A-List: Worst Post-Oscar Careers

By Josh Spiegel

March 5, 2010

Anyone can win an Oscar!

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Waterworld. Don't cringe. We have to talk about this movie, folks. Here is the movie that epitomizes, still, what the most bloated summer blockbuster can look like. I know some people are as hateful of the latter Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, but when it comes to movies about water, there's only Waterworld. As if this flop wasn't enough to kill Costner's career, he came along two years later with The Postman, a movie that attempted to be as heady and successful as Dances With Wolves and came up woefully short. With Thirteen Days and The Upside of Anger, Costner has slowly tried to move back into the limelight, if only by subverting his shaggy image. Still, he's got a long way to go from wiping away the memory of him on that dock in Waterworld at the very beginning. I'm not sure he'll ever be able to fully make anyone forget about that movie.

Halle Berry

Here is a woman who made history at the Oscars. Halle Berry became the first African American woman to win the Best Actress Oscar when she won for her wrenching performance in Monster's Ball. This was one of her first truly serious roles in a movie, after appearing in X-Men, Swordfish, The Flintstones, and other classics. After Monster's Ball and her Oscar, Berry appeared in the final two X-Men movies (granted, the second film is highly regarded), and the last James Bond movie with Pierce Brosnan as the title character, Die Another Day. But then there were the true howlers: Gothika, Perfect Stranger, and the very worst of all, Catwoman. This was a movie meant to reclaim another superhero icon, and why not Berry? She was hot, she was talented, and she'd done enough work in comic-book films.




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If you're like me, and you've seen this movie...well, you know how badly it fails. Catwoman goes from being so bad it's bad, to so bad it's funny, to so bad it's sad, to so bad it makes you angry. What's more, her most recent attempt at a prestige picture, Things We Lost in the Fire, flopped at the box office and with critics, despite not being nearly as terrible as some of her other recent films (and seriously, if you haven't seen Perfect Stranger, it's hilariously awful). Berry's career has almost completely stalled, with her last major appearance coming in X-Men: The Last Stand, a bad movie that, admittedly, would've sucked with or without her. Still, her being in movies these days isn't a sign of anything good. She's one of the prime examples of Oscar being an unkind guardian.

Robin Williams

Before I get on Robin Williams' case, I want to take one year of his career post-Oscar and consider it disqualified for being too damn good: 2002. He made Death to Smoochy (yes, I am the only person in the world who doesn't hate this movie), Insomnia, and One Hour Photo that year. All three films are, at the very least, unique from his other roles, most of which are either broad comedy or Oscar bait. Here's a bit of his career after winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Good Will Hunting: RV, Patch Adams, Jakob The Liar, Bicentennial Man, House of D, License to Wed, August Rush, Old Dogs, Night at the Museum, and Man of the Year. More than almost anyone else on this list (almost), Williams has made a whole bunch of crap since 1997. He's made good movies, or been involved in a few (such as his cameo in A.I.), but he has been in a lot of crap.


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