What the Hell Happened to Kevin Costner?

[TMC]

http://lebeauleblog.com/2011/08/20/what-the-hell-happened-to-kevin-costner/

Posted by lebeau

In the early 90′s, he was arguably the biggest star in Hollywood. His
films were hits. His directorial debut swept the Oscars. Kevin
Costner was at the top of the A-list. Twenty years later, his films
go direct to video and he’s been reduced to playing Pa Kent in the new
Superman movie. What the hell happened?

Kevin Costner’s first film was a little gem called, Sizzle Beach USA.
The movie sat on the shelves until after Costner became a star and
then was released on video to cash in.

Costner can also be spotted very briefly in Night Shift! He plays
“Frat Boy #1″ in the party scene at the morgue.

Costner filmed scenes for the 1983 hit, The Big Chill. He played
Alex, the college friend whose suicide brings the rest of the cast
together. Unfortnately, Costner’s flashback scenes were cut and he
ended up playing a corpse. His face was never seen in the movie. But
he did lay still very convincingly.

Director Lawrence Kasdan was a friend and promised to make it up to
him by casting him in another role later.

Costner continued paying his dues in movies like The Testament and
Fandango. In 1985, Kasdan finally made good on his promise by casting
Costner in Silverado. Silverado was Kasdan’s attempt to bring back
the Western, a genre that had more or less died following Blazing
Saddles.

Costner later admitted that he was disappointed not to play the hero
role. Instead, Kasdan cast him in a showier supporting role.
Silverado got mixed reviews and performed modestly at the box office.
It failed to bring back the Western genre, but it did succeed in
introducing audiences to Kevin Costner. It also marks Costner’s
introduction to one of the three genres which would define his career.

Costner finally got to play the hero two years later in Brian
DePalma’s The Untouchables. The film got its star power from Robert
DeNiro as Al Capone and Sean Connery in a role that would finally win
him an Oscar. But Costner’s Elliot Ness was unquestionably the center
of the movie.

The Untouchables was a big hit with critics and audiences alike. If
Silverado introduced audiences to Costner, The Untouchables proved
that he could be a leading man.

Later that same year, Costner appeared opposite Sean Young and Gene
Hackman in No Way Out. No Way Out was a sexy thriller. The kind that
would become really popular a few years later with Fatal Attraction
and Basic Instinct. While it got good reviews, it did moderately well
at the box office. But it showed that Costner was a star on the rise.

In 1988, Costner starred in Bull Durham. Bull Durham was a defining
role for Costner. It allowed him to show off his easy, laid back
acting style in a way his previous roles hadn’t. It was also the
first movie to showcase Costner’s natural athleticism. Along with
Westerns, Costner would come to be associated with sports movies –
baseball in particular.

Personally, I’m not a fan of the genre. I find baseball to be
boring. But I love Bull Durham. It’s just a great movie. Costner,
Sarandon and Robbins are all terrific in it. Bull Durham got great
reviews and was a hit at the box office. But even so, I think it is
somewhat under-rated.

The next year, Costner starred in another baseball movie. But Field
of Dreams was a very different movie from Bull Durham. Where Bull
Durham was a whip smart romantic comedy set against a baseball
backdrop, Field of Dream was a sentimental super natural fable which
also happened to involve the sport.

Field of Dreams was also very well reviewed and a hit at the box
office. I remember enjoying it when I watched it in 1989. But while
it has been a perennial favorite for a lot of guys I know, I have
never felt the need to revisit it. It’s a little sloppy for my
tastes. But for a lot of guys, the mixture of baseball and daddy
issues gets them crying like Steel Magnolias does for a lot of women.

In 1990, Costner tried to recapture the magic of No Way Out in
Revenge. On paper, it looked like the right ingredients were there.
Tony Scott is a talented (and extremely commercial) film maker.
Costner and co-star Madeline Stowe should certainly have had chemistry
along the lines of Costner and Sean Young. Heck, Stowe radiated
chemistry. (I don’t know why she never caught on…)

But Revenge was a mess of a movie. The reviews were terrible. It got
dumped into theaters in February and was ignored at the box office.

In 1990, it’s debatable whether or not Costner was truly A-list. If
he wasn’t he was on the cusp. But Dances With Wolves put an end to
the debate. Not only did it cement his spot on the A-list. It made
him, for a time, one of the most powerful actors in Hollywood. Not
only did Costner star in the movie, he directed it.

