Daniel Craig's 10 Best Movies, Ranked

Daniel Craig has appeared in more than 70 titles throughout his career, with some truly knockout performances throughout. Craig is one of the most famous British actors of all time, having played James Bond from 2006 to 2021, and he has appeared as the leading man in many films since. He began acting in theater performances around the UK, and despite being busy with large productions, he continues to perform on Broadway, most recently performing as the lead in Macbeth in 2022.

Craig possesses a great ability to deliver serious and intense performances, as evidenced in his much grittier version of the character of James Bond. The actor has also shown off his ability to infuse his performance with a more comical approach in the Knives Out movies as Detective Benoit Blanc while also earning award attention for his performance in Queer. Throughout his career, Craig has consistently delivered high-quality performances, and these are his very best.

10 Munich (2005)

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Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg, is one of the most underrated films to come from the world-class director. The movie is adapted from the 1984 historical novel Vengeance by George Jonas and focuses on a series of assassination attempts against individuals believed to be involved in the 1972 Munich massacre. Craig plays a South African man who joins a small task force to enact revenge.

As the driver for the group, Craig doesn't get to see much action, but the scenes wherehe interacts with the rest of the crew are highlights for the film, thanks to his performance. The movie is one of the more brutal efforts from Spielberg, with the filmmaker making the explicit violence on screen as impactful as possible. Munich is also an exceptional thriller with tense sequences that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

9 Layer Cake (2004)

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Just two years before Craig's first official outing as Bond, he played an unnamed criminal in Layer Cake. This is an action-packed role, in which Craig performed as the lead and may well have been instrumental in landing him the iconic role of James Bond. Craig's character is seeking to retire from the dark and volatile world of crime, but things become complicated quickly. Despite a reluctance to enact violence, he must fight his way through to escape.

Craig is outstanding, revealing different aspects of the character as needed, proving his ability to tackle action, crime, and drama. He is ultra-suave and cool in the role but not afraid to show his vulnerability as this pragmatic man who perhaps doesn't belong in such a violent world. It is also a riveting directorial debut from Matthew Vaughn and remains his best movie to date.

8 Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (1998)

George Dyer

Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon received high praise upon its release, as it toured film festivals around the UK and Europe. This is a fictionalized biography of the life of Francis Bacon, and his relationship with George Dyer (Craig) that becomes further strained by their respective addictions. Craig plays atormented lover, who struggles with his partner's infidelity, success, and increasing popularity.

Craig is emotional, raw, and utterly convincing as Dyer. The movie served as his breakout performance, with him earning a nomination for Best British Performance at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Craig showed himself as a bold up-and-coming actor who was able to take on complicated and even dark characters while also infusing them with a sense of humanity.

7 Road To Perdition (2002)

Connor Rooney

Road to Perdition is an American crime drama set during the Great Depression in the early 1930s. Tom Hanks plays an enforcer for the Irish mob who is targeted by those closest to him and is forced to go on the run with his young son while also enacting his revenge.

His character is fierce, intimidating, and volatile, all of which Craig plays to perfection.

Craig plays Connor Rooney, an unruly heir to a powerful crime boss who sets the violent course of events in motion. In a film that stars considerable talent, such as Stanley Tucci, Jude Law, and Paul Newman, Craig more than holds his own.

His character is fierce, intimidating, and volatile, all of which Craig plays to perfection. However, Connor is also a sad and pathetic son trying to win his father's approval. Craig balances both aspects of the character wonderfully. The movie is an underrated one from Sam Mendes and a gripping period gangster story.

6 Logan Lucky (2017)

Joe Bang

Logan Lucky came out in 2017, more than a decade after Craig landed the role of James Bond and rose to widespread international acclaim. This comedy heist film features a star-studded ensemble cast and highlights Craig's ability to play more light-hearted roles in a high-intensity setting such as a heist. He plays the safe cracker who is recruited by the Logan family to complete their heist, appropriately named Joe Bang.

