50 Dan Aykroyd Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

Dan Aykroyd has more hyphens in his bio than most. The comedian-actor-writer-director-producer-musician-entrepreneur-sheriff's deputy-philanthropist-amateur paleontologist began his professional life at 17, when he was part of a short-lived sketch comedy series with Lorne Michaels (per Starpulse). It wasn't long before he joined the famed Second City comedy troupe, followed by being part of Michaels' original cast of "Saturday Night Live." Soon after that, he was making movies — and the rest is history.

No matter how many hats Aykroyd has worn over the course of his 50+ year career, he will always be most commonly associated with "Saturday Night Live" and his biggest comedy blockbusters. But his filmography contains movies in basically every genre, and Aykroyd has showcased equal skill in the silliest of comedies and the most serious of dramas. His work as a screenwriter also can't be understated, as he has written or co-written many of his most famous films. 

This list will look at the most notable movies on Aykroyd's resume, considering both the quality of the movie itself and of Aykroyd's performance in it, balancing the two in terms of ranking. While a few smaller roles appear here, we're particularly going to look at his major roles.

Going into the '90s, Dan Aykroyd was at the height of his powers and had a considerable amount of clout in Hollywood. What did he do with that clout? He used it to make his passion project "Nothing But Trouble," which he wrote, directed, and starred in. And if anybody ever needs the perfect example of why it's not always a good thing when someone is given total creative freedom without anyone to tell them no, it's "Nothing But Trouble."

By almost all measures, "Nothing But Trouble" was a failure. Critics hated it, audiences didn't show up for it, and even normally good sports like Chevy Chase and John Candy looked visibly uncomfortable to be there. Aykroyd was having the time of his life, but nobody else was. There is almost the foundation of a good movie buried in there somewhere, but it needed another writer or two to help smooth out the rough edges and tell Aykroyd that it needed to be funny to someone besides himself.

"Nothing But Trouble" is an objectively bad movie, but it deserved to be on this list simply because of what a bizarre footnote it is in Aykroyd's movie career — it remains his one and only directing credit. 

The premise of "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry": Two male firefighters pretend to be gay so that they can get married and have their children be eligible for insurance benefits. There was definitely some potential there to take a biting satirical look at stereotypes, marriage equality, the broken health care system, and other such topics — and the fact that one of its writers is Alexander Payne gave people hope it could be that. But this is a movie that stars Adam Sandler and Kevin James, so it's not that. Not at all.

A lot of the comedy in "Chuck & Larry" plumbs the exact types of depths you'd expect, though there are occasional guilt-free laughs to be had. There are also a few moments of genuine heart, one of which comes from Dan Aykroyd who plays the pair's captain and gives a speech near the end of the film about tolerance and inclusion. It doesn't do much to make up for the previous hour-plus of offensive gay jokes, but it was a nice thought, anyway. 

After the success of "Pulp Fiction," there were suddenly a bunch of edgy, stylistic crime comedies flooding theaters over the next few years. One such movie was "Feeling Minnesota," not the worst of the Quentin Tarantino wannabe movies but far from the best. Cameron Diaz plays Freddie, a former stripper who is being forced to marry a guy named Sam (Vincent D'Onofrio) to repay a debt. However, she soon falls for Sam's brother, Jjaks (Keanu Reeves) — and when the two try to run off together, that's when the fireworks happen.

Dan Aykroyd was trying all the genres in the '90s, so he was bound to show up in a Tarantino-esque odyssey. He's played several law enforcement officers in his career, but this is the first time he plays a dirty cop who seems to take very little convincing to break all of his oaths as a favor for questionable people. It's definitely an interesting twist to see the guy who played Joe Friday a decade earlier as a detective who suffocates people in hotel rooms — but it would've been even more interesting to see it in a better movie. 

Based on the novel "Skipping Christmas" by John Grisham — yes, that John Grisham — "Christmas with the Kranks" is about a couple (Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis) who live on a Christmas-obsessed block. Normally, they're more than willing to participate in the neighborhood-wide yuletide celebration, but when their college-aged daughter reveals she isn't coming home for the holidays, Mr. and Mrs. Krank decide to spend Christmas on the beach instead. This draws the ire of their neighbors, informally led by Vic Frohmeyer (Dan Aykroyd), who mobilizes everyone to make things miserable for the Kranks in the hopes that it'll make them rethink their holiday plans.

"Christmas with the Kranks" is far from a Christmas classic, but it's the kind of movie that makes for good background noise to wrapping presents. You just probably wouldn't ever make it a point to gather the family to sit and watch it. Aykroyd is at his cranky best in the role, stealing every scene, even next to the over-the-top mugging of Tim Allen. 

Jason Biggs' career as a movie star never really took off beyond the "American Pie" films, but it wasn't for lack of trying. He fired off "Boys and Girls," "Loser," "Saving Silverman," and "Prozac Nation" all within just two years of his breakthrough role — though he also did "American Pie 2" during that time, and that's mostly all anyone paid attention to. Some might argue that he should've been a little more particular rather than just doing all the movies right away, but Hollywood is fickle and sometimes the best option is to accept the offers while you're still getting them.

Of the comedies he did during that period, "Loser" was arguably the best — though that admittedly isn't saying much. Not unlike Eugene Levy in "American Pie," Dan Aykroyd plays the silly but earnest and well-intentioned father to Biggs' character, though he isn't given nearly as much to do nor as many jokes as Levy got in "American Pie." But Aykroyd has never been above just showing up to do some basic character acting without the need to be part of a movie's biggest or best gags, even when it sometimes leaves audiences wondering, "Why did you even bother to do this movie?"

The 1980s were the golden age of the high-concept comedy, and many of them featured "Saturday Night Live" and/or "SCTV" alums. Case in point: "My Stepmother is an Alien," starring Dan Aykroyd as a single father and scientist who meets and quickly marries a strange but beautiful woman named Celeste (Kim Basinger) — not realizing she's an alien in disguise. His daughter, played by Alyson Hannigan in her second film role, is somehow the only one to notice her stepmother's odd behavior. Naturally, her dad doesn't believe her, assuming she's just having trouble accepting her new stepmom. 

