The Filmography of Matthew Vaughn — RANKED
One of the most underrated filmmakers working today.
You like superhero movies right? No? Just kidding. Either you’re an MCU superfan, or you have a friend who is one and drags you kicking and screaming to the third Iron Man or second Doctor Strange. That’s it. There’s no in-between.
Jokes aside, I think writing for this space is a little challenging because the moment you go online, there’s thousands of videos and articles with THE DEFINITIVE take on what the best Nolan or Tarantino film and someone’s hot take on why Batman Begins is better than The Dark Knight.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that when talking about Spielberg or Fincher or Kubrick, EVERYONE has an opinion and after that, I think, things get political, i.e. not fun anymore. As in, anything you say will upset someone, when all I wanna do is talk movies. Capische?
So I thought, why not step into uncharted territory. Matthew Vaughn’s a filmmaker that I really admire and someone who’s low-key enough I won’t get lost in the sauce just trying to get my own two cents in.
So without further ado, let’s dive into his filmography, ranked worst to best.
7. The King’s Man
I don’t want to say The King’s Man is Vaughn’s worst film, I hesitate to say any of his movies are bad, I really don’t think they are, but this one just really didn’t work for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the other two Kingsman movies, as you’ll see by the end of this list, but I think this one suffers a bit of an identity crisis.
After the poor reception of The Golden Circle, something I’m kinda baffled by to be honest, I think Vaughn tried to take the franchise in another direction and make a prequel film at the same time. I’d say there’s one very shocking moment in this movie that still sticks with me, long after watching it, and to that extent it does a good job of functioning as a prequel to the Kingsman series we know and love. But I didn’t care much for the historical aspects of the movie, save for a few amusing moments involving Rasputin. While I definitely don’t see this showing up on any high school curricula anytime soon, it’s much too inaccurate for that, but it is still quite a good time.
It’s got the franchise trademark action setpieces with the insane cinematography and over-the-top action, snarky humor, and some great character moments that all-in-all, put this at just a smidge better than your average forgettable Marvel movie. Okay, I’m kidding. It’s definitely better than the worst Marvel movies. Whichever ones you thought were meh. It’s better.
The King’s Man is the type of movie that you put on if you don’t want to start another show with like 20 seasons you have to catch up on. It’s a solid movie, but overall kinda forgettable.
6. L4YER CAK3
The only thing I remembered anyone saying about this movie was that this was the movie that got Daniel Craig the Bond gig. And it’s totally not a hot take at all. Watch this movie. If you’re a fan of Snatch, or The Gentlemen, or any other Guy Ritchie British crime thriller, this one is very much in that same vein. In fact, Vaughn was a producer on Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Daniel Craig plays XXXX (that’s not his name, it’s just been redacted), a conscientious coke dealer in this movie. It’s got twists and turns, people double crossing each other, and it’s got something you never knew you needed. A clean shaven Dumbledore as a crime lord. That’s right. You can’t unsee that, no matter how hard you try. He’s actually kinda funny and despicable and it really broke my brain a little bit the first time I saw him like that. Also shows you that he’s got some serious range as an actor.
At the end of the day, this is as solid as they come for action crime thrillers. If you’re ever in the mood to watch a buncha guys with foreign accents beat the shit outta each other over some ecstasy, look no further than L4YER CAK3. And for a directorial debut, this is pretty kick-ass. How’s that for a little foreshadowing? If you wanna watch it, you can stream it for free on Tubi.
5. Stardust
Okay, let’s see we’ve done a World War I movie and a crime thriller. What’s next on the list? How about a fairy tale? What’s that? You wanna see Daredevil? With long hair? Okay, how about that guy who’s always bald in every movie? Long hair for him too? Done.
And that’s not all. This movie has an older young Vito Corleone, the new Superman, the old Catwoman, and the girl from that show Homeland you never got around to watching.
Based on a book of the same name by Neil Gaiman, Stardust is an original fantasy romance that is without a doubt the most underrated movie in Vaughn’s filmography. And dare I say it, it’s probably the best fantasy romance of the last 20 years. Actually, A Ghost Story comes up when you search that, so I think that’s the best one, but Stardust, you can be runner-up. It’s still a pretty big deal…
Have you ever wanted to see Robert De Niro as the captain of a flying pirate ship? Cuz if you haven’t, you will have officially seen everything once you do, so it’s a pretty big deal.
Jokes aside, this movie is a really refreshing change of pace. There aren’t a lot of fairytale movies made for adults. And while this isn’t “adult” in the provocative sense of the word, there is some sensuality in the film, but here’s a fairytale with A-list actors and it’s not campy at all. It takes itself seriously, with the quest, the magic, the prophecies, and the power-hungry princes all vying for their father’s throne. But at the same time, it’s not afraid to have fun either. Michelle Pfeiffer and her two sister witches remind me a lot of Hocus Pocus and that’s not a bad thing.
