is one of the most beloved comedy movie stars in Hollywood, having given hysterical performances in such hit comedies as The Heat, Spy, and This Is 40. Ever since her star-making turn in Bridesmaids, McCarthy has been one of the world’s most renowned comedic actors. McCarthy has also proven her dramatic chops with roles like literary forger Lee Israel in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, which earned her an Oscar nod for Best Actress, and author Frances Welty in the miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers.

McCarthy is one of the few performers to earn an Academy Award nomination for a zany comedic performance in a straightforward, raunchy comedy. She has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and , which allowed her to build her own characters from the ground up. From donning a proton pack in the Ghostbusters reboot to co-starring in some great dramas along the way, McCarthy has starred in some truly great movies over the years.

Neither of The Hangover sequels lived up to the iconic original. Still, where the second one just rehashed the first movie’s story, the third switched up the genre to a fast-paced action thriller and had a much darker sense of humor than its predecessors. The Hangover Part III sees the . Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong) stole from the mob boss and disappeared, and since Alan is the only person to keep in touch with him, they have to retrieve his items, or he will kill Doug.

McCarthy doesn’t have a huge role, but she’s a great comedic match for Zach Galifianakis as Alan’s eccentric love interest. She plays an important role at the end of the movie since it is Cassie and Alan who partially cause the next amnesiac adventure for the Wolfpack, one left up to the viewers to decipher.

One of several starring vehicles that McCarthy wrote for herself with her husband, Ben Falcone, The Boss revolves around a business magnate who loses her fortune and claws her way back to the top. McCarthy is the woman who loses it all, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and . She soon teams with her former personal assistant on a new venture and discovers the value of family.

She’s surrounded by well-matched co-stars, from Kristen Bell as the “straight man” to Peter Dinklage as the villain to Kathy Bates as a mentor-turned-rival. The script is conventional and predictable, but McCarthy gets the most out of every gag. Critics hated the movie, delivering scathing reviews, but the audience loved it, and McCarthy won the People's Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress: Comedy.

Most of the puppeteering projects produced by The Jim Henson Company are family-friendly, but The Happytime Murders – directed by Jim Henson’s son, Brian Henson – is anything but. Set in a world where humans co-exist with puppets, about a human cop (played brilliantly by McCarthy) and a puppet P.I. teaming up to investigate the killings of a retired sitcom cast.

The reviews were terrible, though, and critics hated the movie. With that said, it was a callback to the Peter Jackson classic horror comedy Meet the Feebles. However, this Melissa McCarthy movie gets credit for working with the Jim Henson Company, although with an adult-oriented, R-rated, raunchy comedy.

In 2004, Jerry Seinfeld tried to make a comeback with a directorial effort in Unfrosted. This movie tells a fictional version of. While that doesn't sound like that big of a deal, this was one of several movies that came out in recent years about the creation of consumer products (such as recent releases about the creation of the video game Tetris, the rise of McDonald's​​​​​, and the creation of Air Jordan sneakers). Unfrosted was definitely not the best in this niche subgenre.

Melissa McCarthy stars as Donna "Stan" Stankowski, a NASA food scientist who joins Kellogg's to help develop and create the product. The film received mixed reviews from critics, with 40% on Rotten Tomatoes and 50% from the audience. While it received Razzie awards and nominations, it also earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Television Movie.

In 2019, Melissa McCarthy took on a role in a comic book adaptation, but not one based on superheroes. This came three years before she had a cameo in the MCU's Thor: Love & Thunder, and this film was based on a DC/Vertigo Comics limited series by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle. with friends Ruby (Tiffany Haddish) and Claire (Elisabeth Moss) after the FBI arrests their husbands.

praising the three women leads but saying they struggled with a "sagging story." Audiences gave it a much higher 69% score, with most viewers praising the actors and performances, even in the bad reviews that didn't care as much for the story. One big problem was comparing the movie to the superior Widows, which had a similar storyline.

McCarthy . A Pulp Fiction-style intertwining character piece, Go chronicles the aftermath of a drug deal from three different perspectives. There were many copycats that followed Pulp Fiction, but Go is one of the few that even came close to matching its greatness. Although it was initially a box office bomb, its sharp script and dazzling direction have given Go a second life as a cult classic.

The story follows Ronna (Sarah Polley), a grocery store clerk who agrees to try to score some drugs from her co-worker Simon's dealer, although she has no idea the two men asking her to do this are working for an undercover narcotics agent, Burke (William Fichtner). McCarthy plays Sandra, a character who only appeared for one minute of total screen time.

The Nines is an often overlooked and forgotten 2007 sci-fi thriller starring Ryan Reynolds. In the film, Reynolds plays three different characters (Gary, Gavin, and Gabriel), all realizing bad things are happening in their lives while their timelines are starting to overlap. — Margaret, Gary's PR handler; herself as an actor in Gavin's TV show; and Mary, Gabriel's wife. Hope Davis also stars as three different characters.

The Nines received a 65% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the inventive story but saying it might be too metaphysical for mainstream audiences. Critics also praised the performances, and it was nominated for Best DVD Release at the 34th Saturn Awards.