And that doesn't even get into the real silliness of the movie — such as Bag, the shape-shifting, one-eyed alien tentacle that changes into everything from a designer purse to a dress. "My Stepmother is an Alien" has fun moments — but like many films of this ilk, it would've probably been better as a ten-minute sketch rather than an entire movie. Aykroyd playing a brilliant but not especially street smart scientist is hardly a stretch, but it's a part he always plays well. However, Basinger is the real MVP of the movie — she's actually great at comedy and it's too bad she hasn't done more of it.

One of the more forgotten of Dan Aykroyd's '80s comedies, "The Couch Trip" has an incredible trio of comedic icons at its center, with Charles Grodin and Walter Matthau starring alongside Aykroyd. Grodin plays George Maitlin, a psychiatrist who hosts a popular radio show and ends up having a breakdown. The show must go on, and George tells his agent that his replacement needs to be so bad that the show's audience will be thrilled to have him back. The agent calls a mental health facility in the middle of nowhere hoping to reach an unqualified doctor to play the temporary host, but a patient (Aykroyd) answers the phone, pretends to be a doctor, and takes the job, escaping the facility.

In a twist you see coming a mile away, Aykroyd's John Burns is great on the show and becomes hugely popular. Matthau plays a homeless man who is dismissed as crazy, but the movie makes it clear that he's in fact the only sane one around. While "The Couch Trip" doesn't live up to what these three actors should've been able to accomplish together — especially since Grodin's character isn't really in the mix with the other two — it's still a relatively funny comedy that didn't fully deserve to be lost to time.

Melissa McCarthy is undeniably funny, and she can't be blamed for striking while the iron is hot. But for a few years there after "Bridesmaids," she was in too many movies in too short a time frame, and quality control kind of got away from her. One of her lesser films was 2014's "Tammy," with her giving it 110% like she typically does but simply not having the quality of story or script to support her talents. 

"Tammy" does deserve credit for an impressive cast, from co-lead Susan Sarandon to supporting players Kathy Bates, Allison Janney, Gary Cole, and Toni Collette — not to mention Dan Aykroyd as Tammy's father. It's a brief and surprisingly subdued cameo by Aykroyd, but it's nice to see him have a fun walk-on in a movie that doesn't involve him playing an over-the-top character or trading on his most famous one — we're looking at you, Ray Stantz cameo in "Casper."

After having spent his entire career up to that point being in ensemble movies or having to be a co-lead with another actor, Dan Aykroyd finally got his first movie all to himself with 1983's "Doctor Detroit." It was clearly intended to announce to the world that Aykroyd could carry a movie alone, and didn't always need his pals or fellow "SNL" alums providing him back up. Just to hammer that point home, Aykroyd plays a man who is coaxed into pretending to be another man, and that man is one of many different facets. It's not quite Eddie Murphy territory, with one star literally playing multiple different characters, but it's close.

Aykroyd definitely carries "Doctor Detroit," but that isn't quite the compliment it should be, as the movie itself is pretty lightweight. The reviews were largely of the "Aykroyd was great, but the movie is not" variety. If nothing else, it was the film debut of an actress named Donna Dixon, and she and Aykroyd were married before the film was even released. In 2022, they separated after nearly 40 years of marriage, though they are apparently intending to remain legally married and stay close friends. 

Though they both rose to fame in the 1980s and they both have a love for the city of Chicago, John Cusack and Dan Aykroyd didn't directly work together until 1997's "Grosse Pointe Blank" (more on that later). But Cusack would eventually bring Aykroyd back for a small role in one of his co-writing efforts, "War. Inc." The 2008 political satire sees Cusack play another hitman, only this time he's working for the government. The United States government and the modern military industrial complex are exactly what the movie is taking aim at.

"War, Inc." isn't quite as clever or as biting as Cusack and co. clearly want it to be, but it's an admirable attempt to make a film that has something to say. Where Aykroyd comes in is via a rather hilarious role as an obvious Dick Cheney type who is the one who gives Cusack's character his mission — only he does so in a video conference call while sitting on the toilet. It's not the most subtle of metaphors, but this movie isn't all that interested in subtlety. 

Perhaps the least-known and narrowest-released film that Dan Aykroyd has ever been in, "On the Nose" is an Irish-Canadian comedy about a gambling addict (Robbie Coltrane) who gets his luck from the preserved head of an aboriginal Australian he keeps in a jar that always picks winners. Eventually, the Australian government finds out that he has the head, and they show up at his Dublin home to confiscate it. Yes, you read all of that right — both times you read it.

It's definitely a unique premise for a movie, and while there are funny moments, "On the Nose" never fully lives up to it. It's one of those magic realism movies that doesn't go quite far enough in embracing its fantasy elements, playing it too safe and squandering its potential as a result. Still, it managed to bring in some pretty impressive talent to round out its supporting cast, including Brenda Blethyn and Aykroyd. It never got a U.S. release, which is just as well as much of the humor that is there is very, very Irish anyway and would've mostly been lost on American audiences. 

After a trio of successful and generally well-liked movies, it was with 2001's "Pearl Harbor" that the Michael Bay backlash began in earnest. It was one thing to make movies about cool, wise-cracking cops or drilling holes in asteroids — it's another to apply Bay's trademark loud, music video-esque, style-over-substance approach to a major historical tragedy that led to nearly 2,500 deaths (via census.gov). Sure, he toned things down a little, but it was ultimately still a Michael Bay movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor, which just felt kind of ... gross.

Some of the characters were based directly on real people, while others were fictitious but likely had some historical roots. Dan Aykroyd showed up to play one of the fictional people, U.S. Naval Intelligence Captain Harold Thurman, who had suspicions about the bombing before it happened. According to a Disney spokesperson (per the Chicago Tribune), Thurman is based on several real life officials who predicted the attack on Pearl Harbor.

In terms of screen time it's a small role, but it's obviously an important one, and Aykroyd plays it well. It makes one wish he showed up to play small but pivotal roles in other such movies — it's not hard to imagine him in "JFK" or "Saving Private Ryan," is it?