And it’s also a great story about a guy who learns to respect himself and in doing so, well, I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it. Cuz chances are, you probably haven’t. And it’s on Netflix, so you can check it out.
4 / Honorable Mention: Kick-Ass
Let me preface this by saying that I don’t think Kick-Ass is a bad movie. It’s a comic book movie, even literally so at times. They even do that thing like in Scott Pilgrim and other comic books and write ‘meanwhile’ at the beginning of a new scene. Actually, Kick-Ass and Scott Pilgrim both came out in 2010, so I don’t think one really stole from the other. Man, 2010. What a time to be alive.
As far as comic book adaptations go, Kick-Ass is as good as The Boys or Invincible. In fact, I think it’s probably one of Vaughn’s best, if not his best movie.
But this just ain’t that kinda movie (list), bruv.
It’s adult, it’s realistic (more like The Boys in that regard) and very relatable as it follows a kid who’s into comic books who literally dresses up as a superhero. And then promptly gets his ass kicked. But he goes to the hospital and after hella surgery gets back up on his bullshit.
This movie is quite literally kick-ass. Yeah, I know. Took me a while to come up with that one. Pretty proud of it, thank you very much.
Oh yeah, Nicolas Cage is in this movie. Nic freakin Cage! And he’s awesome. This is probably my favorite performance of his other than Lord of War, or maybe Spider-Man Noir. Nic Cage and Chloe Grace Moretz absolutely steal this movie.
Hit Girl and Big Daddy are so iconic as characters that an entire movie about these two would be fascinating to watch. It’s so ridiculous but at the same time just believable enough that after reading a lifetime of stories about florida man, you’re like ‘yeah what the hell, that would totally happen.’
Kick-Ass is the movie where both the MCU and X-Men Quicksilvers are best friends. It’s also the movie where a retired cop dresses up like Batman and trains his daughter to fight crime so he can avenge the death of his wife.
But that’s not all this movie does. It’s also a great high school coming-of-age movie. And a disgustingly accurate and hilarious one at that. It’s The Boys meets Superbad and it is every bit as good as both of them combined.
If you haven’t seen it, what are you waiting for? It’s streaming on HBO Max.
3. Kingsman: The Golden Circle
If you know anything about me and my love for movies, you know that I love the Kingsman movies. As mentioned before, the humor, the insane action, the cool gadgets, the Kingsman movies were everything I wanted in a Bond film but pretty much never got. I think Roger Moore’s Bond was too campy and I couldn’t take him seriously, and Craig’s Bond was pretty much all serious and not enough fun.
I realize as I’m saying that that Casino Royale and GoldenEye are fantastic Bond movies that have a lot of fun while still maintaining a level of seriousness. I just think that those movies are the exceptions to the rule when it comes to Bond films. I was confused by the hate Golden Circle got when I first saw it, because honestly, I think I understood what Vaughn was going for with this one.
While the first movie did a masterful job of toeing the line between hyper serious spy thriller and campy fun, this one goes balls to the wall into camp. And for that to work, it’s all in the execution. And I honestly think he knocked it out of the park. I think The Golden Circle is Vaughn at his most self-aware.
It’s not uncommon for sequels to go bigger than their predecessors, and you end up with a movie that’s overblown and you get the age-old adage “bigger’s not always better.” And I think he keeps that in mind here with the sequel.
It tops the first film’s kidnapping of Iggy Azalea by this time kidnapping the Rocketman himself, Elton freaking John. And the whole third act action setpiece with a machine gun briefcase, a giant donut that crushing bad guys, killer robot dogs, and Elton John jumpkicking evil henchmen, all set to Saturday Night’s Alright. It’s so insane and epic that you just have to sit back, take it all in, and be grateful you live in a time where all of these things exist, and someone had the idea to put them all together in a movie for you.
Apart from the loudness of it all, this movie also does a great job of expanding the Kingsman universe with the Statesman agency. I love that they have their own quirks and cool cowboy inspired gadgets.
And I like what they did for these movies where they got an A-list actor to be the villain just so they can really ham it up and chew the scenery. I remember Matthew Vaughn saying he wanted The Rock as the villain in the third film, which I think would be awesome.
The Rock would eat that role’s lunch for breakfast!
At the end of the day, these final four picks on the list are special to me. They’re all the kind of movie that if you were flipping through channels, and as soon as I write that I realize it’s kind of a thing of the past. Like who even watches regular TV with channels anymore? Unless you’re in a hotel room? Anyways, if you happen to be bored and you catch this movie part-way through, I would watch it til the end. Also, Pedro Pascal is *chef’s kiss* in this film and I would absolutely watch another movie or series with his Agent Whiskey as the main character.
