Matt Damon is one of the most accomplished screen actors of his generation. The Oscar-winning writer of Good Will Hunting has been nominated four additional times as an actor. Throughout his career, he has worked with the very best film directors, from Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese to Ridley Scott and the Coen Brothers.
Under the direction of James Mangold, Damon is now set to burn up the screen opposite Christian Bale in Ford v. Ferrari, which is due in theaters Friday, November 15th. On your mark, get set, and let’s go, minus cameos, here are Matt Damon’s 10 Best Movies According To IMDb!
True Grit (7.6/10)
Matt Damon in a mustache, chaps, and a cowboy hat? Seriously, how is this movie not rated higher?
Damon’s first collaboration with Joel and Ethan Coen might feature the actor’s funniest performance to date. In the remake of the 1969 revenge western, Damon plays LaBoeuf (La-Beef), a dimwitted Texas Ranger tasked with tracking down a killer named Tom Chaney. Along the way, LaBoeuf aligns with one-eyed alcoholic gunman Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) and young Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) en route to finding justice. The movie should be called The Odd Throuple!
The Bourne Supremacy (7.7/10)
In the second film of the series, Damon continues the complicated role of Jason Bourne, a cloudy-minded super-assassin facing an internal war with the C.I.A.
The action picks up when Bourne is falsely accused of a botched C.I.A. mission, putting him on the run for his life. As his memory finally comes back in full, Bourne reverts to his prior lifestyle as an expert assassin. He uses his trained skills and instincts to find answers to why he is the target while protecting his girlfriend, Marie (Franka Potente), from harm.
Ocean’s Eleven (7.8/10)
Steven Soderbergh’s Sin City heist movie Ocean’s Eleven was never intended to become a franchise trilogy, but rather an amusing remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film. And you wonder why the first one outrates the other two!
Damon plays Linus Caldwell in the film, a young thief who is constantly ribbed and needled by his upperclassmen, Danny (George Clooney) and Rusty (Brad Pitt). Yet in the end, it’s Linus’ cunning that proves vital to the success of a triple Las Vegas casino heist that pays out $150 million. Hey, Linus isn’t the wet blanket after all!
The Bourne Identity (7.9/10)
Prior to Paul Greengrass taking the reins, director Doug Liman introduced Damon as the amnesia-riddled hitman in The Bourne Identity. Four films and 14 years later, Jason Bourne persists!
In the original tale of fuzzy-headed espionage, Damon plays a man rescued in a fishing boat with zero recollection of who he is or where he came from. As he slowly cobbles together pieces of memories, the man discovers he has the physical ability to fight and fend off danger with professional skill. The clearer-headed Bourne becomes, the more danger he finds himself in!
The Bourne Ultimatum (8.0/10)
It isn’t often that the third leg in a four-part film series ends up being the most beloved, but according to IMDb, that’s precisely the case with Damon’s Bourne franchise. Go figure!
Ranking slightly higher than the original, The Bourne Ultimatum continues the long-running saga of Jason Bourne, trained-killer and super-spy operative. This time out, Jason must avoid a secret C.I.A. plot involving a new assassination operation. Meanwhile, he also tries to understand how and why he has been programmed to be a professional hitman in the first place.
The Martian (8.0/10)
Damon and Sir Ridley Scott proved to be quite the pairing when The Martian took off with such soaring critical and commercial success in 2015!
Based on the Andy Weir novel of the same name, The Martian revolves around Mark Watney, an astronaut who is inadvertently marooned on Mars when his crew members leave him for dead. Left to his own ingenious devices to survive, Watney builds a habitable environment, grows his own crops, and learns how to subsist on Mars. The film earned seven Oscar nominations, including Matt Damon for Best Leading Actor.
Good Will Hunting (8.3/10)
Damon and costar Ben Affleck won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay following the success of Good Will Hunting. How do you like them apples?
Directed by Gus Van Sant, the movie follows the genius mind of abused orphan Will Hunting (Damon), who’s life as a janitor alters when he secretly solves an impossible math equation at MIT. As Will works out his emotional issues with likeminded psychologist Sean (Robin Williams), he learns how to deal with the one subject he hasn’t mastered on his own: true love!
The Departed (8.5/10)
In his first collaboration with cinematic master Martin Scorsese, Damon leads an all-star ensemble in the Oscar-winning crime saga. Timing is everything!
Damon plays Colin Sullivan in the film, a conniving white-collar criminal who is assigned the dangerous task of infiltrating the NYC police department. As Sullivan works to gets closer to the law, he informs key intel back to mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Meanwhile, dogged undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leo DiCaprio) works the other side of the law by posing as a corrupt mobster.
Interstellar (8.6/10)
Christopher Nolan’s star-studded trip to the cosmos features Damon as Mann, one of three astronauts who volunteers to travel through a wormhole to study a new planet. What could go wrong?!
The favorable data that Mann and company retrieves leads to Professor Brand (Michael Caine) launching a radical mission. The plan is to transport 5,000 frozen human embryos through the wormhole and inhabit the new planet. Of course, unforeseen problems arise and threaten the mission, namely Mann’s mendacity. The visually dazzling movie currently ranks #31 on IMDb’s Top 250.
Saving Private Ryan (8.6/10)
Before coming into his own as a leading man, Damon won the coveted title role in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning WWII drama Saving Private Ryan.
A ragtag squad of U.S. soldiers is given a mission to go behind enemy lines in Germany to find Private Ryan and deliver him home safely. Damon doesn’t appear until late in the film when his character learns the devastating news that all of his brothers have died in combat. Proudly, bravely, Ryan demands to stay in help fulfill his mission of guarding a bridge.