It seems strange that a movie directed by and starring Bob Hoskins and also featuring Dan Aykroyd has been almost entirely forgotten, but that's because "Rainbow" is a strange film. Despite getting a theatrical release in 1996, the movie has an extremely low-budget, afternoon kids' TV show look and feel to it. Which is kind of odd, considering that it actually pushed several technological boundaries for its era. According to the book "Digital Filmmaking: The Changing Art and Craft of Making Motion Pictures," it was the first all-digital film. 

"Rainbow" is about a group of kids who have to team with a magician (Hoskins) to save the world by entering the magical land inside of a rainbow. Dan Aykroyd shows up as a dim-witted police officer who ends up in a wacky, slapsticky chase with the kids through an airport for reasons that aren't entirely made clear other than the movie just wanting to have a cartoonish chase scene. That sums up a lot of "Rainbow" actually, with most of it making little sense but just being one random scene or setpiece after another. 

It would be interesting to see it restored — the print that's on the home releases is absolutely terrible — so it could at least be enjoyed for camp value and maybe even become a cult classic. 

Based on the book "The Devil and Daniel Webster," "Shortcut to Happiness" is a dark comedy about a failed writer named Jabez (Alec Baldwin, also the director) who wishes he was as successful as his friend, Julius (Dan Aykroyd). When a gorgeous and mysterious woman (Jennifer Love Hewitt) offers to make all of Jabez's dreams comes true in exchange for his soul, he agrees.

When Jabez starts to see the downsides to the deal, he turns to celebrity public speaker Daniel Webster (Anthony Hopkins) for help, and the two decide to take the woman/devil to court to try and legally force her to give him back his soul. It's definitely an intriguing premise, but it ultimately doesn't quite pan out the way it should have despite game performances all around. Much of this is likely due to the movie's troubled production, which led to Baldwin asking to have his director credit removed over studio meddling and it being shelved and shuffled around for over five years before its eventual release (per Page Six).

After a few small roles on television in the '90s, actor Jessica Paré — perhaps best known as Megan Draper on "Mad Men" — made her film debut in the 2000 mockumentary "Stardom." The movie is a satirical look at fame and how the celebrity machine is always eager to find its latest attractive young female star, only to then tear her down as it nitpicks every professional and personal decision she makes.  

Paré plays a teenage girl who goes viral, as it were, after pictures of her ice skating start making the rounds, eventually building to a television personality gushing about how hot she is. She's soon the model of the moment, with various older men each trying to shape and mold her for their own ends while never bothering to ask or care what she wants. One of those men is a restaurateur played by Dan Aykroyd, rocking the perfect ponytailed sleaze ball look with an equally slimy performance to match. 

"Stardom" admittedly doesn't say much that many other movies haven't said much better — but it's still an interesting look at the way society often sees pretty girls as little more than sexual objects to use and then discard once they've served their purpose or gotten "too old," especially when viewed through the lens of the late '90s and early 2000s.

Julie Kavner has largely settled into just being Marge Simpson, only appearing very occasionally in films and always in a supporting role. Her one and only film as a headliner was "This is My Life," also the first movie directed by Nora Ephron. Critical reception was lukewarm and it failed to break even on its $10 million budget. It's impossible to know if Kavner would've tried starring in more movies had it done better, since she is famously private and almost never does interviews or speaks publicly in any way (per The New York Times).

Dan Aykroyd plays the manager of Kavner's character, who is trying to start a career as a stand-up comedian. It's a fairly straightforward performance, save for giving him the quirk of eating napkins. It feels like something Aykroyd added to the character himself, possibly on the fly while they were filming. Either way, Aykroyd joins Carrie Fisher to offer solid supporting performances to back up Kavner, with all of them doing their best to try and elevate what is admittedly one of Ephron's more middle-of-the-road scripts. 

It seemed like a bad idea all around to make a "Blues Brothers" sequel. First and foremost, John Belushi had long since passed away, so it felt almost crass to do another one without him. Jim Belushi seemed like a no-brainer to take his brother's place, especially since he and Dan Aykroyd had long been doing live performances together as the Blues Brothers anyway. But Jim had a prior commitment, and so John Goodman is the other half of the duo — a fine actor, but it just didn't feel right.

Once it was revealed that much of "Blues Brothers 2000" was going to be filmed in Toronto with only some scenes shot in and around Chicago, it seemed like much of the heart and soul of the original was going to be absent from the sequel. Indeed, much of the movie is dull and lifeless. But it redeems itself by way of its jubilant musical numbers, wisely an even bigger part of this movie than they were in the original. 

The list of musicians who appear in the movie is ridiculously impressive, including Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, Erykah Badu, John Popper, Doctor John, Bo Diddley, and on and on. It's worth watching the movie just for that reason — especially on DVD, where you can just skip the rest of it.

Comedies that take place on or around military bases go way back, and one of the most popular from the early days of black-and-white TV is "The Phil Silvers Show" (per TV Guide). In that series, Silvers plays Sgt. Ernest Bilko, who is more interested in goofing off and plotting new moneymaking scams than performing his actual duties. 40 years after Silver's TV run, the property would be adapted into a movie simply titled "Sgt. Bilko" with Steve Martin taking over the titular role. It's a perfect casting choice, especially when Martin's Bilko plays off of a commanding officer played by Dan Aykroyd and a rival played by Phil Hartman.

The movie has a fair amount of laughs, most of which come from Martin's talent for both verbal and physical comedy. Aykroyd and Hartman are mostly there to be the catalysts for Martin to say and do funny things, but that shouldn't suggest that it's easy to be a straight man to a performer like Martin, so they deserve credit for that. "Sgt. Bilko" is the kind of movie that looks like it was a lot more fun to make than it is to watch, but it's still a perfectly serviceable service comedy. 

