Robert Zemeckis has had what could be called a chaotic filmmaking career, in all honesty. His body of work is one of staggering highs and occasionally confounding lows, with the director known for crossing genres and pushing certain limits when it comes to filmmaking technology. This has sometimes paid off, leading to the American director making genuinely groundbreaking classics, though when this approach hasn't paid off, the results can be odd, to say the least.

The disparity between the highs and the lows becomes extra apparent when ranking every movie Zemeckis has directed, but starting with the worst and ending with the best will at least conclude things on a very positive note. And, at the end of the day, Zemeckis's classics endure more than his misfires, and there's every chance many filmmakers would kill to have even one of their movies be comparable to the sorts Robert Zemeckis was churning out while on one of his hot streaks.

21 'Pinocchio' (2022)

Done no favors by getting released the same year as a superior Pinocchio movie, Robert Zemeckis's take on the iconic story was a bit of a critical misfire. It's one of many titles in a long line of live-action remakes that needlessly update classic animated Disney movies, with Pinocchio being seen as particularly unnecessary.

Not even frequent Zemeckis collaborator Tom Hanks (appearing here as Geppetto) could help save the film, which fails to improve or build upon anything found in the original Disney film, released all the way back in 1940. At least that one still holds up and is still viewable, but one has to wonder who on earth was asking for this live-action remake.

20 'Welcome to Marwen' (2018)

Pinocchio can be seen as belonging to the same streak of underwhelming Robert Zemeckis movies as 2018's Welcome to Marwen. Charitably, it's a film that could be called ambitious, which might count for something, as it follows a man disappearing into a fantasy world he creates after losing much of his memory during a traumatic attack.

It combines live-action and animation, the combination of which can admittedly be found in at least one of Zemeckis's best films. Yet Welcome to Marwen doesn't quite flow or even work overall, having tonal inconsistencies and being greatly inferior to the 2010 documentary Marwencol, which tells the same true story that inspired this film.

19 'The Witches' (2020)

1990 was the year a critically acclaimed film version of Roald Dahl's The Witches came out, benefiting from the direction of Nicolas Roeg and a lead performance by Anjelica Huston. 30 years later, another take on the same story came out. Robert Zemeckis and Anne Hathaway (two talented people) directed and starred, respectively. The end result was a bit of a mess.

Though perhaps better than Welcome to Marwen and Pinocchio, it's still a relative low point within Zemeckis's filmography, and it's regrettable that his three most recent movies are arguably his worst. Here's hoping the upcoming Here (2024) will end up being something of a comeback for the filmmaker.

18 'The Polar Express' (2004)

A movie infamous for the uncanny valley nature of its animation, The Polar Express marked the first time Robert Zemeckis made an entirely animated movie. For better or worse (depending on how uncanny you find it all), it was also the first time a movie was made entirely with CGI animation from motion capture technology.

So, that makes it another ambitious Zemeckis movie that can be appreciated for technical ambition, even if the execution of such technical wizardry is divisive. Some will find The Polar Express a charming Christmas movie about a young boy taking a train to the North Pole, while others might see it as a feature-length animated unintentional nightmare of a film.

17 'Beowulf' (2007)

Many of the same complaints about the uncanny valley that can be said about The Polar Express could also be said about Beowulf, released three years later, but at least this film's supposed to be unsettling in parts. It's a dark fantasy movie based on the old poem of the same name, telling a story about the titular hero's quest to kill a giant ogre (not the lovable green kind, either).

Perhaps the animation looked a little better for its time, but it hasn't held up ideally, making Beowulf an odd film that's both intentionally and (arguably) unintentionally unsettling. It sort of works in parts, meaning it can't be considered among the very worst Robert Zemeckis movies, but so too is it far from representative of the director at his best.

16 'A Christmas Carol' (2009)

There are seemingly endless A Christmas Carol adaptations out there, with it being one of those stories that filmmakers seem unable to continually resist adapting. As expected, this 2009 take on the Charles Dickens story centers on Ebenezer Scrooge, and the way his life is changed after he's visited by several spirits on Christmas Eve.

In a way, it completes an unofficial Robert Zemeckis trilogy of 2000s animated movies, as it follows Beowulf (2007), which followed The Polar Express (2004). It might be better than those by a little, but it doesn't do much else other takes on this story hadn't already done, besides featuring what was, at the time, cutting-edge computer animation.

