What the Hell Happened to Kevin Costner?

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 - Sizzle Beach USA
Kevin Costner – Sizzle Beach USA

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.

Kevin Costner - Night Shift - 1982
Kevin Costner – Night Shift – 1982

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

Kevin Costner
Kevin Costner – The Big Chill – 1983

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.

de mornay - testament

Meanwhile, Costner continued paying his dues in movies like Testament.

In Testament, Costner had a small role opposite Rebecca De Mornay.  She and Costner played a young couple who decide to leave town after losing their baby.

Testament was originally filmed as a an entry for the PBS TV series, American Playhouse. It received a small theatrical release before eventually airing on PBS. Reviews were mostly positive.

Kevin Costner and Judd Nelson - Fandango - 1985
Kevin Costner and Judd Nelson – Fandango – 1985

In 1985, Costner starred opposite Judd Nelson and Sam Robards in Kevin Reynolds’ coming-of-age comedy, Fangango.

Costner, Nelson and Robards played recent college grads who embark on a road trip circa 1971.  Costner’s character has broken up with his ex played by model-turned actress Suzy Amis in her acting debut.  Robards’ character is engaged but is having second thoughts about getting married.  Nelson played the friend with a car.

The movie started out as a student film by Reynolds while he was attending USC film school.  Steven Spielberg liked his student film well enough to fund a feature-length version of the movie.  But Spielberg was disappointed in Fandango and had his name removed from the final film.

Costner audition for the lead role in the student film but was not cast.  He auditioned again for the feature-length version and won the part.  He and Reynolds became good friends.  They would go on to collaborate several more times including Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Waterworld.

Robards and Amis also had future collaborations.  Robards, the son of Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall, married Amis in 1986.  They had a son together but divorced in 1994.

Spielberg chose not to give Fandango a wide release despite mostly positive reviews.  Director Quentin Tarrantino has high praise for the movie which he was able to track down during its limited time in theaters:

Fandango is one of the best directorial debuts in the history of cinema. I saw Fandango five times at the movie theater and it only played for a fucking week, all right.”

Over time, the movie has developed a small but loyal cult following.

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Later that year, Lawrence Kasdan finally made good on his promise to hire Costner again by casting him 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 - untouchables

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.

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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.

Bull-Durham-mv04

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.

costner - field of dreams

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.

costner - revenge

In 1990, Costner tried to recapture the magic of No Way Out in Revenge.  On paper, it looked like the right ingredients were there.

Costner played a United States Naval Aviator who retires after 12 years of service.  Unsure of what to do next, he visits a wealthy friend in Mexico played by Anthony Quinn.  Madeleine Stowe played Quinn’s sexy, young wife with whom Costner has an affair.  Quinn’s character is a jealous criminal kingpin who plots his revenge.

Revenge was based on a novella by Jim Harrison who co-wrote the screenplay.  It was one of those projects that languished in limbo for years.  Jack Nicholson was interested and considered directing the movie himself.  At one point, John Huston was slated to direct, but he was not interested in Costner as the lead.  After the success of The Untouchables, Costner was in a position to put the project together himself.

Costner wanted to make Revenge his directorial debut.  But producer Ray Stark talked him out of it and Tony Scott was brought on board.  Scott insisted that the sex scenes between Costner and Stowe should not be rehearsed or choreographed in any way.  They were completely improvised on the set.  When Costner viewed Scott’s director’s cut of the movie in 2007 he said of these scenes, ‘Boy, we really got into it didn’t we’?

Revenge was panned by critics and performed poorly at the box office.  It opened in third place and grossed around $15 million at the box office.

Kevin Costner -Dances With Wolves - 1990
Kevin Costner -Dances With Wolves – 1990

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 - Robin Hood
Kevin Costner – Robin Hood – 1991

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.

Kevin Costner - JFK - 1991
Kevin Costner – JFK – 1991

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.  The movie was such a pop culture sensation, it was parodied on a classic Seinfeld.

Audiences and critics alike embraced JFK and made it a cultural touchstone.

Kevin Costner - The Bodyguard - 1992
Kevin Costner – The Bodyguard – 1992

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.

costner - perfect world

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.

costner - wyatt earp

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.

Kevin Costner - The War - 1994
Kevin Costner – The War – 1994

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.

Kevin Costner - Waterworld - 1995
Kevin Costner – Waterworld – 1995

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.)

