27 Jennifer Lopez Movies Ranked From "Gigli" To "She Should've Won An Oscar"
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Jennifer Lopez has had a long and storied movie career, but which one of her movies stands above the rest? Here is a ranking of 27 J.Lo movies, from worst to best.
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Disclaimer: This list does not contain Lopez's TV roles or her voice acting roles, only her starring roles in movies. Also, this ranking takes into account the quality of J.Lo's performances as well as the overall quality of the movies themselves. Proceed!
27.Gigli (2003)
Gigli is a famously bad movie, so bad that I can’t even recommend it on the basis of its cultural significance as that film that started #Bennifer. Ben Affleck and Lopez star as a pair of somewhat incompetent mobsters, but their real-life connection — they were dating at the time — sadly didn't translate to onscreen chemistry. Gigli also has a ton of offensive “jokes,” but the only truly funny moment in the movie is Affleck’s baffled reaction to J.Lo sensually saying, “It’s turkey time. Gobble, gobble.”
26.Jack (1996)
Lopez doesn’t have a leading role in Jack, and the movie itself isn’t very good, but it’s less offensively bad than Gigli. Jack is something like a mix of Big and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Robin Williams in the titular role. J.Lo plays his teacher, Miss Marquez, and she's fine, even though she doesn't do much.
25.Money Train (1995)
Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, and J.Lo star in a movie that doesn’t live up to any of their talents, but that’s okay! Nobody bats a thousand. It's worth noting that this movie was the first time Lopez played a police officer, something she's done several more times in her career.
24.Angel Eyes (2001)
Lopez once again plays a no-nonsense cop in Angel Eyes. This movie has all of the cheese and schmaltz of many Nicholas Sparks adaptations (it isn’t one, btw), but none of the sweeping romantic moments that make those movies watchable. J.Lo spends most of the runtime espousing platitudes like, “I’m trying to tell you that you’re not alone” and “I wanna understand you, but I can’t do that if you don’t let me in!” She’s better than this, and so is your time.
23.Monster-in-Law (2005)
It pains me to have this movie ranked so low because Jane Fonda is truly hilarious in it. J.Lo is perfectly fine as Charlie — the daughter-in-law to the titular "monster" — but her and Viola’s (Fonda) conflict is just too contrived and nonsensical to earn your investment. These two women nearly kill each other during the movie, and Kevin, Viola’s son and Charlie’s fiancé, doesn’t notice a thing.
22.Jersey Girl (2004)
J.Lo is barely in this movie — spoiler alert, she dies in the first 10 minutes — but it’s a bit of post-Gigli redemption for her and Ben Affleck, who plays the lead. Jersey Girl is more of a father-daughter movie than a rom-com, but it’s sweet and harmless and might make the girl dads out there shed a single, dignified tear.
21.Bordertown (2007)
Bordertown stars Lopez and Antonio Banderas and is based on a series of real-life femicides that occurred in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Director Gregory Nava conceived of the film as a way to shed light on the crimes and to pressure the Mexican government to pursue justice for the victims. J.Lo is great at playing this sort of tenacious, scrappy woman, but the script isn’t as sensitive or incisive as you’d hope regarding its serious subject matter.
20.The Cell (2000)
The plot of The Cell makes very little sense, but the visuals are creepy and trippy enough to make it worth watching. J.Lo plays Dr. Catherine Deane, a social worker and psychologist tasked with infiltrating the mind of a serial killer (via virtual reality) to figure out where he buried his last victim. It’s a sci-fi psychological thriller bordering on horror, and it’s a real departure for Jenny From the Block, who doesn’t usually make this type of movie.
19.Anaconda (1997)
Oh, Anaconda, you absolutely ridiculous movie. This monster B movie is not good, but it’s a lot of fun. J.Lo plays a pretty typical damsel in distress turned final girl, but the main attraction is really the gigantic snake, played to perfection by an animatronic puppet in some scenes and '90s-era CGI in others.
18.The Back-Up Plan (2010)
The Back-Up Plan actually has a really fun premise: Zoe (Lopez) is tired of waiting for her soulmate and is anxious to start a family, so she decides to pursue artificial insemination. But plot twist! She conceives twins right before meeting the man of her dreams and has to figure out how to tell him she’s about to be the mother of two. The execution suffers from a script that isn’t particularly funny or romantic for a rom-com. Even though J.Lo is perfectly charming in the role, the result is kinda forgettable.
17.What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012)
This movie is Love, Actually but with pregnancy storylines. And it’s perfectly fine, if somewhat shallow in its approach to pregnancy and parenthood. J.Lo’s storyline isn’t the most touching of the bunch (that honor goes to Anna Kendrick and Chace Crawford’s couple), but it’s not the worst way to spend 110 minutes.
16.The Boy Next Door (2015)
The Boy Next Door is modeled after the erotic thrillers of the '90s and Lifetime movies, and the result is a “so bad it’s good” movie reminiscent of Beyoncé’s Obsessed. J.Lo plays Claire, a teacher who has a one-night stand with her neighbor Noah (Ryan Guzmán) after her husband cheats on her. Unfortunately, Noah turns out to be her new student and becomes obsessed with her. Literature and classics buffs will be appalled at the scene in which Noah gifts Claire with a “first edition” copy of The Iliad that he got “for a buck at a garage sale.”
15.The Wedding Planner (2001)
The Wedding Planner is one of J.Lo’s most famous movies and started to cement her position as a rom-com leading lady as early as 2001. It’s not perfect, but it has some of the staples of the genre: an improbable meet-cute, a dramatic chase to stop a wedding, and Judy Greer (legend!). If there’s one thing that makes me rank it kind of low, it’s that Lopez's and Matthew McConaughey’s characters are so passive about their own lives and happiness that it borders on frustrating.
