20. Corbit — “Winter Passing” (2005)
Ferrell took his first foray into more serious territory with this mostly forgotten indie, the directorial debut of playwright Adam Rapp. We’re in indie-cliche territory: Zooey Deschanel stars as a troubled, self-harming young woman who returns home to her reclusive novelist father (Ed Harris) to find him living with one of his former students (Amelia Warner, who’s excellent, and should have been bigger) and Ferrell’s shy oddball musician. But for all the familiar beats, it’s well acted by everyone, and the comedian acquits himself nicely among the other performers.
19. Chazz Michael Michaels — “Blades Of Glory” (2007)
Its place in pop culture history mostly comes down to a quote at the beginning of a Jay-Z and Kanye track, but “Blades Of Glory” is pretty funny, if quite familiar. The plot — which sees Ferrell’s brash skating star paired with his arch-rival, Jon Heder as a male pair in attempt to return to the sport — relies too heavily on gay panic jokes, but there’s some inspired stuff elsewhere. And Chazz’s rock-star swagger gives Ferrell a new note to play which compensates for the slight flatness of the pairing otherwise.
18. Big Earl — “Starsky & Hutch” (2004)
Returning the favor for his “Old School” director Todd Phillips the year after he helped to make him a star, Ferrell crops up as an informant for Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller’s titular cops in the filmmaker’s just-ok remake of the well-loved series. It’s just a one-scene-cameo as a belly-button/dragon fetishist who takes a fancy to Wilson’s Hutch, but it’s a welcome note of real weirdness in a movie that could have used more of it.
17. Franz Liebkind — “The Producers” (2005)
There’s not much to recommend Susan Stroman’s big-screen translation of the Broadway smash translation of Mel Brooks’ original comedy classic — the direction makes Rob Marshall look like Vincente Minnelli, and stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick still play to the back row. But Ferrell’s a rare highlight, and his take on Nazi playwright/actor Franz Libekind stands aside from both the original film and the stage productions, and proving all the better for it.
16. Megamind — “Megamind” (2011)
DreamWorks Animation’s “Megamind” mostly plays as an inferior riff on both “The Incredibles” and the previous year’s “Despicable Me,” failing to bring much to the meta animated deconstruction of superheroes and supervillains. But it looks great, and Ferrell (again replacing Robert Downey Jr) has plenty of fun as the title character, a dome-headed, bright blue bad guy with a surprisingly soft heart.