From Rom-Coms to ‘Deadpool’, Ryan Reynolds Has Been in Some Awesome Movies

National Lampoon's Van Wilder (2002)

The most popular kid on campus meets a beautiful journalist who makes him realize that maybe he's afraid to graduate — a reasonable conclusion given the fact he's a seventh year senior. "My main college experience is this movie," Ryan told splicedwire. "But I was on the UCLA campus to shoot this movie and now I think it's almost a documentary!" He also notes that there probably wasn't a single scene in the movie that wasn't adlibbed. "That's a testament to the people we were working with. It was an incredibly collaborative group, and without a $40 or $50 million budget, you're actually afforded a lot more freedom. There's nobody breathing down your neck saying, 'Our $50 million is on the line here!'"

Blade: Trinity (2004)

Set up by other vampires, Blade (Wesley Snipes) is suddenly on the radar and wanted by the FBI. He finds he has to work with a team of vampire hunters, the Nightstalkers, to face off against the king of vampires, Dracula. Ryan plays Nightstalker Hannibal King.

In speaking to Movieweb, the actor reflects on his research for the role, "I read a book called Deep Survival, which I thought was interesting, because there's a scene where Hannibal is being tortured by these vampires and I thought, 'Well, how would I get out of this situation? How would I keep myself alive or keep myself from breaking?' And this book is interesting, because it talks about how people use humor to do that, to stay alive. I love that about Hannibal King. He would never sell out his friends or give up his friends. I like that it came from a rooted place of heart and showed a test of his character and mettle."

The Amityville Horror (2005)

Okay, let's get this straight: This is one house that you should never, no matter how low the cost, buy. Nothing good ever happens there, as evidenced by this film series. This particular entry is number nine in a total of 18 movies(!). In it, newlyweds are terrorized by demonic forces after moving into a large house that was the site of a grisly mass murder a year before. Ryan is the male newlywedder, George Lutz. "I had some trepidation about the project when I heard the word 'remake', because those types of films tend to be a bit gratuitous," he says. "That feeling quickly dissipated after I read the script, which more closely followed the book. I found it intriguing they wanted to hire me. George Lutz was a pretty intense guy, and the film is basically about a man's struggle to maintain his sanity while being drawn into this vortex of evil. Most of my work had been in the comedy genre, so it's a dream role to get a chance to play a character that has a trajectory from A to Z."

Waiting (2005)

The employees at Shenaniganz restaurant are bored out of their heads and doing anything they can to keep their work lives interesting. Needless to say, Ryan is one of them . Playing the character of Monty, he says, "This is probably the greatest cast of all time. You could look at any particular cast member and say they stole the movie. It's just an amazing ensemble, with no weak link. I don't think I've ever experienced that on a movie."

Just Friends (2005)

An unrequited high school love story gets a second chance years later, when circumstances brings Chris Brander (Ryan) and Jamie Palamino (Amy Smart) back together. "I'm shocked that a movie about this subject matter hasn't been made before," Ryan admits. "Everyone can relate to being subjugated to the 'friend zone' and placed in this perma-penalty box of non-sexual gratification, the purgatorial Cyrano role of a lifetime. I went through it in high school when I was in love with this girl for years while she dated jerk after jerk, but came to me for advice! It certainly is my inspiration for this movie."

Smokin' Aces (2006)

Jeremy Piven is Las Vegas performer turned snitch Buddy Israel, whose decision to turn state's evidence is likely to be the unhealthiest choice he could make. "I’ve certainly never been in a movie that’s had this unique brand of unblinking violence before," says Ryan, who plays FBI agent Richard Messner. "So that’s sort of new for me. But it’s like any other role. You tackle it in the same way and you try to find the truth to it and I was really caught up with this guy who was trapped in this bureaucratic FBI cluster-[frak], for lack of a better word, and because of that loses someone that is very dear to him. So for me it was just playing the truth of that the whole time."

The Nines (2007)

Ryan goes for the trifecta here as he plays three characters — a troubled actor, a television show runner, and an acclaimed videogame designer — who find their lives intertwining in mysterious ways. Ryan explains "It's a movie that deals with subject matter that I think is exciting. Anytime you can find something that you can get behind that unorthodox and hasn’t really been seen before, but you’re still really able to stretch yourself and dive into wholeheartedly, I think that’s kind of unusual these days."

