Kurt Russell’s 5 Most Rewatchable Movies, Ranked Worst To Best

There is something universally lovable about Kurt Russell. The actor actually started his career as a way to meet famous baseball players before getting signed on with Walt Disney and becoming a bonafide child star. After a gnarly injury forced him to retire from baseball and pursue acting full-time, he became a prolific performer who manages to make nearly everything he’s in better just by his mere presence. From fluffy rom-coms like “Overboard” with future long-term partner Goldie Hawn to intense genre fare like “The Thing” to big blockbuster franchise flicks like “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” Russell is able to fit into the fabric of just about any kind of film. He’s incredibly charismatic even when playing antiheroes and downright villains, which makes his movies extremely rewatchable. But which are the most rewatchable?

While some of Russell’s movies didn’t do well theatrically or critically at the time of release, many of them have become cult classics that have earned at least some reappraisal. Many of those films are the ones that end up being the most rewatchable, because even if he’s made “better” movies, they might not have that secret sauce that makes a cult movie happen. And what’s a cult movie if not something that’s insanely rewatchable? 

Here are the top five most rewatchable Kurt Russell films ranked from least to most rewatchable.

The “Miracle on Ice,” when the 1980 U.S. men’s hockey team came back from behind to defeat the rival Soviet Union in the third period, is the stuff of sports legend. The U.S. team were mostly college players going up against the titans that were the Soviets, who had won four gold medals and were the defending champions. The cold war was at its height, the stakes felt immense, and the scrappy U.S. team managed to steal the win. It’s basically a perfect sports movie story already, and then there’s the team’s coach, Herb Brooks, who was a deeply charismatic and passionate man who helped steer the team to victory. So who better to play him than Kurt Russell, who has a sports background, incredible charisma, and the passion to back it all up. He also manages a pretty believable Minnesota accent, which is easier said than done. 

“Miracle” is pretty darn accurate for a sports movie “based on a true story” and Russell is the beating heart at the center of it. It’s a blast to watch over and over because the big finale doesn’t feel false or overly saccharine because it actually happened, and Russell’s Brooks is just pure cinematic perfection. 

“Death Proof” has a weird place in Quentin Tarantino’s filmography. He is notoriously hard on the movie and has publicly declared it to be his “worst” film, but it’s actually pretty darn great. “Death Proof” mixes Tarantino’s talent for interesting conversations and some of the best car chase sequences ever put to film, creating a movie that is both a brilliant homage to grindhouse cinema of the 1970s and a movie that’s a blast a whole bunch of times. The first half is a delicious deluge of dialogue and mood, following “Jungle” Julia (Sydney Poitier) and her friends as they visit a bar on her birthday and are stalked by Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), a serial killer who murders beautiful young women using his tricked-out stunt car (initially a 1971 Chevy Nova, then a 1969 Dodge Charger). He takes them out and then goes after another set of young women, but they give him a run for his money and engage in one of the craziest car chases ever. 

Tarantino had to really use all of his nerdy knowledge to recruit Russell to join “Death Proof,” but it paid off big time because not only is “Death Proof” one of the director’s more rewatchable flicks, but they also would go on to work together again in the incredible “The Hateful Eight.” (“The Hateful Eight” is also pretty darn watchable, but it’s also three hours long and a semi-remake of “The Thing,” so it earns an honorable mention instead of making the list.)  

If you’ve never seen “Big Trouble in Little China,” it’s kind of difficult to explain the action-comedy that was originally written as a Western and then updated into a contemporary homage to the martial arts films of Hong Kong of the 1960s through the early 1980s. Russell stars as Jack Burton, a truck driver who wins a bet with his best friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) and follows him on an errand to make sure he pays up. Instead he gets roped into a wild adventure when Wang’s fiancée is kidnapped because of her green eyes and an ancient Chinese legend. While Wang is sort of posited as the sidekick and it’s clear that Burton views himself as the hero of the movie, the roles are actually reversed to hilarious effect. Burton spends most of the climax of the film knocked out, after all, and Wang is the one who really ends up saving the day. 

“Big Trouble in Little China” was fairly well-received by critics but unfortunately flopped at the box office. Thankfully it found an audience on home video and became a serious cult classic with a passionate following. Though some of it hasn’t aged perfectly, turning the white savior trope on its head and making Russell a bit of a fool makes it feel significantly less egregious than it could be. “Big Trouble in Little China” is a lot of fun with big action sequences, great performances from the entire cast, and one of Russell’s most unique characters. 

There are many, many reasons to rewatch “The Thing,” John Carpenter’s sorta-remake of the 1951 film “The Thing From Another World.” A rewatch to appreciate Dean Cundey’s beautiful cinematography, which makes every scene a visual feast whether it’s a wild alien creature flailing around or just two men staring one another down in the snow. A rewatch for Ennio Morricone’s score, which is among the best he ever did (and that’s saying something for the prolific composer). A couple of rewatches to figure out once and for all whether Russell’s MacReady or Keith David’s Childs is actually the Thing at the end of the movie. A watch for the Rob Botin’s bonkers practical special effects, like a horrific dog-Thing or spider head monster. 

“The Thing” follows the men at an outpost in the Antarctic after they unearth a frozen alien “Thing” that can steal the appearance of its victims and even pretend to be them pretty convincingly. It’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” turned up to 11, with plenty of body horror to go around.

It’s hard to imagine now that “The Thing” was a bomb that polarized critics and audiences alike and almost ended Carpenter’s career, because it’s a stone-cold classic. It’s a truly terrifying take on paranoia and mistrust, inspired by Cold War-era fears of secret Communists. Everyone involved put in some of their best work, making a movie that is equally tense and explosive. “The Thing” always makes for an entertaining rewatch because there are so many incredible elements to focus on, or you can just sit back and vibe with one of the chilliest, most unsettling films on celluloid. “The Thing” isn’t just rewatchable, it’s a masterpiece. 

There are few movies on this planet as rewatchable as “Tombstone.” The 1993 Western had a notoriously troubled production that left a lot of responsibility for the film in Russell’s hands. He starred as real-life lawman Wyatt Earp, who helped defend the town of Tombstone, Arizona from a gang of thieves called the Cowboys, ending in the shootout at the O.K. Corral. He’s joined by his brothers and a close friend and expert gunslinger, Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer), but Earp has to carry the main thrust of the film on his shoulders. Through some miracle, “Tombstone” is one of the best Western movies ever made, with beautiful vistas, fantastic acting, and some of the most quotable lines in cinema. 

“Tombstone” is the perfect pop Western, driven by Russell and Kilmer’s performances and the intense friendship between their characters. It’s an ultimate Dad movie, a Sunday afternoon movie, the kind of thing that you stumble across halfway through while looking for something to watch and saying “oh, this scene’s great,” and then finishing the entire movie. Whether it’s something like Kilmer’s “I’m your Huckleberry” monologue or one of the movie’s high-intensity gunfights, “Tombstone” is chock full of incredible moments, and that makes for one seriously rewatchable movie. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a date with this flick and some of the best moustaches in movie history.