Every Halle Berry Film Ranked From Bottom to Top
In honor of the actress' 51st birthday!
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The Films of Halle Berry - Halle Berry's body of work — we're talking about her filmography — is among the most varied and impressive in Hollywood. From comedy to drama, action to sci-fi and even a few blockbuster franchises, the Oscar-winning actress has dipped her toe in nearly every genre. Here, we rank every single one of Berry's theaterical films (not including cameos or TV movies, but much love to Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Their Eyes Are Watching God and Queen), from obscure to career-making, bottom to top. So, on her 51st birthday, keep clicking to see what we consider Berry's best work... (Photo: Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for Huading Film Awards)
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31. Father Hood (1993) - Just beginning to make her mark in the world of film, a then 27-year-old Halle shared the big screen with Patrick Swayze in Father Hood, a '90s “dramedy” about a deadbeat dad who kidnaps his kids from a bus. Berry played the small role of a Los Angeles journalist who wrote a story about the abduction, not large enough to make an impact on her now elite career.(Photo: Hollywood Pictures)
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30. The Program (1993) - Staying on her grind, a young Berry starred in The Program later that same year. The film, which also starred Omar Epps, dealt with the struggles that college football players face when balancing sports and academics. Berry played Autumn Jackson, a tutor who helped Epps’ character get on track to becoming the school’s star running back. Her role was both small and, unfortunately, forgettable, by no fault of her own. But her grind was about to pay off! (Photo: Touchstone Pictures)
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29. Race the Sun (1996) - Berry shifted gears from tutor to teacher in the comedy-drama Race the Sun. She starred as Miss Sandra Beecher, a science teacher at Kona Pali High School in Hawaii, who motivated her students to come up with a science project. While the role seemed fulfilling on the surface, it proved to be quite flat given the Halle we know of today.(Photo: TriStar Pictures)
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28. Catwoman (2004) - Notoriously deemed the “worst film of her career” by many critics and fans alike, Catwoman saw Berry flip and purr her way to the bottom of the box office in 2004. Fortunately, Berry took the bomb in stride. She famously accepted her Razzie Award for Worst Actress in person with her Best Actress Oscar for Monster’s Ball in hand. Her speech was priceless: “Thank you [Warner Brothers] for putting me in a piece of s***, God-awful movie.”(Photo: Doane Gregory/Warner Brothers)
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27. Dark Tide (2012) - Released just two years ago, Dark Tide came long after the world knew of Berry as a premier actress. So, many were surprised to learn that she would star in such a poorly-received production. Many credit the film's direction and production for its poor reception, and not specifically Berry's acting performance.(Photo: Lionsgate, Inc.)
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26. Executive Decision (1996) - This late '90s drama left everyone at the edge of their seats for the wrong reasons. Though the plot was thick and action-packed, the storyline was predictable and uninspiring. Berry played Jean, a flight attendant on an airline where terrorists seized control of a passenger. Despite its poor performance and reception, Berry won a Blockbuster Entertainment Award for her role, but since she wasn’t even given the honor of having a last name in the film, this ranks pretty low on our list.(Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures)
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25. New Year's Eve (2011) - New Year’s Eve featured an all-star cast that is hard to come along in one film. In addition to Berry, the movie included Jessica Biel, Robert De Niro, and Ashton Kutcher, to name a few. Therefore, it was that much more difficult for the Oscar-winning actress to stand out. While it was great seeing her star as Common’s wife, the film received terrible reviews and was criticized for its clunky script and missed opportunities. Halle, ultimately, just seemed to get lost in the overcast hoopla.(Photo: New Line Cinema)
