fight for his humanity but discovers he is in a losing battle against his very soul. The actor’s performance showed a true gravitas that he hadn’t shown before. His performance is love, rage, desperation, and self-defeat, all brought together without missing a beat. Truly the finest work of the actor’s career.