Kevin Costner and Rene Russo - Tin Cup - 1996
Kevin Costner and Rene Russo – Tin Cup – 1996

In 1996, Costner reteamed with Bull Durham writer/director, Ron Shelton, for Tin Cup.  Tin Cup was kind of like Bull Durham for golf.  Costner played an underachieving golf pro.  Rene Russo played a clinical psychologist who trades therapy for golf lessons.

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.

Costner - the postman

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 Siskle called The PostmanDances 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.

Costner - Message in a Bottle

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 - for love of the game

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.

costner - 13 days

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.

coster - 3000 miles to graceland

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.

costner - dragonfly

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 - upside of anger

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.

costner - rumor has it

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.  Mena Suvari co-starred as Aniston’s sister.

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.

costner - the guardian

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.

costner - Hatfields_and_McCoys

Swing Vote was the last major Hollywood movie Costner appeared in for a while.  His 2009 horror film, The Next Daughter went straight to video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jufj-0ClKvM]

In 2012, he had a great deal of success (ratings-wise) with the History Channel mini-series, The Hatfields and the McCoys which may suggest a late career shift to television.

costner - man of steel

In 2013, Costner returned to the big screen after a five-year absence playing Jonathan Kent in Zach Snyder’s Superman movie, Man of Steel.

Reviews for the new Superman were mixed, but Costner was singled out for praise in most reviews.  Snyder and screenwriter David Goyer got Superman and Pa Kent completely wrong in my humble opinion.  But that’s hardly Costner’s fault.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6DJcgm3wNY]

Despite mixed reviews and completely screwing up Superman for an entire generation (yep, still bitter), Man of Steel was a hit at the box office.  Not quite as big of a hit as Warner Bros might have hopped.  Its box office performance was completely front-loaded which meant it had a big opening weekend and then had big drops every week after that.  But it was a big enough hit to merit a sequel in which Henry Cavill’s Superman will face off against Batfleck.

On the one hand, Man of Steel put Costner back on the big screen.  And in a showy role that reminded critics and audiences what they liked about him in the first place.  On the other hand, it was a relatively small supporting role.

costner - jack ryan

In 2014, Costner returned to the big screen in a big way.  First, he appeared in the prequel, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

Star Trek‘s Chris Pine assumed the role of a young Jack Ryan.  The movie attempted to do for Tom Clancy’s action hero what Casino Royale had done for James Bond; reboot him and make him relevant.  Costner played his mentor, Keira Knightley played the love interest and Kenneth Branagh directed and played a Russian.

Jack Ryan was originally slated for a December 2013 release.  But Paramount pushed the release back to January to make room for Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street.  When the movie was released, it received mixed reviews.

The movie performed poorly at the box office.  It grossed less than any other movie in the franchise and opened in fourth place behind the animated feature, The Nut Job.  It ended up grossing $50 million in the US which was less than its $60 million dollar budget.  Fortunately it performed better overseas.

Costner - 3 days to kill

Next, Costner starred in McG’s espionage thriller, 3 Days to Kill.

Costner plays a CIA agent with a terminal disease.  With only months to live, he attempts to reconnect with his estranged wife and daughter.  But he also has one last job to finish.  Amber Heard co-starred as an elite CIA assassin.

The movie opened to mostly negative reviews and disappointed at the box office.

Costner - Draft Day

Costner ended 2014 by starring in Ivan Reitman’s football drama, Draft Day.

Costner played the general manager of the Cleveland Browns (BOO!).  It’s draft day and he has to make decisions about which quarterback to recruit to his team.  Secretly, he’s got a relationship going on with the teams’ salary cap guru played by Jennifer Garner (ICK!)  Not “ick” because of Jennifer Garner but “ick” because she’s young enough to be Costner’s daughter.  I say again “ick”.

The movie originally centered around the Buffalo Bills instead of the Cleveland Browns but the studio changed it to the Browns because the production costs in Ohio were actually cheaper.  I understand saving a buck, but really?  Cleveland?

Reviews were mixed bordering on positive.  But the movie bombed at the box office.  It opened in fourth place behind the horror movie, Oculus.  It ended up grossing $28 million dollars in the US and about a buck fifty overseas because other countries don’t care about American football.

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.