2. Kingsman: The Secret Service
At last, the final two. Okay, what’s there to say about this movie that I haven’t already said. It’s a really clever and fun movie that takes the tired tropes of the spy genre and turns it on its head. I’ve seen this movie more times than I can count and it’s probably the most I’ve seen any movie ever, only tied with Jurassic Park. The first time I watched it I was 14 and I absolutely fell head over heels in love with this film.
It had everything I could ever want, and two scenes that will go down as some of the greatest action setpieces ever made. The first being the bar fight, and the second being the church scene. If you’ve seen the movie you know what I’m talking about. The pure absolute insanity that is the church scene will forever be burned into my memory. It’s something I have not forgotten nor will ever forget. It’s that impactful. And I respect the hell out of Vaughn having the balls to go there and not hold back. Also, setting the scene to Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd? An inspired choice, my friend. Inspired I say!
This movie’s fantastic. I’m gonna stop talking about it. If you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you know what to do.
1. X-Men: First Class
Here we are. The end of the list. We started with the MCU and ended somewhat loosely connected to the MCU. After Doctor Strange, I really don’t know what direction they’re taking the MCU. At last, my favorite Matthew Vaughn film is X-Men: First Class.
What a freaking movie this is. Without this movie, you don’t have Days of Future Past, which is pretty universally loved as a great film, not just comic book film. Even all the MCU fanboys who think all of DC is trash except for The Dark Knight Trilogy who hate on most of the X-Men movies love Days of Future Past. But what I never hear anyone bring up is First Class.
Do you remember what it was like back then? The Last Stand came out in 2006 and people kinda hated it. For good reason too I think, that movie’s a hot pile of garbage. And yeah, in 2008 we got Iron Man and The Dark Knight, but people thought X-Men was dead. X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out in 2009, and it was received even lower than The Last Stand. So the X-Men brand was kind of dead in the water.
But they did have one more ace up their sleeve. X-Men Origins: Magneto. Could you imagine? Lining up in front of the multiplex. Getting to the front and saying “I’d like two tickets to X-Men Origins: Magneto” Yeah I can’t either. And that movie was kind of in development hell for a while, with the OG Ian McKellen attached to reprise his role.
But the Writers Guild Strike threw a wrench in the whole situation and by the time the production got off the ground, the story had changed quite a bit and now focused on a young Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. And whoever came up with that idea, was a freaking genius. I think Fox wanted to start from scratch, go back to the drawing board, and make something radically different.
And this is something that I really admired about Fox as a movie studio. Like Warner Bros, they weren’t afraid of taking risks with their franchise properties. Getting the Game of Thrones guy to do X-Men Origins probably wasn’t the best idea, cuz the endings to both of those things sucked. What I’m trying to say is that Logan isn’t the kind of movie I see coming out of the MCU, and I think that’s a shame, because that movie’s freaking awesome.
First Class is at the top of this list for multiple reasons. I remember going to see this with my friends for my 12th birthday. And I’ve rewatched it countless times since then. Everything in this movie works, and I’d be here for hours if I had to break it all down. Probably best saved for a future video.
Long story short, this movie works because of the Charles and Erik, their performances, and their opposing viewpoints and friendship is what defines this movie and the way it’s executed is brilliant.
The movie immediately forces you to empathize with Erik, with the death of his mother at the hands of the Nazi Sebastian Shaw. And so begins his rampage across the world and he eventually meets Charles. Now if you’ve seen Hannibal, then you know where I’m going with this. I’m not saying there’s tension between Charles and Erik, but I’m also not saying there isn’t. Kinda like Will and Hannibal, just you know, a little less cannibal-y.
Their chemistry is unmatched. Charles is almost like a telepathic Bruce Wayne, save for the familial trauma. That’s Erik’s burden, and he’s raw and unhinged and all his action scenes MAKE THIS MOVIE.
The French bank, the Argentinian brewery, the USSR, or on the beaches of Cuba, Magneto is A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH and I am so here for it!
He is the definition of badass. Like I said, I could talk about this movie for hours, but if I had to pick one moment and reason why this is the best Vaughn film and dare I say it, X-Men film, it’s this scene:
The music, the acting, the writing, it all just creates something that truly is greater than the sum of its parts and there’s another moment that I’ll never forget, and boy am I glad it exists.
So yeah, that’s my ranking of Matthew Vaughn’s filmography. Have you seen all his movies? Which ones haven’t you seen? How does your ranking compare to mine?
I’d love to know your thoughts down below.
