All 10 Best Simon Baker Movies Ranked (Best to Worst)

J.C. Chandor turns the claustrophobic dread of financial apocalypse into a pristine chamber piece, stripping Wall Street mythmaking down to fluorescent-lit conference rooms and moral panic. Over a single nocturnal vigil at an unnamed firm, the script dissects predatory capitalism with razor-sharp precision, carried by an elite ensemble that understands institutional rot. As Jared Cohen, the calculating division head protecting his own skin, the actor trades his sunny demeanor for cold-blooded corporate realism. He slips effortlessly into boardroom sharkskin, delivering corporate ultimatums with icy stillness. It remains the sharpest dramatic showcase of his film career, proving how lethal his restraint can be.

David Frankel’s razor-edged satire of high-fashion media remains one of the sharpest mainstream studio comedies of the 2000s, balancing blistering wit with an earnest workplace coming-of-age trajectory. Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway dominate the marquee, yet the picture thrives because every supporting player in its orbit feels distinctly lived-in and casually dangerous. Stepping into the frame as Christian Thompson, the alluring, well-connected magazine writer who tempts Andy away from her principles, he radiates effortless debonair charisma. It is a quintessential turn: easy on the eyes, slightly mercenary, and played with an understated twinkle that turns a standard romantic foil into an intoxicating moral crossroads.

Ang Lee crafts one of the most neglected examinations of the American Civil War, focusing on the bloody guerrilla warfare along the Missouri-Kansas border with granular historical honesty. Rather than indulging in romanticized southern mythos, the narrative emphasizes how tribal ideology and reckless youth spiral into devastating violence. Appearing as Bushwhacker George Clyde, he brings fierce, mercurial energy to the band of southern sympathizers, holding his own alongside Tobey Maguire and Jeffrey Wright. It was an early revelation in his Hollywood transition, demonstrating an unvarnished dramatic grit that stood in stark contrast to the polished television roles that would later define his global stardom.

Sanaa Hamri’s thoughtful romantic drama treats its central interracial courtship not as an afterthought, but as an opportunity to dissect cultural anxiety, class expectations, and vulnerability within contemporary Los Angeles. Balancing genuine sensuality with sharp social commentary, the film eschews cheap melodramatic tropes in favor of mature, nuanced character interactions. Opposite Sanaa Lathan’s guarded corporate climber, he plays landscape architect Brian Kelly with an open-hearted, rugged warmth. His grounded ease provides the essential counterweight to her guarded precision, forging an authentic chemistry that elevates standard genre beats. It remains his most disarming and successful leading-man turn in American commercial cinema.

George A. Romero returns to his beloved sociological horror canvas, transforming a post-apocalyptic Pittsburgh into a savage allegory for late-stage capitalism and class division. While the wealthy elite sip champagne inside a fortified luxury high-rise, mercenaries scour the ruined outskirts where evolving ghouls organize a revolt. Anchoring the gritty action as Riley Denbo, the disillusioned designer of the armored battle wagon Dead Reckoning, he brings stoic, blue-collar authority to the survivalist chaos. He plays the action hero straight, letting world-weary decency replace hollow machismo, giving Romero’s blood-soaked political broadside a steady, sympathetic center of gravity during an era dominated by hollow action remakes.

Michael Winterbottom’s adaptation of Jim Thompson’s pulp classic is an unsparing, deeply unsettling study of sociopathy in mid-century Texas. Shot with chilly detachment and punctuated by visceral eruptions of violence, the film deliberately denies the audience easy moral catharsis or procedural satisfaction. Entering the psychological fray as county attorney Howard Hendricks, he functions as the upright legal foil circling Casey Affleck’s murderous deputy. Even in limited screen time, he projects an astute, suspicious intellect that momentarily rattles the killer’s composed facade. It is an icy, disciplined supporting performance that underscores his willingness to participate in uncompromised, boundary-pushing independent cinema.

Written and directed by Daniel Waters, this oddball dark comedy plays out like an absurdist existential satire about romantic fatalism and male vanity. A bizarre metaphysical premise involves an anonymous list containing the names of every past and future sexual partner, triggering an escalating crisis of conscience and bizarre encounters. Taking on the eccentric lead role of Roderick Blank, he leans fully into the slapstick humiliation and existential bafflement of a man undone by cosmic destiny. While the tone swerves wildly between biting cynicism and erratic farce, his game comedic timing and frantic desperation keep the unwieldy premise surprisingly buoyant.

Dan Mazer attempts to invert Richard Curtis tropes by chronicling the awkward, resentful disintegration of a newly married London couple during their first calendar year together. The film frequently trades subtle character humor for broad, cringe-heavy slapstick, but its subversive intentions occasionally land when skewering modern romantic compatibility. Entering as Guy, an impossibly suave industrialist client who becomes an illicit temptation for Rose Byrne’s character, he weaponizes his established debonair persona for wry comic effect. While the script relies too heavily on raunchy shock gags, his polished charisma injects the messy marital farce with a welcome dose of sophisticated flirtation.

Directed by Hideo Nakata, this horror sequel relocates the cursed videotape mythology to a gloomy Oregon hamlet, trading the claustrophobic dread of Gore Verbinski’s predecessor for murky supernatural jump-scares and clumsy CGI deer. Naomi Watts works tirelessly to salvage the maternal terror at the script's core, but the narrative suffers from diminishing returns and plodding pacing. Cast as Max Rourke, an empathetic local newspaper publisher who inevitably gets dragged into the paranormal crossfire, he has very little substantive material to navigate. He supplies dependable, grounded presence, yet his character exists primarily to be sidelined by the spectral logistics of the franchise.

Antony Hoffman’s planetary thriller arrived during an unfortunate cycle of turn-of-the-millennium sci-fi misfires, quickly descending into B-movie cliches and mechanical malfunctions. Set against a terraformed Martian backdrop, the film squanders decent atmospheric design with wooden dialogue and an unintentionally absurd renegade military robot subplot. Portraying geneticist Chip Pettengill, he does what he can with an underwritten role that quickly collapses under the weight of disaster-movie tropes. It was an early exposure to big-budget Hollywood studio filmmaking, but one severely hampered by backstage friction and an inert script, leaving his natural charm entirely stranded on the cutting room floor.