It's the film that all actors and directors fear, the critically and commercially planned flop, that moment in Hollywood when you are left exposed to all incomers and for a brief period leave yourself with the status as damaged goods. Most actors and directors however are able to get away with the occasional flop, such as seen with the renaissance of Ben Affleck following the failure of 2003's Gigli, but in some of the very worst cases a film is made which is so badly received that the person behind it is so badly affected that they never are able to truly recover, instead settling into roles in minor television dramas or being forced into the world of independent cinema. In this list I will rank my own personal opinions of the ten movies which I felt are the biggest examples of career killing films. I want to stress that this is my own opinion and that everyone is entlted to share their opinion with myself, with that said let us begin:
10) Showgirls (Elizabeth Berkley)
Following her role in the early 90's TV series Saved By The Bell, Elizabeth Berkley was one of the most highly regarded young actresses entering Hollywood at the time, but her typecasting in her TV role as an alpha-female feminist arguably led to her decision to take the lead in this 1995 Paul Verhoeven flick that proved to be nothing but detrimental, and scared away any chance of being taken seriously in Hollywood from that point on.
Whilst Showgirls has seen itself become somewhat of a cult flick in recent years the reaction upon it's release was much more severe, garnering controversy and notoriety prior to it's release for being one of the first major films released with an NC-17 rating and being panned critically and commercially following it's release, with Berkley in particular coming under much criticism for her role which many found to be annoying and tiresome. Scarred by the failure Berkley was never taken seriously as a leading lady again, and these days can be found in direct to video outings such as a failed sequel to Donnie Darko.
9) Striptease (Demi Moore)
Following 1990's Ghost, Demi Moore found herself as both the highest paid and highest sought after actresses in Hollywood, following her appearance in roles in the critically acclaimed films Indecent Proposal, A Few Good Men, and Disclosure, however Moore's star has since taken a wane from the high days, and her role in this 1996 drama being seen as one of the major reasons for that.
Striptease sees Moore as a former FBI secretary whom after losing a custody battle takes up the role as a stripper as a means of earning the money to fund a retrial. For the role Moore was paid a record fee of $12.5 million and garnered controversy during her publicity of the film including appearing on the show 20/20 pole dancing. Whilst the promotion of the film was memorable and infamous it proved to have little to no effect on the film's commercial success, as Striptease failed to justify Moore's massive salary and was met with negative praise from critics, including it's victory at the Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst picture of the year. Moore would soon find herself priced out of other roles within Hollywood due to her huge salary and an appearance in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle aside has become more noted for her off screen relationship to former other-half Ashton Kutcher.
8) At Long Last Love (Peter Bogdanovich)
A product of the New Hollywood era, Peter Bogdanovich saw success early in his career with hits such as The Last Picture Show, What's Up Doc? and Paper Moon, and was soon being held on the same level as the likes of Francis Ford Coppola and William Friedkin. However Bogdanovich's decision to attempt to reinvent the classic Hollywood musical for a contemporary New Hollywood audience proved to be a mistake that would prove fatally damaging for the director.
Borrowing heavily from the Cole Porter and Fred Astair musicals of the 1930's, At Long Last Love proved to be a production nightmare, as Bogdanovich's insistence of having his cast (including the truly bewildering casting of Burt Reynolds) performing their musical numbers live as opposed to miming, in the process inflating the cost of the film's production greatly. The film proved to be a critical and commercial disaster however, to the extent that one year after it's release Bogdanovich would send press releases to newspapers around America apologising for the film. Bogdanovich would never recover from the failure of At Long Last Love, but he wouldn't be the only New Hollywood director to try and reinvent the musical.
7) Boat Trip (Cuba Gooding Jr.)
You have to feel sorry for Cuba Gooding Jr. at times, hailed as one of the most promising actors of the early nineties with roles in A Few Good Men and Boyz In The Hood, Gooding Jr's career peaked with his role in the 1996 film Jerry Maguire, winning himself a best supporting actor award in the process. From that point on however Gooding's star began to wane, and whilst 2001's Rat Race was seen as a warning the nail in his coffin came when he followed it up with this laugh-less comedy that proved more offensive then it did humourous.
