Endless charisma used to be the defining characteristic of actors in the golden age of Hollywood, and few performers alive today better personify that trait than the Canadian jokester Ryan Reynolds. It might have taken this Vancouver-born funny man several years to leave his mark on the industry, but today, he's arguably entertainment's most in-demand star.

After spending the early part of his career on television and earning recognition for his work on series like Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place, Reynolds became a promising comedic talent following his breakthrough role in National Lampoon's Van Wilder. Since then, he's become a bonafide superhero and a rom-com icon, and he has voiced numerous animated characters. With 2024 set to be the biggest year of his career yet, thanks to the release of Deadpool & Wolverine and If, it's the perfect time to look back over his storied career.

10 The Hitman's Bodyguard Took Advantage of What Ryan Reynolds Does Best

This quintessential "odd-couple" movie, which pairs Ryan Reynolds with Samuel L. Jackson as bodyguard Michael Bryce and hitman Darius Kincaid, respectively, was sold on the concept of its lead stars' chemistry. In that way, The Hitman's Bodyguard delivers. It's clear that Reynolds and Jackson are having a ball during the movie, and that infectious energy is catching.

Combine the laughs delivered by Reynolds and Jackson with numerous top-flight action sequences, and director Patrick Hughes turned The Hitman's Bodyguard into a better film than its otherwise trope-riddled script had any right to be. This movie rode the charisma levels of its two main stars to nearly $200 million at the box office, resulting in a sequel that, while decent, will, needless to say, not be on this list.

9 Just Friends Found the Right Chemistry

A quick perusal of Ryan Reynold's filmography will reveal that a substantial portion is dedicated to romantic comedies, the funniest and most charming of which is Just Friends. Co-starring Anna Faris and Amy Smart, Just Friends chronicles Reynold's return to his hometown for the holidays after transforming from an overweight afterthought into a handsome and well-respected music producer. Now, he can finally impress the girl of his dreams, who friend-zoned him in high school.

What makes Just Friends work better than most of Ryan Reynold's romantic comedies is that this one has bite. Reynolds is as charming as ever, but the real star is Anna Faris, whose behavior as a Jessica Simpson-like rock star is off the wall and unhinged. More often than not, Reynold's other works in the genre leaned heavily on the romantic side of the equation, but this one balances the scales out by legitimately being funny and charming.

8 Waiting... Didn't Have to Wait Long to Become a Cult Hit

Waiting... is a gross-out comedy from early in Ryan Reynold's film career. Released as it was in the 2000s, the film is often more concerned with making its audience uncomfortable than making them laugh, but to its credit, it's wildly effective at achieving that goal. After all, some seriously gross things can happen when working at a restaurant, and not all involve food. Waiting pulls no punches to show how the unheralded veterans of the food service industry contend with getting payback against unruly customers.

Despite receiving top billing in Waiting..., Ryan Reynold's Monty isn't the star. Instead, the film is more of an ensemble piece that sees the heavy lifting carried equally by Justin Long, John Francis Daley, and Anna Farris, who stars yet again alongside Reynolds. Essentially, Clerks for the restaurant industry, Waiting... is a fun film to go back and rediscover, especially for anyone who has ever had the misfortune of dealing with miserable patrons.

7 Self/less Offered Reynolds the Chance to Work With an Auteur

Ryan Reynold's film career has been about as mainstream as it comes. He's seldom worked on small independent projects and hasn't worked with many directors known for their unique artistic vision. That changed when he signed to star in Tarsem Singh's Self/less. Singh is the filmmaker behind visually audacious films like The Cell and The Fall, and while he didn't bring as much of that creative vision to this film, Self/less is still a movie unlike any other Reynolds has ever made.

Self/less tells the story of a wealthy real estate mogul named Damian, played by the living legend Ben Kingsley, whose consciousness is swapped into that of a younger man's body, played by Ryan Reynolds. Through flashbacks that show Reynold's character before the transformation, Self/less allows Reynolds to embody two characters simultaneously, which he tackles with relish. Self/less isn't quite as good as it should have been, considering its pedigree, and its novel premise, unfortunately, devolves into a much more generic action movie. However, it's still an exciting outlier in Reynold's filmography that is worth checking out.

6 The Change-Up Was an Entertaining Change of Pace

The Change-Up is a broad comedy done right. Starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, this body-swap comedy comes off as a much more extreme R-rated version of Freaky Friday in which Bateman plays a lawyer and family man who wakes up in the body of his womanizing slacker friend played by Reynolds. The crux of this movie comes in seeing both men play against type once the switch takes place.

Opinions on The Change-Up will differ wildly depending upon the audience's taste for juvenile humor, but in a day and age when comedy films are a dying breed, returning to experience The Change-Up now feels like a refreshing bit of cool air. Typical of most Ryan Reynold's comedies, there's a romantic subplot involving a legal associate played by Olivia Munn. Still, the romance never gets in the way of the jokes, which come fast and furious.

5 Free Guy Brought the Fun of Gaming to the Movies

Essentially Deadpool, but for the entire family, Free Guy is a ruckus action comedy that sees Ryan Reynolds deliver a fun performance in a wildly imaginative environment as a non-playable character living in a Grand Theft Auto-style open world. The film works thanks in large part to its sweet self-referential humor and proves that Ryan Reynolds can launch a brand new IP solely on the strength of his star power.

Co-starring Jodie Comer as the real-world player that broadens Ryan Reynold's horizons and Taika Waititi as the film's antagonist, Free Guy is a free-wheeling and entertaining action movie nearly as funny as it is exciting. Audiences will come to the film for the familiarity of the fish-out-of-water experience and stick around for how the film subverts those expectations while leaving plenty of room for an emotional moment or two.

4 Buried Proved Ryan Reynolds Offers More Than Just Laughs

A movie that rips Ryan Reynolds away from other actors and shoves him in a box for its entire runtime might not sound like it should work, but Buried might be the best acting performance of Reynolds' career. One of the few creative risks Reynolds has ever attempted paid off with this film, which tells the story of an American truck driver in Iraq who has been kidnapped and buried alive in a coffin with little more than a lighter, some glow sticks, a pen, and a cell phone.

Buried would have been a complete disaster if Ryan Reynolds had not risen to the occasion. Here, he delivers a frantic, nerve-shattering performance as a man desperate to extricate himself from a life-and-death situation playing out in real-time.

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