16.) Oz: The Great And Powerful
Remember when Sam Raimi kinda sorta tackled the spiritual prequel to The Wizard of Oz? You don’t! Well, that might just be for the better! The decision to try to tackle the lore of Oz using the story template of Army of Darkness is a neat idea on paper but very iffy in execution. From the obvious green screen effects to the bizarre casting choices (James Franco as Oz?! Really?!) to the baffling treatment of the witches themselves, Oz: The Great and Powerful offers Sam Raimi as his safest and weakest! This feels like the only film on this list where it felt like literally ANYONE other than Sam Raimi could have directed it. There’s some entertaining bits scattered throughout and is certainly watchable but you are better off just watching the original Wizard of Oz or the Wicked films if you want your cinematic fix in the Land of Oz!
15.) Crimewave
Following his first notable success with The Evil Dead, Raimi decided to take matters into his own hands with his follow-up Crimewave, a slapstick comedy about an innocent man accused of numerous murders. Unfortunately, the studio had other plans. Bruce Campbell wasn’t aloud to be casted as the lead role, Raimi’s personal composer and editor was replaced entirely, and you can really tell the inexperience that young Raimi had when it came to production and being able to make a film with a studio breathing down his neck. The good news is that several elements from this film would make way to later productions from Raimi down the road, leading directly to Evil Dead II. There’s a handful of moments that capture Raimi’s visionary lightning in a bottle but not enough to hide the compromised mess that Crimewave is.
14.) For Love of the Game
Here’s the one time that Raimi tried to make his own sports movie! He even went as far as to cast baseball movie star veteran Kevin Costner and even got the late great broadcaster Vin Sully (RIP!) to come in the booth! The end results however are just okay! The baseball scenes themselves work well enough and there’s enough of a beating heart to keep him from being in any way detestable. However, the sluggish pacing, by-the-numbers storytelling, and a shockingly bloated runtime (This is two hours and 18 minutes long!), keep For Love of the Game from being an all-time sports classic. Still, for those that are fond of baseball movies and your typical baseball movie cliches, this should do you just fine.
13.) The Gift
With what was his last indie project before promoting himself to blockbuster territory with Spider-Man (2002), Raimi made a supernatural thriller about a fortune teller getting roped in a small-town murder investigation (Doesn’t that ring a small bell from earlier?). This contains a stacked cast with Cate Blanchett, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, Michael Jeter, future Spider-Man stars J.K. Simmons and Rosemary Harris, and Keanu Reeves, in EASILY his most unlikeable role to date (And I mean that in the best way!) The main issue has to do with the main protagonist being overly stupid, making for the worst psychic and detective you can possibly imagine. Even if that’s part of the joke here (which it isn’t), it doesn’t make the experience that much better. The Gift has an intriguing premise that never feels like it lives up to it’s 100% potential!
12.) The Quick and the Dead
Raimi decided to dip his toe into the western genre and the results are mostly pretty good. Aided by the proper cast with Sharon Stone, Gene Hackma, Russell Crowe Leo DiCaprio, and many others, pretty sharp direction that manages to feel properly Raimi, and the characters manages to all be quite intriguing and entertaining in their own right. It does suffer from an overlong middle stretch and the film’s entire build up is strictly on a quick draw tournament, which results in a crap ton of build up to not a ton of payoff. The Quick and the Dead still makes for a fun time and is worth checking out if you are a sucker for a solid western.
11.) Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Arguably the most divisive MCU installment since Iron Man 3, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is a film that uses it’s set pieces and effective imagery to flirt with and mock the kind of fandom that cares more about filmmakers making their bizarre fan theories coming true instead of making a genuine work of art. It doesn’t quite reach it’s ambitions with the characterization being paper thin, a script that doesn’t seem to care about what happened during WandaVision, and not taking as much advantage of the actual multiverse as much as say the Spider-Verse films do but Sam Raimi’s unique horror-like style is on full display here. The set pieces that work here are some of the best in the entire MCU, Benedict Cumberbatch feels completely at home as Stephen Strange (even if he has absolutely zero chemistry with Rachael McAdams), and Elizabeth Olsen is an absolute force to be reckoned with as the Scarlet Witch, making even the most out-of-character moments for Wanda feel completely in character. As much as one can complain about the issues with the script and the leaps of logic presented here, one can’t deny that the moments where Sam Raimi is allowed to go full Sam Raimi is what saves Multiverse of Madness from being in the absolute bottom of the barrel of the MCU!
