Amph Can these Hollywood careers be saved? Sarah Jessica Parker

Can these Hollywood careers be saved?

"Hollywood fame is a fickle beast, and it's the rare star who's able to keep his/her career viable for any length of time. The 22 actors and directors we've highlighted here are among those whose careers have stumbled - some of them badly - to the point where their respective futures as major industry players have become an open question. Some are closer to the brink than others, but all of them have suffered enough recent setbacks to jeopardize their stock in Tinseltown (or, in one person's case, their stock with sci-fi loving film fans). Will the individuals profiled here continue on their losing streaks to the point where there's no hope of recovery, or will they break out with a hit film or critically-acclaimed performance just when they need it most? Of course, it's hard not to root for the latter scenario in all of their cases; as the saying goes, everybody loves a comeback.

Halle Berry

Career high point: The triple play of "Monster's Ball," "Die Another Day" and "X2" in succession

Career low point: "Dark Tide"

How to fix it: Berry was a superstar of the early '00s, but it all started to fall apart after Catwoman" in 2004. After two failed Oscar bait roles in "Things We Lost in the Fire" and "Frankie & Alice" Berry took three years off to deal with personal family issues. Her comeback in "New Year's Eve" wasn't (see Hilary Swank) and now her next film, "Dark Tide," is going straight to VOD this spring. Berry is trying to get back in the groove with the experimental (for lack of a better word) "Cloud Atlas," but that could be a Sci-Fi "Babel" (not necessarily a positive) Our suggestion? A solid action flick or thriller wouldn't be a bad idea. Just look what "Safe House" did for Ryan Reynolds.

- Gregory Ellwood"

 

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH.

 

Nicolas Cage

Career high point: "Leaving Las Vegas"

Career low point: Let's just go with "now".

"How to fix it: There are essentially two schools of thought on Nicolas Cage: A) those who believe he's a good-to-great actor who now takes any bad movie he's offered in an effort to pay off his widely-publicized private debts; and B) those who think he's a bad-to-mediocre (over-)actor who somehow had a good performance coaxed out of him by Mike Figgis for his Oscar-winning turn in "Leaving Las Vegas". And yet while the focus over the last half-decade or so has rightly been on his recent string of hammy performances in a seemingly-endless parade of crappy genre movies, Cage has also given a couple of what many would argue are good hammy performances in both "Kick-Ass" and, especially, Werner Herzog's bizarre-o 2009 effort "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans". At the end of the day Cage may need to focus on getting his personal problems sorted out before he can make a career turnaround, but when he's ready to make the commitment, it's worth remembering that he's usually best when paired with an equally-quirky director who truly gets his brand of lunatic energy (think Herzog with "Bad Lieutenant", Spike Jonze with "Adaptation", or John Woo with "Face/Off") and knows how to milk a truly inspired performance from it."

- Chris Eggertsen

He can be very funny ("Raising Arizona") and even moving ("Face/Off"), but no error, his response to a standard role is to camp it up mightily.

 

Next up, Nicholas Cage is doing Stolen, another Taken ripoff.

The Frozen Ground might actually be good although in general I'm not all that excited about real-life serial killers getting their own movie adaptations. In this case, John Cusack is playing the serial killer

 

Cage can do funny and action, I think with the right director he will get back on track.

 

Kick Ass was definitely a step in the right direction. A big one. Knowing was pretty tongue in cheek, but definitely above his (IMO) career low of the Wicker Man remake.

 

Well, Nicholas is still getting work, but if he really did hit the skids, he could
always get a job picking grapes on his uncle's (Francis Ford Coppola) vineyard.

 

He was in The Bad Lieutenant in the past couple of years.

His career doesn't require saving.

 

I really don't like Nicholas Cage as an actor.

 

I actually think Nicholas Cage can be awesome with a great director, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is an insane movie with a really fun quirky performance from Cage. What he needs to do is maybe step back from the Sci-Fi genre stuff and try some drama/thrillers again even if some aren't that great.

 

Nicolas, Nicolas, Nicolas

/pedantry

 

On the contrary Nicolas Cage's career never died. Also if Ghost Rider is right his career will never die.

 

If he's still a Box Office draw his career is fine.

I thought he was great in The Rock, he worked well in comparison with Sean Connery's character.

