(Photo by Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection)
We’re ranking Gerard Butler movies by Tomatometer! We start with his Certified Fresh, including the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, the sentimental tearjerker Dear Frankie, and 2020’s Greenland. That sci-fi family thriller was his first Certified Fresh non-animated movie since Frankie 16 years earlier, and that led the way to 2021’s equally praised Copshop. Of course, much of Butler’s bread and butter are movies that don’t necessarily hit with critics but have built an enduring, action-focused audience over his career, including 2006’s 300, Rocknrolla, the Fallen series, Law Abiding Citizen, and now Plane. —Alex Vo
#1
Adjusted Score: 106822%
Critics Consensus: Boasting dazzling animation, a script with surprising dramatic depth, and thrilling 3-D sequences, How to Train Your Dragon soars.
#2
Adjusted Score: 98734%
Critics Consensus: Exciting, emotionally resonant, and beautifully animated, How to Train Your Dragon 2 builds on its predecessor’s successes just the way a sequel should.
#3
Adjusted Score: 97604%
Critics Consensus: Visceral and visually striking, Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus proves Shakespeare can still be both electrifying and relevant in a modern context.
#4
Adjusted Score: 94062%
Critics Consensus: Thanks to some top notch acting, the chemistry between its stars, and a witty, thoughtful script, Mrs. Brown delivers a nuanced and entertaining, if not entirely factual, account of a seldom explored historical relationship.
#5
Adjusted Score: 104409%
Critics Consensus: The rare trilogy capper that really works, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World brings its saga to a visually dazzling and emotionally affecting conclusion.
#6
Adjusted Score: 85988%
Critics Consensus: It doesn’t add many new ingredients to the genre, but action fans in the mood for an old-school thriller will be happy to buy what Copshop is selling.
#7
Adjusted Score: 84891%
Critics Consensus: Dear Frankie is a small, good-hearted film with fine performances.
#8
Adjusted Score: 84322%
Critics Consensus: Beware, comets of Greenland: Gerard Butler is here to protect Earth — and show audiences an improbably entertaining time.
#9
Adjusted Score: 86185%
Critics Consensus: Suspenseful atmosphere, an evocative setting, and a strong cast keep audiences invested throughout The Vanishing‘s patient approach to unraveling its mystery.
#10
Adjusted Score: 83658%
Critics Consensus: Plane charts a standard action-adventure course with its cruising altitude just a few miles above Direct-to-Video — but with Gerard Butler in the cockpit, thriller enthusiasts will still find this a fun flight.
#11
Adjusted Score: 70629%
Critics Consensus: A simple-minded but visually exciting experience, full of blood, violence, and ready-made movie quotes.
#12
Adjusted Score: 65276%
Critics Consensus: Mixed reviews for Guy Ritchie’s return to his London-based cockney wideboy gangster movie roots, but most agree, it’s a step in the right direction following two major turkeys.
#13
Adjusted Score: 50371%
Critics Consensus: This adaptation of The Cherry Orchard is too tedious to hold interest.
#14
Adjusted Score: 55537%
Critics Consensus: Despite good intentions, Nim’s Island flounders under an implausible storyline, simplistic stock characters, and distracting product placement.
#15
Adjusted Score: 57114%
Critics Consensus: It’s far from original, but Olympus Has Fallen benefits from Antoine Fuqua’s tense direction and a strong performance from Gerard Butler — which might just be enough for action junkies.
#16
Adjusted Score: 51086%
Critics Consensus: Though it presents the war in shockingly gritty, realistic terms, Harrison’s Flowers uses such scenes as background for a trite love story.
#17
Adjusted Score: 49525%
Critics Consensus: Despite the impressive Icelandic scenery, Beowulf And Grendel fails to find its footing in the transition from epic tale to the big screen.
#18
Adjusted Score: 47207%
Critics Consensus: Reign of Fire gains some altitude with its pyrotechnic action and a smolderingly campy Matthew McConaughey, but the feature’s wings are clipped by a derivative script and visual effects that fizzle out.
