Few can match the humanenergy-drink status of Vince Vaughn.
He's one of the best to sit across from David Letterman, and with a passion for hockey and football knowledge, he often holds his own alongside NFL and NHL commentators. He can flatout talk.
In movies, he's no less chatty. His latest, The Watch, which opens Friday, pairs Vaughn with Ben Stiller and Jonah Hill in what feels like an extension of every other Frat Pack film to date. That's not a bad thing: No matter the genre or cast, the Chicago native is always money.
Here are some of the highlights from his 18-year film career.
1 Wedding Crashers (2005). In what remains his definitive role, Vaughn plays a womanizing lawyer whose wedding-crashing exploits are legend. This being Hollywood, the film wraps everything into a tidy package, but not before Vaughn and his sidekick Owen Wilson create some of the most gut-busting and politically incorrect scenes in comedy history.
Swingers (1996).
2 Vaughn shot to stardom with his highly quotable ("Vegas, baby") turn in Swingers, director Doug Liman's out-of-nowhere cult hit from 1996. The film's music helped kickstart the swing craze of the late 1990s, and the oftrepeated dialogue is responsible for giving Vaughn - who gave rise to the term "money" - his Alist status among actors.
3 Old School (2003). One of the first in the series of loosely termed Frat Pack movies, which often starred Vaughn and his buddies, Old School isn't high art, but it certainly produces non-stop laughs. Vaughn (who delivers some of the best lines in the movie) was surrounded by a cast of dream collaborators in Old School, including Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson and director Todd Phillips, who went on to blockbuster success with The Hangover franchise.
4 Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (2004). Though it has moments of a formulaic sports movie (perennial loser finds redemption by triumphing over nemesis), Dodgeball has become a cult classic. Thanks to a superb cast - Vaughn and Stiller have substantial help from comedy character actors Stephen Root and Gary Cole, among others - Dodgeball is a comedy knockout.
5 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2003). Vaughn plays Wes Mantooth, the broadcasting foil of Will Ferrell, in this sendup of '70s television TV from director Adam McKay. Vaughn appears sporadically in a cameo capacity, but his scenes with Ferrell rank as some of the film's best, especially the back alley rumble between competing newscasts.
6 Into the Wild (2007). Dramatic roles have proven difficult thus far for Vaughn, in part because he's so well-known and much-loved as a comic. A rare exception is his brief but thoughtful performance in Sean Penn's Into the Wild, a role that requires less of Vaughn's familiar shtick than usual, and more of his acting chops. He is unforgettable in a only a few minutes of screen time.
7 Made (2001). Jon Favreau, who wrote and appeared alongside Vaughn in Swingers, wrote and directed this mob comedy about two Mafia wannabes, a small-scale movie that was marketed as an unofficial sequel to Swingers. Unfairly, it suffered by comparison. Years later, Made is worth a fresh look, especially for the somewhat restrained turn by Vaughn, in his first comedic role after a string of drama duds.
8 Be Cool (2005). Vaughn clearly had a ball playing "Raji," a delusional pimp who is seemingly unaware that he is white. Outfitted with a preposterous/hilarious laugh, his scenes with Dwayne Johnson as an against-type gay bodyguard are some of the best in Vaughn's career. The movie, a sequel to Get Shorty, isn't great - but Vaughn is certainly memorable.
9 The Break-Up (2006). The mere sight of Vaughn's big, dumb, goofy mug prompts most people to break into laughter, but there wasn't much to smile about in The Break-Up, a black comedy about a couple attempting to live together during their separation. Vaughn is superb, and though it counts as one of his biggest box office successes, that had plenty to do with the paparazzi heat placed upon him and his co-star, Jennifer Aniston, who were dating at the time.
10 Four Christmases (2008). Not every Vaughn vehicle is a good movie, from a technical perspective, but almost every role he takes on offers some sort of reward. In the otherwise formulaic Four Christmases, which came from a sloppily assembled script about a couple who visits all four of its parents during the holidays, Vaughn draws laughs by way of his on-screen appeal, which is considerable. It's worth seeing for him alone.
