Jeff Goldblum's 10 best and 10 worst movies, ranked by critics

Goldblum has been in dozens of films since making his film debut in 1974's "Death Wish" as Freak #1. Not all of them can be instant classics.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 25%

"Zambezia," also known as "Adventures in Zambezia," is an animated film that stars Jeremy Suarez as a young peregrine falcon who discovers he lives near a bustling bird city called Zambezia. Goldblum voices a bearded vulture named Ajax.

"In the end, the cast proves to be too big, the storyline too muddled and I was dismayed by the thought that the Disney/Dreamworks style is so ubiquitous that an animation created by a small production house in Cape Town is trying so hard and so slavishly to copy the Hollywood product," wrote Sandra Hall of The Sydney Morning Herald.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 22%

"Man of the Year" is a comedy starring Robin Williams. He plays the host of a satirical news show, à la "The Daily Show," who decides to run for president after a petition gains traction online. Goldblum plays a sinister executive at the computer company that runs the voting machines.

"Cynicism or stupidity? It's hard to say which has the run of this idiotic satire in which Robin Williams plays a talk-show host who runs for president on a ticket of cleaning up politics," wrote The Guardian's Cath Clarke.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 21%

Goldblum stars as Hatch, a husband and father who almost dies in a car crash. At the same time as his near-death, a serial killer attempts to kill himself and the two become connected, with each gaining the ability to see through the other one's eyes.

"It helps, in a movie like this, if the actors are first-rate. Goldblum and [Christine Lahti] transform scenes that in other hands might have simply been laughable," wrote Roger Ebert.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 20%

Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr. star in this horror-comedy, which follows two tabloid reporters who travel to Transylvania to prove that Frankenstein's monster exists. Hijinks ensue.

"The anti-'Young Frankenstein,' 'Transylvania 6-5000' might be the worst horror-comedy ever made," wrote Film Frenzy's Matt Brunson.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 17%

"Beyond Therapy" is a film based on the 1981 play of the same name. It stars Jeff Goldblum and Julie Hagerty as two single New Yorkers who, at the behest of their respective therapists, put personal ads in the paper to find significant others. They meet and sparks fly.

"There's no special logic at work. The performances are good, but the film has been assembled without an overriding sense of humor and style," wrote The New York Times' Vincent Canby.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 17%

Goldblum plays a mob enforcer who's simultaneously dating two sisters, Rita (Ellen Barkin) and Grace (Diane Lane). To make matters worse, Grace is also the ex-girlfriend of his boss, Vic (Richard Dreyfuss), who's currently in jail. When Vic gets out, all hell breaks loose.

Roger Ebert called this "the first movie I have seen that does not improve on the sight of a blank screen viewed for the same length of time."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 13%

Goldblum and Cyndi Lauper star as two psychics who are hired by a treasure hunter to help him find El Dorado, the lost city of gold, in Ecuador.

"'Vibes' stumbles and fumbles and misfires sure-fire one-liners and zany situations; it ends up being both a confused and confusing jumble of half-witted comedy and ridiculous drama," wrote Cathy Burke for UPI.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 12%

"Holy Man" is a comedy starring Eddie Murphy as a messiah-like figure only known as G, who is hired to host a show on a home-shopping channel and becomes hugely successful, much to the delight of network employees Ricky (Goldblum) and Kate (Kelly Preston).

"It's a miracle, really: 'Holy Man' diminishes the strengths of everyone and everything it has going for it. Goldblum's manically funny aggression? Sedated. Preston's interestingly hard-edged sexuality? Blunted," wrote Lisa Schwarzbaum for Entertainment Weekly.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 12%

"Mortdecai" is a comedy starring Johnny Depp as the titular character, an art thief, swindler, and all-around general conman. When he's hired to help the police track down a stolen painting, he meets Milton Krampf (Goldblum), a potential buyer.

"Every time Depp gave a phlegmy little stammer and jauntily uttered lines like, 'I say, old bean,' I wanted to bop him on the same with a rotten tangerine," wrote David Edelstein for Vulture.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 11%

What makes "Perfume," a film about the fashion industry, interesting is that the dialogue was 100% improvised by the stars. It's split into three storylines; Goldblum's part stars Leslie Mann as a designer who is leaving a small fashion house for a huge brand — one that, it just so happens, her latest hook-up Jamie (Goldblum) works at as a talent scout.

"Another attempt to nail the fashion industry, 'Perfume' is more coherent and serious-minded than Robert Altman's mess 'Ready to Wear,' but remains a less alluring creation," wrote Variety's Todd McCarthy.

Goldblum has appeared in some of the highest-grossing franchises in history, including "Jurassic Park," "Independence Day," and the MCU. He's also been nominated for Independent Spirit and Emmy Awards, and he's appeared in multiple best picture nominees.

