A-List: Comebacks
By Josh Spiegel
June 24, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
I know what you’re thinking: isn’t Tom Cruise still kind of a big star? It’s hard to imagine, seeing as Cruise’s face is all over the tabloids, but his fall from grace came when he jumped up on Oprah Winfrey’s couch and went nuts about Katie Holmes, his future bride. No matter what your opinion is of Cruise or of his religious beliefs, it was as iconic a moment for the leading man as was his dancing in his skivvies in Risky Business. Knight and Day (and his appearance at the MTV Movie Awards as his Tropic Thunder character, Les Grossman) constitutes a major stab at being an action star again. Right now, there is a fourth Mission: Impossible in the works (directed by Pixar’s Brad Bird, of all people), but if Knight and Day flops, who can say? Maybe Tom can learn a few pointers from the people on this week’s A-List, about some great Hollywood comebacks.
Robert Downey Jr.
In some ways, Robert Downey Jr.’s recent surge to stardom is comparable to that of Johnny Depp. Both are and have always been amazing actors, always willing to do something different, never phoning in their work. Of course, Depp’s career wasn’t riddled with run-ins with the law, whereas Downey was seemingly always in and out of trouble, always coming in or out of rehab. Though he may not have seemed like the typical choice to play a iron-clad superhero, when said superhero is also a cheeky playboy who’s more than friendly with liquor, why not Downey? His starring role in the Iron Man series and his Oscar-nominated performance in Tropic Thunder helped vault the man into a potentially permanent spot as a superstar. Now, he’s not just a superhero, he’s also the world’s most famous detective.
Yes, Downey’s now an official blockbuster-creator, what with the two Iron Man films making more than $300 million domestically and the first Sherlock Holmes film with him and Jude Law (the second is slated to open in the 2011 Christmas season) earning over $200 million domestically. His future remains bright, as he’s in talks to play the Wizard in a new take on The Wizard of Oz directed by Sam Raimi. Could he relapse once again? This topic has been hashed and rehashed by so many writers, and Downey is so confident, so playful, so charming that it would be one of the worst news days to hear that he’s gotten back in trouble again. What’s more, as he’s gotten his biggest fame now that he’s sober, one would hope that he’s wise enough to know what not to do. Here’s to hoping he’s got a long career after only the one comeback.
John Travolta
John Travolta has had a long and storied career, running back as far as his supporting role in 1976’s Carrie. His is probably the most notable comeback from a movie star in the 1990s. He’d almost completely vanished after a string of flops in the 1980s, and even then, his biggest hit was in Look Who’s Talking, a series where he was essentially a nonentity, just set dressing for the wacky babies with the potty mouths. But we all know what happened next: in 1994, Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed one of the best American films ever made, Pulp Fiction, and got Travolta to co-star in the ensemble picture as Vincent Vega, a hitman who has to deal with the wife of his boss appropriately or else get killed. Much more happens to Vincent, but Travolta dancing with Uma Thurman at Jackrabbit Slim’s was one of the most iconic moments in the career of a man who hit it big by strutting his stuff in Saturday Night Fever.
Since that movie, Travolta’s career has not been perfect, but it has been alive and kicking, and when you have Battlefield Earth, one of the most reviled films of all time, to your credit, it’s more than just luck that keeps you working. From movies such as Get Shorty, Face/Off, Primary Colors, The Thin Red Line, and Wild Hogs, Travolta’s managed to pick enough big hits in the last 15 years to keep him going. Yes, he’s also starred in such…classics as Old Dogs, Be Cool, From Paris with Love, and Wild Hogs (successful, but not good), but John Travolta has never had such a dry spell as he did in the 1980s, and he can always give a tip of the hat to Quentin Tarantino (and Elmore Leonard, for Get Shorty) because of it. One hopes he’ll find another winner soon, but you never know.
