Movies That Killed Careers

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by JediJones, Apr 14, 2021.

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  1. Jay_Z

    Jay_Z Forum Resident

    Who?
     
  2. sthorntn

    sthorntn Forum Resident

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    SE Michigan
    I'm not sure that Victoria Price's memory is completely accurate. Her father appeared in House Of Wax in 1953, prior to being cast in some significant non-genre movies (While The City Sleeps, The Ten Commandments, The Story Of Mankind). Looking at his filmography, Price doesn't really become typecast in horror films until 1958/59 when he appeared in a slew of them almost back to back (The Fly, House On Haunted Hill, Return Of The Fly, The Tingler, The Bat). It's arguable, I suppose, but I wonder if that had more to do with the fact that Price's other specialties, period films and film noirs, were beginning to fall out of favor by the end of the 1950s.
     
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  3. Bluesman Mark

    Bluesman Mark I'm supposed to put something witty here....

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    There's that & the fact that he was in Tower Of London, (marketed by Universal as a horror film to some degree), in 1939 & The Invisible Man Returns in 1940, without being typecast at the time. I think Price was to at least a degree, a willing participant in his typecasting. It really exploded in the 60s, with the Roger Corman AIP Poe films he did.
     
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  4. Claus LH

    Claus LH Forum Resident

    Louise Fletcher...from the Oscar for "Nest" to Exorcist II. An example of how quickly the power of Oscar no longer compels you...
    She had a presence like Cathy Bates, and no one could come up with a meaty dramatic role for her?
    (If anyone wants to recommend one of her later films, please do. I have seen glimpses of her from time to time, but nothing I can remember.)

    Bill Cosby being in "Leonard Part 6" pretty well took care of any feature film ambitions for him.

    For Total Destruction, it doesn't get much worse than Geena Davis and Renny Harlin with "Cutthroat Island":
    The film bombed enormously.
    Davis's leading-lady days were done.
    Carolco Pictures went bankrupt.
    Renny Harlin muddled along and is still working, but...

    C.
     
  5. Isaac K.

    Isaac K. Forum Resident

    Nah, I think he’s spot on. I was a huge Nicholas Cage fan before then and thought he could do no wrong (kind of like Harrison Ford up until Clear and Present Danger). But when Cage began doing big budget action films like Face Off, Con Air and The Rock instead of artier films, that’s when I saw a nose dive in movie quality. Nothing has ever sunk his career, but he just isn’t as cool as he used to be and is really just the butt of meme jokes now.
     
  6. jimac51

    jimac51 A mythical beast.

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    While Mommie Dearest certainly racks up the laughs for all the wrong reasons, adding to the pile of Dunaway's doo-doos,besides her part in Bonnie & Clyde, I'd rank Network as the greatest films about electronic media(only A Face In The Crowd comes close) and one of the greatest films from the '70s about the '70s. Dunaway is a force in this stellar cast. She doesn't just holds her own,she excels in a cast that includes William Holden,Peter Finch,Robert Duvall and Beatrice Straight(a well-deserved Supporting Actress Oscar).
     
  7. Scooterpiety

    Scooterpiety Ars Gratia Artis

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    Chevy appeared in more bad or mediocre films than great ones in the '80s. Remember (or forget) Oh! Heavenly Dog, Under The Rainbow, Modern Problems, Deal of the Century, Caddyshack II, The Couch Trip, Fletch Lives, Funny Farm...I may have forgotten a few!
     
  8. AndrewK

    AndrewK Forum Resident

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    Cleveland, Ohio
    how about Soul Man (1986). I heard or read that C Thomas Howell career never recovered after that movie. Although to be fair he was never a huge star before that
     
  9. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader

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    Like GregM said : Nicolas Cage.
     
  10. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
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    Mommie Dearest and Cutthroat Island are perfect additions to the list.

    I would agree that Eddie Murphy had a mini-death in the early '90s and a comeback as a reinvented "family film" star with Nutty Professor. But the family film career died with Norbit.

    Oscar - basically the death of John Landis' directing career. His resume shows the desperation of a sinking ship after that.

    Judge Dredd - Arguably this one sent Stallone into a slump. He did Cop Land after this but Cop Land had been built up as such a comeback for him that its moderate success was disappointing. Stallone actually says Cop Land was "the beginning of the end" of his career for eight years. And of course Rocky Balboa was his big comeback, although the Expendables a few years after that was more impressive as it didn't rely on a pre-existing franchise.

    Leap of Faith - Steve Martin. This one really seemed to disappoint audiences. And the resume looks really rough for the next 11 years, until Bringing Down the House and Cheaper by the Dozen were a comeback to commercial success in 2003, if not impressing critics or fans. The resume after that is fair, but mostly looks like a voluntary semi-retirement for the past 10 years.

    This is what Roger Ebert wrote in his review of the 1993 Orson Welles documentary It's All True:
     
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2021
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  11. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
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    Wow really excellent write up. You nail all the biggies And it is extraordinarily complete. Nice write up again good work.
     