Rob Marshall's live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid received mixed reviews from critics. However, it was also flamed by online trolls who opposed the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel. The film's goal was to present great songs and inspired visuals, and in that aspect, it did, which included great singing by Bailey, who was more than up to the role. Also, one of the to play Ursula, the villainous sea witch who cursed Ariel.

The movie had a nice box office total of $569 million, but it also cost $240 million to make, so it wasn't as big of a success as Disney hoped. Its Rotten Tomatoes scores included a 67% from critics. Despite the early review bombing by online trolls, McCarthy received a Saturn Award nomination for her performance in the movie.

The reception of the all-female Ghostbusters reboot got engulfed by sexist trolls, but it’s a really fun action comedy. With modern CGI effects and a nine-figure studio budget, the ghosts are more spectacular than ever, and there’s a rapid-fire gag rate to match. The writing and direction of the reboot might not be as sharp as the classic original, but the cast of hilarious women – .

Several of the original Ghostbusters team do make appearances in small roles as other characters, which made for a fun connection. However, this was all about telling a new story with fresh female characters, and every woman in the cast pulled their weight and delivered great performances in a movie that was much better than most critics would admit.

Melissa McCarthy paired up with a classically curmudgeonly Bill Murray in St. Vincent, the story of a young boy forging an unlikely bond with the misanthropic war veteran next door. In the film, whose wife, Sandy, has Alzheimer's and no longer knows who he is. Soon, he develops a relationship with young Oliver, a boy bullied at school who has no friends, and quickly bonds with the cranky retiree.

Murray is typically hilarious as the cranky neighbor. There are plenty of laughs in St. Vincent, but it also has a lot of heart, and it’s not afraid to indulge in sappy sentimentality. Murray received a Golden Globes nomination for his performance as Vincent, and the film has mostly positive reviews, sitting at 77% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

The film is a surprising sequel to the smash hit Knocked Up, but it focuses on two of the supporting characters from that movie, married couple Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann). The bitter marital strife between Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann induces more anxiety than laughter, but they’re surrounded by scene-stealing supporting players like Albert Brooks, Megan Fox, and Chris O’Dowd, who get a huge laugh whenever they’re on-screen.

against Rudd and Mann. Part of the story follows the two of them dealing with their daughter. McCarthy plays Charlotte, an angry mother who meets in the principal's office with Pete and Debbie and begins a foul-mouthed tirade when she gets angry. What makes it all the better is that McCarthy improvised most of her lines.

Bullock is the “straight man,” a by-the-book FBI agent, opposite McCarthy’s loud-mouthed, rule-bending Boston detective. The two actors are comedy gold as the mismatched partners in the film, with McCarthy delivering all the humor that the movie needs with her over-the-top delivery, compared to Bullock's more subdued acting.

The Heat’s script might follow a predictable plot, but as with any movie in this subgenre,; it’s all about the buddy dynamic. McCarthy shares endlessly enjoyable chemistry with Bullock as reluctant partners who gradually warm up to each other and become close friends. The film was a huge success, making $229 million on a $43 million budget. McCarthy earned nominations at the Teen Choice, Critics' Choice, People's Choice, and MTV Movie Awards.

McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, the guy-in-the-chair to a 007-style international man of mystery, played by Jude Law. It’s up to Susan to save the day when he's seemingly killed in action. However, the 40-year-old CIA employee is over her head when she meets up with fellow field agent Rick Ford (Jason Statham).

Spy is a delightfully absurd parody of the Bond formula. A standout supporting role is played by a hysterically deadpan Jason Statham, who mocks his own invincible on-screen persona. Critics also praised the movie, making it one of the best comedies of McCarthy's career, with a Certified Fresh 95% Rotten Tomatoes score. McCarthy went on to earn a Golden Globes nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

While Melissa McCarthy is best known for her comedy roles, one of the best performances of her career came in a biographical drama movie called Can You Ever Forgive Me? In this movie, McCarthy plays Lee Israel in an adaptation of Israel's 2008 memoir. Israel is a freelance writer who tries to revitalize her career by forging letters from dead playwrights and authors. She also began stealing actual letters and autographed papers of famous people and replacing them with her forged copies, then selling the forged works and stolen originals.

Critics universally praised Can You Ever Forgive Me?, awarding it a Certified Fresh 98% Certified Fresh score, while audiences gave it a high 81%. The biggest praise went to McCarthy and Richard E. Grant's performances. McCarthy earned a Golden Globes nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture, Drama and an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

Melissa McCarthy’s breakout movie is still her very best by far and probably always will be. Bridesmaids nails the subversive Apatowian blend of raunchy humor and sincere character development. Kristen Wiig is the star of the movie as Annie, whose life goes into a tailspin when her best friend gets engaged, but McCarthy steals all her scenes as the groom’s wildcard sister, Megan. It’s extremely rare that comedies — especially big mainstream studio comedies — are recognized at the Oscars.

The Academy made an exception for Bridesmaids, and McCarthy received a surprising but much-deserved nomination for Best Supporting Actress. The movie was a massive success, making $306 million at the box office, and proved once and for all that Hollywood needs more female-led comedy movies. It also has a Certified Fresh 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, and a high 76% Fresh score from the audience members.