What "Into the Night" is perhaps most famous — well, infamous — for is the ridiculous number of filmmaker cameos. Director John Landis already had considerable clout by 1985 and had clearly already made a ton of friends, as he got the likes of Lawrence Kasdan, Jim Henson, David Cronenberg, Rick Baker, Amy Heckerling, Jonathan Demme, and Don Siegel to appear in the movie, often as little more than a person in the background. Roger Ebert said it well when he wrote in his review, ""If I had been the agent for one of the stars ... I think I would have protested to the front office that ... my clients were getting lost in the middle of the family reunion." Oh, and David Bowie shows up too, because why not?

But it takes a lot to take attention away from actors like Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer, who play the leads in this heist comedy and are both as charming as you'd expect. Aykroyd — in one of the movie's 500 or so small parts played by well-known names — is the friend of Goldblum's character who suggests he hang out at the airport in an attempt treat his insomnia. It's what sets the events of the film in motion, so it's one of the more important of the minor roles. Of course, Aykroyd had some history with Landis after having previously worked together on "The Blues Brothers," "The Twilight Zone: The Movie," and "Trading Places."

"My Girl" — which will be discussed later on this list — is the kind of movie that doesn't typically have a sequel. It's not that audiences wouldn't be interested in checking in on Vada (Anna Chlumsky), Harry (Dan Aykroyd), and Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis) Sultenfuss again three years later. But sequels to heartwarming family dramedies often just feel superfluous and rehash-y, and that's definitely an appropriate way to describe "My Girl 2."

Everyone is perfectly charming again, and it was clear even then that Chlumsky was growing into a talented young actress. Macaulay Culkin's character obviously couldn't return, but Austin O'Brien is a perfectly fine stand-in for the male friend role. There is nothing here to tarnish the legacy of the first film or anything like that, and it's worth a watch. But it's impossible to shake the notion that there just really wasn't any good reason to make this movie other than to cash in on the success of the original — and it's hard not view it cynically as a result. Fortunately, the long-rumored "My Girl 3" isn't going to happen, with Chlumsky saying in a 2012 interview that no such movie is in development, and that she wouldn't do it even if it was. 

"My Fellow Americans" was originally supposed to be another teaming of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, but Matthau ended up dropping out (per the podcast We Hate Movies). The upside is that James Garner took his place, and he and Lemmon — appearing in a film together for the first time — prove to have wonderful comedic chemistry as well. The two play former presidents who previously ran against each other, but have now teamed up to expose the corruption of the current president, played by Dan Aykroyd. Aykroyd's chief of staff is played by Bradley Whitford, a position he would play again on the TV series "The West Wing" three years later.

The whole thing is clearly meant to satirize the American politics of the '90s, but it never plays as dirty as it should and ends up being a very tame, surface-level skewering. That doesn't mean "My Fellow Americans" is a bad movie by any stretch, and it's quite funny at times — particularly due to the interplay between its talented ensemble. In a decade unusually heavy on political comedies like "Primary Colors," "Wag the Dog," "Dave," and "Bob Roberts," "My Fellow Americans" is definitely one of the lesser entries — but it shouldn't be dismissed completely.

Dan Aykroyd didn't do his obligatory Woody Allen movie until 2001, and he waited until Allen was no longer consistently knocking them out of the park as he previously had been. Indeed, "The Curse of the Jade Scorpion" kicked off a period where Allen released multiple critically-panned movies in a row, whereas in the past he'd usually have just one stray dud before immediately bouncing back with several good movies.

It had nothing to do with the cast, however. In addition to the great lineup of actresses who all nailed their performances — Helen Hunt, Charlize Theron, and Elizabeth Berkley — is a strong supporting male cast led by Aykroyd, who's a great fit to play the slimeball boss in a 1940s-style noir comedy. If only he'd had the opportunity to appear in one of Allen's earlier, better films instead. Of course, there are worse things than getting to play the love interest of Elizabeth Berkley. 

The history of "Nothing Lasts Forever" is almost as interesting as the movie itself. Despite being produced by Lorne Michaels (his first ever producer credit on a feature film), and despite starring two of the leads from "Ghostsbuters" and the male lead from "Gremlins," and despite the fact that the programmers at Cannes called it "a masterpiece" and promised it would "create a sensation," MGM decided, just before its release, to shelf "Nothing Lasts Forever" (per Time). And not just temporarily, either — it has yet to receive an official theatrical or home video release of any kind.

The star of the movie is Zach Galligan, with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd playing support roles — Murray's much bigger than Aykroyd's. It's mostly in black and white, though some of it is in color. It's both modern but also stubbornly old-fashioned. Basically, it's full of quirky paradoxes, and that's a huge part of its charm. Sure, it's rather odd, and would've been tough to turn into a huge theatrical blockbuster in 1984. But it at least deserved a chance to find an audience on home video and DVD, where it almost certainly would've become a cult classic. 

Turner Classic Movies has aired it, but it remains unavailable to buy, rent, or stream anywhere. Here's hoping that changes, and sooner rather than later. 

As a franchise, police procedural "Dragnet" goes all the way back to the 1940s when it premiered as a radio drama. It eventually became a successful TV series that ran through the entire 1950s, with a feature film version releasing in the middle of that run. Another film followed in 1969, and another two decades later, it was resurrected by Dan Aykroyd. 

Aykroyd co-wrote screenplay and also starred as the iconic Sgt. Joe Friday, enlisting Tom Hanks to play his partner, Det. Streebek. It took more of a comedy approach to the material, with Aykroyd playing it straight and old-school while Hanks seems consistently befuddled and confused by his partner's anachronistic behavior. The duo turn the movie into part homage and part parody, the same approach used by 1995's "The Brady Bunch Movie." Admittedly, the latter did it a lot better, but "Dragnet" deserves credit for setting that template, as well as being one of Aykroyd's most underrated performances ever. It's good, but it's not great — and those are just the facts, ma'am.

After "Ghostbusters II," Ivan Reitman took a break from the supernatural and focused on more traditional comedies. (Well, if you consider a comedy where Arnold Schwarzenegger gets pregnant to be a traditional comedy.) But Reitman would later say, when promoting his 2001 sci-fi comedy "Evolution" to Starlog Magazine, that he was always contemplating doing a "modern-day successor to 'Ghostbusters,'" and that the script for "Evolution" fit that bill for him. 

Of course, anyone who has actually seen "Evolution" knows that Reitman was setting expectations way too high by comparing it to "Ghostbusters." It's definitely a fun movie, with David Duchovny playing a sillier version of Fox Mulder and Julianne Moore demonstrating a gift for physical comedy that she rarely gets to showcase. And Reitman gets Dan Aykroyd to play a small role as the governor of Arizona, basically letting Aykroyd ad-lib most of his dialogue (per Forbes). The Second City alum clearly still had his improv chops in shape, because he delivers some of the movie's funniest dialogue. But "Ghostbusters" it is not — though it's still much better than most critics gave it credit for. 

In what would be his final film role before his death at age 33, John Belushi played against type opposite Dan Aykroyd, also playing against type. Anyone who read the script for "Neighbors" and knew Belushi and Aykroyd were attached would've automatically assumed that Belushi would play the boisterous Vic Zeck, while Aykroyd would take the role of the quiet, reserved Earl Keese. Instead, the two decided to swap, which Roger Ebert called "brilliant casting." 

By most accounts, "Neighbors" was a tough shoot. The stars weren't sold on director John G. Avildsen, believing he didn't know how to shoot comedy — he's best known for movies like "Rocky," "The Karate Kid," and "Lean on Me." Per Screen Crush, things got so bad that Belushi tried on multiple occasions to get Avildsen fired and replaced with "Blues Brothers" director John Landis. Not all directors can do comedy, even ones that are skilled in other genres, and "Neighbors" definitely feels like the work of a director who doesn't understand that you don't shoot a comedy the way you shoot a drama. 

Despite all that, "Neighbors" was a modest enough box office success to be profitable for the studio. But its legacy is mostly in it being Belushi's final film, even if it is a decent showcase for Belushi and Aykroyd's range and does have some flashes of the brilliant dark comedy it could have been.

Though it wasn't fully explored until 2020's callback extravaganza "Hubie Halloween," there had long been hints of an Adam Sandler cinematic universe. Beyond little Easter eggs and throwaway gags in various films, the first time a Sandler vehicle directly referenced another comedy starring his fellow "Saturday Night Live" alumni was in "50 First Dates." The characters visit a place called the Callahan Institute to try and learn more about Lucy's (Drew Barrymore) memory disorder, and a doctor (Dan Aykroyd) there mentions that a donation from the "T.B. Callahan" company in Sandusky, Ohio, helped make the facility possible. 

This, of course, is a very direct reference to the Chris Farley-David Spade movie "Tommy Boy." Aykroyd is also in "Tommy Boy," but he doesn't seem to be related to his "50 First Dates" character, which feels like a missed opportunity. Still, "SNL" alums always seem to make great use of Aykroyd, and his appearance in "50 First Dates" is no exception. 

Four election cycles after "My Fellow Americans," Dan Aykroyd returned to the world of political comedies with "The Campaign." This time, the two stars at the head of the movie are Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis as opposing politicians trying to win a North Carolina senate seat — and they aren't afraid to play dirty to do it. Naturally, subtlety isn't the name of the game here, and the pair go for big, broad laughs and (mostly) earn them.

Aykroyd and John Lithgow play the Motch brothers, two powerful businessmen who are known for pulling political strings and don't have the cleanest of reputations in doing so. Sound familiar? Again, they weren't going for subtlety with "The Campaign." The talented cast — which also includes Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott, Brian Cox, and John Goodman — probably deserved a smarter, more complex political satire to star in. But for those who just want a light, inoffensive political comedy that doesn't require too much thought, "The Campaign" does its job. 

If you read a lot of our "Best X Movies Starring [Actor's Name]" lists, you've probably noticed that "Antz" shows up in a lot of them. It's not that we here at Looper are "Antz" super fans or anything — it's just that a lot of famous actors starred in DreamWorks' first computer-animated feature film. That being said, it is a pretty great movie, so it's not as though we would need to go out of our way to deny being "Antz" super fans anyway.

Aykroyd is a little ways down on the "Antz" cast list, suggesting that he has one of the smaller parts in the film. What's fun, though, is that Jane Curtain also comes along to play the wife of Aykroyd's character, and their chemistry from decades of working together is apparent even when voicing animated wasps. It's also just nice to hear them interact with each other outside of their monotone, largely emotionless Conehead voices. 

To be clear, the placement of "Ghostbusters: Answer the Call" on this list isn't indicative of its overall quality in comparison to the other movies. In that respect, it deserved to be much higher — no matter what a very vocal group on the internet might have you believe. (Particularly a group that had a frustratingly high number of people that never even bothered to actually see the movie they hated so.) But it's because this list is about Aykroyd, and his part is so small that it was moved down a few notches.

In fact, Aykroyd's role in the movie would've likely fallen into ineligible cameo territory if not for the fact that Aykroyd was one of the reboot's biggest cheerleaders leading up to its release (per Vulture), as well as being an executive producer on the movie. He and Ivan Reitman were definitely more invested in the movie than any of the franchise's other original creators — Harold Ramis might have been as well, but he had died in 2014 — and it is obvious that they still had a deep love and affection for the property, hoping for a revival that would be more than just a nostalgia-fueled cash grab.

Dan Aykroyd seemed to have had a turn partnering with all of the other big comedy stars of the '80s. In 1985, it was his fellow "SNL" co-founder Chevy Chase's turn when he and Aykroyd teamed for the spy comedy "Spies Like Us." Co-written by Aykroyd, the movie was originally to be another vehicle for himself and John Belushi, but Belushi's death put the project in flux. Eventually, Chase came on board, telling the Chicago Tribune, "Danny has always played second banana to John, Billy (Murray) and Eddie (Murphy), and I thought I could bring out his manic, funny qualities better."

Indeed, "Spies Like Us" does see Aykroyd take less of a sideman role than he had typically taken in his buddy comedies up to that point. Here, he's doing the kind of bigger, more physical comedy that he had really only previously done on the big screen in his solo effort, "Doctor Detroit." How much of that was truly Chase's doing is anyone's guess — he isn't known to be especially humble in his opinions of himself — but it's definitely true that Aykroyd opened up a bit on "Spies Like Us" and the movie was much better for it than it would've been had he just played Chase's second banana. 