Dances With Wolves was a sensation in 1990. Not only was it a huge
hit at the box office, it garnered rave reviews and swept the Academy
Awards. The film won Best Picture and Best Director for Costner.
Costner was also nominated for Best Actor for the first and only
time. At least in terms of Oscars, Costner was more successful as a
director than as an actor.

Dances With Wolves was so big, it caused something of a backlash.
People questioned the historical accuracy. And people on both sides
complained about the depiction of native Americans. Some claimed it
made them out to be saints while others complained that the movie
centered on a white protagonist coming to their rescue.

Regardless, it’s still a fine piece of entertainment. Over-long?
Definitely. Over-rated? Probably. But it was a career-defining
moment for Costner. After Dances, he could write his own ticket in
Hollywood.

In fact, let me be clear about this, I don’t think any actor I have
written about so far in these articles has ever reached a career high
as high as Costner did at this point in the 1990′s. And he wasn’t
done yet.

Costner spent 1991 doing victory laps. That summer, he starred in the
box office smash, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Robin Hood isn’t a
good movie. And Costner embarrasses himself slipping in and out of
one of the worst attempted accents in film history. At some point, he
gives up entirely. But none of that mattered. Despite the bad
reviews, Robin Hood was a smash.

I still shudder any time I hear Bryan Adams sing “Everything I Do.”
Between the song and the movie, Robin Hood the cultural phenomenon was
unavoidable that summer.

Costner topped off the year with Oliver Stone’s paranoid conspiracy
thriller, JFK. Even at the time of its release, few took Stone’s
conspiracy seriously. But that didn’t matter. The film was
compulsively watchable in spite of the fact that you knew the mystery
was never going to be solved in a satisfactory way. Audiences and
critics alike embraced JFK and made it a cultural touchstone.

At this point, it might seem like Costner had nowhere to go but down.
But in 1992, he starred in The Bodyguard. The Bodyguard was a by-the-
book melodrama. It could easily have been a TV movie. But the star
power of Costner and Whitney Houston in her big screen debut made the
movie a smash hit in spite of mostly negative reviews.

Like Robin Hood, The Bodyguard was powered by a hit song. Houston’s
cover of Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You was inescapable for
about a year. And the soundtrack became the biggest of all times.

Now, there really was nowhere to go but down.

In 1992, Costner tried to stretch outside of his affable good guy type-
casting in Clint Eastwood’s A Perfect World. Costner played a convict
who takes a young Jehovah’s witness hostage. The movie (and Costner’s
performance) got mostly positive reviews. But audiences weren’t
interested in seeing Costner play a bad guy. And the (spoiler alert)
unhappy ending didn’t do much to endear the film to audiences either.

At the time, both Costner and Eastwood were white hot. But A Perfect
World led to both of their careers cooling down.

In 1994, Costner returned to the Western with Wyatt Earp. At first,
Costner was attached to the other Earp bio-pic, Tombstone. But
Costner left that film due to “creative differences” and started his
own film. He enlisted his old pal, Silverado-director Lawrence Kasdan
to direct. And they assembled an A-list cast that included Dennis
Quaid and Gene Hackman (who starred in every single Western released
in the 90′s).

Costner thew around his considerable clout to try to prevent Tombstone
from being released. At the time, Costner’s Earp was generally
considered to be the real deal while Tombstone was looked upon as a
cheap pretender. But never underestimate the power of Val Kilmer and
a nonsensical catchphrase.

Tombstone ended up beating Wyatt Earp to theaters. Neither film got
good reviews. But surprisingly, Tombstone was a hit with audiences
and continues to have a cult following to this day.

Wyatt Earp was a big budget summer epic. But the biopic turned out to
be a costly misfire. Overlong and overly serious, the bloated oater
bored audiences into submission.

Costner ended 1994 with The War. Costner played a Vietnam Vet who
returns from a mental hospital and aids a young hobbit (well, Elijah
Wood anyway) in his battle against Mordor (or a couple of bullies who
want to steal his tree house).

Like A Perfect World, this was not at all what audiences wanted from
Kevin Costner. The War was quickly lost and forgotten

Costner’s next film would never be forgotten. But that’s not
necessarily a good thing. Waterworld was Costner’s sci-fi opus. He
hand-picked his long-time friend and Robin Hood director, Kevin
Reynolds, to direct the film. But the film was notoriously plagued
with problems. At one point, the sets sank to the bottom of the
ocean.