Drew Barrymore
Who is it that Drew Barrymore should thank: Wes Craven or Adam Sandler? And what kind of question is that, right? I know, it seems crazy, but for a long time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Drew Barrymore seemed to be going down the same route that Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears has gone down in the past few years. She was the prototypical drunken starlet, always running into paparazzi and tabloid covers. And then, in 1996, she made a cameo at the beginning of Scream, playing the first girl to get killed by the masked killer. Just over a year later, she found herself as the romantic lead to Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer (arguably his best “dumb” comedy), which helped prove to those in Hollywood that she could be as sweet as an adult as she was as a kid.
Since then, Barrymore’s been relatively successful, even making her directorial debut last year with Whip It (yes, not a successful film, but a movie directed by any woman is worth noting and praising). She’s also helped spearhead the Charlie’s Angels franchise, which wasn’t very good, but made a lot of money. She teamed up again with Sandler in 2004 for another romantic comedy, 50 First Dates, which brought in over $120 million domestically. Her career isn’t the most successful, but it is easily one of the more cheering comebacks in Hollywood history. You may or may not be a fan of Barrymore’s always-cheerful persona, but seeing her pull herself away from her troubles is extremely encouraging. Maybe she’ll helm another movie soon; she may not be the most accomplished, but if stardom is what it takes for Hollywood to greenlight a movie directed by a woman, let’s get on it.
Eddie Murphy
The Eddie Murphy of the early 1980s is pretty much gone; that much we need to make peace with. However, Murphy’s career has had its ups and downs, and at least one major comeback. He was one of the biggest stars of the '80s, with films such as 48 Hrs., Beverly Hills Cop, and Trading Places. After his 1988 comedy Coming to America made just under $130 million, Murphy had a dry spell for eight years, coming out with such clunkers as Vampire in Brooklyn and The Distinguished Gentleman. Then, in 1996, Murphy embraced one-half of his current persona: the actor who plays multiple characters. The Nutty Professor, a remake of the 1960 Jerry Lewis comedy, was a massive success, not only for Murphy’s dexterity in creating so many characters in the Klump family, but for its general hilarity. The movie made $130 million and elevated Murphy back into stardom.
Since then, he’s had his ups and downs, but has bankable aspects. Eddie Murphy helped make the Shrek films so popular, movies that have grossed more than $1 billion domestically, and also kick-started another franchise remake with the Dr. Dolittle films. Even Daddy Day Care made over $100 million. Of course, Murphy’s managed to mix hits like the Shrek franchise with some seriously major flops, including The Adventures of Pluto Nash (which made less than $5 million total at the domestic box office), Meet Dave (just over $11 million), and Imagine That (just over $16 million). Who can say what Murphy can do to remain consistent? The man can still get audiences to come to the theater, but when he picks bad movies, he picks just about the worst ones anyone would ever make. Let’s hope he doesn’t make a sequel to Norbit.
Mickey Rourke
Yes, I might be jumping the gun a bit, but like the story of Robert Downey Jr., I want this one to be true. After years of wallowing in movies that never get released widely, or are plain terrible, or just not acting, Mickey Rourke had a major career resurgence in the 2008 character study The Wrestler, about a man whose best times are in front of a crowd, and whose bad habits continually threaten to destroy him. Granted, Rourke’s not the only actor who could fit that description, but the role of Randy the Ram fit him like a glove. He got a well-deserved nomination for Best Actor, but lost to Sean Penn (but he really should have won). Since then, Rourke’s gotten plenty of interest, including as one of the villains in Iron Man 2. His few face-offs against Robert Downey, Jr., either in costume or not, are among the best scenes in the film.
Rourke’s had a majorly checkered past, but he’s also either very self-aware or has a very smart agent. His most notable recent roles, including the aforementioned films and his supporting work in Sin City, have played very heavily on the image he projects to the public. He’s a damaged man with a wounded soul, but that alone allows him plenty of sympathy, which is what makes his work in The Wrestler so poignant, and the very prospect of his career being given new life exciting. Rourke was once a tough, soulful performer, but now when we watch him, there’s plenty of experience informing those emotions. Even in Iron Man 2, where his work was more understated, Rourke’s performance stands out, not just for his tattoos and predilection for a feathered companion, but for the unvarnished angst that plays out on his storied face. We can only cross our fingers that he’ll keep on making his mark in Hollywood, just like he should’ve years ago.