New Game- Where Did It All Go Wrong?

[Spoony]

Here is a Rainy Day Game for everyone to ponder. I call it WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG, and here's how you play...

Go to imdb page of your favorite failure. Someone who's career you were on board with from the start, and this talented young hope could do no wrong. BUT THEN, there was a turning point, and some movie or role on their part caused a cascade of terrible choices, miscalculations, or delusions that sent their career off in the most detestable directions.

You can also use a bands discography. Or an architect whose work has ended in criminal neglect. Or a family album, why not? We'll still learn something. I'll kick this off with

JACK NICHOLSON
One of my favorite actors up until the early 80's. This guy radiates insanity and menace in the right directors hands. Everyone has dud's and low points, sure, but in the 70's this guy was the real thing. The real, scary-ass thing. He brought a very real danger to everything he did. Then his career collapsed under it's own weight in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT.

In 1983, that film was bigger than Jesus, and Jack had a hit where he would play the character he still loves, the lovable bastard. Sure his character, Garrett Breedlove (?!?! Was this an erotic novel first?) was rough and a goon and unlikable, but Garrett and the audience would discover his humanity together over this 2 hour sleeping pill.

After that, it was Prizzi's Honor after Prizzi's Honor. He learned the power of schmaltz and he stopped acting, in favor of hamming it up in ways that only he thinks is funny, or in the most corny Bucket List summer films. Everything has been Garrett Breedlove since then in one form or another. Sure, there are stabs at the old Jack, but he's forgotten how to do that and it spirals into over-acting. And I see the beginning of the end as Terms of Endearment.

So, FOT's, where did your greatest disappointments go wrong?

[jbissell]

In honor of their recent work together in Righteous Kill, I'd say DeNiro in 2000 with The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle and Pacino in 2002 with S1m0ne (though that is probably being generous, could probably go back to Scent of a Woman when he started playing Al Pacino in every role but he's at least made a few good movies since then).  Pretty much garbage after that for both.


EDIT: Has this been a show topic before? because it sounds like it would be a good one.  Could also do the flip, where did it go right.

[jbissell]

Eddie Murphy once the 90s hit, especially the fatsuit/kids movie choices.  Really I can't think of a single performer who has taken a bigger fall.  Looking at his output over the last 15 years is just a murderers row of terrible movies (I'll leave out Bowfinger and Dreamgirls):

-Beverly Hills Cop III
-Vampire in Brooklyn
-Nutty Professor 1 & 2
-Metro
-Dr. Doolittle 1 & 2
-Holy Man
-Life
-Shrek 1-3
-Showtime
-The Adventures Of Pluto Nash
-I Spy
-Daddy Day Care
-The Haunted Mansion
-Norbit
-Meet Dave

[Andy]

Jim Varney started going wrong after 1988
Prior to:
Ernest goes to Camp
Hey Vern, It's Ernest
Ernest Saves Christmas
Post:
Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain
Ernest Goes to Jail
Ernest Scared Stupid
Ernest Rides Again
Ernest Goes to School
Slam Dunk Ernest

[Beth]

Jim Varney started going wrong after 1988
Prior to:
Ernest goes to Camp
Hey Vern, It's Ernest
Ernest Saves Christmas
Post:
Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain
Ernest Goes to Jail
Ernest Scared Stupid
Ernest Rides Again
Ernest Goes to School
Slam Dunk Ernest

Ernest went to Splash Mountain? I had no idea. What a sellout.

[Chris L]

Jim Varney started going wrong after 1988
Prior to:
Ernest goes to Camp
Hey Vern, It's Ernest
Ernest Saves Christmas
Post:
Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain
Ernest Goes to Jail
Ernest Scared Stupid
Ernest Rides Again
Ernest Goes to School
Slam Dunk Ernest

Ernest went to Splash Mountain? I had no idea. What a sellout.

That was a short film directed by Kenneth Anger, I believe.

[Andy]

TV Movie.

[daveB from Oakland]

Where it went wrong for Mike Myers: The Cat in the fucking Hat.

Granted, he'd done a lot of stupid things beforehand (I hated Shrek and swore off all the sequels). But up until Cat, I still had a lot of good will for the guy.

That good will evaporated as soon as I started seeing pictures and posters like this:



The hubris. The HUBRIS. He took one of the most beloved icons of children's literature and turned it into a hideous, nightmarish furry suit.

I looked him up on imdb to see what he's doing to resurrect his career after Love Guru. He's got two vanity projects in production. One is a remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The other one is an "untitled Keith Moon Project". According to imdb, NO OTHER CAST MEMBERS are signed up for either of these things so far. Bad, bad sign.

Also, he's got a bit part in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (that's how it's spelled). He'll be portraying "General Ed Fenech". So maybe that could be ... something.

(Side note on Inglourious Basterds: Eli Roth will portray "Sgt. Donnie Donowitz".
Really? Donnie Donowitz? Come on, QT).

[Spoony]

According to imdb, NO OTHER CAST MEMBERS are signed up for either of these things so far. Bad, bad sign.

Maybe he's taking a cue from his comic mentor, Eddie Murphy.

[iAmBaronVonTito]

my pick is disney movies.  easy, i know.

ANYWAY, from the original snow white until the 80's, disney was on the money.  although i was born in 1983, the only movies i ever remember watching were prior to my birth decade. 

fox and the hound is a toss up, it gets rough until the little mermaid (when it picks up again), but continues until toy story.  after toy story, it's been everything pixar has come out with (disney merely distributes).


my theory is that it all went wrong when disney forgot what the business was about. 

[cutout]

There was a point when I was younger and more impressionable and nothing was funnier than Greg Kinnear on Talk Soup, David Spade on Weekend Update and Craig Kilborn on The Daily Show. I don't need to look at IMDB to chart that all of them stopped being funny/compelling the moment they left their respective shows. Or maybe that style of snark went out of vogue or something.

[John Junk 2.0]

John Cusack: The Grifters. 

Never actually saw it, but it marked the end of an era.

[Spoony]

Oh man, John Cusack is a good one. Before I go to his imdb page, I'm going to say whatever was after Gross Point Blank.

I think Serendipity was when I realized there was a free-fall going on... I'm going to get my researchers on it.

[Gilly]

I think Disney's downfall has more to do with forgetting why the classics worked. There's nothing timeless about CGI and it was fun to see beloved stories given the Disney treatment. It went downhill when they started relying on computers and new renditions of timeless stories. I'd love to see another hand drawn Walt Disney Classic.

[Martin]

Nic Cage. Where did it all go wrong? I'd say The Rock (1996) (even if he made Adaptation. later on). Coming off Leaving Las Vegas, deciding to dabble in action movies, no more need to prove himself as a serious actor... fast forward to 2008, and Bangkok Dangerous, which I watched yesterday: rock bottom.

I think John Cusack is enjoyable in most things he's in.