In recent weeks, I have seen the advertisements for:
The Hunted - Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro - these actors have been in better movies than this.
Boat Trip - Cuba Gooding, Jr. - who was also in Snow Dogs.
and
View From The Top - Gwyneth Paltrow, who was in Shallow Hal
All I have to say, why would these people get into such movies that according to reviewers Suck. Shouldn’t Oscar Winners be a little more picking of the movies the star in.
Coming to theatres in a few weeks is:
The Core - Hillary Swank
and
Bad Boys II - Will Smith (Ocsar nominee), and he is top billed by Martin Lawrence. (Huh)!
These movies should also Suck.
The only thing I can think of is their getting paid and it keeps them busy.
Before you say The Life of David Gale - Kevin Spacey, that was better than any of these waste of celluloid.
There is the Art and then there is the Work. I shot thousands of t.v. shows, movies, music videos, commercials and industrials.
I very VERY rarely got to truly create something I was proud of, something that had beauty and impact. When I did, it had nothing to do with the salary, or the exposure of the job.
Usually, it was variations on the meat grinder that is visual entertainment. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, it just means one is rarely Elevated to great heights in this business.
I would not be slamming people for taking jobs. They got nominated? More power to them, I bet those jobs gave them a chance to flex their creative muscles and produce stellar work. It doesn’t make them shit for wanting the next job.
Gene Hackman. Michael Caine. My GOD those two work a lot. They have a body of work, that is exemplary. Now and then, duds. Now and then, truly brilliant stuff.
-shrug- I admire people who can generate good work on a consistent basis. If the movies you called a waste of celluloid pay for the cost of making them, and entertain some folks, then they did exactly what they were made to do.
… I know there are actresses who also work incessantly, didn’t mean to slight 51 % of the performing population by just naming two actors. They popped into my head, I named 'em.
Gene Hackman was in a dud? I must have missed that one.
What about DeNiro in Showtime? I would expect that Robert DeNiro would have his choice of great films to work on.
By the way, while The Core may end up being a cheesy, sci-fi dud, I wouldn’t be too quick to judge it. The cast (including the afore mentioned Swank and Stanley Tucci) makes me think twice.
Michael Caine was in Jaws 4. He actually had to skip the Oscar ceremony in which he won supporting actor for Hannah and her Sisters* because he was busy filming it.
Gene Hackman has been in the following movies, all of which sucked eggs, IMHO:
The Quick and the Dead
Heist
Power
Hearbreakers
Superman IV (God help us all)
Loose Cannons
Yes, I know a lot of people thought “Heist” was great. I thought it was disgracefully bad, primarily because it featured possibly the worst actress in the history of cinema, Rebecca Pidgeon (the director’s wife, unsurprisingly) and was frankly something of an unintentional self-parody of David Mamet trying to write a twisty story.
I liked Heartbreakers and The Poseiden Adventure, while flawed, is still a classic.
I concede that the other Hackman films mentioned do in fact suck. I was particularly disappointed with Heist, since it had such a great cast and it was a Mamet film, to boot. Where did they go wrong?
I’ve never actually seen Baseketball, but it featured him along with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Jenny McCarthy, and so forth.
Has Kenneth Branagh ever won an Oscar? He was in the Wild Wild West, which has already legendary for its awfulness despite being released only four years ago. Will Smith was in there too.
The Swarm has Michael Caine, Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda, Jose Ferrer, Ben Johnson, Patty Duke & Lee Grant–that’s 9 Oscars between them. Beyond the Poseidon Adventure has winners Michael Caine, Sally Field, Karl Malden, and Shirley Jones–6 Oscars
But the all-time winner has to be: The Oscar, featuring Ernest Borgnine, Ed Begley, Walter Brennan (3 Oscars), Broderick Crawford, James Dunn, Edith Head (8 Oscars), Frank Sinatra, and Bob Hope (5 Honorary Oscars)
That’s 21 Oscars in the cast of one terrible movie.
I’ll be nice, and only count movies done AFTER a performer has won an Oscar. After all, we EXPECT a young, talented but struggling to do some bad movies. But if we limit ourselves to AWFUL (not just mediocre) movies featuring people who once won the Oscar as Best Actor or Actress…
Sir Laurence Olivier (Best Actor in "Hamlet’) was in “The Betsy” and Sun Myung Moon’s epic “Inchon.”
Ray Milland (Best Actor in "The Lost Weekend) was in that two-headed transplant movie with Rosie Grier.
F. Murray Abraham (Best Actor in “Amadeus”) did a lame Hannibal Lecter parody in the stinker “National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon.”
Jack Lemmon made some really cruddy comedies in his later years, including “Buddy Buddy,” “Out to Sea,” and “My Fellow Americans.” But “The Odd Couple 2” was probably the worst of the bunch.
Rod Steiger (Best Actor: “In the Heat of the Night”): many, many dreadful films… but the worst was “Modern Vampires.”
Jimmy Stewart (Best ACtor: “The Philadelphia Story”): “The Magic of Lassie.”
Ernest Borgnine (Best Actor: “Marty”): So many to choose from, but “Superfuzz” and “When Time Ran Out” stand out. Technically, Paul Newman wasn’t an Oscar winner yet when he starred in “When Time Ran Out,” so he gets a reprieve.
Gwyneth Paltrow (Best Actress: “Shakespeare in Love”): “View from the Top”