The 12 Best Channing Tatum Movies, Ranked
Channing Tatum is our pre-eminent cinematic goofball. The always likable actor is pretty much down for anything, no matter how silly. He's as likely to turn up cross-dressing in a P!nk music video as he is to perform "Frozen" songs on "Lip Sync Battle" ... again while cross-dressing, come to think of it. In his films he's been an action star, a rom-com lead, a teen-movie hunk, and a grown-up male stripper, and while Oscar-bait turns in films like "Foxcatcher" have fallen flat, there's always another comedy or pleasantly weird action film around the corner. He's even collaborated five times with Steven Soderbergh, with a sixth — a third "Magic Mike" movie — on the horizon.
In other words: there's more to Tatum than initially meets the eye. He often plays jocks who turn out to have big hearts, and he's excellent at portraying lovable lunkheads concealing softer sides. While he may not be the most technically-accomplished actor in the business, he's never less than watchable and usually even downright compelling. With that in mind, these are the 12 best Channing Tatum movies, ranked.
12. The Eagle (2011)
In "The Eagle," Channing Tatum plays Marcus Flavius Aquila, commander of a Roman regiment stationed along Hadrian's Wall. His father commanded Rome's Ninth Legion, which disappeared along with its standard, a golden eagle. Marcus wants to restore honor to his father's name by holding the line against the tribes that destroyed the Ninth. After he's wounded in combat, Marcus' uncle (Donald Sutherland) buys him a slave named Esca (Jamie Bell). Together, they head north of the wall to follow rumors that the eagle has been spotted.
Queer and queer-possible readings have always been an important part of the Channing Tatum oeuvre, and "The Eagle" is no different. Marcus first sees Esca fighting a gladiator, touched by his refusal to beg for his life. His reaction to the other man is conveyed through a series of glances which can be read as respect or something like longing. Marcus turns the crowd against the gladiator, voting for Esca's survival. "I meant nothing by it," he later says sheepishly. Their master/slave relationship eventually softens into something like genuine affection, if not more. It's interesting to see Tatum in a sword-and-sandal epic, with Marcus a far cry from his usual lovable doofuses. Tatum can't do much of an accent, bless him, so all the Romans sound American. Still, there are some beautiful shots of a verdant Britain, and it's enjoyable to watch Tatum try something new even though, to paraphrase the meme, his face looks like it knows what a phone is.
11. White House Down (2013)
The year 2013 brought us two separate movies about a security guy saving the President from terrorists attacking the White House. First to the theater was "Olympus Has Fallen," starring Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman. It's a self-serious, gritty action movie directed by Antoine Fuqua. A few months later came "White House Down," starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx. It's far sillier — after all, it's directed by Roland Emmerich — and therefore, it's more fun.
Tatum stars as John Cale, a Capitol Police Officer who takes his daughter (Joey King) on a tour of the White House. Cale wants to be part of the Secret Service, but even though he's old college friends with the woman in charge of hiring (Maggie Gyllenhaal), she tells him he doesn't have what it takes. When terrorists blow up the Capitol building and take hostages in the White House, Cale goes on a mission to rescue his daughter and the President, proving himself in the process. "White House Down" isn't Emmerich's best movie. Some sequences look shockingly cheap, as if they were filmed in front of greenscreens with none of the actors in the same location, but that adds to the charm. Tatum is in typical likable lunkhead goofball mode, and by the time the Presidential limousine stars doing donuts on the White House lawn, it's easy to give in to the movie's escalating ridiculousness and just enjoy the ride.
10. The Hateful Eight (2015)
Quentin Tarantino's wintry Western "The Hateful Eight" takes place shortly after the end of the Civil War, and it's about a group of outcasts, outlaws, bounty hunters, and gang members who find themselves trapped in a building called Minnie's Haberdashery during a blizzard. Everyone has secret motivations and evil backstories, and as tensions boil over and bodies start to fall, we learn that not all is as it seems. There's another player in this deadly game, a man called Jody Domergue, and he's hiding in the basement. Oh, and he's played by Channing Tatum.