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remembertheredskins
12 years ago

After “Open Range” and “The Upside of Anger,” I felt like Costner had finally settled into a decent mid-career groove, in which he was no longer expected to be a HUGE STAR, but still had the clout to have good parts in good films, if he kept choosing them. Then he made “Rumor Has It…” and “Mister Brooks.” I have a hard time judging actors fo their choices of roles. I have absolutely no problem with Michael Caine choosing to do that awful Jaws sequel, for example. But when a guy like Costner is SO A-list that he can write… Read more »

ss ss
ss ss
1 year ago
Reply to  lebeau

Kevin Costner some what rebounded this decade. He been in some hit projects like hatfield and mcoy ,man of steel ,hidden figures and yellowstone.He never returned to a list days and never had his pulp fiction ,wrestler and birdman type comeback but at least you do not trace far back to see the last time he was in hit project.

mmm
mmm
1 year ago
Reply to  lebeau

this decade has been pretty good to him. hatefield and mcoy ,man of steel ,hidden figures and yellowstone

andymovieman
andymovieman
12 years ago

i think kevin costner is still a good actor. he did well with the untouchables, tin cup, 3000 miles to graceland, field of dreams, the guardian, dances with wolves, robin hood and no way out. i never saw the postman, but i heard it’s good.

Treuj
Treuj
12 years ago

Some say he’s a minimalist, I think he is just a limited actor. Take away baseball pics and westerns and Costner’s filmography is bad. That being said, I’m mostly positive about his career. No Way Out and the Untouchables might arguably be his best films, Waterworld is a true Heaven’s Gate-level flop, but The Postman was pure Hollywood ego. I hold a degree in political science, so I enjoyed Thirteen Days and I’m a horror fan so Mr. Brooks was interesting. I believe that Costner’s name could still add gravitas to a film in a supporting role, but his headlining… Read more »

andymovieman
andymovieman
12 years ago

i still think costner can do a great movie. he is still an oscar winning actor and director who is very talented. he can do action movies a lot better than tom hanks.

andymovieman
andymovieman
12 years ago

well he did a good job winning an oscar for directing dances with wolves. but he has done good action movies you got to admit.

andymovieman
andymovieman
12 years ago

yeah you’re right. i don’t have a problem with that.

tbob1
12 years ago

I took a couple days to think on this and decide just what I feel happened to Costner. I’ve come to the conclusion that he simply forgot how to act naturally. His early acting comes across smooth and natural. He seemed at ease in his roles and you really could forget that he was acting at all. Then something happened. Probably he started reading his own press and along the way started overacting. See Waterworld for what I mean. If that isn’t the most ham-fisted performance you’ve ever seen I don’t know what is. Tin Cup and Swing Vote are… Read more »

tbob1
12 years ago
Reply to  tbob1

Oops…almost forgot. The Guardian was a Coast Guard rescue squad flick that was supposed to be Ashton Kutchers break out role. In this one you get to see two hack performances for the price of one.

occasionalwatcher
occasionalwatcher
12 years ago

” 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. ”
Your comments here seem a bit contradictory. What other yardstick does Hollywood have for success other than profit?

mmm
mmm
1 year ago
Reply to  lebeau

People have this perception Norbit flopped, but it was a hit. It did Eddie no favors though lol.

remembertheredskins
12 years ago

…and since the studios are making some of their money on video sales, the story never really ends until a title goes completely out of print.

andymovieman
andymovieman
12 years ago

kevin costner has his hits and flops but some of them are great.

ThommyMac
12 years ago

Waterworld was a lot better than oh so many movies, definitely better than ANYTHING Meryl Streep was in (including my favourite pretentious movie ‘Deer Hunter’). Any movie where Dennis Hopper is missing an eyeball and is chasing a pee-drinking fishman is OK. “Nothing like a smoke when you miss your ma”

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  lebeau

Why Waterworld wasn’t a flop:
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/waterworld/33365/why-waterworld-wasnt-a-flop
Movies Dec 16, 2014
Let’s correct a common misconception: here’s why Waterworld actually made a reasonable amount of profit…

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Looking back at Waterworld: overlooked or under water?
http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/kevin-costner/32993/looking-back-at-waterworld-overlooked-or-under-water
Simon Brew
Kevin Costner and Kevin Reynolds reteamed for one of the most notorious blockbusters of the 1990s, Waterworld. We revisit the project.

remembertheredskins
12 years ago

Waterworld is definitely the best urine-drinking film Costner has ever done. He should look into bringing some of Moliere’s works to the silver screen.