"Chaplin" is part of a long tradition of biopics where the movie itself is merely pretty good, but the performance of the actor playing the real-life figure at its center receives widespread praise and elevates the whole thing. Robert Downey, Jr. was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his role as the legendary silent film star, proof that he would have a bright career ahead of him if he could just overcome his various personal struggles. Spoiler alert: He did, and went on to become one of the most successful and highest-paid actors in history.

Dan Aykroyd has always had an affinity for Old Hollywood, and sometimes feels like he was transplanted from that era. So he's a great fit for the 1910s and '20s, when his part of the movie takes place. Aykroyd plays real-life filmmaker and studio exec Mack Sennett, who is known as the "father of slapstick cinema" (per Legacy.com). Indeed, Angie Errigo of Empire Online points out that Aykroyd "has fun" with the role — and If anyone should play the guy who introduced car chases as a means of comedy, it's Dan "Elwood Blues" Aykroyd.

A very tragic shadow looms large over "Twilight Zone: The Movie" — the stunt helicopter accident that led to the deaths of veteran actor Vic Morrow, as well as two child actors (Myca Dinh and Le Renee Shin-Yi Chen) who were hired and working in violation of California labor laws. It's impossible to ever mention the movie without bringing up the accident, nor would it be respectful to the deceased to do so. The movie itself didn't end up being amazing anyway, so it's not even like anybody is fighting all that hard to champion it despite the tragedy.

However, there is one aspect of "Twilight Zone: The Movie" that did knock it out of the park: The introductory sequence with Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks. They play characters who are discussing old horror shows, including "The Twilight Zone." They begin to tease and try to scare each other, prompting Aykroyd to utter a line that has since become iconic: "Do you wanna see something really scary?" At that point, he transforms into a terrifying creature and proceeds to devour Brooks. 

It's one of the most startling opening scenes in horror film history, and it would probably be better standing on its own as a short film.

In an interview with Jack Nicholson by Michel Ciment for his book, "The Definitive Kubrick," Nicholson claims that Kubrick's review of "1941" was that it was "great, but not funny." Indeed, the film's story was originally conceived of by John Milius, writer of such distinctly non-funny movies as "Magnum Force," "Red Dawn," and "Apocalypse Now." But Milius was joined by the writing team of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale — who'd later write all three "Back to the Future" movies — and combined with Steven Spielberg signing on as director, "1941" was suddenly an epic war comedy.

It was also be Spielberg's first flop — all the more surprising given that the ridiculously star-studded cast included Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Ned Beatty, Christopher Lee, Toshiro Mifune, Penny Marshall, John Candy, James Caan, Mickey Rourke in his screen debut, and many more. The most common complaint was that it just wasn't funny enough for a movie that was supposed to be a comedy, but was otherwise well-acted and well-made. 

It's since become a cult classic, as people have slowly come around to viewing it with adjusted expectations, rather than looking for a military comedy along the lines of something like "Stripes" or "Private Benjamin." 

Actor, comedian, and broadcaster Stephen Fry isn't generally thought of as a filmmaker, but he does have a few screenplays under his belt. His best is easily "Bright Young Things," which also happens to be his only directorial credit. It's a movie about a group of socialites in 1930s England who pass the time getting into the kind of shenanigans that socialites get into — until a certain war begins to flare up and make them start to take life a little more seriously.

The cast of "Bright Young Things" is a mix of English and American actors, as well as both veterans and (then) younger stars. Dan Aykroyd shows up to play a tabloid newspaper tycoon who commissions the titular novel from an up and coming author, which is deemed too racy by authorities and is confiscated. The sets the events of the movie into motion, with the help of wonderful performances by James McAvoy, Emily Mortimer, Michael Sheen, Peter O'Toole, Jim Broadbent, David Tennant, Stockard Channing, et al — including a cameo by Fry as a chauffer. 

Most "Saturday Night Live" movies are typically based on sketches that are recent or current while a big-screen adaptation is prepped to strike while the iron's hot. The one major exception to this so far has been "Coneheads," released in 1993 despite not having appeared on the show since 1979 (per SNL Archives). Original Conehead performers Dan Aykroyd and Jane Curtain both still returned to reprise their roles, adding Michelle Burke as daughter Connie and filling out the rest of the cast with both then-current and former "SNL" alums and a variety of other comic actors (including a cameo from original Connie Laraine Newman).

Critics weren't kind to it, but it was a hit with audiences and became a fixture on basic cable throughout the '90s. Even though it had been 14 years, Aykroyd and Curtain stepped back into their roles with ease as if they had been playing Beldar and Prymaat all along. Interestingly, there was some critical reappraisal of the film following changing attitudes towards immigrants after 9/11, with Steve Etheridge of Vulture writing that the movie "predicted the future of America and ripened into relevancy." It also helped to introduce "Tainted Love" by Soft Cell to a new generation, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. 

Dan Aykroyd was bound to do a period piece sooner or later, and he picked a pretty good one by way of 2000's "House of Mirth." Early 20th century socialite Lily (GIllian Anderson) passes up the chance to follow her heart by having a relationship with Lawrence (Eric Stoltz), instead pursuing a wealthy husband as is expected of her. The movie follows a lot of the beats you'd expect from a story like this, but it still does an excellent job in its unflinching examination of the repercussions women of a certain stature during that era faced when they didn't fall in line.

Dan Aykroyd plays a man named Gus Trenor, who initially seems genuine in wanting to help Lily with her financial troubles but soon reveals that he expects physical rewards for his generosity. Needless to say, he doesn't take it well when he doesn't get those rewards. It's a surprisingly threatening performance by Aykroyd, revealing yet another facet of his acting talents he hadn't shown much of before or since. 

