What is the best Jack Nicholson movie?

Easy Rider counterculture, Overlook Hotel menace and late-career curmudgeons all compete here. Half a century of that grin, sorted by you.

1. 1
   Prizzi's Honor

   John Huston's 1985 black comedy with Nicholson as a dim-witted Mafia hitman in love with a rival killer.
   1000pts
2. 2
   The King of Marvin Gardens

   Bob Rafelson's 1972 drama with Nicholson as a melancholy radio monologist drawn into his brother's Atlantic City scheme.
   926pts
3. 3
   One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

   Milos Forman's 1975 asylum drama that won Nicholson his first Best Actor Oscar as rebel R.P. McMurphy.
   833pts
4. 4
   Mars Attacks!

   Tim Burton's 1996 sci-fi spoof in which Nicholson plays both the U.S. President and a Las Vegas developer.
   812pts
5. 5
   The Missouri Breaks

   Arthur Penn's 1976 western pitting Nicholson's horse thief against Marlon Brando's eccentric regulator.
   812pts
6. 6
   Ironweed

   A 1987 Depression-era drama with Nicholson as a haunted alcoholic drifter opposite Meryl Streep.
   778pts
7. 7
   The Border

   A 1982 drama with Nicholson as a U.S. Border Patrol agent battling corruption.
   778pts
8. 8
   The Crossing Guard

   Sean Penn's 1995 drama about a grieving father seeking revenge on the drunk driver who killed his daughter.
   714pts
9. 9
   Chinatown

   Roman Polanski's 1974 neo-noir with Nicholson as private eye J.J. Gittes uncovering a Los Angeles water conspiracy.
   714pts
10. 10
    Terms of Endearment

    James L. Brooks's 1983 Best Picture winner, with Nicholson's Oscar-winning turn as a retired astronaut.
    714pts
11. 11
    The Passenger

    Michelangelo Antonioni's 1975 existential thriller about a reporter who assumes a dead man's identity.
    641pts
12. 12
    About Schmidt

    Alexander Payne's 2002 drama starring Nicholson as a lonely retiree on a cross-country road trip.
    641pts
13. 13
    Easy Rider

    The 1969 counterculture road movie whose boozy lawyer George Hanson made Nicholson a star.
    641pts
14. 14
    Reds

    Warren Beatty's 1981 epic in which Nicholson earned an Oscar nomination as playwright Eugene O'Neill.
    555pts
15. 15
    The Fortune

    Mike Nichols's 1975 screwball comedy with Nicholson and Warren Beatty as bumbling con men.
    555pts
16. 16
    Heartburn

    Mike Nichols's 1986 marital drama with Nicholson as a cheating columnist married to Meryl Streep.
    555pts
17. 17
    The Witches of Eastwick

    George Miller's 1987 fantasy comedy starring Nicholson as the devilish Daryl Van Horne.
    555pts
18. 18
    Ride in the Whirlwind

    A 1966 Monte Hellman western, written by Nicholson, about cowboys mistaken for outlaws.
    454pts
19. 19
    Blood and Wine

    Bob Rafelson's 1996 crime thriller with Nicholson as a wine dealer planning a jewel heist.
    454pts
20. 20
    A Few Good Men

    Rob Reiner's 1992 courtroom drama featuring Nicholson's famous 'You can't handle the truth!' as Colonel Jessup.
    454pts
21. 21
    Anger Management

    A 2003 comedy with Nicholson as an unhinged therapist treating Adam Sandler.
    454pts
22. 22
    The Two Jakes

    Nicholson's 1990 directed sequel to Chinatown, returning as detective J.J. Gittes.
    454pts
23. 23
    The Pledge

    Sean Penn's 2001 thriller starring Nicholson as a retired detective obsessed with a child murder case.
    454pts
24. 24
    The Postman Always Rings Twice

    Bob Rafelson's steamy 1981 noir remake with Nicholson as a drifter who plots murder with Jessica Lange.
    454pts
25. 25
    Carnal Knowledge

    Mike Nichols's 1971 drama tracing two friends' sex lives, with Nicholson as the cynical Jonathan.
    454pts
26. 26
    The Bucket List

    Rob Reiner's 2007 comedy-drama about two terminally ill men, played by Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.
    454pts
27. 27
    Batman

    Tim Burton's 1989 blockbuster in which Nicholson played a gleefully menacing Joker.
    333pts
28. 28
    The Last Detail

    Hal Ashby's 1973 comedy-drama with Nicholson as a Navy lifer escorting a young sailor to prison.
    333pts
29. 29
    Wolf

    Mike Nichols's 1994 horror-romance about a book editor who turns into a werewolf.
    333pts
30. 30
    The Shooting

    Monte Hellman's 1966 existential western with Nicholson as a menacing gunfighter.
    333pts
31. 31
    Hoffa

    Danny DeVito's 1992 biopic with Nicholson as Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.
    333pts
32. 32
    The Shining

    Stanley Kubrick's 1980 horror classic in which Nicholson's Jack Torrance descends into madness at the Overlook Hotel.
    333pts
33. 33
    Something's Gotta Give

    Nancy Meyers's 2003 romantic comedy pairing Nicholson's aging playboy with Diane Keaton.
    333pts
34. 34
    As Good as It Gets

    A 1997 romantic comedy that earned Nicholson his third Oscar as an obsessive-compulsive novelist.
    0pts
35. 35
    The Departed

    Martin Scorsese's 2006 Best Picture winner with Nicholson as Boston crime boss Frank Costello.
    0pts
36. 36
    The Raven

    Roger Corman's 1963 horror comedy in which young Nicholson shared the screen with Vincent Price and Boris Karloff.
    0pts
37. 37
    Goin' South

    A 1978 western comedy directed by and starring Nicholson as an outlaw saved from the gallows by marriage.
    0pts
38. 38
    Five Easy Pieces

    A 1970 drama starring Nicholson as a restless former piano prodigy working on oil rigs.
    0pts

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