Movies That Killed Careers

I remember there being an awful lot of finger poking over who had the mobster sees a psychiatrist idea first - them or the Sopranos when this movie was released.

 

I dunno if I view that as proof the movie really harmed Brolin's career - he seems to think so but even he doesn't appear certain. Did he literally get no offers or did he get offers that he thought were beneath him? No idea.

Anyway, "Amityville" clearly didn't kill Brolin's career - or close to it.

Even if he had a brief rough patch afterward, he worked steadily after that, so his career went on without lasting issues...

 

"Sopranos" debuted 2 months ahead of "Analyze This".

If the movie ripped off the show, then the writers would've had to be aware of "Sopranos" a good year before the series ran.

"Analyze" shot May to July 1998, so obviously the script was done months before that.

I'm guessing it's a coincidence the 2 offer similar notions...

 

Am I the only one who thought that the name of that movie was "For God's Sake Get Out!" when it came out?

Anyhow, Brolin did OK over the long haul. He was even considered to replace Roger Moore as James Bond a few years after that. But as others have pointed out the film was a hit and spawned several sequels. The issue that kind of tainted the movie was the fact that the best-selling novel that it was based on, and in turn the film, was presented as fact. After all, the Lutz's were real people who did live in that real house, still standing today, where a horrific mass murder took place in 1974. The killer is still alive.

As luck would have it, shortly after the movie came out, it was revealed that the Lutz's were drinking heavily and the whole thing about ghosts and demons in the house was just made up. As any rational person over the age of 12 would have suspected. I don't think it ever did any harm to Brolin, but the credibility of the film may have been called into question if anyone involved was still claiming that it was based on fact.

 

Having met Chevy a few times, I'm not sure he was acting in Community. I think they just dropped him off on the set and rolled tape.

 

Probably!

I had a coworker in 1990 who thought "Ghost" was actually titled "Ghost Believe" due to the movie's promotion!

 

I still can't believe that "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" is the correct title of that movie.

 

The 1997 release "Gross Pointe Blank" was the first time I saw a film where a career criminal regularly sees a psychologist or psychiatrist. It wasn't a major plot point - as I remember it - but it's there and it seems like an obvious springboard for "Analyze"

 

I don't remember that plot point at all, but I only saw the movie once and it was 9 years ago!

 

Yes Alan Arkin plays his therapist.

 

Thanks! Like I said, I don't remember the movie especially well!

 

Wasn't Magic Christian part of that?

 

This 0% Tomatometer underachievement seems to have killed off Kirk's career in the faith-based film industry.

 

Kirk had a career? I'm sure he likes to think of it as a career....

 

"I can't believe it's (not) The X-Files movie"

 

Ha...imagine if he did get the role..what was the Bond film,Octopussy?.....sorry,for a Bond film you got to have that intercontinental savoir vivre

just don't see Brolin in that role..a case
where his looks overshadowed his acting abilities

As far as The Amityville Horror film..Jeez,Brolin looked like he was phoning in a performance ....watching paint dry
could be comparable.

 

JJ did specify that it appeared to kill Cameron's faith-based film career, with no claims of a successful career beyond that domain.

Though Cameron was a big teenybopper TV star in his younger days, he indeed never attain a secular movie career. Really, the best-known movie he ever did was 1987's body-swap comedy "Like Father Like Son", and it didn't do big business.

Cameron hasn't worked much since "Saving Christmas" in 2014, but he really didn't work that much over a long stretch prior to that.

It's possible his political/religious beliefs hurt his career in some domains, but given that he hasn't much tapped the large Christian market much, I have to assume he just doesn't want to do much acting.

Cameron remains famous enough that if he wanted to dive into that Christian market, he'd get plenty of roles, IMO...

 

He had a mini-career boom with faith-based films in the 2000s. The Left Behind trilogy, which was mainly direct-to-video. And then he had Fireproof which was the biggest independent film of 2008. After that, a couple documentaries and Saving Christmas. In the past 7 years it seems he only had the lead in one documentary, which didn't generate any positive or negative buzz one way or the other and just went unnoticed.

 

From what I understand Xanadu was originally supposed to be a reunion between John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, but he passed on it. I didn't think that Michael Beck was bad in Xanadu, he was just okay.

 

My point was that Cameron never made many movies period, so I'm not sure how much of a "boom" he had.

"Left Behind" was 2000. He then made no movies until "LB2" in 2002, and then nothing until "LB3" in 2005.

After that, 3 years until "Fireproof" in 2008, and though that was a (relative) hit, he did no movies for 6 years until the aforementioned "Saving Christmas".

Not sure how four movies from 2000-2008 = a "boom"!

 

That thing about Travolta originally intended to be in Xanadu I never knew. I have heard the legend that Olivia wanted then unknown Mel Gibson or Andy Gibb to be her co lead. Both turned it down and they hired Beck. I don't think Beck being a Gibb look alike was an accident.

 

Waterworld - Kevin Costner, a major failure at that time.

 

Thanks for the interesting history.

Perhaps this is well known, but by the time of The Godfather, Brando was having trouble memorizing his lines: