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Cole Sprouse may have spent his youth as one half of a double act, but his twenties have been all about coming into his own as an artist and an actor. Generations of young adults may have grown up on his work on “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” and its sister series “The Suite Life on Deck,” but he’s moved on from Disney Channel sitcoms to challenging dramas, quirky cult horror comedies, and a legendarily campy television hit. All the while, he’s developed a wry comedic rhythm. From his beginnings as a teen idol, he’s built a career as a character actor with a résumé quite unlike many of his contemporaries.

But which of his projects hits the highest notes? Here’s a brief ranking of Cole Sprouse’s seven most interesting and best-acted TV series and film roles, going all the way back to when he was a child actor and branching out to his most recent hits.

It’s a fond memory for many a Millennial, but “Big Daddy” is one of those Adam Sandler comedies that hasn’t held up as well as “The Wedding Singer,” “Happy Gilmore,” or even “The Waterboy.” Yet both Cole and Dylan Sprouse — who share the role of Julian McGrath in the film — manage to give their character an appreciably wacky sense of life that goes beyond being a couple of blond moppets.

The film focuses on Sandler’s Sandy Koufax (yes, like the legendary Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher). A near-lawyer who’s never passed the bar, Sandy has been content to let life pass by without growing up or advancing his career. Then Julian, the biological son of Sandy’s roommate, Kevin Gerrity (Jon Stewart), is left on his doorstep after the boy’s mother dies of cancer. Kevin is out of town negotiating a deal in China, so Sandy decides to step up and take care of Julian, impersonating Kevin all the way. While he manages to finally attain maturity while raising the child, will his attempt at impersonating Kevin result in Julian being placed in a foster home?

It’s typical Sandler shenanigans all the way, but the movie’s sweet story and the unabashedly cute performances by Cole and his brother make it worth a watch, despite its very late-’90s jokes.

This marked the moment when the Sprouse twins really got to step out on their own and be individuals in front of the camera. A Disney Channel comedy that became one of the cable network’s series of big hits, “Suite Life” still has a strong fanbase even though nearly twenty years have passed since the show’s debut.

The series focuses on the Martin twins, studious Cody (Cole Sprouse) and mischievous Zack (Dylan Sprouse). The adolescents have the run of the ultra-fancy Tipton Hotel and live in a suite in the Boston-based facility where their mother, Carey (Kim Rhodes), makes ends meet by singing in the hotel’s lounge. The siblings’ working-class background clashes with that of their friend, self-absorbed heiress London Tipton (Brenda Song). London has a frequent rivalry with poor hardworking candy counter girl Maddie Fitzpatrick (Ashley Tisdale), who’s also a friend of the twins and goes to the same school as London, but on a scholarship. The two friends aid and abet Zack and Cody’s many adventures and schemes as they grow up together, while Mr. Mosby (Phill Lewis) acts as the group’s father figure, the hotel’s manager, and a frequent spoiler to their wacky adventures.

“Suite Life” was such a popular series it was eventually rebooted into “Suite Life on Deck,” which put the majority of the show’s cast on a cruise ship and ran for three more seasons. A science fiction-flavored TV movie, “The Suite Life Movie,” rounded out the show. There’s a reason why it was such an enduring show, and the Sprouse twins’ charm and sense of comedic timing were a big part of it.

Let’s face it — if you’re watching “Friends,” it’s probably not for Cole Sprouse’s seven appearances as Ben Geller. Nonetheless, the aspiring star managed to make a good impression in a series of important episodes featuring the character, including the famous “Holiday Armadillo” outing, which earns him a place on this list. This also marks the first time Cole Sprouse ever got to act solo in a major way, without splitting the role with his brother or playing a pair of siblings.

Ben, of course, is the result of Ross Geller’s (David Schwimmer) marriage to Carol Willick (Jane Sibbett). Ross splits custody of Ben with Carol and her wife, Susan (Jessica Hecht), but mainly sees his son on holidays and weekends. Ben is a mischievous kid with a sense of humor and a lot of heart, though he sometimes annoys and consternates the adults around him. Cole Sprouse makes him a fun kid who’s easy to sympathize with, especially compared to the wild adults in his life.

You would think that uniting teen faves Cole Sprouse and Lana Condor for a single television film would be a winning combination, but this Max-exclusive movie was largely forgotten by audiences soon after it was released. That’s unfortunate, because it’s a fun romp through the near future, with winning performances by both stars.

It’s 2049, and teenagers Walt (Sprouse) and Sophie (Condor) are just kids trying to live their normal lives when they meet by chance at a party. Walt’s been trying to get into the Kovi Industries Student Mars Program, but he’s been rejected over thirty times. Sophie’s boyfriend, Calvin (Mason Gooding), has already made the grade and breaks her heart by deciding to spend more time on the red planet than originally planned.

Walt convinces Sophie to take the next shuttle to Mars to be with Calvin, as long as she sneaks him aboard so he can fulfill his dream of going to Mars and track down Ginny (Emily Rudd), a girl he fell in love at first sight with. But can Walt’s fantasies about Mars and Sophie’s fantasies about Calvin survive the test of reality? It’s not often that Sprouse gets to play someone as charmingly manipulative as Walt, so this is a fun stretch for his acting muscles that proves to be an enjoyable watch despite the movie failing to make an impact on audiences.

Despite what some people think, “Five Feet Apart” isn’t based on a true story. It is, however, a good, old-fashioned, romantic tearjerker about two teenagers, each of whom has a progressive and usually deadly disease, falling in love with each other. Romantic, quiet, and filled with warmth, the film gave Cole Sprouse the opportunity to introduce himself to the world as a full-on romantic lead without a hint of the typical dry sarcasm that typically underlies his performances.