Definitely, Maybe (2008)

A political consultant (Ryan) does his best to explain his impending divorce and past relationships to his 11-year-old daughter (Abigail Breslin). In talking to her, he flashes back to 1992 and recounts his romances with three women, changing their names so that his daughter must guess which one became his wife. "For me, most romantic comedies that you read it’s just painfully obvious within the first three pages what’s going to happen," Ryan told IndieLondon. "With this script, I had no idea what was going to happen up until the last three pages. I was absolutely riveted. So for a romantic comedy, it was certainly the most unusual thing I’d ever read." As to his on-screen chemistry with Abigail, he added, "With her, I didn’t try and make our dynamic be anything in particular. I just was invested in putting on screen whatever our dynamic was – even if she hated me. I think that unless it’s authentic, it’s going to be bulls**t and people aren’t going to buy it."

Chaos Theory (2008)

An incredibly organized efficiency expert finds things falling apart and he has two choices: allow the chaos to swallow him whole, or embrace the randomness of life. “Playing this kind of character — a person who’s vulnerable, a control freak whose life disassembles in a way he can’t control — really appealed to me. A lot of people look for some kind of order in their life, some sort of way to keep it all together. I think what he discovers is that you just can’t avoid chaos, life is going to throw you curveballs no matter what you do and no matter who you are.”

Fireflies in the Garden (2008)

Offers the film's official synopsis, "To an outsider, the Taylors are the very picture of the successful American family: Charles (Willem Dafoe) is a tenured professor on track to become university president, son Michael (Ryan) is a prolific and well-known romance novelist, daughter Ryne (Shannon Lucio) is poised to enter a prestigious law school, and on the day we are introduced to them, matriarch Lisa (Julia Roberts) will graduate from college — decades after leaving to raise her children. But when a serious accident interrupts the celebration, the far more nuanced reality of this Midwestern family’s history and relationships come to light."

Adventureland (2009)

In the summer of 1987, a college graduate (Jesse Eisenberg) takes a job at his local amusement park, only to find it's the perfect course to get him prepared for the real world. Along the way he falls in love with one of the workers (Kristen Stewart), who is having an affair with the park's married maintenance man (Ryan). But don't necessarily think of Ryan as the bad guy. "I like that there are no real villains or heroes in this movie. It’s a lot like life. People have their complexities. They have their heroic moments and their villainous moments, too," he offers.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

In this backstory for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, Ryan actually plays Wade Wilson (aka Deadpool), but you would be really hardpressed connecting this guy to the character that would go on to offend us all in the best ways possible. “It was a very frustrating experience,” Ryan recalled to EW.com.
“I was already attached to the Deadpool movie. We hadn’t at that point written a script yet. [Origins] came along and it was sort of like, ‘Play Deadpool in this movie or we’ll get someone else to.’ And I just said, ‘I’ll do it, but it’s the wrong version. Deadpool isn’t correct in it.' Apparently nobody cared."

Paper Man (2009)

Ryan is Captain Excellent, the imaginary friend who has never been far away from a frustrated and failed novelist (Jeff Daniels). However, their "friendship" is strained by the writer's growing relationship with a woman (Emma Stone).

The Proposal (2009)

Sandra Bullock is a boss who, in an effort to obtain a visa and stay in the United States, forces her assistant (Ryan) to marry her. He agrees, if she will come to his hometown in Alaska, meet his family and keep up the pretense that they're in a relationship. Says Ryan, "This woman, who is so Type A, is being taken to the wilds of Alaska with her assistant. She has spent three years with this guy, but knows absolutely nothing about him, including where he’s from. It’s really fun when she comes to this small community and becomes as much a fish out of water as a human being can be.”

Buried (2010)

Ryan plays Paul, a U.S. truck driver working in Iraq. Suddenly attacked, he awakens to find himself buried alive in a coffin, left with only a cigarette lighter and a cell phone standing between him and certain death. As much as he liked the script, he admits that he was a bit concerned saying yes. "The problem was that I had no idea how you shoot something like this," says Ryan. "It was such a technical challenge that had never been undertaken before." When he was sent a 15-page document detailing the way the film would be shot by director Rodrigo Cortés, he changed his mind: "He included so much, that I couldn't help but get swept away with his vision."

