Best and worst Al Pacino movies, according to critics
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Al Pacino is one of the most iconic and influential actors of all time. He's earned hundreds of millions at the box office, appeared in some of the best films in history, and remains a cultural presence over 50 years after he made his on-screen debut in 1969.
The 84-year-old recently released a memoir, "Sonny Boy," which chronicles his decades in Hollywood, including his belief that "The Godfather" was going to be "the worst picture ever made."
But for cinema lovers everywhere, that wasn't the case.
Instead, the film catapulted Pacino to the A-list and earned him his first of nine Academy Award nominations. It was also the first of his four consecutive nominations from 1973 to 1976.
But not every film in his career has been a classic. Does "Gigli" ring any bells?
We've compiled the 10 worst films and the 10 best films Pacino has starred in across his career, according to critics' scores on Rotten Tomatoes. First: his worst.
In 2005, Pacino starred in the sports drama "Two for the Money."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 22%
In "Two for the Money," Pacino plays the head of one of the largest sports consulting firms in the country who discovers Brandon (played by Matthew McConaughey), a wunderkind whose football predictions seem to always come true.
"It still seems like there should be more tension in 'Two for the Money' than simply watching grown men bite their lips as they watch pro games on TV monitors," wrote Marjorie Baumgarten for the Austin Chronicle.
Pacino reunited with Robert De Niro for the third time in 2008's "Righteous Kill."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 18%
After sharing the screen in two certified classics ("The Godfather Part II" and "Heat"), these two titans of cinema came together once more for the truly mediocre thriller "Righteous Kill." In it, they play detectives on the hunt for a mysterious serial killer, but nothing is as it seems.
"The movie goes nowhere and takes 100 minutes to do so. It should have cut its losses, gone for comedy and called itself 'Grumpy Old Cops,''" wrote the Financial Times' Nigel Andrews.
He plays a lawyer in "American Traitor: The Trial of Axis Sally."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 18%
In this 2021 courtroom drama, Pacino plays the lawyer James Laughlin, who represented the real-life historical figure Mildred Gillars. Gillars was an American who broadcast Nazi propaganda in Germany throughout World War II. She was eventually nicknamed Axis Sally and convicted of treason.
Variety's Jessica Kiang called the film "clumsy, campy and kitsch, but also deadeningly dull for long stretches."
Pacino has a small role in "The Son of No One" alongside Channing Tatum, Tracy Morgan, and Katie Holmes.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 16%
This 2011 film is primarily about a rookie cop, Jonathan (Tatum), who killed two people as a teenager in self-defense. He was protected by a detective, Charles Stanford (Pacino), but now is facing the threat of exposure years later.
"'The Son of No One' self-destructs in a ludicrous, ineptly directed anticlimactic rooftop showdown in which bodies pile up, and nothing makes a shred of sense," wrote The New York Times' Stephen Holden.
Pacino might work wonderfully in period pieces set in the '40s, but "Revolution" suggests he doesn't have the face for the 1700s.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 10%
The 1985 film "Revolution" is a Revolutionary War epic in which Pacino plays a fur trapper who reluctantly joins the Americans in their fight against the British after arriving in New York City on July 4, 1776.
"It's rare for a film to live up so completely to its bad advance word-of-mouth. But 'Revolution' is the real thing — a bonafide big-budget disaster," wrote The Atlanta Constitution's Eleanor Ringel.
In the 2016 film "Misconduct," Pacino plays another lawyer.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 7%
"Misconduct" is another legal drama, this time about a corrupt pharmaceutical company and a lawyer, played by Pacino, who is in cahoots with the CEO, played by Anthony Hopkins.
Wendy Ide of The Guardian called the film "so hilariously inept that it's almost worth watching."
"Gigli" is one of the most infamous box-office flops of the 2000s.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 6%
"Gigli," released in 2003, is simultaneously a rom-com and a mob movie, as Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez — at the height of Bennifer 1.0 — costar as two criminals working for the mob who are instructed to kidnap a federal prosecutor's younger brother to ensure the release of a mob boss, played by Pacino.
"Gigli" grossed just $7.2 million against a $75 million budget, according to The AV Club, and, to date, is director Martin Brest's last film.
"Mere words fail to express the awfulness of Martin Brest's 'Gigli,'" wrote James Christopher for The Times.
In 2007's "88 Minutes," Pacino plays a forensic psychiatrist on the clock.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 5%
Pacino plays Jack Gramm, a forensic psychiatrist who was instrumental in putting the serial killer "The Seattle Slayer" behind bars. Years later, when the killer is set to be executed, Gramm begins receiving threatening messages that say he has just 88 minutes to live.
"Given that '88 Minutes' actually runs 108 minutes, it's tempting to make the joke that the movie is 20 minutes too long. In actuality, it's 108 minutes too long," wrote Alonso Duralde for MSNBC.
In "Hangman," Pacino once again plays a member of law enforcement trying to track down a serial killer.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 4%
In "Hangman," released in 2017, Pacino plays a retired detective brought back into the fray after a serial killer who uses the game Hangman as his signature begins targeting him.
"This formulaic thriller is m_di_c_e," wrote Frank Scheck for The Hollywood Reporter.