Theperformance is bombastic and energetic, as Joe is broken out of prison, breaks back in, and helps to make the heist happen alongside the rest of the cast. Craig perfectly leans into the movie's wacky humor with an eccentric character who steals the show. However, Craig is also in good company with director Steven Soderbergh pulling together an ensemble that includes Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough, Katie Holmes, and Sebastian Stan.

5 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Mikael Blomkvist

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was an extremely popular thriller book that was later adapted into a movie of the same name. Craig landed the lead role as the journalist Mikael Blomkvist, who investigates corruption and criminal behavior of wealthy individuals and businesses. The movie is one of Craig's best performances as he slowly unravels the mystery of a young woman who went missing 40 years earlier.

Craig's performance here is an early indicator of his later success in mystery thrillers, where he would go on to act in some of the most popular mystery films of all time with the Knives Out franchise. While the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books and the original Swedish film adaptation are certainly beloved, director David Fincher infuses the movie with his own dark style that makes it a more than worthy adaptation that deserves to stand on its own.

4 Queer (2024)

As William Lee

Daniel Craig has earned some of the best reviews of his career for his powerful performance in the movie Queer. Based on the novel by William S. Burroughs, Queer stars Craig as William Lee, an American expatriate living in Mexico City in the 1950s.

Daniel Craig sitting at a bar and looking out at someone in Queer

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As he moves about his solitary life in this strange city, he becomes infatuated with a younger man, Eugene (Drew Starkey). Craig's lead role, with the character loosely based on Burroughs himself, is a complicated one on which the entire movie depends.

However, Craig's performance perfectly exemplifies his incredible versatility as an actor. He is allowed to be funny and charming, along with being dark and heartbreaking. Though he missed out on an Oscar nomination for his acclaimed performance, Craig was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

3 Skyfall (2012)

James Bond

Craig's third outing as the legendary super spy, James Bond, is one of his very best. Facing off against the intimidating Javier Bardem, who plays Raoul Silva. Bond is now a more experienced agent, with several missions under his belt, as he sets out to embark on one of his greatest challenges yet.

Craig embodied the character and delivered an action-packed performance that took the Bond franchise to new heights.

When multiple data leaks and coordinated cyber-attacks are impacting Bond's agency, MI6, he needs to track down the mastermind behind it all and put a stop to it before it's too late. Craig embodied the character and delivered an action-packed performance that took the Bond franchise to new heights.

Skyfall examines the heart of the character of James Bond to a deeper extent than any of the franchise's previous movies, giving the actor a lot of great material to work with. On top of it all, it is also a thrilling spy adventure with a killer title track from Adele to tie it all together.

2 Casino Royale (2006)

James Bond

Casino Royale may be Craig's first outing as Agent 007, but his performance makes it clear why he beat out every other actor for the role. Casino Royale depicts a younger Bond as he has just recently acquired his license to kill and the status of a 00 agent. Craig goes toe-to-toe with the incredible Mads Mikkelsen, a criminal genius who excels at chess, poker, and crime. Bond shows off his extraordinary intelligence and ability to deceive and proves why he is known as one of the world's best spies.

Craig does an excellent job of capturing the character's range and making the performance believable. Despite there being a lot of controversy surrounding him being selected for the starring role, he quickly silenced his critics with this gritty take on 007 while still showing plenty of charm. The movie was a welcome return to a more grounded take on Bond with some incredible action sequences that have led many to name it as the best Bond movie of all time.

1 Knives Out (2019)

Benoit Blanc

The murder mystery whodunit by director Rian Johnson is an exceptional film with another ensemble cast full of incredibly talented stars. At the heart of it all, Craig plays the renowned detective, Benoit Blanc, who has been hired to unravel the mystery and assist the family of the deceased Harlan Thrombey to ensure his vast inheritance is distributed as he intended.

Johnson's Oscar-nominated script pays loving tribute to the murder mystery genre while also brilliantly subverting expectations. Craig combines his years of experience to deliver a superb performance with humor and intelligence and effortlessly engages the audience with his performance, earning him a Golden Globe nomination. By far one of Craig's best characters and movies of all time, it is no surprise that Benoit Blanc has returned in Glass Onion and the upcoming Wake Up Dead Man.

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