Judi Dench: Her 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Films According To IMDb

Dame Judi Dench’s career has been an impressively long one. All the way back in 1957, she first appeared in Shakespeare plays as part of the Old Vic company and has played the likes of Juliet in Romeo And Juliet and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth. She moved towards impressive TV and film roles relatively soon after and has since between nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning Best Supporting Actress in 1998 for her work on Shakespeare In Love.

Here are the five best films Dench has played a role in and five worst, ranked per IMDb.

10 BEST: Philomena (7.6)

In collaboration with British comedy actor Steve Coogan, Judi Dench took on the lead role in Philomena, a 2016 drama centered on the true story of Philomena’s search for her adopted son over a fifty-year period.

It received very positive reviews and was nominated for a variety of awards, such as Best Picture at the Oscars, while Dench herself was singled out as a Best Actress nominee.

9 WORST: Rage (4.8)

Released to overwhelmingly poor reviews, Sally Potter’s attempt at satirical, experimental filmmaking was misguided, pretentious, and boring. While the incredible cast was filled with stars (Judi Dench, Steve Buscemi, John Leguizamo), none of them were on screen together.

It was an attempt at multimedia filmmaking, with a release direct to phones included, but it did nothing to bring ‘naked cinema’ to the forefront of the film industry.

8 BEST: Hamlet (7.7)

Judi Dench’s early career was defined by her impressive and frequent Shakespeare roles. As such, a collaboration with Shakespeare obsessive Kenneth Branagh was bound to happen at some point.

When he directed and starred in his film remake of Hamlet, Dench played the small role of Hecuba, the Queen of Troy, who appears in a flashback.

7 WORST: Artemis Fowl (4.1)

Returning to Kenneth Branagh again, but this time for his most recent films (and one of the most recent films to be released during the COVID-19 pandemic) and worst films.

Artemis Fowl is an adaptation of the 2001 novel which was released straight to Disney+ and placed Judi Dench in the role of the 802-year-old Commander Julius Root. The film was an insult to fans of the novel, and meaningless to those who had never read it.

6 BEST: Skyfall (7.7)

Sam Mendes’ James Bond film Skyfall didn’t receive the same reception as the likes of Casino Royale, but still allowed Judi Dench to shine in the role of M.

Arguably her most well-known role and one she held from 1995 until 2015, Dench plays the character with a suave, sassy brilliance that you can’t help but love. The film was praised for maintaining a focus on characters that weren’t buried by over-the-top action.

5 WORST: Doogal (2.8)

Doogal is a complex film. It was first released in French, before being re-dubbed by an English cast to average reviews. The American version, however, is generally considered one of the worst films ever made.

Despite not appearing in the English dub, Judi Dench (an English woman) provides the narration for the American version.

4 BEST: Pride And Prejudice (7.8)

The 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride & Prejudice received surprisingly good reviews across the board. Much of this positive response came from the creation of a period drama that maintained connections to the original book while using filmmaking techniques many modern audiences would connect to modern films.

Judi Dench took on the small role of Lady Catherine de Bourgh.

3 WORST: Run For Your Wife (2.7)

Typically, cameo appearances wouldn’t make their way into lists of this type, but Run For You Wife is such a shambolic example of cinema that it had to be included amongst Judi Dench’s worst roles ever. She was credited as no more than ‘bad lady’, but the film itself is considered to be amongst the worst films of all time.

Bringing Danny Dyer and Denise Van Outen together alongside a shockingly long list of British TV star cameos seems like a recipe for low-budget disaster, and it absolutely was.

2 BEST: Casino Royale (8.0)

The best of the Daniel Craig James Bond films is his first: Casino Royale. Interestingly, the film was an adaptation of Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel and managed to tick off everything that made the series so popular and long-lasting.

Fans were obviously skeptical of the new Bond, but he was well-received and Dench interacted with him as Bond with even better banter than she did with Piers Brosnan.

1 WORST: Cats (2.7)

One of the worst films of all time happens to be a recent one, which also happens to be an adaptation of a phenomenal stage show and has what should have been a fantastic cast.

While James Corden in Cats might seem understandable, Judi Dench is a Shakespearian actor with a masterful career and a talent for fantastic dramatic roles. How she ended up in this film (and how she was so terrible in it) remains a mystery.