 

One day, Nick Cage will be looked at like Michael Caine - a great actor, using a name he wasn't born with, that often took roles in really bad movies because he liked getting paychecks. Nick Cage's career doesn't need saving.

 

Except Michael Caine, in addition to the paycheck movies, has also managed to regularly appear in good movies and give good performances. Cage has not.

 

Cage has worked with Coppola, the Coen Bros, Jewison, Lynch, Scorsese, Jonze, R. Scott, Herzog, and won an Oscar. There's a good stock of either interesting or "good" Cage films out there. And, arguably, Cage's "interesting" choices are more interesting than Caine's have ever been, on average.

 

Yeah, but it doesn't take a good director for Caine's performances to not run off the rails into the hammy-disaster zone. I'm not saying Cage is incompetent as an actor, just that Caine is a poor comparison. Caine has a bunch of great performances, and then a lot of lousy movies in which he's never cited as what's wrong with the film. Cage has a handful of good-to-great performances, and a lot of lousy movies in which he's a hammy disaster. Caine and Cage have very different levels of consistency. It's not enough to simply say "They're both great actors who'll appear in all kinds of crap for a paycheck" and take that as a valid, vindicating career comparison.

 

Peter and Bobby Farrelly

Career high point: "There's Something About Mary"

Career low point: "Osmosis Jones"

"How to fix it: In a business where bad behavior is routinely rewarded, there are few people as genuinely good and decent as Peter and Bobby Farrelly. Loyal to their casts and crews, generous to a fault in the way they treat the people who work for and with them, they helped usher in an era of R-rated comedy that has passed them by in many ways. "There's Something About Mary" looks more like a commercial fluke now than it did following the hot streak of "Dumb & Dumber" and "Kingpin." There are fans for films like "Shallow Hal," "Stuck On You," "The Heartbreak Kid," and even "Hall Pass," but they've never really managed to capture lightning in a bottle again. Now with "The Three Stooges," they've realized a passion project but audiences seem unresponsive to the trailer. They've got enough weight left to produce and help usher in new voices that could connect with audiences, so maybe the best option for them now is to help protect new talent instead of turning to a "Dumb and Dumber" sequel."

- Drew McWeeney

 

I'll wait until THE THREE STOOGES is released to decide.

 

I don't know, it will have be a lot better then the trailer suggests for me to think there's any hope left.

 

I have a hard time believing that Osmosis Jones is worse than The Heartbreak Kid, without having seen Osmosis Jones. I just can't believe that.

Two good films in the resume and a few good ideas in their other films, but man do they need to try something different.

 

Are the two good ones Dumb & Dumber and There's Something About Mary? Bill Murray is inspired in Kingpin, but he's the only thing.

 

I love Kingpin and consider it to be one of the best comedies of the 90's. Their brand of low brow humor though has kind of become dated in that they really don't try anything new with it besides gimmicky situations. I like Kingpin, Dumb and Dumber, and even Shallow Hal because there is kind of a goofy heart to those movies which is missing in the rest of their resume.

 

Yeah. I hated Kingpin, pretty much.

I thought Shallow Hal had a few ideas floating about that were good, but then the gross-out humour with Jason Alexander's tail comes in and kills the tone.

Me, Myself & Irene is also sorta half and half. To sum up, its soundtrack consists almost entirely of Steely Dan tracks, but then they're all covers. That basically speaks for the film. Good gags that have typically been done better before. Although the studious adopted sons are great.

 

Mel Gibson

Career high points (as an actor): "Lethal Weapon", "Braveheart", "What Women Want"

Career low point: "The Beaver"

How to fix it: Some would say that Gibson's career is irreparable at this point, and based on his past history of racist, sexist, homophobic and - most especially - anti-Semitic comments (not to mention those domestic violence charges), it's certainly an easy argument to make. It's one that's also, of course, bolstered by the unimpressive box-office performance of his two post-DUI starring vehicles - "The Edge of Darkness" and, especially, "The Beaver" - and yet Gibson's performances in both films were generally praised by critics. Like/pity him or loathe him, it strains credulity to claim that Gibson is a bad actor, and if he has any hope of career redemption, his talent is the thing that will carry him through. Give the guy a gritty role in a serious drama that in some fashion parallels his real-life tribulations (a la Nick Nolte, say), and he may just be able to garner some awards-season buzz/career traction.

- Chris Eggertsen


Easy cure: play villains.