This is a relatively small role for the "Fighting" star, but it's a pivotal one. While he looked relatively out of place in "The Eagle" (to enjoyably campy results), Tatum fits in well with the greasy, grimy gang members of "The Hateful Eight." His Jody is deliciously devilish, a man with a plan who doesn't care how many people he has to hurt along the way. He turns on the typical Tatum charm, but he's spewing Tarantino's idiosyncratic dialogue, and the result is that he walks away with several of the most memorable moments in "The Hateful Eight." The film's ranking on this list comes down to a question of screen time, as Tatum is far from a lead, but "The Hateful Eight" is one of the strongest movies he's been in.
9. Step Up (2006)
Before "Step Up" launched a franchise that continues to this day, it kickstarted Channing Tatum's career. In the first film, he plays Tyler Gage, a troubled youth who is sentenced to community service as a janitor at a local performing arts academy. He dances too, but he does it for fun and his style is more hip-hop as opposed to the refined ballets being performed by students like Nora Clark (Jenna Dewan). When Nora's partner is injured, she looks to Tyler to help her out, and as their dance styles meet somewhere in the middle the two, of course, fall in love.
The film probably wouldn't be made the same way today, since Tatum plays a hip-hop-dancing white boy who comes from the streets, and even though his style of dance is inspired by people of color, they mostly exist as supporting characters. That being said, Tatum is entirely winsome in the part, appearing sweet and charming even as he's trying to act tough. He's a himbo, a characterization that would continue to follow him throughout his career. Tatum and Dewan got along so well that they married in real life, and their chemistry bleeds over on screen, too. They're thrilling to watch, as aughts dance movies go. As an important step in Tatum's career as well as a pretty solid movie on its own, "Step Up" more than earns a place on this list.
8. Stop-Loss (2008)
In "Stop-Loss," Channing Tatum plays Sgt. Steve Shriver, an Iraq War soldier who returns to Texas with his best friends PFC Tommy Burgess (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Staff Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe). They're excited to be getting out, tired of putting their lives on the line and watching their friends get blown to pieces in front of them. When Brandon is given a stop-loss order, requiring him to report for another tour of duty, he goes on the run with Steve left behind.
Francois Truffaut reportedly said, "There is no such thing as an anti-war film." Combat shown on screen, the thinking goes, will always glamorize the horrors of war, making it seem thrilling and action-packed rather than harrowing. "Stop-Loss," though, is as anti-war as we were going to get in 2008. It seems at first that Brandon, Steve, and Tommy are good ol' Army boys, but faced with going back Brandon can't handle it. "F*** the President," he tells his Lieutenant Colonel (Timothy Olyphant) before going AWOL. Tatum gets a difficult, perhaps less-sympathetic role as the one tasked with holding the line. Steve is suffering too, and Tatum does an excellent job letting us see not just the compliant Army boy but the quietly-terrified man underneath. He's hurt that his friend has walked out on the oath they took together, but he's grappling with PTSD himself. As a document of where we were in 2008 and as a showcase for Tatum's emerging talent, "Stop-Loss" is worthwhile.
7. She's The Man (2006)
As we said earlier, 2006 was a breakout year for Channing Tatum. In addition to "Step Up," he played hunky soccer player Duke Orsino in "She's the Man," a modernization of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." Duke is the boarding-school roommate of fellow soccer player Sebastian, whom he doesn't realize is actually his twin sister Viola (Amanda Bynes). As Viola finds herself falling for her roommate — who, again, thinks she's a guy — Duke also finds himself opening up to the quirky "Sebastian."
It's a refreshingly un-self-conscious performance from an actor just starting out. Especially in the mid-2000s, a lot of heartthrobs may have tried to avoid roles with queer subtext, but Tatum dives in headfirst. While Viola is undercover as a man, the two share an almost-kiss, and the moment is played with a sweetness that's not so much "no homo" as it is simply "well, this is awkward." Tatum has a fantastic scene partner in Bynes, who has rarely been better. "She's the Man" is a reminder of what a gifted physical comedian Bynes is, and Tatum's straight man — in the comedy sense, that is — matches her almost beat for beat. The film signaled several important aspects of Tatum's persona that would come to define his career. He's got an impressive physicality, but secretly he plays softies. He's not the most technical actor, but he's got incredible comedic timing. Although he identifies as straight, many of his films invite queer audiences along for the ride.
