Samuel L. Jackson gives Stephen Colbert his top five Samuel L. Jackson movies
And the list doesn't include Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard
TV News Samuel L. Jackson
On Wednesday’s Late Show, Samuel L. Jackson did the requisite plugging on behalf of his newest film, the wheezy and awkwardly titled Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard. As Stephen Colbert noted, “You’ve gotta pay the bills.” (Colbert was talking about those credit card commercials the perpetually busy Jackson does, but that’s also the conclusion our own A.A. Down came to upon watching Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.) Regardless, Jackson was more than happy to go off on whatever conversational tangent Colbert threw at him after their pandemic-long time away from the interview arena, eventually settling in for a discussion of Samuel L. Jackson’s favorites among the some 150 screen credits of legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson.
Speaking from the Atlanta set of the upcoming streaming series The Last Days Of Ptolemy Grey (based on the Walter Mosley novel), Jackson went deep into his own voluminous filmography to pluck out the following, in order: The Long Kiss Goodnight, A Time To Kill, Jackie Brown, The Red Violin, and, finally, 187. Now, as all list-makers and -readers know, such ranked pronouncements are magnets for debate and/or abusive cries of “What about [movie X], you idiot! This list is invalid, etc!” And if anyone out there want’s to risk the wrath of Mr. Jackson, well, that’s what the comment section is for. It’s your funeral. It’s an interesting list, at any rate, and since Jackson himself didn’t elaborate why, for example, his turn as the guy chasing down a fabled musical instrument (and occasionally chewing out room service) in the obscure Canadian sort-of anthology film The Red Violin makes his personal top five, we’re left to speculate. (Just to get the comment fire going, here’s an alternate five in Jungle Fever, I Am Not Your Negro, The Hateful Eight, Hard Eight, and The Caveman’s Valentine. Discuss.)
Jackson, who notably but understandably did not single out either Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard or The Hitman’s Bodyguard for special mention, also confessed to Colbert that he does, in fact, have movie favorites that he does not star in. (He also spared some praise for some young actor named John David Washington, who, as Jackson noted, he and pal Denzel have “been grooming” to be the next Samuel L. Jackson essentially since birth.) Apart from all the binge-streaming he’s done while not leaving his house for the past year (thank goodness for remote voice-over work), including British crime series like Gangs Of London and ZeroZeroZero, Jackson thought long and hard before picking out his favorite non-Jackson films of all time as well. In keeping with the actor’s penchant for “violent and crazy things,” that top five is made up of The Raid: Redemption, The Godfather, Hard Boiled, Hoodlums, and South Korean action thriller The Berlin File. Again, a few dark horses in there, but, also again, nobody here is going to take issue with the agelessly prolific Mr. Jackson.
66 Comments
Snakes on a Plane is the obvious answer.
Correct, and I suspect deep down (or not so deep down) SLJ feels the same way. Whenever I get asked that party question of “Which celebrity you would like to have dinner with?” I always say Samuel L. Jackson, in part because of the following exchange with Graham Norton. Jackson just seems like a damn good time and like someone who, while incredibly thoughtful about his career, doesn’t take himself and his work too seriously.“I’d do Snakes on a Plane 2 AND 3.” Slays me.
I would buy opening night tickets for 2 Snakes 2 Plane
2nakes on a Plane 2: The Slithering. Bring it on.
Snakes on a Plane: Tokyo Hiss
Snakes on a Plane: Terminal Venomocity.
I went with my brother and some friends to see Snakes on a Plane when it first came out. It was probably the most fun crowd I’d ever seen in a theatre, because we all knew the film was going to be intentionally dumb and cheesy. I got a few compliments for wearing a toy rattlesnake around my neck.
Sequel can be Snakes on a Train.
Nah, thats working big to small. Snakes on a Space StationWe put the HISSSS in the ISS
That’s fucking great lol.
Only if they close the trilogy out with Snakes in an Automobile and find some way for Steve Martin to slither into it.
Was his character in 1408 supposed to be The Devil?
Colbert is one pair of suspenders away from Larry King in that photo.
Pulp Fiction would certainly be in my top 5 SLJ films because it’s the movie that introduced me to him and he owns all of his scenes. I dare you to not pay attention when Jules is on-screen.