15 'What Lies Beneath' (2000)

2000 was a big year for Robert Zemeckis, as it's the only year within his rather prolific filmography where two movies of his were released. One is among his classics (so more on that later), while the other was What Lies Beneath, a film that's admittedly not one of the director's best, but is still overall solid.

It's an unsettling mystery/thriller film that stars Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as husband and wife, and what happens when the latter begins feeling as though she has a link to the supernatural. It might not reinvent any genres, and it arguably owes a little too much to the films of Alfred Hitchcock in parts, but it still holds up as a pretty decent movie overall.

14 'Used Cars' (1980)

As just the second feature film Robert Zemeckis ever directed (he was still in his late 20s when it was released), Used Cars is wonderfully simple, compared to many of his other movies. It's a darkly comedic movie about a salesman at a used car lot doing all he can to keep the business going after the sudden death of its owner.

Kurt Russell shines in the lead role, demonstrating how he has a knack for comedy, even if his most famous roles tend to have him playing characters in more serious action and/or thriller films. Used Cars is otherwise unassuming and pretty straightforward, but it gets the job done as a genuinely funny comedy and is one of the more overlooked Zemeckis films out there.

13 'Allied' (2016)

Allied has a good deal on its plate, as it's a movie set during World War II that also has to balance being a romantic drama, a thriller, and something of an action movie. Its story starts in 1942, and centers on an intelligence officer and a French Resistance fighter who fall in love, and find their bond challenged by the ongoing conflict around them.

It stars Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, and while it might feel a bit overstuffed and clichéd at times, it is very watchable and well-made from a technical perspective. Its underperformance at the box office has led to it being somewhat forgotten since its release, but it's far from bad, and worth watching for fans of Zemeckis and/or its two lead stars.

12 'Romancing the Stone' (1984)

A romantic comedy that doubles as an action/adventure movie, Romancing the Stone ended up being the director's equivalent of a star-marking role for Robert Zemeckis. His previous two features had been well-received, but this was the one that found the level of mainstream success needed to make him a desirable director in Hollywood.

It's about one woman's quest to rescue her sister from kidnappers, and the way this mission also gets her involved in a dramatic hunt for valuable hidden treasure. It feels very old-fashioned, but there is a certain charm to it overall, scratching the same itch the Indiana Jones movies released around the same time did. It's certainly an overall worthwhile watch for those who like breezy, mostly light-hearted adventure movies.

11 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' (1978)

Robert Zemeckis's feature directorial debut was I Wanna Hold Your Hand, which is a movie about the Beatlemania craze that swept the U.S. when The Beatles toured the States for the first time. It follows a group of teenage girls who are determined to see their favorite band live, no matter what unpredictable obstacles may get in their way.

Despite the ongoing popularity of The Beatles and the overall quality of this film, it was regrettably a box-office disappointment. It at least didn't put a permanent stop to Zemeckis's career, and it now stands as an underrated entry within his filmography, taking on the premise of "young people desperately trying to see the band they love" with more humor and grace than the comparable 1999 film Detroit Rock City.

10 'Back to the Future Part III' (1990)

While it might be a step below the first two Back to the Future movies quality-wise, Back to the Future Part III still provides a tremendous amount of entertainment value, and feels like a fitting conclusion. It also has the novelty factor of an entirely new setting for the trilogy, seeing as this one takes Doc and Marty back to 1885.

This makes Back to the Future Part III feel like an inspired mix of time-travel-centric science-fiction, comedy, and a Western all at once, given when and where it takes place. It lacks the freshness of the first film, and the intricate narrative of the second, but it's still fun to see these characters out of their depths in the Old West, and the way it concludes the trilogy does ultimately feel satisfying.

9 'Contact' (1997)

It's possible to feel the influence of Contact on 2010s science-fiction (modern) classics like Interstellar and Arrival. This 1997 film is, like those later films, ambitious, probing into human nature and humanity's place in the cosmos, all the while centering on one woman's quest to communicate with extraterrestrial forces.

At 2.5 hours, Contact can feel a bit long at times, and it spells certain things out to the point where you might wonder if a more subtle approach could've been more powerful. But it is ultimately a good film, boosted immensely by a dedicated Jodie Foster performance at its center and building to a good final act, so long as viewers have the patience needed for the slower first two acts.