Boat Trip saw Gooding in the role as a bachelor who along with his best friend book a trip on a singles cruise, unaware however that they had actually been booked aboard a gay cruise ship instead. Relying on one weak homophobic joke after another Boat Trip proved to be as insulting as it was unfunny, and seeing an actor of the calibre of Gooding Jr straining to make the puerile jokes of the content work was painful to watch. Boat Trip failed at the box office, and the goodwill that Gooding had earned from his early work was gone. Since then Gooding has resorted to family movies such as the atrocious Daddy Day Camp as well as a number of forgettable straight to DVD outings.
6) Town and Country (Warren Beatty)
The argument could be made that Warren Beatty's star had faded long before Town and Country, and that a film this late into his career cannot truly be considered a killer, especially for someone who 14 years prior had made Ishtar, however Beatty and this film makes this list simply because of the sheer scale of the failure of the film, Beatty's apparent ego on set and the fact that it made such a pig's ear of one of the simplest formats in Hollywood, that of the ensemble romantic comedy.
Not only did Beatty demand a massive $5 million fee for appearing in the film his perfectionism led to multiple takes on set as well as a complete rewriting of the film's ending. Still not satisfied however Beatty later demanded that the film be entirely re-shot, which involved the cast being paid double their fees to reshoot and pushing the release of the film back by two years. When it was released however Town and Country opened to negative reviews and lackluster enthusiasm from film goers, making only $10 million at the box office, less then a tenth of it's now monstrous $110 million budget. Whilst Town and Country did harm a number of high-profile careers including Goldie Hawn and Gary Shandling Beatty would prove to be the biggest causality, and as of 2013 has yet to return to the big screen.
5) The Happening (M. Night Shymalan)
Following 1999's The Sixth Sense, young director M. Night Shymalan was hailed as the new king of the suspense horror drama, earning praise in particular for the films twist ending which I won't spoil for you, but following that Shymalan soon saw himself on a downward spiral, including the making of one film in Lady In The Water which in itself could have been considered a killer, but for me Shymalan destroyed all credibility for himself with this 2008 failure that comes across more as a spoof then a credible horror film.
The Happening tells the story of the release of a toxin into the earth's atmosphere which when inhaled causes those it infects to commit suicide, Shymalan insists that the film was designed to replicate paranoia horror films such as Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, but the sight of seeing people in the film being fearful of and running away from THE WIND was just too much for audiences to take seriously, had the film of been set out as a comedy it would have been somewhat OK, but Shymalan seemed insistent on selling the film as a horror that I never got the impression there was this comedic intent. The Happening was somewhat of a commercial success, but those same critics that praised The Sixth Sense panned the film and Shymalan was considered yesterdays news by many, and led to Shymalan no longer being trusted as a scriptwriter. His last work would continue his downward spiral with 2010's The Last Airbender, another critical and commercial failure.
4) One From The Heart (Francis Ford Coppola)
By 1981 Francis Ford Coppola had earned himself a god like reputation around Hollywood following an unprecedented run of success which saw him produce three undeniable classics in a row, with the first two entries of the Godfather trilogy before managing to pull Apocalypse now from the abyss and turning it into an absolute masterpiece, however at the height of his career Coppola decided to take the same risk that Peter Bogdanovich did and attempt to reinvent the Hollywood musical, in the process bankrupting himself and his production company and leading to Coppola making a selection of films which would dent his reputation somewhat.
Originally planned to be a $2 million budget film designed to ease himself back into film-making after the strains of Apocalypse Now, One From The Heart saw it's costs skyrocket as Coppola insisted that the film be shot on within his studio as opposed to on location in Las Vegas, including full scale replicas of the Las Vegas Strip and McCarran Airport. Coppola's Technicolor musical was ambitious and surreal, but it failed to win the admirers in the way that Apocalypse Now did, opening to mixed reviews from critics and failing massively at the box office, failing to make even $1 million of it's now colossal $26 million budget. The failure of the film caused Coppola and his studio to be declared bankrupt and forcing Coppola to make more downmarket films to make ends meet, including the abysmal 1996 Robin Williams man-child comedy Jack.
3) Cutthroat Island (Geena Davis)
In the years prior to Cutthroat Island, Geena Davis had established as one of Hollywood's most respected actresses, achieving not only commercial success in her roles in The Fly, Beetlejuice and A League Of Their Own but also critical acclaim for her roles in The Accidental Tourist and Thelma and Louise, both of which received academy award nominations. However the decision of Davis to align herself with director husband Renny Harlin in this swashbuckling adventure proved to be a massive misstep, and one which killed Davis as a marketable entity within Hollywood.