Will Newman (Sprouse) and Stella Grant (Haley Lu Richardson) both have cystic fibrosis. Their illness forces them to maintain a physical distance between them of no less than five feet to avoid infection and death, thanks to their poor immune systems. But that’s not the only issue the teenagers’ relationship has; Stella keeps a strict eye on her health, while Will copes with his fatal diagnosis with a haphazard attitude. The two spark and court and fight, but can they outrun the disease they share to survive to the next year?

This is a classic weepy story that teenagers will love, but there’s also real substance and heft to it. Sprouse and Richardson do a good job with their roles and raise the entire film up beyond stock tragedy.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about The CW’s long-lived take on the Archie Comics universe is that it doesn’t even come close to the wild things that actually take place in the Archie Comics universe. Go into the show knowing that, and you’ll be better prepared for the performances and plot developments that will greet you.

Cole Sprouse manages to bring both gravitas and knowing humor to his role as Forsythe “Jughead” Pendleton Jones III, a wannabe author who chronicles the bizarre, odd, and downright wild things that keep happening in his hometown. While his character mainly plays the artistic straight-man narrator to the rest of his friends, Jughead still manages to get rabies, be abducted by aliens, and accidentally cause an entire alternate dimension to open up over the course of the series’ long run. That’s a decent amount of chaos for a single Riverdalian to set loose on the world.

The thing to remember about “Riverdale” is, don’t expect it to make much sense. The show’s time period eventually gets so confusing that Sprouse was once called upon to explain it. As Jughead, Sprouse has to perform a delicate balancing act between seriously guiding his character through hell and winking at the audience. Somehow, he pulls it off, and that’s a performance worth commending.

It’s rare that a film manages to be deemed a cult classic within months of its release, but “Lisa Frankenstein” looks like it’s set to join the rarified air that movies like “Jennifer’s Body” and “Re-Animator” occupy. Cole Sprouse is wonderful as the mainly silent Creature, creating a breakout character with a dearly wordless performance — something that’s very hard to do.

It’s 1989, and all Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton) wants to do is catch the attention of Michael (Henry Eikenberry), the boy she has a crush on. She also has a crush of sorts on a boy who died in 1837 (Sprouse) after being dumped by his fiancée. A miracle occurs when a bolt of lightning hits the Victorian-era grave and brings the boy back to life. Lisa soon finds herself playing Frankenstein, stealing body parts to replace her Creature’s rotting ones and using her stepsister Taffy’s (Liza Soberano) tanning bed as a conduit to charge said parts back to life. Soon, the Creature takes on a life of his own, and Lisa finds herself cleaning up his messes, falling in love with him, and even committing some crimes of her own.

A delightful dark comedy horror film with a wicked sense of time and place, “Lisa Frankenstein” is unforgettable thanks to Cole Sprouse’s performance in his best major role so far.

What is a B-movie, anyway? The term once referred to the Hollywood practice of showing two movies at theater screenings – a major studio or “A” picture first, followed by a cheaper “B” movie. That definition now applies any low-budget, non-studio production, and usually a genre film like horror, action, or science fiction. B-movies are churned out every day; most streaming services offer dozens of new films in this category, all vying for audiences’ attention with sex, violence, faded stars, and a passing similarity to bigger-budget features.

Many B-movies are among the worst movies ever made, but not all B-movies are junk. “Night of the Living Dead” (1968) reshaped horror tropes, but is still essentially a B-movie; so are “Slacker,” “Clerks,” and “The Evil Dead.” Every decade since the dawn of talkies has its share of popular and successful B-movies, and the 1990s are no exception. Following is a list of ’90s-era B-movies that are worth checking out for a variety of reasons, from hidden quality to unintentional laughs.

An indie thriller that established Bill Paxton as a leading man, put Billy Bob Thornton on the map as a writer and launched Carl Franklin’s directorial career, “One False Move” might have never become a sleeper hit in 1992. Made for $2.5 million, the film was a tough sell, with a first-time director in former actor Franklin, and a first-time feature writer in co-star Thornton. Paxton was its biggest name, but was known more as a character actor in films like “Aliens.” “One False Move” went unreleased for nearly a year until its producers wrangled a series of festival screenings.

Critics and audiences were wowed by the film, which concerned a trio of brutal criminals (Thornton, Cynda Williams, and Michael Beach) who are thwarted by Paxton’s small-town sheriff. “Its power comes from the stripped-down simplicity of its style and the unblinking savagery of its violence,” wrote the Washington Post. But “One False Move” is less a Tarantino-style exercise in bloodshed than a thoughtful character study that refashions movie notions of heroes and villains. Nothing is black and white in “One False Move”; everyone has moral shadings that make their actions more complicated. That complexity helped mint the movie as one of its decade’s best indies, if not one of the best thrillers of all time.

The 1990 remake of “Night of the Living Dead” was motivated largely by economic necessity. Director George A. Romero never saw much of the 1968 original’s box office due to a faulty copyright, and launched a remake to recoup decades of losses. The new version, written by Romero and directed by special effects legend Tom Savini, followed its predecessor’s template but also added new touches: chief among these was Patricia Tallman’s Barbara, who was transformed from a meek victim in the original to a warrior here.

Described by Savini as “absolute torture,” the production was beset by problems, including numerous cuts to earn an R rating, which doomed the film with horror fans. Though dismissed in 1990 as a carbon copy of the groundbreaking original, Savini’s film is now a favorite among the horror faithful, with many critics singling out the abundant gore and fresh take on Barbara as its chief virtues. Even Savini himself likes it. “I saw it objectively, and it’s good,” he told Famous Monsters of Filmland (via It Came From… blog). “The actors are great, the suspense is there. I mean, it’s good!”

Though dozens of “Road Warrior” clones roared across home video screens in the ’80s and ’90s, 1991’s “Neon City” has a few distinguishing marks that make it one of the better post-apocalyptic movies out there. These include cult favorite Michael Ironside — as a bounty hunter leading a truckload of survivors across an America ravaged by ecological disaster — as well as the stark Salt Lake City locations. As TV Guide noted, “Director and supporting player Monte Markham uses the majestic Utah scenery well and manages the tricky feat of shooting the cramped truck interior with an energetic and fluid lens.”

