Liam Neeson is an entirely different actor today than he was 30 years ago. The Irish movie star initially took several parts in prestige pictures, hitting his creative high when he appeared in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Along the way, he appeared in acclaimed literary adaptations, stage plays, and dramas of every size and scope. However, something interesting happened when Neeson agreed to take on the role of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn.

A short time after he appeared in the Star Wars franchise, Liam Neeson found another career as an older action hero, sliding into a role that luminaries like Denzel Washington also discovered. Now, Neeson is just as likely to be hunting down killers and kidnappers with a gun in hand as he is to be delivering classic literary lines. Through four decades of filmmaking, here is a look at Liam Neeson’s 10 best movies, according to IMDb.

A MONSTER CALLS (7.5)

While the movie seemed to pass quietly, making a very low $47 million at the box office on a $43 million budget, A Monster Calls was critically lauded. The film was based on the novel by Patrick Ness, who also adapted the screenplay. It tells the story of a young boy whose mother is terminally ill, and he has to learn to cope with this revelation.

Liam Neeson voices the monster in the movie, a giant yew tree creature that speaks to the boy and tells him three fables to try to help the boy deal with his emotional pain. A dark fantasy, the movie has a heart that many mainstream films never dare to approach. The Empire Awards named it the Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy movie of 2016.

ORDINARY LOVE (7.5)

Released in 2019, Ordinary Love made its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, although it has yet to hit theaters. Despite this, it has a 7.5 rating on IMDb and is an anticipated release. The film has Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville as a retired health-conscious couple who face a massive bump in the road when she discovers a lump on her breast.

The film then takes the difficult path of her going through chemotherapy and wants to take the trip alone since she feels her husband deserves to remain in the land of the living. The movie is about two people in love who have to overcome the odds together — and apart.

GANGS OF NEW YORK (7.5)

In 2002, Liam Neeson was part of a massively talented cast in the Martin Scorsese period drama Gangs of New York. The film took place in 1863 when the Catholic-Protestant feud erupted into violence. Scorsese was working on the movie for 20 years before he got a chance to make it.

Liam Neeson is “Priest” Vallon, the leader of a group of Irish Catholic immigrants known as the Dead Rabbits. He is opposed directly by the Protestant Natives, with Bill the Butcher as their leader, played brilliantly by Daniel Day-Lewis.

LOVE, ACTUALLY (7.6)

Love, Actually is a Christmas movie directed by Richard Curtis, with a star-studded cast. An ensemble movie, the film follows several interconnecting stories about people facing different struggles with love during the holiday season.

In Liam Neeson’s storyline, he is a friend of Karen (Emma Thompson), who is involved in her own story with Alan Rickman. Neeson’s character is mourning the death of his wife while trying to raise his stepson alone.

PONYO (7.7)

Liam Neeson has added his voice to several animated films over the years. In 2008, Neeson voiced a role in a movie by legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. The film was Ponyo, and Neeson was part of the American cast in the English dub of the film.

Ponyo was about the titular goldfish who make friends with a five-year-old boy and wants to become a human. Neeson voices Fujimoto, a once-human wizard who lives underwater with his daughters, one of which was Ponyo.

THE LEGO MOVIE (7.8)

Possibly the most surprising movie of 2014 was the computer-animated film, The LEGO Movie. Most fans thought it would be a cash grab just to sell more toys, but thanks to the creative minds of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, it ended up as one of the top animated movies of 2014 and even picked up a sequel and a spin-off.

Liam Neeson was one of the bad guys in the movie. He voiced the character of Good Cop/Bad Cop, the right-hand man for Lord Business (Will Ferrell) and the heavy who set out to stop Emmet (Chris Pratt) from saving the world.

TAKEN (7.8)

The action movie that put Liam Neeson on the map when it came to his older action hero persona was Taken. Directed by Pierre Morel and produced by Luc Besson, Taken stars Neeson as a father whose teenage daughter and her best friend are kidnapped by human traffickers in France while on vacation.

As a former CIA operative, Neeson’s character is more than equipped in tracking down and rescuing his daughter, while leaving a pile of bad guy bodies in his wake. The movie was a massive success, making over $226 million and giving way to two sequels and a TV series of the same name.

BATMAN BEGINS (8.2)

Liam Neeson cut his teeth in the major blockbusters, with the biggest of them all in the Star Wars prequels. With a role as the Jedi Knight,who trained Obi-Wan Kenobi, nothing could get bigger than that. Neeson’s next mega-blockbuster franchise was joining DC Comics for the revival of Batman in Batman Begins.

Much like how he served as a mentor of Obi-Wan, Neeson starred as the trainer and mentor for Bruce Wayne as he set out to become Batman. However, Neeson was actually the movie’s main villain, Ra’s al Ghul, and it was his League of Shadows that threatened to destroy Gotham City.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (8.4)

The Dark Knight Rises was nowhere near as beloved as the previous movies in the franchise, but it remains highly ranked on IMDb for users who loved the film despite its flaws. As for Ra’s al Ghul, he did appear to fall to his death in Batman Begins, but Liam Neeson was back for this effort.

It appeared that Ra’s al Ghul was a hallucination for a broken Batman in this movie. However, outside of Neeson returning to taunt Batman, his presence played a significant role, as it was his daughter who played the part of the criminal mastermind in this final movie in the Dark Knight Trilogy.

SCHINDLER’S LIST (8.9)

The best movie of Liam Neeson’s career came in 1993 when he teamed with Steven Spielberg to create the masterpiece Schindler’s List. The film was based on Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved over a thousand Jewish refugees from the Holocaust during World War II.

Neeson starred as Schindler in the movie, the true hero to the countless individuals whose lives and families he saved. Also starring was Ralph Fiennes, a second lieutenant in the Nazi forces. The film won Best Picture and Best Director while Liam Neeson was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards.