Yahoo Movies Vince Vaughn's best roles
At one point in time, he was ubiquitous on the big screen.
Vince Vaughn swaps big-screen comedy for Apple TV+ series Bad Monkey next week, in which he plays a restaurant inspector plunged into Florida's dark underbelly, and so there's never been a more fitting time to break out the actor's finest roles to date.
In a 35-year career that began with a minor part as Motor Pool Driver during an episode of ABC's Vietnam War drama China Beach, the 54-year-old rose to dominate the Hollywood laughter scene between 2004 and 2013 with a red hot streak that gave us Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Wedding Crashers, The Break-Up, Couples Retreat and The Internship.
Standing at 6ft 5in tall, Vaughn has predominantly imposed himself through fast-talking, wise-cracking means as opposed to anything physical, with a pleasing ability to bounce off his contemporaries Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell and Jon Favreau with flawless regularity.
Although his turn in the disastrous second season of True Detective still stings a bit, honourable mentions must go to the star's appearances as Wes Mantooth in the Anchorman movies; documentarian Nick Van Owen in Steven Spielberg's The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and Hacksaw Ridge's Sergeant Howell before we get this show on the road.
Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
Whoever hasn't seen this one needs to remedy that right away. 2004 sports comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is a classic that can easily be mentioned in the same breath as Dumb and Dumber, Superbad, Happy Gilmore, Step Brothers and This Is Spinal Tap.
In it, Vaughn portrays Peter Le Fleur, who builds a madcap dodgeball team to enter a tournament in Las Vegas in the hope of saving his precious Average Joe's gym with its $50,000 prize. Ben Stiller as his moustachioed rival White Goodman is ridiculously good too.
Swingers
Written by Favreau and directed by The Instigators' Doug Liman, Swingers catapulted Vaughn into the big leagues back in 1996 and offered audiences that first taste of his uncontested brand of hilarity.
Rated 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, it follows the lives of unemployed actors Mike Peters and Trent Walker during the 90s and was mostly filmed without permits through the neon-lit locations.
Wedding Crashers
Subject of intense sequel thirst ever since its release nearly two decades ago, Wedding Crashers is peak Vaughn. The movie does exactly what it says on the tin with the early montage of his Jeremy Grey annihilating all manner of stranger's weddings in cahoots with Owen Wilson's John Beckwith before Rachel McAdams, Bradley Cooper, Isla Fisher and Christopher Walken's characters throw a welcome spanner in the works.
Fred Claus
Contributing to the pantheon of underappreciated Christmas movies – Home Alone 3 is decent, and you know it – Fred Claus puts Vaughn on screen with some heavyweights in Paul Giamatti, Kevin Spacey, Miranda Richardson, Kathy Bates and Rachel Weisz.
He's the criminal brother of Father Christmas and must work off his debt by making toys at the North Pole.
Freaky
This blood-soaked Freaky Friday remix sees teenager Millie Kessler unintentionally swapping bodies with Vaughn's Blissfield Butcher - a serial killer thought to be just a local urban legend.
It's been favourably compared to Scream amongst other slasher titles, and allowed the actor to jump on the Blumhouse bandwagon.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
A recurring cameo in Larry David's masterful sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm is jackpot territory. Vaughn played the wonderfully named Freddy Funkhouser across 11 episodes in total - start with his stonewall approach to the last Perrier water bottle in the fridge.
Brawl in Cell Block 99
Bradley Thomas is a one-man army in director's S. Craig Zahler neo-noir prison thriller Brawl in Cell Block 99, and a compelling left-field role for Vaughn. The shaven-headed brute is tasked with killing a guy held inside a maximum security prison in order to save his pregnant wife from a drug lord.
We'd like to see him chase more movies like this.