“Neon City” also doesn’t have the budget for the stunts that fuel most “Road Warrior” retreads, and relies instead on a who-lives-who-dies scenario to build suspense (as many critics have noted, “Neon City” is essentially a futuristic revamp of John Ford’s “Stagecoach”). The odd but capable cast is also a plus: singer-actress Vanity, ex-footballer Lyle Alzado, Juliet Landau of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and even Richard Sanders from “WKRP in Cincinnati.” As end-of-the-world adventures go, “Neon City” isn’t the best, but it’s also far from the worst.

Although popular with his fans, “The People Under the Stairs” doesn’t quite make the top tier of Wes Craven’s best movies, like “A Nightmare on Elm Street” or “Scream.” A box office and critical hit  in 1992 (even Gene Siskel liked it), “People” shares elements with Craven’s finest films: two memorable villains, a likable hero (Brandon Adams of “The Mighty Ducks”), gruesome violence, some  transgressive moments, and the sociopolitical commentary that had been a part of his work since “Last House on the Left.” Jordan Peele even considered a remake as recently as 2023.

It’s possible that “People” hasn’t had the same staying power as other Craven classics because it hangs on a truly nasty premise. The villains are a deviate pair of wealthy landlords (Everett McGill and Wendy Robie, who played the Hurleys on “Twin Peaks”) prey on others in literal and figurative terms: they victimize their largely Black tenants with rent hikes and evictions while also turning a horde of abducted children into cannibalistic monsters.

Their crimes aren’t are graphic as those in Craven’s early shocker, “Last House on the Left,” but the notion is truly horrible (and allegedly based on a real event). Craven makes the premise scary, but also finds excitement, humor, and anger in its critique of wealth and excess. As such, it deserves a closer look.

“Stone Cold” was supposed to make Brian Bosworth a movie star after his brief, controversial run in the National Football League. The 1991 film didn’t set his acting career on fire (though he continues to log film and television appearances), but “Stone Cold” remains a gloriously over-the-top action entry, rich with testosterone-fueled stunts (including one motorcycle vs. helicopter bit that the New York Times described as packing a “fairly good visceral charge”), overripe dialogue and performances, and the willful disregard for plot logic that makes early ’90s B-action such a guilty pleasure.

What sets “Stone Cold” apart is that everyone — director Craig R. Baxley, Bosworth, and bad guys Lance Henriksen and William Forsythe — seems 100% committed (or in the case of Henriksen, 1000% percent, given his voracious scenery-chewing) to delivering what they believe is the most mind-blowing action movie ever. “Stone Cold” is not that by a long shot, but it’s determined to entertain, and goes the extra mile to sell its store-bought cheese as the finest fromage.

As every bio of Peter Jackson notes, the “Lord of the Rings” director began his career in low-budget features made in his native New Zealand. The title of his first film, 1987’s “Bad Taste,” largely sums up these efforts: splatter-soaked exercises in dark humor. Jackson’s third horror film, 1992’s “Braindead” — released in North America as “Dead Alive” — is awash in gore and zombies. But “Dead Alive” is also a bellwether for Jackson’s filmmaking talent, displaying a knack for humor and spectacle-sized setpieces that would serve him well on later projects.

The premise is totally absurd — mutant rat-monkey hybrids cause a zombie outbreak in a 1950s-era New Zealand suburb — allowing Jackson to design an endless parade of ways in which the human body can be torn apart. But the violence is ridiculous and revels in its own gross absurdity. The bloodshed eventually reaches surreal proportions when Jackson’s hero (Tim Balme) eliminates a crowd of zombies with a lawn mower and later, when he faces a skyscraper-sized version of his dead mother, both of which Jackson handles with a deft technical skill that belies his film’s paltry $3 million budget. The result is “the most hilariously disgusting movie ever made,” as the Los Angeles Times proclaimed.

Shortly after shocking audiences in the mid-1980s with “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer,” writer-director John McNaughton found himself in need of a follow-up project. As he told The Flashback Files in 2017, he turned down countless horror scripts until reading “The Borrower,” a grisly black comedy about an alien criminal exiled to Earth in human form. However, the alien’s body rejects its disguise, requiring it to acquire new heads from unwilling victims every few hours.

McNaughton liked the conceit of the head-swapping alien, which reminded him of actors assuming different roles. “That gave me something to take ahold of, other than just the monster that jumps up from behind a tree to scare you and eat you,” he said. Though not as dark as “Henry,” “The Borrower” delivered splattery horror and offbeat humor in equal measure, helped immeasurably by Antonio Fargas and “Henry” alumnus Tom Towles as various head donors. Completed in 1988 but unreleased until 1991, “The Borrower” earned modest praise from media like the New York Times, which accurately described it as “alternately silly and gross on purpose.”

The 1990s were a surprisingly lean period for horror anthologies, with the most notable entry being “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.” However, one ’90s-era horror portmanteau film that deserves more notice is Rusty Cundieff’s “Tales from the Hood.” Produced by Spike Lee and released in 1995, the film offers a wealth of shocks as well as some pointed and still-relevant social commentary.

Its framing device — a strange funeral director (Clarence Williams III) relates stories about four recent arrivals — leads into traditional horror territory, including revenge from beyond the grave, psychic powers, witchcraft, and unorthodox medical procedures. For most anthology movies, a creepy payoff in each tale would be sufficient, but veteran director Cundieff and writer Darin Scott use the horror as a launching pad to address a deeper fear: the dangers inherent to the Black experience in America.