That is a strange omission. Wonder if there’s a story behind that…
He probably just didn’t like working on it as much. You or I could like the movie a lot, but his perspective would be very different. The Shining is great, I’m gonna guess people working on it walked away feeling differently, or say anything by Lars Von Trier.
Well, he did choose Jackie Brown, in which he had a much more central role in. Truth be told, I do like Jackie Brown more than Pulp Fiction. Tarantino really did Elmore Leonard justice with the film.
While I like Reservoir Dogs more than both, I’d also put Jackie Brown over Pulp. Also, as a huge Leonard fan who has been disappointed a lot by adaptations of his work not named Justified, it was nice to see how good of a job Tarantino did.
Did you ever see Mr. Majestyk with Charles Bronson? It is SO much better than you would think.
At the risk of heresy: Jackie Brown is the only Tarantino movie that is good the whole time. All the rest get bogged down somewhere, or have distracting asides, or just drift into this cartoonish violence, and while I understand why, I don’t like it. Jackie Brown is a lean movie, that even tightens up an already tight novel in clever ways. There are only a few moments where it feels like a Tarantino movie (foot stuff, obvs, but the girls-with-guns segment too). Plus it’s rare to see De Niro in a roll like that. Real treat, all around.
Jackie Brown is really underappreciated. I think I still narrowly like Pulp Fiction more, but it should be more in the debate of Tarantino’s best earlier film, it’s always Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs, but shit, Jackie Brown is fantastic too, just as good as those 2 in my book.
I don’t think so. It probably has less to do with his time on set as it has to do with probably 99% of fan interactions since then, asking him to sign their wallet that says Bad Motherfucker on it, or the book of Ezekiel, or asking about a Royale with Cheese. also see: Wars, Star.
He’s said before that, prior to the Capital One commercials, that was the long-standing champion of having the lines shouted at him on the street, which I imagine colors things for you after a while. This is going to show my age, but it’s like how the first Austin Powers was/is a defensibly funny comedy once, but after the fiftieth time you heard a person yelling “Yeah baby!” instead of developing a personality, you kinda hoped everyone involved would fall off a cliff.
Well he did pick Jackie Brown, probably just chose his favorite performance with Quentin Tarantino. And for how great his performance in Pulp Fiction is, I would agree with his choice on Jackie Brown over Pulp Fiction. Pulp Fiction is the better movie, but SLJ puts on a phenomenal performance in Jackie Brown.
He was really good in Pulp Fiction of course, but I wonder if it might not have been enjoyable to work on. (I’ve never heard anything about what it was like on the set.) My favorite of Jules’ lines is the one about how he’s going to “walk the earth. Like Kwai-chang Caine” because I always wanted to see that movie….
Think hes pissed he didnt get the much deserved Oscar which went to John Travolta who was admittedly great in the film also.
John Travolta didn’t win an Oscar for Pulp Fiction.
I remember not having high hopes for The Long Kiss Goodnight, but it turned out to be really good.But I’m also partial to Amos & Andrew, so…..
The Long Kiss Goodnight is drastically underrated. Of course Jackson gets a lot of great lines, but I’m partial to this one from Brian Cox: “There may be many reasons not to kill you, but among them is not that you’ll be missed by NASA. I found the address in your coat.”
Brian Cox has delivered some of the greatest lines in history. The one you quoted is one of them. My other favorite is from the second Bourne movie, a quote I still use to this day. “His mind is broken. WE broke it!”
It’s funny no one mentions Geena Davis being fucking great in this.
Kinda feel like it was a given, distracting hair and all, but yes she was fackin’ awesome.
Chef’s do that.
Geena Davis was fucking great in this! But this is an article about Sam Jackson.
The context of the thread going on about how the other dude, not SLJ was so good, when Geena Davis was also fucking great. He was good too and all she just did a whole bunch more. Such as holding on to a machine gun and Christmas lights saying “Die screaming motherfucker”
Geena Davis was fucking great in this.
Brian Cox has delivered some of the greatest lines in history. The one you quoted is one of them. My other favorite is…“Yeh dint want yer father tah die either, did ye. But it hap’pond.”
I agree. That was a great movie.