The Hollywood press had a field day over Waterworld‘s ballooning
costs. The film was budgeted at 100 million dollars, but eventually
cost an estimated 175 million. That made it the most expensive film
ever produced at that time. Before the Waterworld was even released,
it was being called Fishtar (after the notorious box office bomb,
Ishtar).

While the movie isn’t good, it isn’t bad either. Oh, it’s nutty.
Costner has gills and drinks his own urine. Absolutely nothing about
it makes any kind of sense. But it’s pretty darn watchable. And the
reviews, while negative, acknowledged that.

The domestic box office was bad and the film was dubbed a huge bomb at
the time. But it was actually very successful overseas and on video.
Despite earning a profit, Waterworld is still one of the most
notorious bombs in history. And it’s still a great movie to make fun
of.

Costner received his first Razzie nomination. (The Razzies or Golden
Raspberry Awards “honor” the worst in movies every year. Unlike the
Oscars, Costner would be nominated again for the Razzies.)

In 1996, Costner reteamed with Bull Durham writer/director, Ron
Shelton, for Tin Cup. Tin Cup was kind of like Bull Durham for golf.
And Costner was perfect for it.

Creatively, Tin Cup represented a return to form for Costner after
Waterworld. But audiences weren’t as interested in a golf movie as
they were a movie about baseball. Tin Cup did only moderate business
in spite of mostly good reviews.

Still stinging from the perceived failure of Waterworld, Costner
decided to give apocalyptic science fiction another chance.
Waterworld had strained Costner’s relationship with his friend and
director, Kevin Reynolds. So Costner decided to direct The Postman
himself.

Gene Siskel called The Postman “Dances With Myself” and I can’t really
think of a better way to describe it. Costener directs The Postman as
a virtual remake of Dances right down to the three-hour running time.

Costner doesn’t seem to realize that his post-apocalyptic tale of a
drifter who inspires people by delivering the mail is inherently
silly. And treating it with the same seriousness as Dances With
Wolves makes The Postman seem that much sillier.

The story takes place in the not-too-distant future of 2013
(apparently we missed the nuclear war that ended civilization).
Despite the end of civiliation, the bad guys have the sweetest drive-
in movie theater you’ve ever seen. And inexplicably, the really want
to watch The Sound of Music over and over again.

Costner convinces a group of survivors that the US Gov has reformed
under President Richard Starkey and despite the fact that he is likely
still alive, no one seems to recognize that the Postman is using Ringo
Starr’s real name. Why do I think Ringo is still alive? Well, Tom
Petty (playing himself) is running a settlement. So why shouldn’t
Ringo have survived the apocalpyse as well?

Costner wasn’t just nominated for a Razzie for The Postman. He won
two for worst actor and worst director. The film also won Worst
Picture and Worst Song. It was even nominated for Worst Picture of
the Decade but lost to Showgirls.

After The Postman, Costner took a little time off to lick his wounds.
His next film was the 1999 romantic drama, Message in a Bottle. The
movie did so-so box office. But it showed that Costner still had some
star power. Because without Costner, there’s no way Message in a
Bottle would have made as much money as it did.

Costner the returned to baseball for the Sam Raimi sport’s drama For
Love of the Game. Costner plays an older pitcher reminiscing about
his life while he pitches a perfect game. Unfortunately, the film was
anything but perfect. The reviews were mixed to negative and the
movie was a bomb.

In 2000, Costner went back to the Kennedy well for Thirteen Days.
Costner played an adviser to President Kennedy during the Cuban
Missile Crisis. The movie was a taunt thriller that garnered mostly
positive reviews. But it failed to attract an audience continuing
Costner’s losing streak.

After failing in every genre in which he had once been successful, you
get the impression Costner just said “Aw, screw it!” How else to
explain his decision to star opposite Kurt Russell and Christian
Slater as Elvis-impersonating criminals in 3,000 Miles to Graceland?

The movie was savaged by critics and bombed at the box office.
Costner was again nominated for the not-so-coveted Golden Raspberry
award.

In 2002, Costner starred in Dragonfly. I barely remember this film
even existing. Apparently, it is a supernatural melodrama in which a
doctor is contacted by his late wife. Dragonfly was another loser
with critics and audiences.

