Perfect example - aside from the awesomeness that was The Wicker Man - worth it just to see him being a total dick whilst wearing a bear suit.
How about Halle Barry? She really hasn’t been in anything noteworthy of late, aside from the X-Men movies, has she?
You should check him out in Finding Neverland or Chocolat. When he makes a good choice with a good co-star to work against (Kate Winslet and Juliette Binoche in these two cases) he can do good, even subtle work.
My vote on this would be Angelina Jolie. Every fourth film gets her nominations for awards that she doesn’t win, but the three in between suck. She’s a huge name and the highest paid woman in Hollywood but she does a lot of really crappy films, and is never the highlight of any film she does even when she’s the star (see: Salt).
I don’t know about you, but she’s usually the only thing that keeps me watching any movie she’s in, if you know what I mean.
Which I guess proves your point. I’ll shut up now.
The most recent Pirates movie was released 3 months ago and has already grossed more than $1 Billion- that’s not played out. Alice in Wonderland, which I’ll admit I wasn’t a fan of either, has also grossed more than $1 Billion. Depp was the undisputed star of them both- this wasn’t ensemble like Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter or X-Men but flat out “Starring Johnny Depp”. Sweeney Todd- not just a Broadway show but a Sondheim show (i.e. one of the most cerebral names in musical theater) and with a lack of break out songs- was one of the highest grossing musicals of all time. As much as I detested Chocolate Factory it grossed over half a billion dollars.
Whatever may be said about his projects’ artistic merit or lack of, his movies have grossed billions of dollars in the past 5 years alone. He’s the biggest star in the world in terms of box office receipts over the past few years, so I can’t call him mediocre.
I like to say it was a woosh, but the simple fact is that I misread the post. I subconsciously read “Bale” instead of “Slater.”
I apologize for the confusion.
I’m sure you’re right that some people felt that way, but i just never thought that Christian Slater was a very good actor. Even when he was in good movies, i didn’t think his acting was that great.
Dustin Hoffman. Seriously, when was the last time he was in a film that he wasn’t just arsing around? I remember seeing him in Joan of Arc and thinking he looked like he’d just wandered onto the set one day and said “Hey guys, can I play too? Never mind about the script - I’ll just wing it.” When Milla Jovovich is out-acting you, maybe you’re not really trying.
Also, there is the tragic career of Steve Martin. Pink Panther? Sgt Bilko? Cheaper by The Dozen? Father of the Bride? With the shining exception of Bowfinger, all he seems to do are weak remakes and “re-imaginings” of old films and TV shows. He’s a decent actor but it’s all dreck.
Actually, take what I said about Steve Martin and apply to Eddie Murphy too. Including the Bowfinger bit. In fact, I think Eddie’s an extremely talented actor but dear God, Edward, step away from the fat suits.
SPR. was truly awesome, but the interesting thing about Castaway was SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE .
Things can be popular and still be mediocre. In fact, what’s popular is almost always mediocre.
People are seeing the new Pirates movie for the same reason that people buy McDonalds. Marketing. That doesn’t mean it’s a good movie.
I think Johnny Depp is an extremely talented actor but needs to be banned from doing any more Tim Burton films (or PotC films, for that matter) for his own artistic good, although I’m sure those films far outpay his other work.
Some years ago I saw an interview with Robert Downey Jr where he was asked why he made popular dreck like Iron Man. Downey asked the studio audience “How many of you saw Fur?”. Not one hand went up. “That’s why I made Iron Man,” he said.
Bull. Here’s a list of the 100 highest grossing movies of all-time. The vast majority of them are good movies and there’s a smattering of great movies in there as well. Even a few bonafide classics.
I think Tim Burton should be banned from doing any more Tim Burton films. Of course ED WOOD was the last one I really thought was great, and it flopped.
I don’t see how this makes your case. Here’s all the movies from that link that, without too much argument, can be classified as less than mediocre (IMHO):
*Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Spider-Man 3
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Shrek the Third
Transformers
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Matrix Reloaded
Meet the Fockers
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
The Hangover Part II
Night at the Museum
Twister
Shrek Forever After
X-Men: The Last Stand
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Rush Hour 2
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Austin Powers in Goldmember *
That’s 24, almost a quarter of the list. This doesn’t count movies like Independence Day that are somewhere between mediocre and good, and probably comprise another 20 or so movies. No way that “the vast majority of them are good movies”.
First of all, Twister is a great movie. Secondly, if you think 24 are mediocre or less than mediocre, that makes 76 movies “good” AKA the vast majority.
There’s no way Twister and Night at the Museum are worse movies than Independence Day.
Powers &8^]
OK, since when is Iron Man “dreck”…?
I thought the first one was reasonably well done, and certainly a good example of the comic book film genre.
As far as the topic at hand, Nic Cage has already been mentioned, he was the first one I thought of. I used to see movies because he was in them (probably longer than I should have because I loved Raising Arizona so much), but now actively avoid them.
Well, no. Those are the ones that are uncontroversially below mediocre. IOW they are actively bad and pretty much everyone agrees with it.
Mediocre is a bit more controversial, but most people are going to find at least another 26 they consider mediocre. Independence Day? Da Vinci Code? Beverly Hills Cop?
There’s nothing *wrong *with these movies, but they are mediocre. There’s nothing particularly memorable or novel about them. They’re just popcorn movies. That’s not a bad thing, but it is still mediocrity. It’s plain, unoriginal, middle-of-the-road, tried-and-tested film making: mediocre.
Most popular movies are like that. Of course they are. It’s hard to be innovative and memorable and popular too.
And so late in the thread, and nobody has mentioned Robin Williams? At one stage in the 90s the guy was huge and rated as a serious actor as well as a comedian.
Has anybody seen anything he made since Mrs Doubtfire?
The tenth post mentioned Robin Williams.