Andymovieman
Andymovieman
12 years ago

i really got to see the postman and jfk.

addiegoart
11 years ago

“Reduced” to playing Pa Kent? Uh, I guess Michael Kane was “reduced” to playing Alfred in the Batman movies.

addiegoart
11 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

Yes, I know how to spell his name. I guess I was distracted by having a backwards swastika next to my post.
I’m just saying if you’re gonna talk predecessors, I somehow doubt that Glenn Ford had any regrets.

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I don’t think that judging the casting of Kevin as Pa Kent just by whom played him on the TV series “Smallville” is totally fair (that’s almost an apples and oranges argument since they’re too different interpretations/adaptations/mediums of the same source material). Lawrence Fishburne is going to play Perry White in “Man of Steel”. On “Smallville” that role was played by Michael McKean (Lenny on “Laverne and Shirley”). With that being known does that make the Laurence Fishburne’s casting more demeaning then by that point-of-view?

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago
Reply to  addiegoart

I too don’t exactly understand how playing Pa Kent in a Superman movie is exactly a truly bad thing or bad sign in Kevin Costner’s career? This Superman movie is more than likely going to be on of the biggest movies of 2013. It isn’t exactly like Kim Basinger playing Zac Efron’s mom in “Charlie St. Cloud” or Michael Keaton playing Lindsay Lohan’s dad in “Herbie: Fully Loaded”. Other than the notion that arguably it highlights that Kevin Costner can no be regarded as more of a character actor than a true, A-list leading man.

Jake
Jake
11 years ago

The late Gene Siskel once said that Costner’s divorce (which resulted from an extra-marital affair he had) also affected the way people viewed him-much like Meg Ryan.

JediJones
JediJones
11 years ago

As Homer Simpson said while watching a baseball game after giving up drinking, “I never realized how boring this game is.” I definitely agree with your takes on Robin Hood and Waterworld. Robin Hood was annoying because it was so overhyped and successful despite being a relatively low quality, off-key, sloppily put together movie. Waterworld, on the other hand, was bashed beyond all reason and never seemed as bad as people made it out to be. Maybe the quality of the two movies, both directed by Kevin Reynolds, is not that far apart. But the relative hype factor of them… Read more »

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

The Hatfields and McCoys mini-series was broadcast on the History Channel, not PBS by the way.

Liam
11 years ago

I know exactly what happened to Kevin Costner…http://catshaveaplan.blogspot.com/2011/12/one-sign-number-of-meanings.html

andymovieman
andymovieman
11 years ago

field of dreams fifth best film from costner besides untouchables, tin cup, the guardian, the postman. i love everything about it. father and son tale, baseball, magic, characters, road trip, redemption, forgiveness, inspiring speeches and of course james horner’s musical score for that as well as bicentennial man, sneakers, commando, star trek 2 and 3, 48 hrs 1 and 2,etc.

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago

9 of the worst Oscar winners ever: http://guyism.com/entertainment/movies/worst-oscar-winners-ever.html#5-6-kevin-costner Dances With Wolves is a noble movie with a noble message, blah blah blah, but there are three things working against Costner’s Academy Award for Best Director – one, he’s Kevin Costner. Two, Dances With Wolves and Costner both won their respective categories even though they were going up against Martin Scorsese and Goodfellas which is damn near criminal. And third, well, he’s Kevin Costner. This is one of those things that cause people twenty years later to look back with astonishment, like how in the world could society let something like… Read more »

Terrence Michael Clay
11 years ago

5 Roles That Could Salvage the Careers of These Struggling Actors: http://www.pajiba.com/seriously_random_lists/5-roles-that-could-salvage-the-careers-of-these-struggling-actors.php Kevin Costner, Jack Ryan — Save for some solid supporting turns in the little seen The Upside of Anger and The Company Men, as well as a well-received turn in another box-office blip, Mr. Brooks, Kevin Costner hasn’t been a factor in feature films in well over a decade. Hollywood has decided to reboot him, however, giving him plum roles in Man of Steel and Clark Kent’s father and, more substantially, as a mentor to Chris Pine’s Jack Ryan in the Jack Ryan reboot. He’ll also return to… Read more »

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