Whether "Ghostbusters: Answer the Call" was treated or judged fairly, facts are facts: It didn't perform well at the box office. So when it came time to make another "Ghostbusters" movie, it stood to reason that it wouldn't be a follow-up to that but would instead go back to the original timeline and be a direct sequel to "Ghostbusters II." Unfortunately, elements of "Afterlife" de-canonize the excellent 2009 "Ghostbusters: The Video Game" — which was originally considered the official third chapter in the "Ghostbusters" saga and features Harold Ramis' final performance as Egon Spangler.

Even if you're in the camp of people who think "Answer the Call" shouldn't just be dismissed as a one-off side story, it's hard to argue with how awesome it was to see Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson suit up again as their original "Ghostbusters" characters in "Afterlife." There is definitely something to be said for the franchise continuing within the same universe and timeline of the original films, and eventually having the offspring of the original 'Busters take over — with the old crew there to officially pass the torch.

Make no mistake: "Get on Up" belongs to the late Chadwick Boseman, who delivers a dynamite performance as a young James Brown. Before he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as T'Challa aka the Black Panther, Boseman was already getting noticed by critics as a major talent to watch, and "Get on Up" is one of the reasons why. Boseman even did his own singing and dancing in the movie (per the Daily Beast), which was gutsy when emulating someone as legendary in both of those regards as Brown. But the amazing Boseman pulled it off.

Dan Aykroyd has obviously long been a fan of soul and R&B music, not to mention working with James Brown on both "Blues Brothers" movies as well as "Doctor Detroit." So he's more than just stunt casting in the role of Ben Bart, Brown's manager — he knew the Godfather of Soul personally. This puts him in the unique position of being able to play the part of someone who was close to Brown, and it's nice that he got to be involved in the biopic. It seems like that type of thing doesn't happen nearly as often as it should. 

The third highest-rated Dan Aykroyd movie on Rotten Tomatoes — behind only "Ghostbusters" and a documentary about "Ghostbusters" — is HBO's Liberace biopic "Behind the Candelabra." Most of the press and acclaim for that movie focused on the performances of Michael Douglas in the lead role and Matt Damon as his partner Scott Thorson, as well as the masterful direction of Steven Soderbergh. 

Part of the reason for this is that some of the supporting cast, even the ones that are huge actors, are almost unrecognizable in their roles. Many wouldn't have realized Debbie Reynolds played Liberace's mother if her name wasn't in the credits. Same for Dan Aykroyd as Liberace's long-suffering manager — Rodney Twelftree of Fernby Films admits, "It took me half the film to figure out that it was Dan 'Blues Brothers' Aykroyd playing Liberace's manager, Seymour Heller." Aykroyd has a distinctive face and an even more distinctive voice, so for him to play a role where he isn't instantly recognizable is both surprising and impressive.

Though not technically a "'Saturday Night Live' movie" in that it isn't based on any characters or sketches from the show, "Tommy Boy" did star two of the show's biggest cast members at the time, in addition to being produced by Lorne Michaels. Chris Farley and David Spade, who should've had the chance to make ten more movies together, star in the hit road comedy that was the perfect showcase for both actors' respective talents individually as well as in an ensemble. There was nobody who would've been better at playing Farley's dad than Brian Dennehy, and Rob Lowe follows on from his "Wayne's World" performance by proving what a perfect comedic straight man he is.

Throughout the movie, the audience — as well as Tommy (Farley) and Richard (Spade) — are gradually introduced to partial villain Ray Zalinsky via television commercials. Zalinsky is played by Dan Aykroyd, who absolutely nails the role of a businessman who knows how to sell himself one way to an audience while being the complete opposite behind closed doors. It's easily his best performance in an "SNL"-adjacent movie that he isn't one of the leads in. 

Though John Candy had small roles in "The Blues Brothers" and "1941," it wasn't until "The Great Outdoors" that he and Dan Aykroyd finally got to be co-leads in a movie. They might not have made quite the same magic that Candy had made with Steve Martin in the previous year's "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," but Candy and Aykroyd are still dynamite together in "The Great Outdoors."

After screenwriter John Hughes had spent the early-to-mid-'80s making dialogue-driven movies about teenagers and high school, he shifted gears near the end of the decade to broader comedies that seemed built around John Candy (the other being "Uncle Buck"). What "The Great Outdoors" does have over "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" is that Candy is basically the lead, even though he doesn't get top billing. This dynamic means that he doesn't spend the whole movie being bullied like he does in "Planes," but instead is an equal — and also much friendlier — rival to Aykroyd than he was to Martin. 

Aykroyd wouldn't have made for a compelling bully anyway — and it's nice that his one buddy comedy with Candy got to be a warm, friendly one that continues to be the perfect Saturday night family movie all these years later.

While Dan Aykroyd had already started accepting that he was at the age to play dad roles beginning with "My Stepmother is an Alien" and "The Great Outdoors," those movies both still had that trademark manic Aykroyd energy of his younger years. It wasn't until "My Girl" that he finally played a dad that wasn't a pratfall-prone investment broker or a hapless scientist married to an extraterrestrial. 

And Aykroyd slipped into the chill dad role of Harry Sultenfuss flawlessly, even though he still had a bit of an edge as a mortician who lives in his funeral home. His interactions with both his daughter (Anna Chlumsky) and girlfriend-turned-fiancée (Jamie Lee Curtis) showcase some of his best understated acting, and there's a reason why a generation of kids wished Harry could be their dad. Critics were pretty unimpressed as a whole, but "My Girl" broke $100 million at the worldwide box office (per TheNumbers.com), so clearly audiences had a different opinion. 

"Ghostbusters II" takes a lot of flak. In fact, it seems as though basically nobody save for Dan Aykroyd or Harold Ramis thought a sequel was a good idea, and most of them signed on to make it rather reluctantly. There is no denying that it is inferior to the original film — but then, most films are. So it not only had almost impossible expectations working against it, but it did the frustrating thing that many comedy sequels of its era did — taking a darker, edgier, more cynical film and following it up with a lighter, more family-friendly sequel. Critics largely hated it, and the general consensus for years was that it was a bad movie.

