Sunday, April 5, 2009

ON MOVIES ~ Falling Stars...



Feature Presentation...

MONDAY MOVIE MEME

Molly looked around for a weekly meme about movies and did not have any luck. So therefore she decided to start her own! Andy will play along as well - hopefully you will too. Leave a link to your blog post where you’ve shared your response or, if you don’t have a blog, share your response in the comment section at the end of this post.


This week's movie topic is all about Falling Stars...

With the hoopla surrounding the series finale of ER, it got us to thinking about just how far George Clooney has come from his days on The Facts of Life, Roseanne and of course, ER. Now he is an Oscar winning actor, not to mention Oscar nominee for writing and directing. He seems to do no wrong - having his pick of successful blockbusters and independents. Tom Hanks is another actor with a similar rise to fame - from Bosom Buddies to Forrest Gump et al. But they seem to be an exception in Hollywood where fame is pretty fickle. Here are some we thought of whose path seems to have taken the reverse course. Can you think of any other duds?

  • NICHOLAS CAGE - he was on the same arc as Clooney and Hanks, starting out in Fast Times and Valley Girl, before landing roles in a string of great movies including Raising Arizona, Moonstruck and Wild at Heart. He reached Oscar success with Leaving Las Vegas and was on top of the world. Then he started waffling between action movies and chick flicks. He needs more Adaptation and less National Treasure.
  • KEVIN COSTNER - this guy had the golden touch (and the golden statue) for Dances With Wolves and other great roles in Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, JFK, No Way Out and The Untouchables. Then he started accepting crappy roles in things like The Bodyguard and made Waterworld. He's never recovered.
  • 8 comments:

    Caspette said...

    Yea Nicholas Cage is a weird one. He is very up and down and I dont think he actually cares he is doing bad movies.

    Jenny King said...

    Here I go with a stupid question!! What exactly is a meme? Sounds fun whatever it is.

    Sandy Nawrot said...

    Nicholas Cage is the ultimate downfall, in my opinion! I just got my post up...I've been traveling so I'm a little late! I took pains not to steal yours!

    Daisy said...

    I was thinking Kevin Costner too. But of course I came up with my own list. Let me check on the others entries too!

    This is a fun meme this week!

    kayerj said...

    I saw your button last week while browsing "tuesday teaser" but I forgot where, and found you again this week.

    I did play: my movie

    Lindsey said...

    I would have to agree with Nicolas Cage. I miss his 'Valley Girl,' and 'Peggy Sue Got Married' days. Those are two of my favorite movies of all time :)

    Unknown said...

    I participated too :) Mine can be found HERE.

    An Eerie Tapestry said...

    Sorry for the complete and utter lateness of my comment (finally got round to playing catch up). Have to admit that I was totally stumped for answers here; well, I could have suggested some people, but I hadn't actually seen any of their recent movies so it didn't seem fair, plus fame is such a fickle thing that any of the falling stars you mention could conceivably star in another hit and end up rising again. Also, in all fairness to Nic Cage, I'm sure that films like National Treasure gets him a far bigger audience, and therefore more financial reward, than Adaptation. As for Joe Pesci, even when he was appearing in things like Goodfellas he was also appearing in things like Home Alone and Lethal Weapon some-number-or-other. I always thought the Home Alone films would have been improved greatly if Pesci had been playing his Goodfellas character in them :P

    To ramble on even further, the topic actually reminded me of an old Spitting Image sketch where Orson Welles revealed he'd lived his life backwards, starting out with sherry commercials and then moving into films, starting with cameos, and then finally reaching the climax of his career with Citizen Kane. As career paths go, Welles's was fairly plummeting, with his movies starting at a peak and then declining, and I've always thought Mel Brooks's career followed a similar path, albeit in comedy.