Our Critic Picks Brendan Fraser’s 10 Best Films

Before his Oscar-winning performance as a haunted, housebound father in 2022’s The Whale, actor Brendan Fraser put in 30 solid years of work in movies big and small. Here are the essential films from his long and varied career.

Matt Damon, Randall Batinkoff and Brendan Fraser in "School Ties."

Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection

School Ties (1992)

His breakout film feels like a cousin to another prep-school coming-of-age drama from the era, 1989’s Dead Poets Society. The cast is loaded with young actors, then on the brink of stardom, including Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. But it’s Fraser who aces the trickiest role: a Jewish student trying to hide his religion.

Lions Gate/courtesy Everett Collecti / Everett Collection

Ian McKellen and Brendan Fraser in "Gods and Monsters."

Gods and Monsters (1998)

After a string of disposable big-studio comedies, Fraser switched things up with this poignant indie about a macho gardener who forms an unlikely friendship with a gay, retired Hollywood director (Ian McKellen, 86) in his final days. Here, Fraser proved he was an actor and not just a pretty movie star. “It’s the one movie I wish more people had seen,” he told me.

Alicia Silverstone and Brendan Fraser in "Blast from the Past."

New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection

Blast from the Past (1999)

This fish-out-of-water comedy sounds pretty broad on paper — a guy who grew up in a bomb shelter now has to figure out the world outside (a world that includes Alicia Silverstone, 51) — but Fraser’s surprisingly sensitive turn elevates the high-concept premise into something much more interesting.

John Hannah, Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser in "The Mummy."

Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection

The Mummy (1999)

Welcome to the big leagues. Fraser’s first megablockbuster is pure razzle-dazzle eye candy. With a nod to Indiana Jones, Fraser is a treasure hunter who partners with a fearless librarian (Rachel Weisz, 55) and awakens an ancient Egyptian entity they should have left sleeping. It led to two sequels, with another on the way.

Elizabeth Hurley and Brendan Fraser in "Bedazzled."

Alamy Stock Photo

Bedazzled (2000)

This remake of a beloved Dudley Moore/Peter Cook comedy doesn’t have the same laughing-gas lunacy as the 1967 original, but it does have the chameleonic Fraser giving a variety of interesting performances as a nerdy IT worker who is granted seven wishes by a sex-bomb version of the devil (Elizabeth Hurley, 60).