The Best Cuba Gooding, Jr. Movies

Image via Getty/Andrew Toth

A group of friends (Emilio Estevez, Gooding Jr., and Stephen Dorff) witness a gang murder on the way home from a boxing match. Their bad luck sets off a high-speed chase by the bloodthirsty gang’s boss (Denis Leary) through a rough neighborhood in Chicago. It’s a bad portrait of Chicago, making the inner city seem like a cesspool for crime and dangerous behavior, and overall the movie is a pretty unintelligent fast-paced thriller. However, the soundtrack is a wholly original and somewhat groundbreaking full-album length mashup of rap and rock artists. The best track is De La Soul and Teenage Fanclub’s “Fallin’.”

When an Ebola-like outbreak of the fictional disease Motaba begins spreading through Zaire, U.S. army specialists are sent to investigate, but the disease is inadvertently brought to America and quickly begins spreading through major cities. The movie can be predictable at times, and, to be sure, it’s a little racist to assume that the outbreak is only truly dangerous once it hits America. But hey, it was the ‘90s, and people also loved acid wash jeans in the ‘90s. That said, though, between Wolfgang Petersen’s fast-paced directing and Cuba’s supporting role as Major Salt, Outbreak is an enjoyable disaster movie full of surprises and suspense.

What Dreams May Come is a part Biblical, part mythological trip through Earth, heaven, and hell that explores themes of love, family, and sacrifice. Robin Williams’s family is shattered after he and his two children die in quick succession, but he is guided by Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character, Albert, around heaven. When Williams’s wife commits suicide, Albert helps his new friend descend into hell to help her. The storyline is predictable at times, and the special effects are slightly off-putting if you’re watching it for the first time in 2017, but the movie does boast a solid and moving emotional core and outstanding performances.

Cuba’s role in Ava DuVernay’s Selma is admittedly a small one; he plays Fred Gray, the civil rights attorney responsible for convincing Judge Frank Minis Johnson to allow the Selma to Montgomery march to proceed. Even if Cuba is on screen for a relatively short amount of time, it’s a meaningful performance that is crucial to the plot of a deeply moving and important film.

This HBO movie follows the first African American combat pilots in Air Force during World War II and focuses on the racial discrimination they faced before, during, and after their heroic contributions to their country. Since the characters are based on real people, the movie is concerned with historical accuracy, and as such, draws on plenty on archival footage. As a result, the film explores the racism the pilots encountered within the military head-on, and Cuba’s role as an outspoken, yet naive cadet helps highlight the inherent power balances and difficulties that these young pilots endured.

A Few Good Men is a classic courthouse legal drama centering on a murder case wherein two Marines are accused of killing another fellow Marine. The murder accusation is not straightforward, and so a lot of the actions rests on the lawyers’ strategies. The concept works if you enjoy the breakdown of the strict structure of the American military and have an inherent interest in the court system, a combination that makes for great dramatic scenes. Cuba Gooding, Jr.’s role as a Corporal is a minor one; A Few Good Men came out four years before Jerry Maguire, generally considered to be Cuba’s first big role. But, the movie as a whole is a compelling, classic American story of justice and power.

The Butler is based on the story of Eugene Allen, an African American butler who worked in The White House for 34 years, from 1952 to 1986; Allen is portrayed by Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines in the film. As a black man, Gaines has an unusually intimate view of some of the most momentous moments of 20th century American history, particularly during the civil rights era, lending his role a dark kind of poetic justice. Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays the head butler at The White House when Cecil first joins the crew. Some critics brushed off The Butler as Oscar-bait, but the story is an engaging and important one. After watching the film, Barack Obama said, "I teared up thinking about not just the butlers who worked here in the White House, but an entire generation of people who were talented and skilled, but because of Jim Crow and because of discrimination, there was only so far they could go."

Based on the true story of Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear, the first African American master diver in the United States Navy, Men of Honor is as a pretty standard biopic. As a movie, it’s formulaic and predictable, but the story of Carl Brashear, played by Cuba, is a remarkable one. He is met with bitter racism at every single turn on his journey towards his dream, and despite few supporters and plenty of physical challenges along the way, he succeeds.

Cuba won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire, making his involvement in this movie a high point in his career. Cuba’s portrayal of the difficult Arizona Cardinals wide receiver explored the often-overlooked emotional aspect of the agent-athlete relationship. Rod’s signature “Show me the money!” catchphrase became an iconic part of pop culture and is still used to this day, demonstrating the lasting effect of Cuba’s performance.