It’s understandable that when most people hear the phrase “Jason Statham movie,” their minds are going to turn toward blunt, hyper-masculine, and even grim/serious action movies. The man radiates stoicism and a certain no-nonsense quality from his screen presence alone, and that’s translated to him having a fruitful acting career, specializing most of all in crime, thriller, and action movies.

He’s not an actor without a sense of humor, though, and even some of his non-comedies have campy or silly elements to them that are plain to see (look no further than The Meg series or the Crank films, for example). Statham has also gone all the way and been featured in a handful of comedies (or comedy movie hybrids) throughout his acting career, with all of those films so far being ranked below, starting with the not-so-great and ending with the genuinely good.

7 ‘Gnomeo & Juliet’ (2011)

Director: Kelly Asbury

Shakespeare’sRomeo and Juliet has been retold and reinterpreted on screen numerous times over the decades, sometimes executed so well that such reinterpretations end up winning Best Picture at the Oscars. On the other end of things, such takes on Romeo and Juliet also include Gnomeo & Juliet, which is, regrettably, pretty much just one joke for 84 minutes; something along the lines of: “Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if we redid Romeo and Juliet, but they were garden gnomes?”

Naturally, it’s a good deal more light-hearted than Romeo and Juliet, with that story’s infamous deaths being either undone or adapted out entirely, all in the name of keeping things kid-friendly. Jason Statham lends his recognizable voice to the role of a gnome Tybalt, and he’s joined by a surprisingly high number of other big-name actors lending their voice to what’s, at best, a forgettable family comedy, with such names including the likes of James McAvoy, Emily Blunt, Michael Caine, Maggie Smith, Ozzy Osbourne, and Patrick Stewart.

6 ‘Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre’ (2023)

Director: Guy Ritchie

Guy Ritchie has been absolutely churning out movies in the past few years, a good many of them featuring long-time collaborator Jason Statham in prominent roles. Both men rose to prominence around the same time and perhaps even thanks to each other, and there’ll be more on their earlier/better comedic films in a bit, because Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre is not one of their better efforts.

In the film, Statham plays a special agent named Orson Fortune, with the spy-related plot revolving around him and his team needing to pull off a risky mission with the help of a movie star. The stakes are high, the film continually blends comedy, action, and espionage, and there was likely a way Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre could’ve worked or at least come together. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be, and much of the potential for the film to be a funny, self-aware, or partial spy movie parody was largely squandered, and it’s overall merely decent background noise at best.

5 ‘Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw’ (2019)

Director: David Leitch

When the Fast and Furious series is at its very best, it can deliver some astoundingly satisfying and explosive action, with cars often factoring into the mayhem, even if the series became much more about espionage and saving the world over street-racing as it’s gone along. 2019 saw the first spin-off of the series (besides arguably Tokyo Drift, which at least initially seemed like it was designed to be a spin-off), Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, which takes the two titular characters and plays up a buddy comedy dynamic between the two.

It’s not the only silly Fast and Furious movie, but it might be the one that tries the hardest to be funny, and that’s naturally made it something of a divisive entry within the series. At least it can be separated from the others, for anyone who just wants to stick to the purportedly “more serious” entries in the long-running series, but anyone who particularly enjoys the side characters played by Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham might well find that Hobbs & Shaw delivers the (dumb, chunky, and over-the-top) goods.

4 ‘Mean Machine’ (2001)

Director: Barry Skolnick

Mean Machine isn’t one of the more well-known Jason Statham movies, but it is at least partly a comedy (and a not-bad one), combining humor with the sort of drama you’d expect from a fairly straightforward sports movie. Well, straightforward in terms of structure and being about underdogs, because Mean Machine does admittedly take place inside a prison, which isn’t the most common of settings for sports movies.

If the premise involving prisoners playing malicious guards in a game of soccer (or football; just pick the word you prefer and don’t get angry you goobers) sounds familiar, that’s because Mean Machine is a remake of 1974’s The Longest Yard, which itself was remade again in 2004 with the same title. Mean Machine, therefore, doesn’t offer much by way of surprises, being a remake and indulging in some familiar sports movie tropes, but it’s quite watchable and a decent time overall, with Statham having fun with his role, which sees him playing a particularly volatile maximum-security prisoner known as Monk.

3 ‘Spy’ (2015)

Director: Paul Feig

The superior spy comedy starring Jason Statham, compared to Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, Spy is primarily a Melissa McCarthy vehicle, though it does give Jason Statham plenty of chances to shine in a surprisingly goofy and fun role. Statham plays a special agent with more field experience than McCarthy’s character, who has a more unconventional/chaotic approach to her job that ends up working as she goes undercover to stop a dangerous arms dealer who’s obtained nuclear weapons.

Spy might not sound like much when it’s simply described on paper, but the execution here is a good deal better than one might expect. It’s entertaining and goofy, working more as a comedy than a genuine action/spy movie, but gets away with that because the humor’s consistent, hitting far more often than missing. It might be the most broadly comedic movie Statham’s appeared in yet, and he works shockingly well.

2 ‘Snatch’ (2000)

Director: Guy Ritchie

In a post-Quentin Tarantino world, movies that blended crime, comedy, multiple storylines, and large numbers of characters were very much all the rage. Snatch was an early Guy Ritchie movie that arguably rode the wave kicked off by Tarantino (who himself, admittedly, had plenty of his own influences), but it thankfully doesn’t feel derivative, with Ritchie’s own brash style shining through, and a particularly fast pace complemented with a dizzying narrative getting highlighted.

There’s a good deal going on in Snatch, with various characters involved in either a robbery gone wrong or bare-knuckle boxing. Ultimately, some find themselves entailed in both worlds, and that’s when things eventually start crossing over and becoming even more gloriously messy. Snatch is almost too much and feels overstuffed at a point, but it also never stops being entertaining or exciting in its unpredictability. It’s very funny at times, but also leans towards drama at other points, the emotional highs and lows being relatively well-balanced throughout.

1 ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ (1998)

Director: Guy Ritchie

Predating Snatch by a couple of years and scratching a similar itch, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels might well be the best film – gangster-related or otherwise – Guy Ritchie’s ever directed, not to mention the best comedy Jason Statham’s ever appeared in. Of course, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels isn’t just a comedy, more so functioning as a complex crime movie that just so happens to have plenty of dark humor peppered throughout its runtime.

Like Snatch, there are a lot of moving pieces in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels to keep track of, with most characters getting wrapped up in the aftermath of a seemingly small/simple heist gone wrong. It’s a fun ride to just enjoy and get lost in, being an early landmark entry in both Ritchie and Statham’s respective filmographies that still holds up more than a quarter of a century on from release.