I really liked the Long Kiss Goodnight, enough to see it multiple times.I thought I was the only one!
I loved The Long Kiss Goodnight when I finally saw it. Looked at some reviews from the time it came out and… I guess that’s why I didn’t rush to see it. Should have. It’s just so fun.And no offense to Angelina Jolie in Salt, or any other pint-sized female action heroes, but… Geena Davis seems like she really could kick some ass. Or at least kill you with an arrow; she almost qualified for the Olympics I think, in 2000? (I don’t think the event involves actually shooting people but I could be wrong.)
I was lucky enough to see Long Kiss Goodnight 3x in theaters, but not lucky enough to see it 4x in theaters. I’ve been trying to rectify this by watching it 4x a year since.
Sam had the best outfit in it:
I had so many assumptions about that movie based on the trailer, but as they say, when you make assumptions you make an ass out of u & mption.
The Long Kiss Goodnight suffered from really bad timing as it came on the heels of Cutthroat Island which scuttled Geena Davis’ career for quite a long time.
I was browsing through my Letterboxd stats the other day, and they list out your most viewed actors. Samuel L. Jackson is apparently my number one — I’ve seen him in 41 films, and the runners up aren’t even particularly close. That being said, those are probably not the 5 Jackson roles I would pick as my favorites, though Jackie Brown might make the list depending on my mood. Would probably go with Do the Right Thing, The Negotiator, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Jurassic Park, and Die Hard: With a Vengeance.
The Red Violin is a fantastic, and way too under-the-radar, movie. Go watch it if you haven’t.
I love The Red Violin and remember buying the DVD for it after. I recall subtitle technology was not exactly great and dynamic back then. It somehow screwed it up between languages and was kind of infuriating to watch, hope there’s a better reissue these days.
What I love about The Red Violin is that the violin is like Excalibur and the Elder Wand. And it’s such a Romantic film.
He picked the first The Raid, not The Raid: Redemption. And he was right to do so; it’s good, but not as good as the first one.
The first Raid movie is, confusingly, called The Raid: Redemption, for reasons which Wikipedia can explain. The sequel was just called The Raid 2, despite containing no raid. The third movie in the trilogy, of course, was Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Ah, my mistake. In Britain, it was just “The Raid”.
Just another in a series of incomprehensible Britishisms 😉
loaded weapon 1, for the win
JUICE! THAT WAS A GOOD ONE!
No ‘ Deep Blue Sea’? But that scene is perfect!
Snakes. On. A. Plane.
Let me just be the first to throw out Die Hard with A Vengeance. Oh. Also, The Incredibles. There are probably more.
Vengeance is my favorite Die Hard. Part of that is that it’s the first one I saw in theaters. But also I saw it with my mom, and she really liked it. My mom has really random tastes. The hardest I’ve ever heard her laugh is at Superstar when Mary Catherine Gallagher is playing with her boobs in the mirror.
I wouldn’t describe The Red Violin as “obscure”; it was a Golden Globe nominee and Oscar winner.
Dude was in Goodfellas. That is the best movie of everyone in it.
Long Kiss goodnight is an extremely underrated film and performance from Jackson and Geena Davis. Everything his character said in this and Jackie Brown was gold. But Pulp Fiction will always be the goat Jackson performance in terms of script. #‘’’Say, What, again’’
You want some rare Samuel L Jackson might I suggest Def by Temptation? It’s a small role but you also got the late great Bill Nunn and Kadeem Hardison AKA Dwayne Wayne from A Different World.
It’d be funny if he said Infinity War, like yeah, I’m only in it for a minute in a post credits scene, but did you see that movie?
He has such an impressive and large filmography. He’s in all the best shit too. Like if there was one celebrity whose acting career I would most like to have just to be able to say I was in this awesome movie or that awesome movie, then SLJ would be that man.
Die Hard With A Vengeance.I can absolutely understand if that movie was not as fun for Samuel L to make, as some others. Looks like it was hot. But that’s going on any top lists of his stuff.
I think people forget that actors base their likes and dislikes on more than just a performance or a script but they consider their experience off set and on.
Hey A.V. Club I know youse is all long beyond caring and didn’t understand the concept of “copy editor” even before Disqus but come on, youse can’t even get your coworker’s name right?