“Hood” tackles issues of police brutality, institutionalized racism, and the impact of violence to create, as Variety suggested, “a clever commingling of elements from ‘Boyz N the Hood’ and “Tales from the Crypt.'” The messages and frights hit with equal impact, the performances are effective — especially Williams as the ghoulish mortuary owner — and the visual effects belie the low budget. “Tales from the Hood” even got two sequels, in 2018 and 2020.

It goes without saying that a film titled “Frankenhooker” is in bad taste. The 1990 comedy, directed by “Basket Case” filmmaker Frank Henenlotter, is about an amateur mad scientist (James Lorinz) who decides that the best way to bring back his fiancee, Elizabeth (Patty Mullen), after her death by industrial lawnmower is to rebuild her from corpses. He harvests the limbs from New York City escorts, whom he eliminates with a drug that causes users to explode. But Elizabeth 2.0 is, unfortunately, the true sum of her parts: a zombified lady of the night, forever lurching after prospective clients whom she kills with a burst of electricity.

On paper, “Frankenhooker” sounds crass and exploitative — and it is. But like the films of John Waters or “The Greasy Strangler,” the gross-outs are couched in gleefully raucous humor; as Fangoria noted, “Henenlotter exaggerates what could have been lurid and unpleasant into something so berserk that you can’t help but laugh.” His two leads also offer maximum support: Lorinz is hilarious as a streetwise, motormouthed Dr. Frankenstein, but Mullen’s post-reconstruction Elizabeth steals the film. She suggests the sympathetic side of Mary Shelley’s monster — physically awkward and desperate to connect with humans — filtered through an MTV video vixen, albeit one with goggle eyes and a bolted-on head.

A road trip take on Dante’s “Inferno,” the 1992 fantasy-comedy “Highway to Hell” was a staple of home video and cable broadcasts, where it managed to build a small but dedicated following for its pun-heavy humor and imaginative plot. Directed by Dutch filmmaker Ate de Jong, it offers an agreeable amount of action and suspense, some clever gags on mythology and the afterlife, and a host of humorous cameos, including Ben and Jerry Stiller and Gilbert Gottfried.

De Jong gets plenty of production value out of desert locations in Utah and Arizona, while concocting some amusing visual gags. Those include a set of handcuffs made from human hands and a sign noting that the titular road was created by the Good Intentions Paving Company. The cast, led by Chad Lowe and Kristy Swanson, seems to appreciate the chance to play for laughs, and brief scenes involving the Stillers — Ben as a diner cook and Atilla the Hun (opposite Gottfried as Hitler), Jerry as a cop, Anne Meara as a waitress, and Amy Stiller as Cleopatra — boost the laughs immeasurably. Elements like these helped earn “Highway” praise from, among others, Billboard, which noted, “This devil-may-care version of the Orpheus legend is smart, witty, and incredibly imaginative.”

“Freaked” isn’t just an anarchic satire of toxic celebrity culture. Nor is it solely a delirious horror spoof about a mad scientist (Randy Quaid) who creates bizarre sideshow attractions. It’s primarily your chance to see Keanu Reeves as a dog-faced boy, Mr. T in drag, and John Hawkes as a bovine cowboy. The brainchild of “Bill and Ted” star Alex Winter and TV vet Tom Stern, “Freaked” earned a raft of positive press before its release – the Entertainment Weekly review stated, “The movie stuns you into a state of giddy delirium” — but fell victim to a regime change at 20th Century Fox, which dumped the film into just two theaters in the fall of 1993.

Admittedly, “Freaked” is aggressively weird and revels in tasteless jokes. One recurring bit involves an adolescent fan of obnoxious former child star Ricky Coogin (played by Winter) who is thrown from planes, tossed through plate glass windows, and eventually transformed into a pop-eyed monster. But its barrage of gross-outs and hallucinogenic visuals is less assaultive than a steady and very funny stream of warped consciousness; how else to describe a movie which allows a claw hammer to have its own heartfelt flashback sequence?

Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait’s directorial career includes such eclectic films as the darkly satirical “God Bless America,” the found footage horror film “Willow Creek” and “Call Me Lucky,” an affectionate documentary about fellow comic Barry Crimmins. Before those, Goldthwait also helmed 1991’s ultra-low-budget “Shakes the Clown,” a broadly surreal comedy about an alcoholic party clown (played by Goldthwait) spiraling into self-destruction in a sort of alternate clown-verse.

“Shakes” envisions clowns in the worst possible light. They abuse drugs and alcohol, commit murder, and struggle with various mental health issues; for every audience member that got the joke, a dozen more found it appalling. Most critics agreed: “The joke gets very old, very fast,” wrote TV Guide. But a small yet dedicated fan base has kept the fires burning for “Shakes.” Diehards praise its commitment to its absurd premise; the Austin Chronicle’s review stated, “‘Shakes’ has its own twisted sense of logic, one that’s easy to buy into and maintain.” Fans have also hailed its cast, which included Adam Sandler, Tom Kenny, Kathy Griffin, and in one manic scene, Robin Williams as a mime instructor.

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Nothing about “Cronos,” Guillermo del Toro’s 1992 directorial debut, says “B-movie” — except perhaps the plot, which concerns an ancient device that provides eternal life, only with vampiric side effects. Directed with a painterly eye, beautifully photographed by Oscar winner Guillermo Navarro, and featuring outstanding performances by Federico Luppi and Ron Perlman (in his first of many collaborations with del Toro), it’s hard to believe that “Cronos” was made on a B-movie budget of $2 million.

If you’re a del Toro fan, it goes without saying that “Cronos” should be on your watch list. But even if you haven’t see his other films, “Cronos” is a rewarding watch, balancing shocking horror with flashes of humor, pathos, and a touching emotional story between Luppi, the owner/victim of the Cronos device, and his loving granddaughter (Tamara Shanath). Most importantly, it signaled the arrival of del Toro as a singular talent who could craft genre films and studio fare with equal skill, eventually netting an Oscar for his efforts. As The Ringer stated, “‘Cronos’ emerged as a warning shot. His tale of vampirism and immortality is half horror, half historical fable — like all the best del Toro work to come.”