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24. Perfect Stranger (2007) - Revisiting her role as a reporter, Berry starred alongside the likes of Bruce Willis and Giovanni Ribisi in the 2007 thriller Perfect Stranger. In the long run, the movie canned, receiving an 11 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and was horribly critiqued by Rolling Stone who criticized the film’s shameless brand plugs for overshadowing the talent. Regardless, Halle won a BET Award in 2008 for her performance. (Photo: Barry Wetcher/Revolution Studios Distribution Company, LLC)
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23. Swordfish (2001) - It is no secret that Halle Berry is a sex symbol, but it was made very apparent — perhaps, too much — in this 2001 action crime thriller when the actress went fully topless for the first time. The public seemed to enjoy the view as she earned both a BET Award and an NAACP Image Award for her sexy role in 2002. Perhaps she was practicing for a certain future Academy Award-winning role?(Photo: Warner Bros Pictures)
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22. The Rich Man's Wife (1996) - Defying the odds of Hollywood, Berry carved a lane of her own in 1996 when she snagged the role of Josie Potenza, a trophy wife of a workaholic movie producer. The role was originally written for a white actress, but Halle made it her own, and manages to still be praised for her performance today.(Photo: Caravan Pictures)
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21. The Last Boy Scout (1991) - Very few actresses can give the often shunned role of a stripper depth, and Halle Berry, though doing so sparingly, is certainly at the top of that list. The actress played the role of Cory, a stripper and Jimmy’s (Damon Wayans’ character) girlfriend in the action-packed comedy.(Photo: Warner Bros Pictures)
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20. Strictly Business (1991) - Berry officially solidified her title as a sex symbol in the 1991-released film. In addition to being outwardly attractive in the movie, she was portrayed as ambitious and intelligent. Playing opposite Tommy Davidson, her character, Natalie, was a club promoter who had dreams of owning her own club.(Photo: Island World)
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19. X-Men (2000) - Initially, fans of the superhero franchise were iffy about Berry’s casting as Storm in the 2000 adaptation of X-Men; many wanted Angela Bassett to fulfill the role. Criticized for her synthetic white wig, and sparse action experience at the time, Berry had heard it all from X-Men aficionados. While her performance was noticed, she was not featured much in the film, but it was a great start for Storm. The superhero would get a huge upgrade in future installments of the franchise.(Photo: Twentieth Century Fox)
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18. The Flinstones (1994) - Berry helped make The Flinstones a box office success, the film grossed more than $130 million domestically in 1994. Most importantly, she singlehandely intergrated the stone age. Berry played Fred Flinstone’s seductive secretary in the comedy starring John Goodman and Rosie O'Donnell.(Photo: Universal Pictures)
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17. Gothika (2003) - Following her Oscar-winning performance in Monster’s Ball, Berry had much to live up to, and her role in the supernatural thrilled Gothika did the trick. Though some criticized the plot for being gappy and unclear at times, the lead actress' performance seemed to be the film's saving grace. To this day, Halle is praised for displaying her versatility in the dark role. She even won both a BET Award and a Teen Choice Award for her performance in 2004.(Photo: Warner Bros. Ent.)
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16. Frankie and Alice (2010) - Berry's turn as a schizophrenic go-go dancer, whose alter egos included a child genius and a white supremecist, was another ambitious role for the actress. While the film opened earlier this year to mixed reviews, Berry was praised for her bold performance and even earned a Golden Globe nomination.(Photo: Codeblack Films)
Photo By Photo: Codeblack Films
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15. Kidnap (2017) - Berry returned to the big screen in the 2017 thriller Kidnap where she played a mother on the search for her child who was kidnapped in broad daylight. The intense film saw Berry deliver another emotionally heavy performance.