Green Lantern (2011)

Ryan plays test pilot Hal Jordan, who finds his life changed forever when bestowed upon him is the "power ring" of the Green Lantern Corp. Transformed into a superhero, he is given the task of safeguarding the Earth… despite the fact he really doesn't know what he's doing. “Superhero movies are meant to capture our imagination in some of the most impossible ways,” he points out. “To that end, Green Lantern is a perfect character to bring to the movies, because he really has it all — action, adventure, humor and humanity. What I love about Hal is that there’s nothing extraordinary about the guy. Of course, he’s not necessarily your average human being in terms of what he does for a living, but for the most part, he’s not an exceptional example of his species. Throughout the course of the film, Hal will have to look a little deeper into himself, but when this gift is initially bestowed upon him, all he can really think besides, 'Wow, how cool is this?' is, 'Why me?'"

The Change-Up (2011)

Dave (Jason Bateman) is a married man with three kids and a loving wife, and Mitch (Ryan) is a single man who is at the prime of his sexual life. One fateful night while Mitch and Dave are peeing in a fountain, lightning strikes and they switch bodies. Now we've seen this sort of story before, it just doesn't usually involve urine. When asked at a press conference whether or not he and Jason studied each other's characteristics, Ryan said, "A little bit. I first met Jason about fifteen years ago, so we’ve known each other a long time. I think I can speak for both of us quite unilaterally when I say that neither of us are good enough at our jobs to do an impression of each other. So, no, we didn’t really work on that specifically. We just really went with the essence of the other guy."

Safe House (2012)

A young CIA agent (Ryan) is given the assignment of keeping watch on a fugitive (Denzel Washington) in a safe house, but when that house is attacked the duo find themselves on the run. Says Ryan, "I was fascinated by the fact my character lives a complete lie. He's lying to himself and wraps himself up in the flag. There's a lot of hubris involved. We feel what he's doing is righteous and that there's a dark, seedy underbelly to what he does, not the least of which is the fact that he lies to everyone he loves and that takes its toll. He's beaten up from that. Matt's growth is debatable. In some ways, it's almost a regression. Throughout the course of the film, he's resorting to some of the ways he's previously despised. The audience's concern as we're watching is that Matt might be affected by Frost [Denzel] in the same way that Frost was swayed by whoever it was who caused him to go off book. One of the things that Frost does is reveal to Matt what this agency really is, how some of the black ops that it engages in are in the guise of a higher good. It affects Matt deeply and he's seeing how this could easily become him one day. Whether that's growth or not, he's definitely changing."

R.I.P.D. (2013)

Ryan is Nick, a cop murdered in the line of duty who finds himself a part of the Rest In Peace Department, which consists of other fallen cops seeking justice. Nick is teamed with Roy (Jeff Bridges), who has been at this game for a couple of centuries. Enthusiastic about the role and keen to take a more active part in the film's development, Ryan also signed on as an executive producer. "The script has been through all sorts of iterations, and finally landed on this current version," he shares. "I love the comic and our script takes its essence, as well as its basic plotlines and devices, and uses that. There's a bit of tragedy and a love story wrapped up in this incredibly funny, charming movie, which is a hard thing to pull off."

The Captive (2014)

Eight years after a child disappeared without a trace, detectives find disturbing clues that indicate that the girl is still alive. “I just love the idea to immerse myself in another world and work strictly on character,” Ryan said of his decision to work on a small-budget project like this one. “There is nothing about this film that relied on dragging an audience down toward the bottom line by their wallet. It was about telling the story and being part of the story.”

The Voices (2014)

A likable guy — Jerry (Ryan) — pursues his office crush with the help of his evil talking pets, but things turn sinister when she stands him up for a date and we quickly begin to realize that he's not exactly the guy he presents himself to be. In talking to MetroUS, Ryan said, "Some people find it gory. I think it’s offset by Jerry’s innocence and arrested development. He was traumatized at 10 or 11 years old, and he’s still 10 or 11 years old when we meet him. It’s also offset by the fact that there’s this asexuality to him. That’s important, especially since we’re dealing with women in this movie. If there was a sexual component, the movie would be wholly unpleasant in every way shape or form, and it would never see the light of day. He’s the nicest serial killer you’ll ever meet."