#19
Adjusted Score: 47948%
Critics Consensus: Den of Thieves pays energetic homage to classic heist thrillers of the past; unfortunately, it never comes close to living up to its obvious inspirations.
#20
Adjusted Score: 48701%
Critics Consensus: Cut from the same rough cloth as its predecessors, Angel Has Fallen rounds out a mostly forgettable action trilogy in fittingly mediocre fashion.
#21
Adjusted Score: 41831%
Critics Consensus: Much like the submarine in its story, Hunter Killer cruises the murky action depths, following a perfunctory course into territory that’s been charted many times before.
#22
Adjusted Score: 39236%
Critics Consensus: The music of the night has hit something of a sour note: Critics are calling the screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s popular musical histrionic, boring, and lacking in both romance and danger. Still, some have praised the film for its sheer spectacle.
#23
Adjusted Score: 35449%
Critics Consensus: It’s sweet, gentle, and affably modest, but Chasing Mavericks is ultimately pulled under by an unconvincing script and a puzzling lack of energy.
#24
Adjusted Score: 32512%
Critics Consensus: With all of the hyperkinetic action and none of the flair of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s earlier work, Gamer has little replay value.
#25
Adjusted Score: 31879%
Critics Consensus: There’s a complex man at the center of Machine Gun Preacher but the movie is too shapeless and emotionally vacant to bring his story to life.
#26
Adjusted Score: 38027%
Critics Consensus: London Has Fallen traps a talented cast — and all who dare to see it — in a mid-1990s basic-cable nightmare of a film loaded with xenophobia and threadbare action-thriller clichés.
#27
Adjusted Score: 32024%
Critics Consensus: Unnecessarily violent and unflinchingly absurd, Law Abiding Citizen is plagued by subpar acting and a story that defies reason.
#28
Adjusted Score: 26529%
Critics Consensus: An enthusiastic but ultimately uninspired soccer film.
#29
Adjusted Score: 28749%
Critics Consensus: Hilary Swank is miscast as the romantic lead in this clichéd film about loss and love.
#30
Adjusted Score: 29757%
Critics Consensus: Though the sequel is an improvement over the first movie, it’s still lacking in thrills.
#31
Adjusted Score: 23170%
Critics Consensus: Lacking impressive visuals, well-written characters, or involving drama, Geostorm aims for epic disaster-movie spectacle but ends up simply being a disaster of a movie.
#32
Adjusted Score: 18667%
Critics Consensus: This retelling trys to offer a different spin on the origin of Dracula. Unfortunately, there’s nothing here audiences haven’t seen before.
#33
Adjusted Score: 4534%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#34
Adjusted Score: 16812%
Critics Consensus: A Family Man has some worthy ideas, but they’re bungled in a middle-of-the-road melodrama populated by thinly sketched — and occasionally downright unlikeable — characters.
#35
Adjusted Score: 25844%
Critics Consensus: Look on Gods of Egypt, ye filmgoers, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of this colossal wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Apologies to Shelley.)
#36
Adjusted Score: 20631%
Critics Consensus: Despite the best efforts of Butler and Heigl, The Ugly Truth suffers from a weak script that relies on romantic comedy formula, with little charm or comedic payoff.
#37
Adjusted Score: 18266%
Critics Consensus: Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston remain as attractive as ever, but The Bounty Hunter‘s formula script doesn’t know what to do with them — or the audience’s attention.
#38
Adjusted Score: 17483%
Critics Consensus: This incoherently plotted addition to the time-travel genre looks and sounds cheesy.
#39
Adjusted Score: 7758%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
#40
Adjusted Score: 6828%
Critics Consensus: Witless, unfocused, and arguably misogynistic, Playing for Keeps is a dispiriting, lowest-common-denominator Hollywood rom-com.
#41
Adjusted Score: 6575%
Critics Consensus: A star-studded turkey, Movie 43 is loaded with gleefully offensive and often scatological gags, but it’s largely bereft of laughs.