Kevin Williamson’s script for “Scream” drew rave notices for its meta-references to slasher movie tropes, but another horror title covered similar ground nearly a half-decade before its release in 1996. Writer-director Rolfe Kanefsky’s 1991 film “There’s Nothing Out There” is a textbook B-movie — shoddy special effects, gratuitous nudity, amateurish acting — but also features a self-referential streak via Mike (Craig Peck), whose knowledge of horror movies proves invaluable to his friends when their weekend getaway is threatened by a hungry extraterrestrial.

“Out There” works largely because Mike’s references are both funny and accurate (“Nick, have you ever heard of the words foreshadowing?” “That’s one word, Mike”). Kanefsky’s direction also rises above the B-movie requirements, with impressive camerawork for a no-budget regional feature and tight editing courtesy of Kanefsky’s dad. These elements earned praise from outlets like the New York Times, which said of the film, “Mr. Kanefsky does show energy and promise.” He’s remained busy ever since, with dozens of independent features and TV movies.

After blowing everyone away at the box office, “Inside Out 2” roped in a massive billion dollar stash and deservedly so. Reuniting with Riley’s emotions came with another heartfelt and brilliantly depicted childhood experience of growing up and getting in touch with the new emotions that come with it. With that, of course, came the pristine Pixar flair of handling these topics thanks to the Emmy-nominated director, Kelsey Mann, who beautifully co-wrote with Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein.

Naturally, seeing as “Inside Out 2” is following its now iconic predecessor, there’s a standard set for the film to reach, which it absolutely does. With some affectionate and wonderfully emotional lines, there are a handful of quotes from Mann, LeFauve, and Holstein’s writing that hit the mark just right — but which ones stand out more than most? Well, grab the tissues and get a cushion to scream into, because here are some of the movie’s best lines that will go down as some of the greats, perhaps even getting up there with “to infinity and beyond,” “take her to the moon for me,” and “SQUIRREL!”

“Of course, I’m delusional, do you know how hard it is to stay positive all the time?”

Just as Riley has grown since we last met her in “Inside Out,” so too have her own emotions individually as characters, for better or worse. Proving once again that it’s okay to feel more than one emotion, after Joy (Amy Poehler) and the original core team get bottled up by Anxiety (Maya Hawke), our usual brains of the operation cracks under the pressure, finally admitting that this perma-plucky attitude can’t stay on forever.

When Anger (Lewis Black), Disgust (Liza Lapira), and Fear (Tony Hale) all turn to their great leader, it’s too much for Joy, leading to a rare outburst that ironically is more out of anxiety than it is anger. She lashes out at her friends as one does when things aren’t going your way, and mistakes are made. What makes it all the more impactful is that Anger, in his softest form, helps her find a solution that’s just a reaction to her venting.

As is the common emotional thread with both Inside Out films, the point being made is that emotions are unpredictable and can take a hold at the wrong times, but even the ones that you might try to avoid often guide the way when they absolutely need to — even if that means letting a little bit of anger take control.

“Joy, you’ve made a lot of mistakes, and you’ll make a whole lot more in the future.”

For a character who spends most of his time with his head literally ablaze, it makes for a refreshing and wonderfully sweet moment that Anger becomes the voice of reason when Joy’s first plan to get back to Headquarters doesn’t go as she’d like. Lashing out at those around her while Anxiety and the new gang are back at HQ taking the helm and leading Riley on a concerning but absolutely essential path, it takes a quiet moment of rage and acceptance to acknowledge the situation the original core emotions are in. It’s not great, but it also doesn’t have to stay that way.

“You’ve made a lot of mistakes, and you’ll make a whole lot more in the future,” Anger tells Joy with the brutal honesty only he could deliver. This is not just a harsh truth that Joy needs to acknowledge, but also a lesson that Riley will learn in time as early as the weekend she’s at hockey camp. But, as Anger rightfully adds, “But if you let that stop you now, we might as well lie down and give up.” Thankfully, this is Joy we’re talking about, and that’s just not in her DNA — or Riley’s.

“We’re right behind you.”

Over the years, the tales funneled from Pixar have always been delivered with incredible writing that’s layered to ensure kids enjoy themselves even with the movie details only adults notice. In the case of “Inside Out 2,” even the smallest of speeches from characters come with an extra oomph that might not be intentional, but given just how impactful every word around them has been up to at that point, has no choice but to be.

After Joy’s friends pick her back up following her plan falling to pieces and quickly having to come up with a new one, she gets that last bit of reassurance she needs from the most rage-bent individual who has already thrown in his two cents about what direction to go from here. He tells Joy, “We’re right behind you,” which in any other Pixar film would be standard fare for the support team backing the film’s hero. Here, just like every other conversation had in “Inside Out 2,” there’s a lot more emotion behind it, and that’s a perfectly healthy place to be.

Just like every challenge that Riley encounters in this film, and even the future that we may see in the years to come, Joy might always be the aim, but Anger, Fear, Sadness, Disgust, and a host of other emotions will be lined up as well to step in when the occasion allows it to.

“It’s not about who Riley is, it’s who she needs to be.”

Often, “Inside Out 2,” through all of its colorful perspectives, proves that sometimes all the emotions have the best intentions for their girl Riley, but it’s how they go about it that causes the issue. Some emotions vocalize themselves more than others. In the case of Anxiety, the newest and wildest emotion to have taken hold of the console isn’t so much concerned about what makes Riley now, but who Anxiety believes she needs to be depending on the decisions she makes. In a way, it’s a statement that, while not applied in the correct circumstances at the time, holds some truth. It just takes the rest of Riley’s emotions to help reconfigure Anxiety’s aim.