Here's what critics have ruled his best films.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 89%

"Nashville" is director Robert Altman's sprawling magnum opus. It follows multiple characters across Nashville in the five-day period leading up to a campaign fundraiser for a long shot presidential candidate.

Goldblum has a completely silent role; he's credited as "Tricycle Man" and is the connector of the disparate plots in the film.

Writing for The Chicago Tribune, Michael Wilmington called it "Altman's great kaleidoscopic ensemble comedy-drama about a frenzied few days in country music's capital, with an unlikely, quirky, explosive crowd of musicians, hangers-on and politicos all converging on a fateful concert crossroads."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%

Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan star as a married couple, Nick and Meg, on vacation in Paris. Both are dissatisfied with their marriage, careers, and financial status. Goldblum plays Morgan, an old friend of Nick's who has become a successful writer.

"By its ambiguous yet hopeful end, we're at one with Nick and Meg: Sometimes, you just have to dance. Somehow, you go on," wrote Moira Macdonald for The Seattle Times.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%

"Isle of Dogs" is Goldblum's first collaboration with director Wes Anderson on this list (but not the last). In this stop-motion film, the mayor of the Japanese city Megasaki has ordered the deportation of all dogs in the city to the nearby Trash Island to quarantine them after an outbreak of canine flu. Goldblum voices one of the dogs, Duke, a Siberian husky.

"It's gorgeous — filled with so many bits of visual whimsy and imaginative detail that it would take several viewings to fully catch them all. And it's idiosyncratic and witty and dark," wrote Max Weiss for Baltimore Magazine.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%

Goldblum's performance as the mathematician and chaos theory expert Ian Malcolm in "Jurassic Park" is one of his most beloved, most quoted, and most memed.

As we all know, the scientists behind Jurassic Park, a theme park filled with dangerous dinosaurs, were so preoccupied with whether they could bring dinos back to life, that they didn't stop to think if they should.

"The effects have barely aged and the joy is timeless. Take a child who's never seen it and watch their imagination expand before your eyes," wrote Olly Richards for Empire.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%

The second of Goldblum's collaborations with Wes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel," is a story within a story.

Most of the action takes place at the hotel in the mid-1900s, where a lobby boy, Zero (Tony Revolori), and a hotel concierge, Gustave (Ralph Fiennes), team up to keep a priceless painting in the proper hands after its owner, Madame D. (Tilda Swinton), dies.

Goldblum plays Vilmos Kovacs, the Grand Budapest's lawyer and the executor of Madame D.'s estate.

Jason Bailey of Flavorwire wrote, "Just plain fun, full of the filmmaker's signature flourishes and curlicues, worked out with skill and finesse."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%

A remake of the 1956 film (and the second adaptation of the 1955 novel), "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is a sci-fi and horror classic. It focuses on two health inspectors, Matthew (Donald Sutherland) and Elizabeth (Brooke Adams), who discover that an alien race has come to Earth and is secretly replacing humans with emotionless doubles.

Goldblum plays Matthew and Elizabeth's friend, Jack, who believes them.

"'Invasion of the Body Snatchers' is more sheer fun than any movie I've seen since 'Carrie' and 'Jaws' and maybe parts of 'The Spy Who Loved Me,'" wrote Pauline Kael for The New Yorker.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%

David Cronenberg's horror classic stars Goldbum as Seth Brundle, a scientist who accidentally becomes entangled with a fly and slowly transforms into a human-fly hybrid.

Time's Richard Corliss called "The Fly" "a gross-your-eyes-out horror movie that is also the year's most poignant romance."

Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%

Goldblum steals the show as The Grandmaster, the ruler of a trash planet called Sakaar, in "Thor: Ragnarok." Thor (Chris Hemsworth) encounters The Grandmaster after he accidentally crash-lands on Sakaar. He is then forced to participate in a gladiator-esque battle against the Hulk to amuse The Grandmaster and Sakaar's inhabitants.

"Perfectly acceptable as an action movie but inspired as a comedy — which is probably where the 'Thor' franchise should have been aiming from the start," wrote The Atlantic's Christopher Orr.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 94%

"Between the Lines" follows the various staff writers at The Back Bay Mainline, an alternative newspaper in Boston, as they prepare to potentially be taken over by a huge parent company. Goldblum plays Max, the Mainline's music critic.

"'Between the Lines' is barely about a newspaper at all, more about a bunch of youngish people whose energies are running out, as American counterculture itself had run their course, with the '80s and its hard-nosed principles about to kick in," wrote Jonathan Romney for Film Comment.

Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%

Goldblum's best film is Woody Allen's 1977 rom-com classic "Annie Hall," which every romantic comedy that came after it owes a significant debt. Goldblum has a tiny part in this film as an attendee of a Christmas party who "forgets his mantra."

"'Annie Hall' is bracingly adventuresome and unexpectedly successful, with laughs as satisfying as those in any of Allen's other movies and a whole new staying power," wrote Janet Maslin for Newsweek.