Skip to main content

5 great Wesley Snipes movies you should watch

As one of the more charismatic actors to ever light up the screen, Wesley Snipes built the kind of career that few actors have managed to pull off. The ’90s were undoubtedly his decade of dominance, but his stardom continued well into the 2000s, and he was ultimately able to cement himself as one of the great movie stars of his or any generation.

Like any good movie star, Snipes starred in some movies that were pretty bad, but he also starred in plenty of good to great movies. We’ve plucked the best five movies from his career, in case you’re just looking to watch the highlights.

Blade II (2002)

Blade 2 Official Trailer #1 - (2002) HD

The entire Blade trilogy is worth watching, in part because it’s an important reminder of what superhero movies used to be like before Marvel got ahold of everything. Snipes’ version of the character is genuinely mean, but the actor also brings undeniable charisma to the role that only a few other actors have ever brought to the realm of superheroes.

Blade II is also incredibly stylish, thanks to some sharp direction from Guillermo Del Toro. The CGI may not hold up, but that’s about the only thing about Blade II that doesn’t.

White Men Can’t Jump (1992)

White Men Can't Jump | #TBT Trailer | 20th Century FOX

Telling the story of a pair of skilled basketball players who hustle their way around the pickup scene in Los Angeles, White Men Can’t Jump is the ideal pairing of Snipes and Woody Harrelson, a white player who counts on Black players underestimating his skills.

While White Men Can’t Jump is fundamentally a comedy, it’s one that takes on sharp racial questions and also features some truly excellent basketball. It’s one of Snipes’ best performances.

Jungle Fever (1991)

Jungle Fever Official Trailer #1 - Samuel L. Jackson Movie (1991) HD

Spike Lee has never shied away from complicated stories about race, and Jungle Race may be one of his most nuanced films. Snipes stars as an attorney who begins an affair with his white secretary, only to find that his life totally unravels in the aftermath.

The movie is an incisive look at both racial and sexual politics, and it doesn’t shy away from asking complicated questions about its protagonist and his desires. Jungle Fever still feels relevant 30 years later, which is what the best of Spike Lee’s films are able to accomplish.

Major League (1989)

Major League 1989 Movie

Snipes is just one part of a broader ensemble here, but Major League gives him a chance to show off his skills as a comedian. The film tells the story of a team that is assembled to lose at the highest levels which starts to win almost in spite of itself.

Major League is deeply silly, but that’s part of the joy of it. Snipes is great as a walk-on player who can’t hit at all but manages to make the team thanks to his impressive speed. Like everything about this movie, his performance is pretty hard to hate.

Demolition Man (1993)

Demolition Man (1993) Official Trailer - Sylvester Stallone, Wesley Snipes Action Movie HD

Starring Snipes opposite Sylvester Stallone, Demolition Man is a science fiction movie that sees Snipes’ criminal set loose on the streets of Los Angeles in the distant year of 2022. The movie’s vision of the future may not be accurate, but Snipes is utterly riveting as one of the great villains that Stallone faced over the course of his entire career.

This is a movie that allows space for both actors to play, and, in spite of its sci-fi trappings, the most spellbinding spectacle on display is Snipes’ performance.

Editors' Recommendations

Joe Allen
Joe Allen is a freelance writer based in upstate New York focused on movies and TV.
5 Tom Cruise movies you need to watch in August
Tom Cruise as Barry Seal piloting a plane in American Made.

It's not an overstatement to say Tom Cruise is the last real movie star. The actor is back on the big screen with the larger-than-life action flick Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, the seventh entry in the long-running and acclaimed Mission: Impossible series. Cruise is among the last actors capable of mobilizing global audiences on name alone, with many still willing to pay for a movie ticket just to see him doing his thing.

In a career spanning over forty years, Cruise has starred in multiple hits and certified classics, from Oscar-winning darlings like Rain Man to iconic action vehicles like Top Gun. Those looking to start the month with more Cruise should undoubtedly check out these stellar films starring cinema's most famous daredevil, which will surely make for a thrilling and unforgettable August.
Cocktail (1988)

Read more
This John Cena film is Netflix’s most popular movie. Here’s why you should watch it
John Cena and Jackie Chan in Hidden Strike.

Prior to last week, you may not have heard of Hidden Strike. And that's understandable since it's a Chinese and American action film that spent the last half decade gathering dust on a shelf. This movie couldn't get an American distributor until Netflix came along, and that's a bet that paid off for the king of the streamers. As of today, August 4, Hidden Strike is the most popular movie on Netflix.

Action icon Jackie Chan headlines the cast as "Dragon" Luo Feng, the leader of a security team in Iraq who was hired to protect an oil refinery owned by a Chinese company called Unicorp. But what Luo Feng really cares about are the people under his protection. Chris Van Horne (John Cena) is an ex-Marine who is tricked by his own brother, Henry Van Horne (Amadeus Serafini), and the duplicitous Owen Paddock (Pilou Asbaek) into attacking Luo Feng's civilian convoy. Out of remorse, Van Horne agrees to team up with Luo Feng against a common threat so they can get the civilians home safely.

Read more
5 underrated Ryan Reynolds movies you should watch now
Ryan Reynolds points a gun in Smokin' Aces.

He’s a Canadian icon, an innovator in mobile phone services (as an owner of Mint Mobile, recently sold to T-Mobile), and a passionate English football team co-owner. Ryan Reynolds does more than just act. Nonetheless, the Hollywood star is best known for his time on the big screen, showing his range in everything from rom-coms to dramas, comedies to Marvel Comics superhero films.

Sure, Reynolds got his start on a little Canadian soap opera called Hillside, then starred on the TV show Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place. But he catapulted from National Lampoon’s Van Wilder to being taken seriously once he started taking on more dramatic and nuanced roles. Reynolds is about more than just Deadpool, The Proposal, Red Notice, and the one movie he wishes to forget, Green Lantern. He has had some fabulous, often forgotten roles, too.
Adventureland (2009)

Read more