Ultimately, this really is about who Riley needs to be. That is to say, it’s about the choices she needs to make — right or wrong — that will define her as a person. Going through these experiences is essential to learn and grow, which at this point, Anxiety hasn’t quite done yet. As always with Pixar projects though, it’s only with other characters coming to lend a hand that the light bulb moment arrives, and Riley finally begins to acknowledge her true self and every emotion that comes with it.

“I’m not good enough.”

While a majority of the most memorable moments come from the emotions that are trying to keep Riley on track in the fantastic world that is her own wonderful mind, it’s one of the most tear-worthy thoughts sprouting from it that might be one of the most relatable moments in the film. In replacing Riley’s sense of self, Anxiety sparks an idea that everyone has undoubtedly stumbled upon at least once in their life — “I’m not good enough” — which will only lead to more self-doubt and an internal struggle that the new emotion unknowingly paves the way for.

Once again in this emotional franchise, the only true villains of the piece are the negative thoughts and feelings Riley encounters, which, while completely healthy, can take over if there isn’t enough of the rest to counteract it. Her belief in thinking that she’s not good enough is the biggest struggle of all, but one that thankfully doesn’t last. It interchanges with the anger, fear, sadness, embarrassment, and happy thoughts that lead to her own personal discovery and sense of self. Unfortunately, it’ll never go away, but the good thing is that the other beliefs and feelings will be there to ensure it doesn’t stay too long.

“I don’t know how to stop Anxiety. Maybe we can’t. Maybe this is what happens when you grow up. You feel less Joy.”

Here comes the real gut punch. Just like the first film, “Inside Out 2” acknowledges the facts of how testing, difficult, and sometimes truly heartbreaking the realizations that come from trying to handle your emotions can be. In Joy’s case, she almost comes to the acceptance that she’s fighting a losing battle. With the newest emotion literally wrecking the path that can get Joy and her allies back to Headquarters at every turn, the brightest spark in the brain soon begins to dim when she feels she’s finally reached her limit, and that try as she might, she just can’t stop Anxiety.

Of course, stopping her isn’t the aim. It never should be. Anxiety is something that can only be addressed and managed whenever it rears its head, which, like every problem in this film, becomes a lesson to be learned. That being said, the creeping doubt of experiencing less joy is something that plenty of us have had too. It’s just what we do to ensure that doesn’t happen, that is the thing we shouldn’t stop trying for.

“You don’t get to choose who Riley is … You need to let her go.”

Just like so many of the quotes on this list, the majority of them come at the ending of “Inside Out 2,” when it pulls out all the stops to have us welling up and looking at ourselves as much as we are at Riley and her experiences. In the climax, our hot-shot hockey player has succumbed to the pressure of being the best and got lost to the anxiety of failing to be so. The result is one of the best and brilliant depictions of anxiety to compete with “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” Anxiety has become a tornado, firing in every direction and yet staying frozen to the console she’s fought to take over. It’s only when Joy steps in to right the ship that our hero learns that she might not have been any different with her intentions.

Joy’s mantra to “keep the best and toss the rest” is no different to Anxiety’s aim of going “out with the old and in with the new,” reaffirming that both are wrong. The old is what allows us to improve and adapt, helping ourselves in moving forward. It’s only with all the emotions, all of what makes Riley who she is, that she’s able to ease herself out of her stressful moment and remember why she wanted to hockey in the first place. She’s doing it just for the sheer joy of it.

Movie reboots of old TV shows typically stink, and sequels to surprise box office hits usually produce diminshing returns. Thanks to the combined skills of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller — and their screenwriters Michael Bacall, Oren Uziel, and Rodney Rothman — their 2014 comedy “22 Jump Street” managed to defy any and all expectations. Not only is it a sequel, it’s a sequel to “21 Jump Street,” which was released in 2012 and based on the popular 1980s sitcom (which introduced the world to a young Johnny Depp, who shows up in that movie in a weird little cameo). Despite all of the factors working against it, “22 Jump Street” is genuinely incredible and might even be funnier than its predecessor — so who’s in it, and what have they been up to since?

With “21 Jump Street” stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill — as well as supporting players Nick Offerman and Ice Cube — returning for the sequel, “22 Jump Street” sets the narrative in college (instead of high school like the first time) and brings some new characters into the mix. Here’s who played who in “22 Jump Street” and what they’ve been doing since it released.

In “21 Jump Street,” Channing Tatum’s cop Jenko experiences a total role reversal when he ends up fitting in with the “nerds” instead of the “cool kids” as he and his best friend, fellow officer Schmidt (Jonah Hill) go undercover as high school students — and in the sequel, the equilibrium is restored when Jenko joins the football team as an undercover freshman at the very fictional MC State University. He befriends fellow player Zook (Wyatt Russell) and basically abandons his best friend Schmidt, but when he uncovers something vital about their assigned mission — which is to find the supplier of a drug called “WHY-PHY” (which stands for “Work Hard? Yes, Play Hard? Yes” and is pronounced like “WiFi”), he teams up with Schmidt again to take down the whole operation.

Tatum was already a big deal in 2014 — his semi-autobiographical hit “Magic Mike,” which paired him with director Steven Soderbergh, came out two years prior — and he rose to Hollywood’s A-list with projects like another sequel, “Magic Mike XXL,” the searing drama “Foxcatcher,” and the Coen Brothers comedy “Hail, Caesar!” These days, Tatum often produces his films — including “Dog” and his 2024 release “Spaceman” — and also recently starred in “Blink Twice,” directed by his real-life girlfriend Zoë Kravitz, as well as the sequel “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” (which brought Soderbergh back to the franchise). Plus, let’s never forget that, thanks to the success of “22 Jump Street,” we all learned that Tatum is just as delightful as he seems, according to an email discovered in the 2014 Sony leak.

As the “nerd” to Jenko’s “jock,” Jonah Hill’s Schmidt also experiences a giant role reversal in “22 Jump Street” after being pretty cool as a high schooler (hell, he even managed to romance a young Brie Larson, inappropriate as that whole situation is if you think about it). When Jenko and Schmidt split up to try and find the “WHY-PHY” supplier and Jenko earns a spot on the football team, Schmidt falls in with an artsier crowd after a disastrous turn at a slam-poetry night and meets Maya (Amber Stevens West), a gorgeous art student. They sleep together but Maya is adamant that they’re not in a relationship, hurting Schmidt just as he and Jenko experience a huge rift in their friendship. (Obviously, the movie finds the funniest possible angle on this: Schmidt on a “walk of shame” alongside a bunch of other girls on campus, telling them that all he wants to do is get back into bed and watch “Friends.”) As Schmidt and Jenko both realize later, though, the supplier has been right under Schmidt’s nose the whole time.

Hill, who earned his first Oscar nomination in 2011 for “Moneyball” and his second for 2013’s “The Wolf of Wall Street,” ultimately reunited with Tatum in “Hail, Caesar!” as well as “The Lego Movie” and “The Lego Batman Movie” and also appeared in prestige projects like “Richard Jewell” and “Don’t Look Up.” In 2018, Hill also made his directorial debut with the film “Mid90s” and also directed the 2022 documentary “Stutz,” so it’s safe to say he’s stayed plenty busy since playing Schmidt.

Ice Cube does the exact same thing in both “Jump Street” movies, and that’s fine, because he’s very funny. As Jenko and Schmidt’s superior Captain Dickson, Ice Cube is perpetually perturbed and enraged by the two, but in “22 Jump Street,” he at least gets to make a lot of jokes about how they’re doing the same thing they did last time (meaning in “21 Jump Street”) but that everything is bigger and more expensive this time. (Dickson’s office gets conspicuously cooler looking in the sequel, for one thing.) This sequel does throw in a fun twist, though: that girl Maya that Schmidt started sleeping with happens to be Dickson’s daughter, which sends Dickson into a blind rage — leading to an especially funny sequence during the college’s parents weekend (that also brings Queen Latifah into the mix as Mrs. Dickson).

Most people know that Ice Cube first rose to promience as a rapper with the group N.W.A. — there’s a joke in the movie about how Mrs. Dickson is “straight outta Compton” in case you forgot — but ever since he started acting in 1991 thanks to John Singleton’s “Boyz n the Hood,” he’s also been a big-screen staple. After “22 Jump Street,” Ice Cube produced the N.W.A biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” appeared in the sequel to “Ride Along” (the first film came out in 2014 alongside “22 Jump Street”),  and even lent his voice to the animated hit “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” Watching him verbally abuse Jonah Hill, though, is a pretty singular pleasure.

Nick Offerman is, truthfully, barely in the “Jump Street” movies, but he’s a welcome presence every time he shows up. In both films, he appears as Deputy Chief Hardy, who clearly thinks both Schmidt and Jenko are irredeemable morons and gives them their basic mission before they report to Ice Cube’s Captain Dickson. In “22 Jump Street,” a seemingly exhausted Hardy tells the two lovable bozos that all they need to do is the exact same thing they did last time: go undercover and find the supplier.

Offerman was still a series regular on “Parks and Recreation” during his appearance in both of the “Jump Street” movies; the series ended in 2015, giving his irascible yet big-hearted character Ron Swanson the perfect ending (as a caretaker of a beautiful, peaceful National Park). In the years since playing Ron Swanson, Offerman has been working more or less constantly. On the big screen, you can see him in movies like “The Little Hours,” “Bad Times at the El Royale,” and “Dumb Money,” and he’s continued working extensively on television on shows like “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” as himself on “The Good Place,” and in the second season of Noah Hawley’s anthology series “Fargo.” In 2023, Offerman finally won his first Emmy for outstanding guest actor in a drama series for his stunning, heartbreaking, single-episode turn on “The Last of Us” in the standout episode “Long, Long Time.”

Jenko and Schmidt spend the bulk of “22 Jump Street” hunting the mysterious drug dealer known only as “The Ghost,” but Peter Stormare’s character doesn’t actually show up until the movie is well underway (because, naturally, he has an accomplice working at MC State University). There’s not a whole lot to say about The Ghost, to be honest. He’s a snarling caricature of a villain, and Stormare doesn’t need to do a whole lot, but he’s clearly having a ton of fun being in such a ridiculous movie. That said, Stormare is a legendary Hollywood character actor, and you’ve definitely seen him in other projects.

Stormare, who was born in Sweden, started acting in the 1970s in his home country before making the leap to American movies with 1996’s Oscar-winning classic “Fargo” and the 1998 cult comedy “The Big Lebowski.” In 2017, Stormare appeared as the villainous Abram Tarasov, and he’s also shown up in TV shows like the “Yellowstone” spin-off “1923,” the procedural series “Tracker,” and the recent adaptation of “American Gods.”

Wyatt Russell is what some people might refer to as a “nepo baby” — his dad is Kurt Russell, his mom is Goldie Hawn, and his step-siblings are Kate and Oliver Hudson — but it’s a bit shortsighted to reduce him to his family when you consider that he’s very funny. Russell is perfectly cast as the affable, dim-witted football star Zook Haythe, who immediately bonds with Jenko (and is sort of confused by Schmidt’s whole deal, which is, admittedly, weird and off-putting at times). When Jenko and Schmidt get information that the dealer has a conspicuous tattoo — and they spot it on Zook’s bicep — he’s briefly a suspect, but they later learn that he’s just buying WHY-PHY, not supplying it; ultimately, Zook’s biggest role in the movie is to drive a wedge between Jenko and Schmidt as he gets closer to the former (although Jenko learns, over time, that he’s a little bored hanging out with a guy who’s exactly like him).

