Movies That Killed Careers

His movie career wasn't so much killed as stillborn.

 

If erotic thrillers had stayed around as a genre she might have had a Nicolas Cage-type career as a bankable name for crummy movies.

 

Geena Davis turned 40 the year after Cutthroat Island was released, which is a tough transition for any Hollywood film actress. She talks about it in this interview:
Geena Davis: ‘As soon as I hit 40, I fell off the cliff. I really did’

Her resume probably would have dimmed even without Cutthroat Island on it.

 

Would Pretty Woman have been a hit with anyone other than Julia Roberts? It's hard to imagine another actress in the part. Also: was Molly Ringwald offered the film as it eventually became, or in something more like its original form as a bleak drama in which Edward picks up Vivian, shows her the high life for a week, and then drops her back where he found her?

 

Agreed with your comments about Dunaway's work in Network. Regarding Ms. Straight: she holds the unofficial record for least total screen time in an Oscar-winning performance. About 5 min 40 sec. I concede that quality is more important than quantity, but c'mon!....

 

Soul Man was controversial at the time of its release. I can't imagine the reception it would get today. (Actually, it would never be greenlit today.)

C. Thomas Howell has rebounded a bit as a character actor in television. He was incredibly good as a stereotypically meatheaded, obnoxiously anti-PC cop on Southland.

 

I have heard that and frankly I do not understand why. On a simple level, it is a very funny movie. More so, it is clearly very anti-racist and approaches the subject on several levels.

It kills me that Hollywood actually made something of substance- something that promoted a message that left, right, black, and white could all agree on- and yet it's still CONTROVERSIAL.

 

Cage's scenery-chewing freakout skills can be put to good use in the right kind of thriller: Mom and Dad (2017), Mandy (2018), and Color out of Space (2019) were all well-reviewed, and are worth seeing if you like trippy horror films.

 

Peeping Tom was waaaay ahead of its time. An almost sympathetic portrait of a mentally-disturbed person.

 

American President was a critical darling but not profitable theatrically due to its fairly high budget. It likely became profitable with ancillaries.

Funny Farm was highly praised by Siskel and Ebert although it got mixed reviews overall and disappointing box office. They may have been in an apologetic mood after clashing with him on Johnny Carson's couch over Three Amigos.

Debra Winger is another one who was apparently tagged as "difficult." And also this lady:

Sean Young - A Kiss Before Dying (1991) - Kiss Before Dying was basically her last serious starring role. She won the Razzie award for it. But the real clincher for the career killer was what she was doing in public at this same time, trying to win the Catwoman role in Batman Returns, dressing up as Catwoman, showing up at Tim Burton's offices unannounced, trashing him on the Joan Rivers show, etc. She had one more high-profile role in Ace Ventura, probably because they could get her cheap, but that wasn't the kind of part her career needed.

M. Night Shyamalan - The Village - After three movies that were critical favorites and box office gold, The Village started off a 5-movie run of critically panned movies with declining box office. Although The Village made money on the strength of his name, it got C grades from audiences and dented his reputation, which led to lower box office for his next two films. That led to him doing two overtly commercial films, the very expensive Last Airbender and After Earth, whicb underperformed and became his two most hated films to date. After Earth is what finally sent him to director's jail, which led him to make the three lowest-budget movies he's made since before Sixth Sense, two of them his first sequels. And with those three movies he has made a solid comeback in box office and critical response. But not before he contributed to another career crash:

Will Smith - After Earth - After Earth did significant damage to Will Smith's career. This started off a period of worse reviews, lower box office, some streaming-exclusive films, voiceover roles and more sequel/franchise films. His franchise films Suicide Squad, Aladdin and especially Bad Boys for Life have kept his career alive. But his ability to star in an original film that becomes a blockbuster seems to be gone, as demonstrated by Gemini Man. Most likely if they had waited until now to make Independence Day 2, he would've signed on.

 

It’s a good thing that I don’t go by negative reviews and audience reception to gauge what is good, otherwise I wouldn’t have enjoyed Blade Runner or The Thing.

 

A keeper. Her moments played off of William Holden. He knew. She conveyed true anger,bitterness and,yes,unbridled hatred,while letting him know the depth of her love. In five minutes.

 

There's a Dick Cavett interview with Spike Lee on YouTube from the time of Soul Man's release where Spike Lee basically trashes the movie over the "black face," although he declines to elaborate on his feelings in much detail. It's part of a trend where the ideas that were considered "far left" in the '70s, '80s and '90s are now mainstream left. So the same ideas which were mostly just academic back then are now powerful enough to influence the behavior of people, corporations and politicians. While everyone understood why a true black face performance as Ted Danson infamously did at a private function in the '90s was offensive, most people didn't think merely playing a character of a different race was morally equivalent to doing a minstrel show. But now, no mainstream media critic will ever discuss the movie Short Circuit without inserting an obligatory sanctimonious hand-wringing over the fact that Fisher Stevens played a character with darker skin than he has in real life. The Spike Lee interview:

 

I'm in (extreme) minority, but I think "Vegas" is the best "Vacation" after the 1st, and I liked him in it.

From my review:

"Chase’s performance contributes as well. From the original through Christmas, he became more and more manic with each successive flick, so by Christmas, he turned into an inappropriately aggressive and broad presence.

Chase seems much more subdued with Vegas. Some may see that as a lack of effort on his part, but I think his calmer demeanor works better, as it helps accentuate the various gags. For once, it doesn’t feel like Chase is working relentlessly to entertain us, as he seems willing to let others horn in on the fun."


Vegas Vacation [Blu-Ray] (1997)

 

With all due respect, I don't care what kind of reviews films got at the time back then (or even now, as I have little regard for professional reviewers in general), and I am not concerned with what "most" filmgoers like; I am viewing it through the lens of what I like. Caddyshack, Christmas Vacation, Vacation, Fletch and Seems Like Old Times are some of my favorite films of the decade, and I actually like Fletch Lives a lot as well even though the original was much better.

 

Sure, but I think most movies that get negative reviews and audience reception... are bad.

We can always find some notable exceptions, but I suspect roughly 99% of movies panned by critics and disliked by audiences stink!

 

"Christmas Vacation" has somehow turned into a "holiday classic", but I don't get it.

I find it to be a deeply unfunny movie with an aggressively jerky lead character!

 

None of the Chevy Chase movies I referred to qualify. At most reviews were mixed.

 

Spike has never been particularly rational in a lot of his diatribes. I would guess he was angry that he did not think of the idea first.

Soul Man was the basically influenced by the book, "Black Like Me" where a white guy disguises himself as black and goes through the pre-Civil Rights south. He learns first hand how hostile people can be. As does Mark in the movie. Why Spike Lee had a problem with that is beyond me. But Spike tends to have a problem with a lot of things.

 

Wasn't referring to the Chase films. Referred to the statement I quoted about those unicorn movies that get bad reviews/bad audience reaction but are classics!

 

I agree, Fletch Lives isn't as bad as most reviewers made it to be, I don't mind it at all. But it's hard to imagine any sequel bettering Fletch. It's probably the best film Chevy starred in.

 

It's up there for me. It might be the best film where he was the unquestioned star (vs Caddyshack, which I prefer, but that has four stars of nearly equal billing, and even then, Danny is really the main character).

 

That reminds me of "White Like Me", the SNL sketch where Eddie Murphy disguises himself as a white man and is surprised by the exaggerated benefits he receives.