  12. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

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    US
    I just want to know: is Michael Bay’s career dead yet?
     
  13. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Thanks, I forgot Mommie Dearest though, which I would call the thread winner as the number one career killer of all time.

    I was planning to include Kevin Costner but it's a hard one to nail down. Although we can start with...

    Wyatt Earp - A definite career killer for Lawrence Kasdan. This was a reteaming of Kasdan and Costner, who had made two of the most successful modern Westerns, for a new Western with a huge brand name title and a top-flight cast. And it made barely more than half as much as Kasdan's previous, far less commercial film, Grand Canyon. Kasdan's next film French Kiss did better at the box office but after that they went nowhere. After being a critical darling throughout the 1980s, nothing he directed after Grand Canyon ever again got good reviews.

    Earp was arguably just as painful a failure for Costner. It could be seen as his Last Action Hero, after which his armor was pierced and his career would be highly uneven from that point on. But he still had some pretty big hits after this...Waterworld came soon after and was a PR and budget disaster, but still one of the highest-grossing films of his career. Then Tin Cup - good, Postman - bad, Message in a Bottle - good, For Love of the Game - bad. And the unevenness continues. Costner still gets cast in a lot of desirable roles and still makes profitable, well-reviewed movies sometimes. He even had a mini-comeback as a director with Open Range, after the failure of Postman. But the Superman films are the only movies he's done with a higher budget than Postman since that movie bombed. And they're also the only films he's done that have earned over $100 million since 1999's Message in a Bottle. But it just doesn't seem fair to say his career is dead. Damaged, but not dead. And if I had to pin the turning point in his career from superstar to working actor on one movie, I'd still say Wyatt Earp.
     
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  14. Neil Anderson

    Neil Anderson Forum Resident

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    Portland, Oregon
    Face Off, Con Air, and the Rock are three of my all-time favorite movies.
     
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  15. Neil Anderson

    Neil Anderson Forum Resident

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    Portland, Oregon
    of all the big budget Hollywood movies i've ever seen, I think Wyatt Earp had the most atrocious script. just embarrassingly bad. not even entertainingly bad, just boring.
     
  16. Neil Anderson

    Neil Anderson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    great post. but "last action hero" is my favorite Schwarzenegger movie.
     
  17. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One, apparently cites Buckaroo Banzai and Last Action Hero as two of his favorite movies.

    John McTiernan had several flop movies but it seems like what finally killed his career was his arrest. Same problem Paul Reubens had.
     
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  18. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
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    The thread is about movies that killed careers.

    You might have preferred "artier Cage" but the fact remains that "Face/Off" did nothing to "kill" his career.

    Seeing him star in popular action movies vs. arthouse fare doesn't equal "killed career" - it just means you don't like the path he took...
     
  19. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Murphy also simply decided to work less along the way.

    Was some of that due to the "Norbit" backlash? Maybe, though don't forget that "Norbit" did pretty well at the box office.

    As much as it's viewed as a cinematic atrocity - which it is - it still sold tickets. It made nearly $100 million in the US!

    Murphy only did 4 live action films over the following 5 years, and then he came close to retirement, as he's only been in 3 movies after 2012's "A Thousand Words".

    I don't know why Murphy semi-retired - I'm sure he's discussed it but if I heard, I don't remember...
     
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  20. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
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    4 in 5 years isn't that slow. And it's not hard to see why he semi-retired after that when 3 of those 4 did so badly on every level. It's not that Norbit was a failure itself but that it was the wrong way to go to rebuild his career after Dreamgirls. No studio would use Norbit to launch a franchise after the embarrassing reviews. And the direction it sent him back on, the high-concept gimmick comedies, proved disastrous.

    There is an argument that certain kinds of successes can be career killers in and of themselves. Star Wars for Mark Hamill and Superman for Christopher Reeve both typecast them tremendously, such that audiences couldn't buy them in any other parts. Mark Hamill specifically lost the lead in Amadeus because Milos Forman thought audiences would only be able to see him as Luke Skywalker.
     
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  21. Isaac K.

    Isaac K. Forum Resident

    Reread my last sentence and then explain why you’re trying to argue with me.
     
  22. I’d say more “Blue Chip”, “Jade” and “Rules of Engagement” did more to damage Friedkin’s career. He did do “To Live and Die in L.A.” after “Cruising”. He had a string of box office flops after “The Exorcist” so he was already walking on thin ice. It really broke with “Jade”.
     
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  23. Neil Anderson

    Neil Anderson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, Oregon
    "killer joe" is one of my favorite movies of the last 20 years.
     
  24. music4life

    music4life Senior Member

    Location:
    South Elgin, IL
    With Sharon Stone I think her health issues had something to do with her career slow down more than anything else.
     
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  25. It’s a good movie. The advantage is that Friedkin can tackle stuff like this now. We also saw the play with Orlando Bloom in London. He was great.
     
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2021
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