They can always start mouthing off about those damn Conservatives... that’s always good for a couple months free publicity and popularity! :)
“Robin Hood” was a tragedy. If you read what the original script was about, then you’ll see just how creatively bankrupt Hollywood is. The “Sheriff of Notthingham” script sounded awesome. “Robin Hood” was OK, but it wasn’t particularly interesting. Such a shame...
There is a lot of empirical evidence that there is no correlation between box office performance and if that movie has A list stars.
A shame for Cruise Edge of Tomorrow is quite good. Oblivion was lightweight and deserved to do poorly. The guy is a good actor in great shape for his age but people are turned off to him. Knight and Day was really good too.
The industry moved away from strong writing and acting, into weak story, weak acting and computer generation.
Fascinating. All eight are male.
Male roles and stars dominate today, whereas back during the horrible days of oppression of women, there were lots of good roles for actresses.
9 of 10 box office draws last year were male.
BTW, Russell Crowe, listed as washed up in this article, was #3.
http://www.deadline.com/2013/12/2013-top-10-international-box-office-stars/
There are only so many ways to repackage Top Gun and Tom Cruise is getting a little old to be a matinee idol. He never was much of an actor anyway, and his personal peculiarities have caught up with him.
Johnny Depp can only play so many pirates and is a weird disaster in anything else. That Tonto thing with the dead bird on his head, what on earth were they thinking?
The industry is losing control, the crowds aren’t materializing, their old formula isn’t working and their stable of “stars” is dwindling. Overt politicization has offended a good percentage. Other avenues of entertainment are cutting into the audience.
I don’t think there will be another Tom Cruise in his heyday, the critical mass is just no longer there to support it, and he really wasn’t all that great to begin with.
You can’t forget Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise. That worked in his favor when people liked who Tom Cruise was, but now we know him as a control-freak, bat-sh!+ insane cultist... not so much.
You also can’t forget Clooney is Clooney. He is still likeable, but he is also boring as an actor; he never seems togo beyond a handsome smile. That served OK as a character actor (Gravity, ER), but makes for a poor lead role.
Likewise, Johnny Depp is a great actor, but a seriously off-putting lead. He’s weird. It’s wonderful for when the role calls for weird ( a perfect match for Tim Burton), but not great as a blockbuster lead. Case in point: His Charlie and the Chocolate Factory nailed Dahl’s novella, but reminded so many people, “No, it’s not just me... this is a disturbing story.”
On the other hand, Matt Damon works as an action hero. He’s likeable, but a bit boring, so he works as an everyman. Put him in something character-driven, and he just doesn’t hold up. And all but a few action-hero movies should be at least somewhat character driven.
Vince Vaughn screams out “douche!” That works great for roles that demand a douche (”Wedding Crashers”), but again... not an action hero.
Collin Ferrel just looks.... dirty. You know what? A lot of these guys are starting to look dirty... Adam Sandler... Vince Vaughn... Johnny Depp...
I can’t go see Edge of Tomorrow because they knocked Emily Blunt down to 2% body fat and are trying to make her an action star. What a waste!
Nose-diving? Nose-bleeding is more like it. Usually vile language and digging deeper into more immorality does it for Depp. These popular stars used to be able to make money without soiling one’s spirit by watching them.
CGI has in many ways ruined Hollywood action movies as they tend to over rely on them. The story is not as important, it’s how much action can we pack into it. In the last few years, there were really only two movies (IMO) that I think were really good. That is “The Book Thief” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. They were good stories and the biggest actor in either of them is Ralph Fiennes who is not a top tier actor.
I have to say that the best shows are not in the movies any longer. T.V. and especially cable T.V. has some of the most ground breaking stuff out there today.
One word...Redbox.
I don’t do movie-house, $50 ticket & snack excursions anymore. Used to be an enjoyable experience. Used to love an afternoon matinee or a Saturday night “date” with the wife. Not anymore. Nowadays, you deal with jerks on cellphones, or someone chattering with their neighbor the entire movie, or the thump, thump, thump of someone kicking the back of your seat, or groups of gangstas hovering around the theatre entrance.
No thanks. I’ll wait for it to come out on Redbox if I want to see it.
UNLESS...the actor has turned into a public jerk, espousing some sort of crap (liberal) dogma. In that case, there won’t even be a Redbox moment for them with me. They’re off my list.
If the line at the Redbox last night was any indication...a lot of folks feel the same way.
Common theme with most of these guys...they can’t help but spout off about their personal views (usually liberal).
Adam Sandler is perhaps the saddest one.
To paraphrase one of his own movies, nobody want to see a 50 year old guy making pratfalls and telling fart jokes.
“Ghost Protocol” was so laughably, horrifically, inconceivably bad I had to turn it off after the first 45 minutes or so.
If that was the high point of Cruise’s last few films, he is in trouble.
He was superb, though, in “Vanilla Sky.”
The problem is that their agents/managers have put them in crummy movies lately. Actors act, they get offered scripts for movies with big payments associated. Sometimes they have to take roles in movies just to pay the bills.
Matt Damon, Vince Vaughn, Adam Sandler, are not good actors. I have never seen an Adam Sandler movie that I thought was funny. Matt Damon is annoying. Vince Vaughn is the same character in every movie.
George Clooney is also a good actor, but many of his movie are just too slow. He is in a lot of chick flicks. He was very good in “The Descendants”.
Tom Cruise needs to stop making action movies. He is too old. The last good movie he made was the one where he played a contract killer. I can not remember the name.
Edge of Tomorrow looks pretty good. Planning to see it.
I’d blame mass production. Every single action movie since 2009 has begun with a super-bass sub-woofer rattling everyone’s brain, followed by non-stop CGI that all looks the same. I just ran my DVDs of The Sand Pebbles and the original Flight of the Phoenix. Just pure story-telling and great acting. We don’t see any of this in contemporary films. Bleh. Movie theaters are running on $150M ad campaigns and inertia.