I actually liked it, but I can understand a lot of people probably didn't. It was bizarrely different and he was pretty funny in it. I also thought he was very funny in Daddy's Home 2 - but I don't think Fatman will get as much viewing around the holidays as that one. To answer the OP, I think Passion of the Christ is the best movie he has been involved with. I hesitated to mention that for fear of starting a religious discussion, but I see it has been mentioned already and nothing like that happened.
I really like Gallipoli, Hamlet, Apocalypto, The Year of Living Dangerously, Braveheart. Maverick - but for James Garner.
Acting: Mad Max 2 Directing: Passion of the Christ This was a tough one as the first two Mad Max films are my favorite Gibson films by default, even though I dig his acting in The Year of Living Dangerously, Gallipoli, Lethal Weapon...yeah. For directing, that was also a tough one.
It would cool to see Mel staring and directing in a tv series. Something like he’s a teacher who discovers that he has cancer and decides to get into the drug business to repay his medical debts.
The Director's cut of "Payback" was more in line with the original story. Mel had the director canned, and made the movie more of a comedy than a crime film. But really the best version of this story on film is Lee Marvin's "Point Blank" directed by John Boorman, with Angie Dickenson, Carrol O'Connor and a young John Vernon. A film way ahead of it's time. But the very best version of this tale is the book by Richard Stark ( Donald Westlake). It is the first in a series of books about a criminal named Parker. Great stuff in a cotton candy type of way.
Payback - I keep going back to watch again and again. Apocalypto - an absolute delight (unless it's your head rolling down the steps!)
I thought the directors cut of Payback just took out the voiceover narration and tried to take some humour out of it. I did enjoy this movie and the character of Parker is great in the books, but I wasn’t aware of the history of the character when I first saw the movie. I recently watched Lethal Weapon and was shocked how bad and dated it was, but it wasn’t the kind of bad that I enjoy about 80’s movies, it was just bad! I don’t know how that movie made sense to me when I was younger. Braveheart hasn’t aged well either and that was a great movie in its day.
Lethal Weapon wins for the hair alone. Credit to him for bringing credibility to what could have been a dumb action role, and of course Shane Black for writing it.
the one where he's the head of a company & wears a beaver or something on his hand and basically goes crazy. inspired acting.
Edge of Darkness (2010). I love anything Edge of Darkness and Martin Campbell (the film is a remake of a classic British miniseries).
What made Lethal Weapon good, and all of the sequels as well, was the amazing chemistry between Gibson and Glover. They played off of each other so well. This was talked about in another thread a while back, but Gibson, for all of his flaws, has a knack for having great on screen chemistry with his fellow stars.