Every Adam McKay Movie, Ranked According To IMDb

Adam McKay’s filmmaking career can be split into two halves, as the director began making now-classic comedies, but has since shifted into making more serious docudramas. It makes it exciting to see what he does next, as he could continue down the path of fourth-wall-breaking dramedies, return to over-the-top comedies, or even completely reinvent himself yet again.

But for now, his filmography is fascinating enough, as the movies range from satires of American culture that take aim at Nascar to dramas about former Vice President Dick Cheney. And even though his collaborations with Will Ferrell might not be the highest-rated movies in the world, they’re still massively entertaining.

9 Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie (2004) – 6.1

The big appeal of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is that it’s made up of mostly improvised conversations. And Will Ferrell, Steve Carrell, and others improvised so much that there was hours’ worth of alternative lines to choose from when cutting the movie together. That resulted in The Lost Movie, which has the same premise as Anchorman, but most of the dialogue is completely different.

However, the one-liners and ad-libbed jokes are essentially the b-sides, and there’s a reason why they didn’t make it into the proper theatrically released film. While many of the jokes in The Lost Movie are funny, they don’t hit quite as hard as the now-iconic lines from the 2004 movie, and some of them don’t land at all. The Lost Movie is basically a patchwork of deleted scenes, and it’s very much for the fans more than anything.

8 Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) – 6.3

Coming nine years after the comedy classic, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues expands on the world that the original built, and this time it’s set in the 1980s. Just like how the original movie was a commentary on sexism in the workplace in the 70s, the sequel looked to trends in news broadcasting in the 80s as its premise.

The movie saw the Channel 4 news team take on 24-hour news broadcasting, and though the jokes don’t land as well as its predecessor, there’s still a lot to love. The appearance of Harrison Ford as a stoic and disgruntled network owner who hates Ron Burgundy is genius casting. And though it might be unlikely given Will Ferrell and McKay’s falling out, it leaves fans craving a third movie set in the 90s.

7 Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby (2006) – 6.6

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby came off the heels of the first Anchorman movie, only it didn’t get quite the same reception. The movie is about the rise and fall of a Nascar driver who gets consumed by the fame and fortune of his glory, and while it does sound fairly derivative of the 2004 news team comedy that came before it, it’s so underrated.

Unfortunately, Talladega Nights lives in the shadow of Anchorman, and while it made way more money than Anchorman at the worldwide box office, few people remember it. The movie is another satire of American culture and it marks the first time that Ferrell and John C. Reilly starred alongside each other, being the birth of an incredible comedy duo.

6 The Other Guys (2010) – 6.7

Following Talladega Nights and Step Brothers, McKay and Ferrell were getting into a rhythm of making very good odd couple-driven comedies. The Other Guys was the third movie to follow that formula, only this time it was an all-out action-comedy.

The film pulls out all the stops, as it has supporting roles from Hollywood heavyweights like Samuel L. Jackson, Dwayne Johnson, and Michael Keaton. But more interestingly, it sees Ferrell as an action hero, or as close to an action hero as the goofy comedy actor can get. The result is one of the best buddy cop comedies, and is yet another movie that has fans dying for a sequel.

5 Step Brothers (2008) – 6.9

Step Brothers is one of those movies that isn’t everybody’s come of tea, but for the audiences it does appeal to, they love it. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly thrive off each other, and while Holmes & Watson might have audiences think differently, their batting average is incredible and they always bring out the best in each other.

Step Brothers is the very best example of that, as they play two grown men who have been mollycoddled their whole lives, which gives them such a unique and very childish perspective on the world. The movie is endlessly quotable, and has a wonderful musical number at the end, showing audiences that Ferrell has a surprisingly great set of pipes on him.

4 Don’t Look Up (2021) – 7.2

Don’t Look Up might have divided critics, and some people think that Don’t Look Up is a two-hour meme, but it was still somehow nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and is well-liked amongst general audiences. The newly released Netflix movie is a satire on fame, the way the general public consumes news, and politics.

While a lot of it might be too on the nose and preachy, it’s impossible to resist the star power of the movie. There are so many hilarious characters that are clearly influenced by outrageous real-life politicians and celebrities, and it brilliantly mixes sci-fi with realism.

3 Vice (2018) – 7.2

After directing several Ferrell-led comedies, Adam McKay reinvented himself with the comedy-drama The Big Short. But the director doubled down on the docudrama and fourth-wall-breaking approach with Vice. Just like with Don’t Look Up, Vice was much better received by general audiences than critics.

The movie is about Dick Cheney, who was the Vice President of the United States under President George Bush. And it’s full of fourth-wall-breaking trickery, whether it’s Cheney breaking into Shakespearean dialogue, the movie pretending to end halfway through, or Cheney giving a monologue directly to the camera.

2 Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy (2004) – 7.2

Before 2004, Adam McKay was the head writer for Saturday Night Live, which might be why Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy feels like a 90-minute-long SNL sketch, but that’s in no way a bad thing. Anchorman is the best movie about news broadcasters and has become as much of a classic as Elf.

Though Ferrell had been in the public eye for a while at this point, his profile grew exponentially thanks to the movie, and it almost works as a blueprint for every Ferrell movie that has followed since. Movies like Blades of Glory and Eurovision Song Contest owe their success and even their existence to the 2004 movie.

1 The Big Short (2015) – 7.8

On paper, it seems almost impossible to make an entertaining movie about the 2008 financial crisis, especially one that makes it easy to understand for general audiences. But McKay effortlessly pulled it off by having Margot Robbie explain it to audiences while drinking champagne in a bath, and Anthony Bourdain explains it while cooking Selina Gomez a meal too.

The Big Short is endlessly rewatchable, but it shouldn’t be, and it established McKay’s style of docudramas that break the fourth wall too. Few other directors have switched genres as successfully as McKay did with the 2015 movie.