Photo By (Photo: AVIRON PICTURES)
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14. Cloud Atlas (2012) - Berry may be one of the most gorgeous women in the world, but in this sci-fi epic she played six different characters whose ethnic and gender lines didn't have much to do with her own. Half the fun of Cloud Atlas is spotting Berry as, at different points, a pre-WW1 German-Jewish woman, an old Korean man sporting an eyepiece circa 2144 and many more. She was nominated for a BET Award for her performance...or, rather, performances.(Photo: Warner Bros Pictures)
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13. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - How's this for commitment: Berry filmed her role as weather-creating superhero Storm while three months pregnant with her son Maceo — stunts and all. While the mom-of-two's screen time is comparatively less in this installment of the X-Men franchise (she had to film all her scenes in under two weeks, thanks to her growing baby bump), that white hair will steal the show everytime.(Photo: Twentieth Century Fox)
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12. The Call (2013) - After a few underwhelming films, this thriller marked a return to box office gold for Berry. In this BET Award-nominated role, Berry plays a 911 operator who gets a life-changing call from a young girl. The film far-exceeded expectations and put Berry in the driver's seat of her career once again. Plus, fans got a treat in seeing the actress star opposite the equally-gorgeous Morris Chestnut. Now, that's worth the price of admission.(Photo: Sony Pictures)
Photo By Photo: Sony Pictures
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11. Die Another Day (2002) - In the pantheon of Great Bikini Moments in Cinema History, Berry's emergence from the ocean in that orange swimsuit ranks pretty darn high. As an NSA operative assigned to spy on a rogue North Korean agent, Berry was the first Black actress to land the coveted role of Bond girl since Grace Jones in A View to Kill. She also won an NAACP Image Award for the part.(Photo: MGM)
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10. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) - While this installment of the franchise, directed by Rush Hour helmer Brett Ratner as opposed to Bryan Singer, was least favored by critics, Berry's commitment to her weather-wielding character Storm was recognized as a standout in the film — as was her killer bod in that skin-tight suit!(Photo: Twentieth Century Fox)
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9. X2: X-Men United (2003) - By the second film of the X-Men franchise, Berry had really come into her own as Storm. The actress put her powers to use in this film, and earned the respect of even the most die-hard comic book fans. Berry won a BET Award for this role.(Photo: Twentieth Century Fox)
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8. Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998) - In this period biopic, Berry plays one of the three wives of tragic singer Frankie Lymon (Larenz Tate) vying for his estate after his untimely death. As glamour queen Zola Taylor, a success in her own right as a vocalist for chart-topping group The Platters, audiences got to see a completely different side of Berry than they did in Bulworth, which came out that same year. (Photo: Warner Bros)
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7. Losing Isaiah (1995) - Berry delivered one of the most gut-wrenching performances of her career in this emotional drama about two women fighting for motherhood of an infant named Isaiah. As the child's drug-addicted birth mother, Berry is able to make us forget her beauty queen good looks and believe her to be a crack head capable of leaving her son in a dumpster. The performance earned Berry her first NAACP Image Award nomination for a feature film. (Photo: Paramount Pictures)
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6. Bulworth (1998) - While this film raised it's fair share of controversy for its — according to some — racial insensitivity, nobody could deny that Berry turned out a star-making performance. For her role as Nina, a whip smart young woman from the 'hood who teaches Warren Beatty's character, a deflated politician, a thing or two about real life, Berry was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.(Photo: Twentieth Century FOX)
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5. Boomerang (1992) - Though Berry faced stiff competition for screen time in this ensemble cast, which featured virtually every notable Black actor of the time, she managed to steal the show by delivering the most memorable line of the entire film: "Love should've brought your a** home last night!"(Photo: Paramount Pictures)
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4. Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) - The subtle film wasn't a box office success, but Berry garnered critical acclaim for her powerful performancre as a grieving widow. Playing opposite Benicio del Toro, the film dealt with death, drugs, redemption and proved Halle's acting chops were stronger than ever post-Oscar. (Photo: Paramount Pictures)
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3. B*A*P*S (1997) - Roger Ebert called this film "jaw-droppingly bad, stupid and offensive." Well, he certainly didn't speak for Berry's fans or lovers of African-American comedies. B.A.P.S. may have been a bomb with mainstream critics, but it has become a cult favorite with viewers. One of Berry's few truly comedic roles, the actress recently told us it was the most fun she'd had making a film and is still holding out hope for a sequel. We second that, which is why this classic ranks at number two! Legendary!(Photo: New Line Cinema)
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2. Monster's Ball (2001) - Haters will dismiss Berry's Oscar win for this film as Hollywood tokenism (she was, as we all know, the first Black woman in history to win the Best Actress prize), but sit through any one of her scenes as a grieving mother trying desperately to numb her own pain, and it's clear that this was one of the times that Oscar got it right. (Photo: Lionsgate)
Photo By Photo: Lionsgate