14.Second Act (2018)
J.Lo was already hugely famous when she made Second Act, and it's admittedly a little hard to separate her glamorous real-life image from the working-class Maya. Maya decides to make some changes in her life after getting passed over for a promotion, including lying about having several advanced degrees. The plot is not even remotely plausible — and the mid-movie twist involving Vanessa Hudgens’s character is cheesy as heck — but it’s a pleasant flick with a nice message about not selling yourself short at any age.
13.Marry Me (2022)
J.Lo’s most recent rom-com is charmingly self-aware — she basically plays herself by way of Kat Valdez, a pop star whose love life is under constant scrutiny. She ends up married to Owen Wilson’s character in the most hilariously impossible scenario, but they have cute chemistry that takes advantage of their respective star qualities.
12.Parker (2013)
Jason Statham and J.Lo are pretty good together in Parker, and it’s not a bad movie. Unfortunately for Parker's place in this ranking, Out of Sight (see below) is considerably better and has a similar premise.
11.An Unfinished Life (2005)
This family melodrama is one of the most underrated movies of J.Lo’s career. Robert Redford and Morgan Freeman are the two leads, but she gives a grounded performance as Jean, the daughter-in-law of Redford’s character. It veers into saccharine sentimentality more than a few times, but it’s great if you’re in the mood for that sort of thing.
10.El Cantante (2006)
This isn’t the most original biopic out there, but Héctor Lavoe is a Latine icon, played to perfection by Marc Anthony. Also perfect was Lopez as Lavoe’s wife, Puchi. Her chemistry with then-husband Anthony was excellent, and it’s a rarity among J.Lo's roles in that it allowed her to play a character who was as brusque as she was charismatic.
9.U Turn (1997)
U Turn has a ton of plot twists that you won’t see coming, even though it might be a little too violent and taboo for some people (just a warning: J.Lo’s character is in a relationship with her stepfather). As Grace, Lopez is the linchpin that holds the plot together. She’s surrounded by veteran actors in this film, but she more than holds her own in one of her first starring roles.
8.Enough (2002)
The plot of Enough has a lot of holes, but every woman in my life loves it, so that must mean something. There is something cathartic about seeing Slim (Lopez) fight back against her abusive husband and protect her daughter so fiercely. J.Lo’s performance is also terrific, and it’s not hard to see why it provokes such an emotional response in viewers. I will, however, issue a warning that it has several graphic scenes of domestic violence.
7.Maid in Manhattan (2002)
In my most humble opinion, Maid in Manhattan is J.Lo’s best rom-com. It’s definitely a modern Cinderella story that has no shortage of fairy tale plot conveniences, but you can’t help getting swept up in the fantasy. It helps that Lopez is luminous as Marisa, a single mom who endears herself to the audience with her pluck and optimism. She could have better chemistry with Ralph Fiennes (yep, Lord Voldemort himself), but it doesn’t ruin the movie.
6.Blood and Wine (1997)
In another of her early roles, J.Lo made a big impact as Gabriela in Blood and Wine. It was a similar role to what she played in U Turn, but this movie is less concerned with shock value and more of a straightforward heist flick.
5.Lila & Eve (2015)
Viola Davis is one of the greatest actors alive, so it’s a testament to J.Lo’s own talent and screen presence that she held her own as Eve in Lila & Eve. Like Enough, it’s a movie that doesn’t have the most airtight plot, but the satisfaction of seeing two women getting shit done and taking no prisoners cannot be topped. Without spoiling anything, there’s a twist in the third act that’ll make you want to rewind the movie and start it over from the beginning.
4.Shall We Dance? (2004)
For some inexplicable reason, Shall We Dance is not particularly well regarded among critics. Well, I am here to bravely tell you that the critics are wrong. Yes, the original Japanese version is better, but this version isn’t bad at all! Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon play the main couple, but J.Lo’s role as the dance instructor who helps them find their way back to each other is the heart of the movie. As Paulina, Lopez gets to play one of the roles she’s best at: a talented and smart woman who hasn’t had the easiest life (a plus if she’s a good dancer). As a bonus, Stanley Tucci and Lisa Ann Walter have a slow-burn romance that nearly steals the movie.
3.Selena (1997)
There was something very meta about casting a young J.Lo as Selena Quintanilla-Pérez — a future Latine icon playing a Latine legend gone too soon. It suffers from the glossy oversimplification that plagues most biopics, but this is, without a doubt, the star-making performance of Lopez’s acting career. It’s tempting to put it in first place, but she has two other performances that are a little more complex.
2.Out of Sight (1998)
If I were judging based solely on the quality of the movies, Out of Sight would probably be the best. George Clooney and Lopez would go on to become two of the biggest stars in the world, but Out of Sight proves that they’re also both great actors. As a bank robber and the cop pursuing him, Clooney and J.Lo have surprisingly sexy (!) chemistry that will have you hoping that they'll consider reuniting onscreen 25 years later.
1.And in First Place: Hustlers (2019)
In a lot of ways, Ramona Vega in Hustlers is the sum of all the roles J.Lo has played before: She has the warmth of a rom-com heroine and the anger of an overlooked woman, and you definitely get the sense that she’ll beat up whomever she needs to. The entire Hustlers ensemble is good, but the movie belongs to Lopez from the moment she struts up to a pole to the tune of Fiona Apple’s “Criminal.” She was absolutely ROBBED of an Oscar nomination, and that’s just a fact.
Is this ranking in the right order? Comment below!
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