10.) Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3 has more flaws than it does characters and subplots but it has more heart to it than most people are willing to admit. As everyone and their mother has pointed out about this movie, there’s just too much going on it. It feels the need to cram in every single idea it can think off that it has to defy logic, have previous events being retcon, and letting it’s characters do uncharacteristic things to make it all happen. However, most of the thing that worked well with the first two movies such as the wonderful action, breakneck pacing, great music and heard hitting emotional beats work very well. Not to mention, the themes surrounding forgiveness and finding the humanity in others is a wonderful message for a Spider-Man movie and helps make the whole trilogy come full circle. When watching Spider-Man 3 back-to-back with the first two movies, it does make for a rather satisfying experience. I’m not gonna act like this isn’t the weakest of the trilogy but it’s no where near the abomination that people claimed it was back in 2007.
Also, Bully Maguire FTW!
9.) The Evil Dead
The film that put Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell on the map as the forces of nature in Hollywood, The Evil Dead is the beginning of something truly special for the horror genre! Inventing his own camera tricks and cost-cutting filmmaking techniques, Raimi is able to create something truly unique on his first go-around despite all odds in financial shortcomings against. The gore effects are impressive, the flashy camerawork works like wonders, and Bruce Campell’s Ash Williams is an instant horror icon. However, there are still plenty of imperfections throughout when it comes to controlling the tone, balancing the gore and humor, and Campbell going through some growing pains as a leading man. The Evil Dead offers plenty of promise for a future beloved filmmaker and star but the best had yet to come for Raimi, Campbell, and the horror genre in general.
8.) Send Help
Can we point out how much of a miracle that a film like Send Help exists? In an age of sequels, reboots, remakes, and legacy-quels conquering the film landscape and sucking up the remaining creative energy that Hollywood might still have, films like these are becoming more diamonds in the rough in the film industry. Thankfully, someone at 20th Century Fox or Disney was wise enough to give a blank check to the godfather of horror and superhero movies in Sam Raimi, his first original horror film since 2009’s Drag Me To Hell! Send Help is yet another worthy addition to Raimi’s Hall of Fame of Horror! It’s able to capitalize on it’s simple yet effective premise thanks to it’s two charismatic leads, it’s incredibly visionary direction, unapologetically excessive gore, and a script that will keep audiences on their toes the whole way through. Even if it can be rough around the edges that it knocks it down to the middle-of-the-pack of Raimi’s filmography rather than up there with the likes of Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, it’s still an absolute blast of a motion picture that is definitely worth seeing on the big screen.
7.) Drag Me To Hell
After spending nearly a full decade with Spider-Man, Raimi returned to the horror genre with 2009’s Drag Me To Hell! This is an old school scare fest about a bank clerk who has grand ambitions but gets cursed and terrorized by it in the form of demons. When it comes to horror and straight up NASTINESS, this is Raimi at his most brutal. There is nothing more delightful here than see characters constantly being torture for the benefit of the audience’s pleasure. We also see what is easily the most HAUNTING imagery in Raimi’s filmography, the kind of imagery that lived rent free in my head when I saw the commercials for this film when I was a kid and is still on my mind now. Not everyone will be fond with what Drag Me To Hell offers but if you have an appetite for unhinged horror, this will deliver you a complete meal.
6.) A Simple Plan
This is Raimi favorite for many people and for good reason. A Simple Plan makes for Raimi’s most dramatic work to date, feeling like a spiritual prequel to The Gift. Much like the latter film, this is a tale of betrayal, murder, and folks that are prone to awful mistakes in judging others. This makes for a very effect tale about the cruel nature of greed, aided by a terrific cats of Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Paxton, and Brent Briscoe, very well made production values, the ending is an all-timer, and has conflicts that feel among the most human in a Raimi film that does not involve a certain web swinger. However, this feels Raimi at his most restraint, stepping back from his usual style and camp to make room for a more somber and serious tone. It certainly works well enough but this almost feels like a Sam Raimi film specifically made for those that don’t like Sam Raimi. Even so, A Simple Plan is hard to criticize too much because everything that works ends up working spectacularly well that I can’t recommend it enough.