8 'Death Becomes Her' (1992)

With surprisingly good special effects and tons of humor that's both dark and slapstick in nature, Death Becomes Her makes for a very enjoyable watch. Its focus is the vicious rivalry between two women (Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn), and what happens when magic gets introduced into their soon-to-be deadly feud.

It's easy to watch, but also gleefully mean-spirited and bizarre for what is ostensibly a mainstream American film. Bruce Willis also stars as the man caught between the two feuding women, with him, Streep, and Hawn all giving great comedic performances, collectively helping to sell the bizarre narrative that thankfully never goes too far off the rails.

7 'Flight' (2012)

After three less-than-stellar (and quite uncanny) animated movies in a row, Robert Zemeckis returned to live-action rather triumphantly with Flight, a tense drama about an alcoholic pilot. Denzel Washington's the star, and gives a magnetic performance as this pilot who saves just about everyone on board his flight when an unexpected emergency happens, only for an investigation after the incident to threaten his future career.

Like Jodie Foster in Contact, it's hard to imagine Flight being as good without Denzel Washington in the lead, with his acting here being the main reason to check this one out. But the supporting cast - which includes John Goodman and Don Cheadle - is also good, and Zemeckis skillfully directs Flight throughout, making the crash-landing sequence particularly visceral. It's very good overall, and definitely one of Zemeckis's best releases of the 21st century so far.

6 'The Walk' (2015)

The incredible 2008 documentary Man on Wire told, in a surprisingly cinematic and dramatic way, the story of Philippe Petit, and how he pulled off a 1974 stunt that involved walking across a tightrope between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers. Seven years later, Robert Zemeckis took this same story and told it in a more traditionally cinematic fashion with his feature film The Walk.

If you can only watch one of these movies, you should probably go with Man on Wire, because it's better by a hair, and it also came first. But you should totally watch both, because it's the rare story that was told well in both documentary and feature film format. And in fairness, The Walk has something Man on Wire doesn't: a committed lead performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt where he has a French accent for the whole movie.

5 'Back to the Future Part II' (1989)

A sequel to something as good as Back to the Future might've always sounded risky, given how instantly iconic and enjoyable that first movie was. And though Back to the Future Part II might be slightly inferior, it's not inferior by much, and finds consistently clever ways to do both new things for the series and provide viewers with more of the familiar things they enjoyed in Part I.

The first movie was all about going back to the past, but Back to the Future Part II shakes things up by spending time in the future and the past (well, the then-future of 2015, which is now technically the past for anyone watching the film in the 2020s). It's a tremendously fun time-travel romp, and a more than worthy follow-up to the 1985 original.

4 'Cast Away' (2000)

Cast Away was among the best releases of 2000, and of the two Robert Zemeckis movies that came out that year, it was certainly the better one (the other was What Lies Beneath). The premise is super simple, with Cast Away being a survival movie that, for much of its runtime, is just Tom Hanks (and a volleyball named Wilson) stuck on a desert island.

Something so straightforward with a runtime of close to 2.5 hours might sound like it could get dull, but Cast Away continually finds ways to stay emotionally gripping and engaging. Hanks is unsurprisingly great in the lead role, and Robert Zemeckis's direction also serves to make the film surprisingly engrossing throughout.

3 'Forrest Gump' (1994)

Another classic Robert Zemeckis movie starring Tom Hanks in the lead role, Forrest Gump is up there with the most iconic releases of the 1990s. Its titular character is a man who drifts through life in an unconventional manner, along the way getting accidentally involved in numerous historical events that occurred throughout the second half of the 20th century.

It's possible that some viewers may find Forrest Gump too saccharine, and they might have a point... but it's also a film that is undeniably well-made, well-acted, and overall creative. It's both funny and moving, and also moves fast, covering a great deal of time and painting a compelling portrait of its main character's life in the process.

2 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' (1988)

It's hard to deny that Robert Zemeckis was at his creative peak during the 1980s, as demonstrated by numerous films of his, including the iconic Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It's easily his best animated movie... if it can be called one, because it does admittedly combine animation and live-action footage throughout, given it's set in a world where humans and cartoon characters co-exist.

It has a murder-mystery plot that works to parody classic film noir movies, with it also working as a great adventure/comedy film to boot. It's got great characters, excellent animation, remarkable special effects used to blend the animated and live-action elements, and a career-best performance from Bob Hoskins at its center. It's a difficult film to fault, and easily among Zemeckis's best works as a director.