6. Hail, Caesar! (2016)
In another lifetime, Channing Tatum would have been a Fred Astaire type. The multi-talented actor can sing and dance — as he's always eager to remind his fans — and in a world where we still made big-budget studio musicals, Tatum would have been a solid leading man in many of them. The Coen Brothers' "Hail, Caesar!" makes perfect use of this aspect of Tatum's star image, casting him as Burt Gurney. His character is a Classic Hollywood musical star, a charismatic tap-dancing actor who might just be wrapped up in a seditious conspiracy being investigated by studio fixer Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin).
Though the character becomes more important in the film's final act — giving Tatum some heightened, melodramatic material to chew with relish — the centerpiece of his performance is "No Dames!" The musical number is part of a film within the film with Burt Gurney dressed as a sailor, singing and dancing about facing eight months at sea without any women. As with many Channing Tatum performances, this one is full of innuendo that's there if you want it. "Here's how it will be / I'm gonna dance with you, pal / You're gonna dance with me!" the sailors sing, winking. "The only guarantee / Is I'll see a lot of you / And you'll see a lot of me!" It's a standout performance in his filmography, and it's a blast to watch him doing classic choreography, as opposed to the stripper routines of "Magic Mike."
5. 21 & 22 Jump Street (2012 & 2014)
In the early 2010s, more than a decade after he played a bartender in Ricky Martin's music video for "She Bangs," someone somewhere finally realized that Channing Tatum can be funny. Really funny. Though there have been others in the years that followed, his best studio comedy is still 2012's "21 Jump Street" (and its strong sequel "22 Jump Street"). In the first film, he plays opposite Jonah Hill as a cop tasked with going undercover at a high school to sniff out a drug ring. The idea of the tall, muscular Tatum as a high schooler is already a promising sight gag, but the series' snappy dialogue and ever more absurdist sequences make for movies that are just nonstop silly fun.
See, for example, the scene where Jenko and Schmidt accidentally take the drug they're supposed to be investigating. Drug trip sequences are a dime a dozen, but this one knows how to use the concept sparingly, as every shot of Tatum contorting his face or giggling uncontrollably offers a new laugh, and the capstone punchline — that the drug might have made him incredibly good at science — is immediately revealed as a farce. Then there's his instantly-quotable attempt at a Spanish accent in "22 Jump Street," Schmidt digging into the offensive stereotype gleefully as an uncomfortable Jenko manages something closer to a Swedish accent as he whines, "My name's Jeff..." Tatum pitches the performance perfectly, finding exactly the right line between underplaying and absurdity. He's a delight.
4. Magic Mike (2012)
When "Magic Mike" was announced, many fans assumed the movie would be a campy romp that played on Channing Tatum's past as a male stripper. (Think "Showgirls," but men.) That's not what the movie turned out to be. Instead, "Magic Mike" is a meditation on the Great Recession, a film about a group of guys who are using their bodies to stay financially afloat in deeply uncertain times. Steven Soderbergh's desaturated, yellow-tinted outdoor scenes contrast wonderfully with the deep purples and blues of the nightclub performances, signaling the stage as a fantasy space where outside concerns are forgotten in favor of rippling abs, thrusting pelvises, and cheeky grins. It's enchanting, but it's also dark.
Tatum plays the titular Mike, but the story is just as much about the young man he takes under his wing. Alex Pettyfer is Adam (stage name "The Kid"), an aimless youngster who realizes he might be able to make a buck taking off his clothes in the male revue. There are excellent supporting turns from stars like Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello, and Matt Bomer, but even though it's also The Kid's story this is Tatum's movie. His Mike has been around the block, but he's not exactly jaded. He enjoys what he does, and his easy confidence and warmth carry over to his life outside the club. Even though the movie's subject matter is unexpected, Tatum is just as exciting to watch as one could hope.