But Pacino's worst-reviewed movie is one in which he plays himself: "Jack and Jill."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 3%
"Jack and Jill" stars Adam Sandler in a dual role as a set of identical twins. Jack, an advertising exec, is instructed to get Pacino to appear in a Dunkin' commercial, but after meeting Jill, the Oscar winner becomes infatuated with her.
"It's pretty sad if you're a comic and Al Pacino is the funniest thing in your movie," wrote Lou Lumenick for The New York Post.
But even if Pacino's recent career has had some misses, he's been in multiple classics, like 1997's "Donnie Brasco."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 88%
"Donnie Brasco" stars Johnny Depp and Pacino as a mobster, Lefty, and an undercover FBI agent, Joseph Pistone (or Donnie Brasco), respectively.
"This is Depp's coming-of-age role, and he's terrific. Pacino, who's shown more flash than substance recently, reminds us how great he can be when he loses himself inside a character," wrote David Ansen of Newsweek.
Pacino and Robin Williams starred in Christopher Nolan's third film, "Insomnia."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 92%
In the 2002 drama "Insomnia," Pacino, once again, plays a detective. This time, he's sent to Alaska to investigate a murdered teenager, but almost immediately gets himself into a mess when he accidentally shoots his partner ... and discovers someone saw him do it.
"With a run-of-the-mill bad-guy actor playing chief suspect Walter Finch, the movie might have tipped too far Pacino's way. But Robin Williams is a shockingly effective counterweight," wrote David Edelstein for Slate.
He received his first best actor Oscar nomination for the 1973 film "Serpico."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 93%
"Serpico" is about a real cop, Frank Serpico, who takes it upon himself to end the corruption inside the NYPD in the '60s and '70s, but his fellow officers don't take kindly to his perceived snitching.
"A remarkable record of one man's rebellion against the sort of sleaziness and second-rateness that has affected so much American life, from the ingredients of its hamburgers to the ethics of its civil servants and politicians," wrote The New York Times' Vincent Canby.
Not all of Pacino's recent films have been bad. Just look at 2019's "The Irishman."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%
Director Martin Scorsese used de-aging technology to cast Pacino, De Niro, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, and others in "The Irishman," a crime epic set over 50 years. Pacino plays Jimmy Hoffa, a labor union leader with ties to the mob who mysteriously disappeared in 1975.
He was nominated for his ninth Academy Award for his performance.
Business Insider's Jason Guerrasio called the film "a cinematic experience you shouldn't miss."
Pacino received his seventh Oscar nomination for "Glengarry Glen Ross."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%
The 1992 film, based on the David Mamet play of the same name, focuses on a team of cutthroat real-estate agents who are pitted against each other. Pacino plays Richard Roma, the top-selling agent at his firm.
"You can see the joy with which these actors get their teeth into these great lines, after living through movies in which flat dialogue serves only to advance the story," wrote Roger Ebert.
"The Insider" is based on real-life whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%
"The Insider," released in 1999, follows "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman (Pacino) as he relentlessly tries to get CBS to air an unabridged interview with Wigand (Russell Crowe), a former tobacco executive who is ready to share the industry's secrets.
The Ringer's Adam Nayman wrote, "Superbly shot and edited and boasting impeccable recreations of the '60 Minutes' broadcast in which Wigand went public, 'The Insider' matches 'Heat's' intensity while raising the stakes."
Pacino received his third Oscar nomination in 1975 for "The Godfather Part II."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%
Widely regarded as both one of the best sequels and one of the best films of all time, "The Godfather Part II" follows Michael Corleone as he becomes the leader of the Corleone crime family and descends deeper into the world he once wanted no part of.
"Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Godfather, Part II' is an even richer, more spellbinding work than its wholly successful predecessor," wrote Susan Stark for the Detroit Free Press.
In 1976, Pacino earned his fourth consecutive Academy Award nomination for "Dog Day Afternoon."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 96%
"Dog Day Afternoon" is based on an actual bank robbery that took place in 1972 at a Chase branch in Manhattan. Pacino plays Sonny, one of two criminals who end up taking the bank employees hostage after the robbery goes wrong.
"The film's tone is extraordinarily flexible, holding within the same reality elements of the absurd, the ridiculous and the comic while sustaining a sense of tension and dread throughout," wrote Mick LaSalle of SF Gate.
"The Godfather" is an American classic.
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
"The Godfather," regularly cited as one of the best films of all time, is the story of the Corleone family, one of the five largest crime families in New York City.
Pacino plays Michael, one of the four Corleone children. Even though he never intended to join the family business, after his father Vito (Marlon Brandon) is shot, Michael ascends to the head of the family.
"'The Godfather' is the most memorable, most influential, most quoted, most beloved, most discussed, most imitated, most revered and most entertaining American movie ever made," wrote Richard Roeper for The Chicago Sun-Times.
But Pacino's best-reviewed film is 2013's "Salomé."
Rotten Tomatoes score: 100%
You might be surprised to learn that, according to critics, Pacino's best film is an adaptation of an 1891 Oscar Wilde play about the historical figure King Herod. Pacino also directed it.
"The 'Salomé' film proves a chilling and watchable look at lust, power, reprisal and decadence that, along with Wilde Salome, validates [Al] Pacino's obsessive interest in Wilde's still-resonant play," wrote the Los Angeles Times' Gary Goldstein.