But over the years, people have reappraised it, and the vibe has largely shifted to proclaiming it underrated. There is article after article, from outlets like WhatCulture to Den of Geek, Uproxx, and Movie Babble all proclaiming it better than its reputation gives it credit for. Much of the thanks for this goes to Aykroyd and Ramis, who not only wrote what is ultimately an underrated movie but in their performances that didn't have that slightly bored and disaffected vibe that many of their doubting castmates did. 

The thriller "Sneakers" was a huge ensemble piece that afforded Dan Aykroyd the opportunity to work with some truly gifted actors. His co-stars included Robert Redford, Ben Kingsley, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, River Phoenix, James Earl Jones, Stephen Tobolowsky, and others in a cast that is surely among the most stacked in movie history. The movie was a bit ahead of its time in that it was about computers before most people had one in their homes, and hacking before most people knew what that meant. 

The caper movie also had plenty of light moments, which is why you have people like Stephen Tobolowsky and Dan Aykroyd on board. Aykroyd plays a conspiracy theorist — with the funny nickname of "Mother" — a role that it's surprising he hasn't played more often since he's perfect at it. Of course, it can be argued that several of his other characters have a conspiracy theorist vibe as well — it's just that Ray Stantz's theories happen to be correct. 

Dan Aykroyd has worked steadily in films from his 1977 big-screen debut to bringing Ray Stantz back to the big screen in 2021, at times releasing a handful of movies in a single year. 1996 was his busiest one so far, with Aykroyd appearing in a whopping six films that were released that year. And none of them were classics, with one — "Celtic Pride" — not even being good enough for this list. He was closing in on 50, so maybe he felt he needed to get some extra paychecks in while he still had the energy to work that much, or maybe he just really loves being on movie sets. But either way, he definitely slowed down a bit after that.

The upside to his questionable and overly-busy 1996 is that he had a great and much better-focused 1997. That year, Aykroyd starred in only one movie — the dark action comedy "Grosse Pointe Blank" — and it is arguably his best role and best movie of the decade. In it, he plays a rival hitman to John Cusack's character, and it's probably the first time since "Driving Miss Daisy" that his performance in a movie earned him critical acclaim. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised Aykroyd's "comic skill," and in a 2019 retrospective, Aliya Whiteley of Den of Geek called it, "one of [her] favorite Dan Aykroyd performances."

After "Doctor Detroit" failed to make Dan Aykroyd a solo superstar, he went back to doing what he does best — being part of an ensemble or duo. In "Trading Places," he partnered with Eddie Murphy, who was on his ascent to being one of the biggest stars of the 1980s. As it was only Murphy's second movie, he actually got second billing behind Aykroyd, as he did with "48 Hrs." behind Nick Nolte — but that would change the following year with "Beverly Hills Cop."

Essentially a modern day "Prince and the Pauper," "Trading Places" sees rich man Louis Winthrope (Aykroyd) and poor man Billy Ray Valentine (Murphy) swap lives to see how they fare. According to director John Landis in an oral history of the movie for Business Insider, the script was written with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in mind. But Pryor was unavailable due to his personal struggles at the time, so they took a chance on the then-unproven Murphy. Landis then called up his pal Aykroyd and got him to take a pay cut to play Murphy's co-lead. With the two stars finally in place, a future comedy classic was underway.

While it's fun to picture what the Wilder/Pryor version would've been like, Aykroyd and Murphy made "Trading Places" their own, and neither of their careers would've been quite the same without it.

A lot of people forget that Dan Aykroyd is an Oscar nominee, an honor that he received thanks to his supporting role in 1989's "Driving Miss Daisy." Neither he nor Best Actor nominee Morgan Freeman won, but Jessica Tandy did — becoming the oldest Best Actress winner in history, a distinction she holds to this day. It was a well-deserved nomination for Aykroyd, who often doesn't get enough credit for being a legitimately good actor. 

However, his fellow nominees in the Best Supporting Actor category that year were Marlon Brando, Danny Aiello, Martin Landau, and winner Denzel Washington. That's some tough competition, and it honestly would've been a pretty huge upset for him to take the award over any of those guys. Still, it surely has to be nice for Aykroyd to be able to refer to himself as an Academy Award-nominated actor, something that very few of his fellow "SNL" alums — or largely comedic actors in general — can say.

It doesn't matter how many "Saturday Night Live"-based movies there have been or how many more there will be — it's hard not to imagine that there will ever be a time that the question "What is the best 'SNL' movie?" won't be most frequently answered with either "Wayne's World" or "The Blues Brothers." Of course, the fact that they seemed to have stopped entirely since 2010's underrated "MacGruber" means that there might never be anything else to challenge the throne anyway.

The origins of Jake and Elwood Blues are interesting in that they were technically recurring "Saturday Night Live" characters, but they weren't really part of traditional sketches so much as they just did straightforward musical performances. They were as much a band as they were TV characters, and had even began doing live performances outside of the show. So nobody quite knew what a "Blues Brothers movie" was going to entail, or if it would even work. 

But work it did, an unusual but extremely effective mix of road comedy and musical that was a huge success despite going way over budget — due in large part to the costly car chase sequences that resulted in a record-setting amount of destroyed vehicles (per Forbes).

Objectively, there are really only two choices when considering which Dan Aykroyd movie is the best, as well as which one contains his most iconic role. And, all due respect to "Blues Brothers" and Elwood Blues — a character he has been playing for a lot longer, performing live concerts and getting credited on soundtracks as if he were a real person — "Ghostbusters" just feels like the superior choice. After all, "Blues Brothers" didn't spawn three additional movies (and counting), multiple animated series, and over two dozen video games, while still remaining an active franchise to this day.

And that is all built on the foundation of the original movie, which comes pretty close to being a perfect film. It masters multiple individual genres — ensemble comedy, supernatural thriller, light horror, action movie, disaster movie, special effects epic — and yet still manages to bring them all together for a total package that should be a complete mess but somehow gels flawlessly. Much of that is due to not only the four 'Busters (Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson) but the stellar supporting cast of Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, and William Atherton. 

It's a ridiculous amount of perfect elements that all happened to come together at the right place, at the right time, in such a way that won't ever happen again — not only for the franchise but for movies in general.