Every Rob Reiner Movie, Ranked

"During his peak, he churned out intelligent studio smash hits like it was the easiest thing in the world; at his lowest, you wondered how in the world anyone thought it was smart to give this guy money to make a movie. Reiner could be called a journeyman director, except what kind of journeyman director could make a movie as confident as When Harry Met Sally, or as anarchic as This Is Spinal Tap, or one that juggles as many tones as The Princess Bride?"

"The rare movie in which a review of it - Roger Ebert's infamous pan, which stated, simply, "I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie. Hated it. Hated every simpering stupid vacant audience-insulting moment of it." - has become more well known than the film itself, and boy, was Reiner fortunate there. Nearly 25 years later, North is just as bad as Ebert wrote, an astoundingly wrongheaded concept executed in the most mealymouthed, limp way possible."

"Like Ron Howard, Reiner came out of television, and there's a segment of the population that will know him forever as "Meathead." There's another segment that knows him as a bastion of liberal politics, which got him skewered on South Park a full generation ago. But for a stretch of nearly a decade, Reiner was part Frank Capra, part Billy Wilder."

Rob Reiner died on December 14, 2025, at age 78. His career produced landmark films across genres, including This Is Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally, and The Princess Bride. He rose from television, earning early fame as "Meathead," and became known for liberal political advocacy that provoked satire like South Park. For nearly a decade he matched the optimism of Frank Capra and the craft of Billy Wilder, delivering intelligent studio hits. He also made major missteps, most notably North, which drew scathing criticism. Later in life he pursued varied projects that partially reclaimed his stature.

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