3. Jupiter Ascending (2015)
The best Channing Tatum is goofball Channing Tatum, and the second-best Channing Tatum takes himself seriously. The Wachowskis' "Jupiter Ascending" may be the best of both worlds: an incredibly silly movie, but Tatum plays the ridiculous character straight and makes the movie work. Tatum stars as Caine Wise, a Lycantant-splice skyjacker who skates through the air on anti-gravity boots, which he needs because his wings were taken away. Got that? Basically, he's half-man/half-dog, which means he sports a blond goatee, pointy ears, and bulging arm muscles that catch the eye of Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis). She's just a humble house cleaner whose DNA happens to be an exact match for the queen of the universe, and now this handsome dogman from space wants to protect her.
"Jupiter Ascending" got a lot of flak when it came out thanks to its storyline, but it's hardly much less silly than any given Chosen One narrative ... the protagonist this time just happens to be a woman. The whole film is basically wish-fulfillment, a chance to go on an intergalactic adventure with a sensitive beefcake by your side, and Tatum is fully committed to his action-hero alien. It's refreshing to spend time with an original, grandly-envisioned space opera like this, a mega-budget sci-fi spectacle not bogged down by easter eggs and interconnected cinematic universes. Perhaps its biggest crime is that it's too earnest, but we could all use a little more earnest cheese in our lives.
2. Logan Lucky (2017)
Before Daniel Craig developed Benoit Blanc's syrupy Southern accent for "Knives Out," he experimented with something a bit more Appalachian in Steven Soderbergh's "Logan Lucky." The 2017 heist film centers on recently-fired father Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) and his one-armed bartender brother Clyde (Adam Driver). The Logans are said to be an unlucky bunch, but when Jimmy cooks up a scheme to rob a nearby NASCAR track, things are looking up. To pull it off, they enlist the help of a number of local yokels, including incarcerated demolitions expert Joe Bangs (Craig).
Soderbergh, of course, directed "Ocean's Eleven" through "Thirteen," so the man knows his way around a heist film. "Logan Lucky" eschews most of the genre's regular beats, and it's not really a spoiler to say that the heist mostly goes off without a hitch. The film is getting at something a bit deeper, a bit more class-conscious: its West Virginia setting is full of modest homes and rundown bars off of lonely highways, contrasted with a veritable orgy of capitalistic branding at the speedway the Logans set their sights on. What emerges is mostly a portrait of a father — Jimmy — just trying to do right by his little girl. Tatum's accent is hit-or-miss, but his sense of comedic timing is as strong as ever, and he makes Jimmy Logan into a sympathetic criminal. He radiates love whenever he's around his daughter, all softness and fond smiles, and he's a grounding force for the film's zany energy.
1. Magic Mike XXL (2015)
While the original "Magic Mike" turned out to be dark and depressing, the sequel jettisons all that in favor of pure cinematic joy. In "Magic Mike XXL," Channing Tatum's stripper Mike is invited by his old crew to compete in one last big show. Though he's hesitant at first, he can't resist the throbbing bass line of Ginuwine's "Pony," and soon he's dancing around his workshop, thrusting, sliding, thinking about the good old days. Mike signs up for the competition after all and the gang is off, hitting a number of stripper-starved locations along the way. That's right: it's a road trip movie.
Whereas the first time around Steven Soderbergh had something to say, "Magic Mike XXL" is all about delivering the goods. From Joe Manganiello's filthy convenience store performance of "I Want it That Way" to Michael Strahan's seductive stripping at Jada Pinkett Smith's Club Domina, a sexually-repressed Andie McDowell's house to the fireworks and tourist bacchanalia of Myrtle Beach, "Magic Mike XXL" just wants to make you happy. After all, everyone the strippers love up on in the movie can't help but feel attended to and pleased, and the camera lingers on the satisfied smiles of the women watching the men dance. It's basically a hangout movie, a film that reunites us with Tatum's iconic character and just lets him have fun. This is Tatum at his absolute best, showing off that particular alchemy of beefcake goofiness. There's no one else quite like him.