Placing Davis in the role of a female pirate, Cutthroat Island was blighted throughout by production problems, which included a last minute scramble to find a male lead after Michael Douglas was forced to pull out shortly after filming had began, and a flurry of A-list actors rejecting the role itself before Matthew Modine's last minute casting. Davis had wanted to join Douglas in pulling out of the film, but contractual obligations forced her to continue with the film's production, her instincts were proven right, as Cutthroat Island went on to become one of the most notorious flops in Hollywood history, bankrupting Carolco Pictures and killing Davis' credibility in Hollywood as a result. Post Cutthroat Island Davis found herself resorted to roles in family movies such as Stuart Little and a return to television in the short lived Commander-In-Chief.
2) The Postman (Kevin Costner)
In 1991, it was estimated that Kevin Costner earned an estimated $51 million dollars and was by far and away one of Hollywood's most popular and most prominent leading men, and was making strides in direction as well following his Oscar win for his production of Dances With Wolves and his commercially successful roles in films such as JFK, Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves and The Bodyguard. So where did it go wrong for Costner? Most blame his big budget aquatic apocalypse Waterworld, but for me it stems from it's follow-up film which well and truly nailed the door shut on Costner as a bankable star.
The Postman saw Costner return to the apocalypse theme of Waterworld, this time however seeing the actor in the role of nomad attempting to inspire hope and peace to a United States torn apart by nuclear war, including the reading of Shakespearean quotes in exchange for food and water. Whilst the decision to double up as both actor and director had worked with Costner for Dances With Wolves, the move to do so with The Postman resulted in double the scorn from film critics, who described the film as overly pretentious and sentimental, whilst commercial success was even less then that of Waterworld. Two high profile failures in a role left Costner as damaged goods in Hollywood, and he never achieved those same high successes as his 1991 peak. These days Costner can be seen combining roles in the upcoming Man Of Steel with his role in the country band The Modern West.
1) Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino)
There was for me only one choice for the film which I had to put at number 1, a film which as of 2013 currently holds ninth place on the list of the biggest financial flops of all time, whilst Heaven's Gate has enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance in recent years, and I list myself as one of the few defenders of the film, the damage that it did to it's director Michael Cimino cannot be ignored.
What makes the failure of Heaven's Gate even more amazing to look at however was the sheer speed at which it happened, just a year previously Michael Cimino had found himself as the toast of Hollywood following the unprecedented success of 1978's The Dear Hunter, winning five academy awards including best picture and best director, and yet 12 months later he was the scourge of Hollywood, painted as an egotistical tyrant who's obsessive attention to detail drove his crew to their limits, including demanding an entire purpose built street be torn down because it 'didn't look right' and demanding that a minimum of 50 takes be used for every single shot of the film. The behaviour of Cimino may have been justified had the film proven to be a success, but tainted by bad press stories of Cimino's off-screen behaviour, rumours of animal cruelty and a bloated running time that span to nearly four hours Heaven's Gate was described as an 'unqualified disaster' by movie critics, and in the box office only made $3 million of it's $44 million budget.
Cimino would never recover from the failure of Heaven's Gate, making five other feature length films to minimal acclaim or publicity, and is in many eyes regarded as a man who not only killed off the United Artists film studio but also ending the director driven New Hollywood of the 1970's, in the process creating a new, money orientated industry of Hollywood.
During the late nineties
and into the early noughties a new wave of films hit the big screen focusing on
the exploration of a new theme in particular, namely that of the glorification
of imperfect perfection and it's belief that the twee, suburban vision of the
American Dream was in fact one which was flawed and engulfed in it’s own
perfect tedium. Of these, Sam Mendes' 1999 Oscar winning epic American Beauty is quite rightly held as
the benchmark of the genre, and whilst I hold all the praise in the world for
Mendes' film and consider it one of my personal favourite films my belief is
that a film made just 12 months before manages to capture that same agenda and
ideology of American Beauty, arguably
doing so in much more visually pleasing and technically impressive manner then
Mendes' outing, but has in recent years seen itself become criminally
overlooked and deserves to be rediscovered for a new audience; the film in
question of course being this wonderful debut film from the mind of Gary Ross,
1998's Pleasantville.