Woman in Gold (2015)

This is the true story of one woman's journey to reclaim her heritage and seek justice for what happened to her family. Sixty years after she fled Vienna during World War II, an elderly Jewish woman, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), starts her journey to retrieve family possessions seized by the Nazis, among them Klimt's
famous painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I. Together with her inexperienced but plucky young lawyer, Randy Schoenberg (Ryan), she embarks upon a major battle which takes them all the way to the heart of the Austrian establishment and the U.S. Supreme Court, and forces her to confront difficult truths about the past along the way. Enthuses Ryan, "It’s a tremendous story that I had a passing knowledge of, only because I had seen the painting at a Klimt exhibition when I was a young kid backpacking through Europe. The story is fascinating, and the chance to spend a few months with the great
Helen Mirren was a privilege.”

Self/less (2015)

Ben Kingsley plays Damian, a dying real estate mogul who transfers his consciousness into a healthy young body (provided by Ryan), but soon finds that neither the procedure nor the company that performed it are quite what they seem. Notes Ryan, "I think every viewer gets drawn in when a wish-fulfillment aspect is a key part of a movie. Extending life, cheating death — if and when the right resources are poured in, this kind of science doesn't seem that far off. I love playing characters who are given specific moral choices, and the character of Damian is particularly interesting because he is morally flexible. The audience will themselves wonder, 'Would I do that?' Self/less is very thought-provoking."

Mississippi Grind (2015)

Down on his luck and facing financial hardship, Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn) teams up with younger charismatic poker player, Curtis (Ryan), in an attempt to change his luck. The two set off on a road trip through the South with visions of winning back what's been lost. For Ryan, becoming familiar with the down-market, riverboat gambling culture in which Gerry and Curtis immerse themselves was fascinating. "These guys are making their living doing this," he says. "None of them get rich; they make just enough to get by and keep going. It's a tough life. We spent a lot of the time in the casinos, meeting and hanging out with them. They didn't know who we were, nor did they care. They just loved telling their own stories." He says he got a quick and dirty education in just how hard that life can be when he hit the tables: "These guys may not be on the ESPN poker tournament, but they are good. They will take your money and they will take it fast. I got hip to that pretty early, so I was much more conservative, which didn't make me a better poker player at all."

Deadpool (2016)

In what remains the most subversive superhero film to date, Ryan brings the character of Wade Wilson/Deadpool to life the way it should be. Part of the X-Men universe, the character gets a sequel this year. “In the comic book world, Deadpool is a man of our time with the ability to spout just the right thing, in terms of a pop culture reference, at the worst possible moment,”quips Ryan.
“That’s what makes him interesting to me and also makes him sort of limitless. We stayed as true to the character as possible. We really ran with the idea of Deadpool being aware he’s a comic book anti-hero. It gave us the freedom to tell this story in a totally unorthodox way. We occupy a space that no other comic book movie has — or can.”

Criminal (2016)

In an effort to prevent an evil plot from being unleashed, dead CIA agent Bill Pope (Ryan in a smaller role than one would expect) has his memories, secrets, and skills implanted into a death-row inmate (Kevin Costner) in hopes that he will complete the operative's mission.

The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017)

Think of this one like a classic "Buddy Cop" film, though neither of the leads are actually cops. Ryan is the world's top bodyguard (Michael Bryce), who takes on the safety of Samuel L. Jackson's hit man Darius Kincaid, who is scheduled to testify at the International Criminal Court. Needless to say, there are outside forces that want to stop them. Ryan describes Bryce as “a man who suffered from extraordinary hubris and took a fall from grace. Bryce lost a client which has sent him into a downward spiral of shame. We find him two years after the incident and though he’s probably still the best in the business, he’s basically at a loss. Then his ex-girlfriend asks him to do this job he really doesn’t want, but that he needs. In a nutshell, he has to protect a man who has spent the better part of a decade trying to kill him.”

Deadpool 2 (2018)

We know Ryan's Deadpool is being joined by Josh Brolin's fellow mutant Cable. Outside of that, your guess is as good as ours as to what's going to happen, beyond fun of the Deadpool variety. Directing is Atomic Blonde's David Leitch.