5.) Darkman
Before doing Spider-Man, Raimi’s very first comic book property he translated into film was no other than Darkman. Even all these year later, it still holds up as a gloriously camp dark superhero film, proving that Sam knew how to tackle superhero material 12 years before tackling the web swinger. This makes for a pretty tragic origin story of a man who had everything in his life but then lost it completely, leaving him nothing but complete vengeance! Liam Neeson is great as the title character, Larry Drake makes for a very memorable antagonist, and the score once again proves that Raimi + Elfman is a match made in heaven! It does have some clunky aspects surrounding the romance and some pretty poor blue screen work but this is still very impressive stuff! If you are a big fan of Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy and haven’t check out Darkman yet, I highly recommend it!
4.) Evil Dead 2
Part sequel, part remake, all-time banger! Evil Dead II does want every great horror sequel does, it takes everything you loved about the original and makes them even better. This manages to be better, bloodier, and funnier than the original while also delivering plenty of new scares, gore, and physical comedy of it’s own. Raimi and Bruce Campbell feel completely at home in their roles, the direction is perfectly on point, the set design and make-ups affects could not be anymore perfect, and the frustratingly imperfected parts of the original are nearly gone here with a full budget to help Raimi execute the exact vision he has in his crazy little mind. There are still some dated parts here and there but Evil Dead II‘s influence on the horror genre can not be overlooked. However, there is still at least one more pure horror flick that I feel is absolute 100% unhinged Sam Raimi!
3.) Spider-Man (2002)
The one movie that kick started the modern era of comic book movies and was also the one movie that got me along with plenty of kids of my generation into Spider-Man. This was the first ever superhero movie I’ve ever watch and one of the first movies that I remember having incredibly fond memories of as a child. Even if I’m unable to take off the bluntly obvious nostalgia goggles (I never can!), Spider-Man (2002) is still an amazing film in it’s own right. The origin of Peter Parker turning into Spider-Man is perfectly told, Tobey Maguire is as every bit as likable and iconic as the title character as you can imagine, and Sam Raimi’s unique version of this world is felt perfectly through every single frame. And that’s not even talking about the insanely memorable supporting cast (J.K. Simmons is everything!), extremely quotable lines, phenomenal score, fist bumping action, and the light hearted tone that makes this movie super enjoyable to watch all of these years later. While I’m sure there are those that like to poke fun at the outdated elements of the movie such as the special effects, cheeseball dialogue, and the Power Ranger-looking Green Goblin, they all still feel right at home with what Raimi brings into his style of Spider-Man. Regardless if you feel like this movie has stood the test of time or not, you can’t deny that if it weren’t the success of this movie, there’s a good chance that this subgenre of movies as we know it today would be no where near big as it has been for the past two decades.
2.) Army of Darkness
That’s right! I have Army of Darkness this high on the list and above the first two Evil Dead films! This is the one where Raimi just swing for the fences and shatters them to pieces! From the unapologetically over-the-top tone to the many standout moments of blood and gore, to the perfection of visual storytelling to the masterfully controlled tone from epic scares to goofy comedy to Bruce Campbell never being better as a crazy chainsaw wielding badass, this is horror Sam Raimi at his absolute best! There’s no low budget that limited the first one or the sluggish recap of the second one, Army of Darkness goes all in from minute one and NEVER holds up, taking you on a wild ride the whole way through! While I’m sure some folks out there won’t agree, this is Sam Raimi horror at it’s absolute finest and makes for one of my favorite horror films of all time!
1.) Spider-Man 2
If you want an example of how to do the perfect superhero sequel, look no further than Spider-Man 2! This is the sequel that was able to take everything we love about the original, expand upon it, and trim any sort of fat that could possibly ruin the experience. This is a movie that perfectly dives into the inner turmoil of being a superhero and the life superheroes have outside of that. Just like with the best Spider-Man movies, it’s all about struggles to balance two different life styles at the exact same time. And how even though being Spider-Man can suck sometimes, it’s something that Peter has to do because it’s just who he is and what his responsibility consists of. Throw in some truly fantastic action, with the main stand out being the spectacular train sequence, arguably the best fight in any superhero movie, a tremendous villain in Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock, character arcs that come full circle, and one of the most satisfying endings in any movie, you get an absolute cinematic masterpiece that is Spider-Man 2! If you are someone that loves Spider-Man, superhero movies and especially Sam Raimi, I have no idea how you couldn’t at least like this movie. When it comes to every film that Sam Raimi has made, there has yet to be a movie that comes even remotely close to topping Spider-Man 2!
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