Actress, dancer, singer, and producer Jennifer Lopez, a Hollywood mainstay for nearly three decades, does it all. She first came to prominence as one of the Fly Girl dancers from the show In Living Color. Since then, she’s racked up a substantial resume of albums and movies, including documentaries. She’s enjoyed several big hits, but she’s had many more misses.
For a comprehensive look, check out this roundup of every Jennifer Lopez movie, ranked by order of quality.
1. Selena (1997)
Lopez was rightfully nominated for a Golden Globe for her portrayal of the slain Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. The movie begins with Selena’s early start singing with her family as a child. Lopez takes over to portray the adult Selena through her meteoric rise to her tragic murder at the hands of someone she trusted.
2. Hustlers (2019)
Garnering her second Golden Globe nomination for her on-screen performance, Lopez also produced the movie. She plays Ramona Vega, an experienced exotic dancer who trains younger dancers to steal money from their customers by drugging them and running up their credit cards. This Jennifer Lopez movie shows off the actress’ dance skills, and presents a different worldliness than she’d shown off on screen before.
3. The Latin Explosion: A New America (2015)
4. The Cell (2000)
5. Enough (2002)
Jennifer Lopez plays against type in the form of a wife and mom unhappily married to a man who sadistically threatens and abuses her. After a few failed attempts to get herself and her daughter away from him, she manages to escape, only to have him track her down and menace anyone daring to help her. She eventually gathers the strength to defend herself and her daughter, stopping him for good.
6. Shall We Dance? (2004)
Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon star with Jennifer Lopez in one of the rare films where she not only doesn’t look for a husband but also has no interest in meeting anyone except a new dance partner.
7. Out of Sight (1998)
8. Angel Eyes (2001)
A police officer rescued from a certain death by an enigmatic stranger becomes involved with him. As they get to know each other, Sharon realizes they have a shared traumatic experience in their past that threatens to get in the way of their budding relationship. The story gets weighed down by unnecessary melodrama that doesn’t quite pay off.
9. Bordertown (2007)
Real life and Hollywood fiction come together in this harrowing drama about the number of women murdered in Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez.
A reporter, Lauren Adrian, whose editor sends her on assignment to Mexico to investigate the murders of women working at a factory making products sold in America. Lauren risks her own life going undercover to try and expose the people responsible for the murders.
10. Monster-in-Law (2005)
A boring script combined with the played-out stereotype of a mother-in-law trying to control her son makes for a dreadful, dull movie.
11. Maid in Manhattan (2002)
It’s not an awful movie like Gigli, but like many Lopez films, it suffers from a bland script and a lack of chemistry between her and her leading men.
12. Anaconda (1997)
A documentary film crew led by Terri Flores (Lopez) travels to the Amazon to obtain footage of a long-lost Indigenous tribe. Instead, they must contend with giant, man-eating anacondas and a treacherous snake hunter. The film didn’t earn any Oscar or Golden Globe nominations, but it’s still a campy, fun film to take in on a rainy or snowy day.
13. The Mother (2023)
An ex-army operative, only known by the name The Mother, joins an FBI agent in a search for her kidnapped teenage daughter. It marks a nice departure from the usual rom-com she stars in.
In The Mother, she gets to flex her action-hero muscles, showing audiences she’s more than just an aspiring bride and that she can fight with the best of them, like she did in Enough.
14. The Back-up Plan (2010)
Falling back on her usual script formula of finding a husband, Lopez stars in this bland, unflavored oatmeal of a movie. This time, she portrays Zoe, who’s given up on love but wants a baby, so she plans to become a single mom via artificial insemination. Immediately after the procedure, she naturally meets a man and falls in love with him, and any viewer with half a brain can predict the rest.
15. Dance Again World Tour (2014)
16. An Unfinished Life (2005)
Jean Gilkyson and her daughter Griff show up unexpectedly at Elnar’s home, seeking a place to stay to get away from her abusive ex-boyfriend. Jean, married to Elnar’s son Griffin, who died years earlier in a car crash, meets her father-in-law for the first time.
When Elnar, who’s not the kindly older man Jean hoped for, finds out she drove the car when the crash occurred that killed his son, he asks her and his granddaughter to move out. They eventually reconcile, but again, Lopez finds a potential future husband by the film’s end.
17. What to Expect When You’re Expecting (2012)
Inspired by the 1984 book of the same name, the movie has vignettes from the lives of four couples and their respective parenthood journeys. Lopez’s character, Holly, is married to Alex, and the couple can’t conceive a child. They decide to adopt a baby from Ethiopia, even though Alex hasn’t fully come to terms with his impending fatherhood. Hardly the most interesting of J. Lo.’s movies, it at least makes a sincere effort.
18. The Wedding Planner (2001)
19. U Turn (1997)
In this poor attempt at neo-noir, Lopez portrays Grace McKenna, a mysterious woman traveling with her much older husband, who’s also her stepfather. The couple separately approaches a stranded drifter, asking him to kill the other for profit.
20. Second Act (2018)
Another movie with a script that defies belief, Second Act, tells the story of Maya, a middle-aged woman stuck in a dead-end job. Maya has little to no chance for advancement because she only has a GED.
With the help of her godson, she creates fake credentials for herself, including an Ivy League education. She pursues the corporate career she’s always wanted. Do these companies not do background checks in the digital age?
21. Marry Me (2022)
J .Lo. produced and acted in this rom-com that not only poked fun at her own life but more or less matched her other rom-coms of the unlucky-in-love girl who gets her guy by the movie’s end. The theme starts to wear a bit thin with this unoriginal flick. She can and should expect better at this stage of her career.
22. Gigli (2003)
It’s such a ridiculously bad movie; it’s genuinely surprising that both of their careers rebounded from it. They’ve gone on to better things (thank goodness), including marriage, but Gigli will always stain their respective filmographies.