Besides “22 Jump Street,” you’ve probably seen Russell show up in projects like a (particularly scary) Season 3 episode of “Black Mirror,” on the AMC+ original series “Lodge 49,” in the dark social media satire “Ingrid Goes West,” and alongside Glen Powell in Richard Linklater’s comedy “Everybody Wants Some!!!” Russell also pretty famously played John Walker, the “new” Captain America in the Marvel TV series “Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” and in 2022, he appeared with Andrew Garfield in the true crime miniseries “Under the Banner of Heaven.”

As delightful as Amber Stevens West’s character Maya Dickson is whenever she’s on-screen, it’s also fair to say that the character is little more than a plot device meant to occupy Schmidt. After watching him freestyle about her dead roommate at a slam poetry night — her roommate who died after overdosing on WHY-PHY — Maya inexplicably takes Schmidt back to her dorm, and the fact that she turns out to be Captain Dickson’s daughter just creates a giant rift between the captain and Schmidt (though it’s admittedly very funny). So what has West been doing since she appeared in “22 Jump Street?”

From 2014 to 2019, West played the recurring role of Joy Struthers on “Criminal Minds” — she showed up regularly in Season 10 and returned as a guest star in subsequent seasons — and after playing Maya, she also joined the main cast of short-lived shows like “The Carmichael Show,” “Ghosts,” and “Happy Together.” In 2023, she also appeared in a single episode of Paramount+’s “Frasier” reboot.

There are a lot of very funny people in “22 Jump Street,” which makes it all the more remarkable that Jillian Bell basically runs away with the movie. After Maya and Schmidt spend the night together, Schmidt is greeted with a jumpscare in the form of Bell’s character Mercedes, who makes sure to say that she was present for their entire encounter and immediately clocks the fact that Schmidt looks way too old to be a college freshman. (She fires off a ton of great zingers during this scene, but the standout might be when she looks directly at Schmidt and deadpans, “Tell me about the war. Any war.”) When it’s revealed that Mercedes is The Ghost’s daughter and is the one supplying the campus, Bell unlocks a more sinister side of the character, but she’s still unbelievably funny; a scene where she and Schmidt fistfight in a Mexican motel room while she keeps wondering if they’re going to “kiss” is another one of the movie’s best highlights.

Bell was probably best known for her supporting role on “Workaholics” when she played Mercedes, and she’s continued working steadily ever since “22 Jump Street.” On the small screen, Bell has popped up in everything from “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Eastbound & Down,” “Portlandia,” and “Bob’s Burgers,” and it’s safe to say “22 Jump Street” helped kickstart her movie career. After her turn as Mercedes, Bell appeared in “Office Christmas Party,” “Rough Night,” and long-awaited sequels like “Bill & Ted Face the Music” and “Good Burger 2” — and she led the unexpectedly big-hearted comedy “Brittany Runs a Marathon.”

The real-life Lucas twins — Kenny and Keith — only appear briefly in “22 Jump Street” as Jenko and Schmidt’s hallmates Keith and Kenny Yang, but they’re also the guys who feed the two cops baked goods infused with WHY-PHY without telling them. They also have a pretty great bit where they finish each other’s sentences and say the same thing at the same time (a test Jenko and Schmidt, undercover as brothers but not actually related, absolutely fail to pass).

The Lucas twins typically perform together, and aside from “22 Jump Street,” you can see them on shows like “Crashing” and movies like “Babes” — but their biggest recent accomplishment? They co-wrote and co-produced Shaka King’s extraordinary 2021 movie “Judas and the Black Messiah,” which earned the duo a screenwriting nod at the Oscars and won a trophy for star Daniel Kaluuya. (The film was also nominated for best picture but ultimately lost to “Nomadland.”) If nothing else, besides Jonah Hill, the Lucas twins are the only Oscar nominees on this list (though maybe Channing Tatum or Nick Offerman could hit that milestone at some point).

Director David Ayer and star Brad Pitt’s tank film “Fury” is an uncompromising look into the heart of an armed conflict — specifically, the heart of a weary U.S. tank crew in the final stages of World War II. The 2014 film explores the brutality of war and its effects on the men stuck fighting it, in and out of the tank. Its central actors are fully committed to their roles, and the plot features so many memorable and tense moments that some viewers might start wondering whether the movie is based on a true story.

While its events are quite specific and tie into the real timeline of WWII, “Fury” isn’t actually based on a true story. It’s a fictional tale about an equally fictional tank crew, but is nevertheless inspired by real events. Although “Fury” isn’t based on any individual moment in World War II, the makers of the movie did their level best to capture the kinds of experiences a tank crew might have in this time period.

The makers of “Fury” put in a whole lot of work to reproduce the life of real, battle-hardened WWII-era tankers. Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, and Logan Lerman sought advice from people who served in the era’s tank crews, and shaped their performances after their experiences, camaraderie, and the physical and mental toll the veterans described. The actors bonded over a boot camp, spent days packed tightly inside a tank, and ended up smelling like a group that had done just that. They even learned to perform their characters’ duties in the crew for real — Peña, for instance, actually learned to drive an old tank.

Along with the actors playing the tank crew, David Ayer and the crew strived to make the film as historically accurate as possible. “The way we worked was that we got Signal Corps photos, real photos from the period, and did our best to duplicate what we saw,” the director said in an interview with Oregon Live. ” There are mistakes in the movie, I promise it. But we did go to incredible lengths, because I’m a student of history myself, and I understand how dumb mistakes can take you out of the movie. We printed our own German camouflage scanned from actual German uniforms. We got the only running Tiger tank in the world in the movie, which is a first.”

This dedication to detail and historical accuracy is the ace up “Fury’s” sleeve. It’s up to the viewer to decide whether the film ranks as one of the best war movies of all time, but it’s definitely one of the better Brad Pitt movies out there — and it’s hard to find a more impressive WWII film that focuses so tightly on tank warfare.