In 2003, Costner returned to directing Westerns with Open Range. Open
Range was a modest little film. But it got mostly positive reviews
and did respectable box office. While it was far from the grand slam
of Dances With Wolves, Open Range finally reversed Costner’s long
losing streak.

Costner continued not failing (and yet not quite succeeding either) in
2005. First, he appeared in a supporting role opposite Joan Allen in
the romantic comedy-drama, The Upside of Anger. The film got decent
reviews and did respectable box office.

Later that year, he appeared in Rob Reiner’s comedy, Rumor Has It…
Rumor Has It… (which continued the When Harry Met Sally… director’s
love affair with trailing dot-dot-dots) was about the real-life
inspiration for The Graduate.

Costner played the real life Benjamin which set up an icky premise in
which Costner’s character has had sex with Jennifer Aniston, her
mother, and her grand mother, Shirley MacLaine.

In spite of being more gross and disturbing than it is funny, Rumor
Has It… got okay reviews and did so-so box office. Again, not a win
for Costner. But not a loss either.

In 2006, Costner returned to action films with The Guardian. This is
another movie that somehow evaded my radar. It’s got something to do
with aviation. I don’t feel motivated to read about it any more than
that.

It got poor reviews but still managed to break even at the box
office. It’s not exactly a come back. But Costner’s not-losing
streak is pretty impressive after his massive near-decade of failure.

In 2007, Costner again tried to play “dark” in the thriller Mr. Brooks
opposite Demi Moore. Costner played a successful business man who
also happened to be a serial killer. I won’t even attempt to describe
the plot of Mr. Brooks as it makes no sense. In spite of bad reviews,
Mr. Brooks turned a decent profit.

Costner’s not-losing streak ended with the political comedy, Swing
Vote. Swing Vote came out in 2008 when a troubled nation faced a real
life election. No one was in the mood to see Kevin Costner play an
“every man” who through a twist of fate would cast the determining
vote in a presidential election.

While Costner got good reviews for his performance, the movie itself
got negative reviews. And once again, Costner failed at the box
office.

Swing Vote was the last major Hollywood movie Costner appeared in.
His 2009 horror film, The Next Daughter went straight to video. In
2012, he had a great deal of success (ratings-wise) with the PBS mini-
series, The Hatfields and the McCoys which may suggest a late career
shift to televsion.

His next feature film will be the 2013 Superman movie, Man of Steel.
Costner will play Pa Kent, a role which I have no doubt he will be
well suited for. But considering that at one point he was the most
powerful actor in Hollywood, direct-to-video horror films and the big
screen version of a role played by John Schneider represent a huge
fall from grace.

So, what the hell happened? Well, Costner made a LOT of bad choices.
He fought with collaborators for creative control and usually saw his
labors of love go down in flames.

He tried to stretch beyond the roles audiences wanted to see him in.
And by the time he returned to them, audiences had moved on. Plus, he
aged. And while men can get away with that more than women in
Hollywood, it’s still a sin that will get you removed from the A-list.

But mostly, he made a lot of bad decisions.

[Super-Menace]

In article
<5d8cee6e-8723-4b4d...@kt16g2000pbb.googlegroups.com>,

TMC <tmc...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Twenty years later, his films go direct to video and he�s been
> reduced to playing Pa Kent in the new Superman movie.

"Reduced"? It's a substantial role in a huge project.

> Posted by lebeau

Who?

> Despite earning a profit, Waterworld is still one of the most
> notorious bombs in history.

What?

> Costner convinces a group of survivors that the US Gov has reformed
> under President Richard Starkey and despite the fact that he is likely
> still alive, no one seems to recognize that the Postman is using Ringo
> Starr�s real name. Why do I think Ringo is still alive? Well, Tom
> Petty (playing himself) is running a settlement. So why shouldn�t
> Ringo have survived the apocalpyse as well?

Self-indulgent and stupid.

> His next feature film will be the 2013 Superman movie, Man of Steel.
> Costner will play Pa Kent, a role which I have no doubt he will be
> well suited for. But considering that at one point he was the most
> powerful actor in Hollywood, direct-to-video horror films and the big
> screen version of a role played by John Schneider represent a huge
> fall from grace.

Also played by Glenn Ford. Was he a lightweight, too?

[really real]

Kosner never recovered from Madonna making fun of him in her movie Truth
and Dare.