Five Best: Charlie Sheen

courtesy of accesshollywood.com

I had to do it. Though he has become more popular on TV with "Two and a Half Men" and "Spin City," Charlie Sheen did have a movie career at one point. It's pretty hit and miss, and I would never say that any of these films are good because Charlie Sheen is in them. There's a better chance they are good in spite of him. But, let's skip all the tiger blood and do some real WINNING - here they are in chronological order.

Scene from "Red Dawn" courtesy degeneratenews.com	Red Dawn (1984) Let's be honest - Red Dawn is ridiculous. The premise is incredibly stupid - Soviet and Cuban troops drop onto a Colorado football field to attack a bunch of high schoolers in the mountains. Sheen stars alongside Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, and Lea Thompson as the scrappy crew who tries to take down the KGB with hunting rifles and pistols. It's the cheesy fun that defined the 80's. WOLVERINES!!
Scene from "Platoon" courtesy of saysomethingfunny.com	Platoon (1986) Oliver Stone's best picture winner is a brutual look at the Vietnam War and the horrors we may or may not have committed. Sheen headlines, but Willem Dafoe, John C. Reily, and Tom Berenger shoulder the load in one of Stone's more "complete" movies. Sheen is a rich kid who decides to enlist against his family's wishes; he's exposed to a world he is nowhere near ready to comprehend. Look for a young Johnny Depp as a medic, too.
Jennifer Grey and Charlie Sheen in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" courtesy of flix66.com	Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) He's barely in it (thankfully), but Sheen shows up in the principal's office in this John Hughes masterpiece. The lead actors - Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, and Mia Sera - run the comedy gaunlet in this wonderfully high-spirited trip through one day in the life of a high school student playing hooky. Fantastic supporting turns and an ingenious story makes this film one of the best of the 80's and certainly of Sheen's catalog.
Charlie Sheen in "Wall Street" courtesy of strangecultureblog.com	Wall Street (1987) Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is one of the more iconic movie characters to ever grace the screen, long before the heinous attempt to ruin his rep last year. Another Olver Stone directed film, Wall Street gives us Gekko taking a young stockbroker named Bud Fox (Sheen) under his wing and exposing him to the world of yachts, yuppies, and money. It's dark and brooding and worth the ride - greed is good, after all.
Charlie Sheen in "Major league" courtesy of iwatchstuff.com	Major League (1989) Eight Men Out is probably the better Sheen-baseball movie, but I  love the ridiculous fun of the first Major League. Sheen has surprisingly decent comedic chops, especially when he doesn't have to drive the whole movie on his own. Filmmakers need to take notice - Sheen can be legitimately funny if you surround him with characters a lot more twisted than he is. Tough to do, but give it a shot.