Monday, November 20, 2006

Top 5 Career-Building Movies

"Nature's first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf's a flower, but only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf, so Eden sank to grief. So dawn goes down to day, nothing gold can stay. "

Here are the finest five of them all.

This movie's cast and director were meant to make it big for some time, and then lose their fame or credibility. Joel Schumacher will show his abilities with Lost Boys, Flatliners and Falling Down, and then he will go on and break Batman. Since then, his movies won't be treated with respect, even if they're interesting efforts like 8mm, Tigerland or Phantom Of The Opera. Judd Nelson and Emilio Estevez (in a bigger role than in The Outsiders), hit it big with Breakfast Club and St Elmo's Fire in '85, but the 90s will ignore them almost completely. Rob Lowe's career won't be the one to be jealous of, and Andie MacDowell hasn't had a hit since Four Weddings and a Funeral. In fact, only Demi Moore survives to this day, and it doesn't look good for her either.
Sadly, it's true. American Pie had a tremendous impact on teenage audience, and as a result the entire cast was on high-demand. Jason Biggs and Sean William Scott will face stardom with not-so-wise decisions, and will be typecasted in comedic roles. It seems that 1999 was a good year for Mena Suvari and Chris Klein, with American Beauty and Election respectively being their most important roles to date. Shannon Elizabeth is kinda lost and Tara Reid is mostly known for her celebrity life, rather than her movie roles. Alysson Hannigan, Eugene Levy and Jennifer Coolidge will become recognizable, and eventually will exploit this fact to reprise similar roles. Time will tell if the entire cast will last, but let's face it, American Pie was a huge career builder.

Possibly the greatest directorial debut ever, but certainly not from the originality aspect. How a new-comer like Tarantino convinced Harvey Keitel to be a part in this movie, I'll never know. I'll also never know why Reservoir Dogs became such a huge, huge hit, but that's another story. Tim Roth owes a lot to this movie, since it gave him his first and his last success. Steve Buscemi already was in Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing and King Of New York, but this one establishes him as the cool support actor. The late Chris Penn didn't do much afterwards and Michael Madsen's career is pretty much all downhill from then on. But the true star of this movie is Tarantino himself. The motor-mouth who blends genres easier than anybody else in Hollywood, and that's the only thing I acknowledge in him. Third place is his and his only.

2) Reality Bites (1994)
Winona Ryder has already worked with Burton, Coppola and Scorcese, Ethan Hawke's CV contains Alive and Dead Poet's Society. Reality Bites isn't responsible for the huge success of these two, but this movie was like a goldmine for everyone that was involved with it. Ben Stiller proves he can handle with ease, not only the director's duties, but also playing roles with no slapstick humour, and achieves his transition to the Big Screen. Steve Zahn will go on to become the go-to guy for comedic support roles, Janeane Garofalo won't get what she deserves in the future, although she showed so much potential in this one. Renee Zellweger, Andy Dick and David Spade appear for just a few seconds, without showing their talent but proving that this movie was meant to be a lucky charm for the entire cast.
Low-profile and post-seventies, Coppola's name is mainly responsible for the movie's status, but there's so much more than just an acclaimed director behind The Outsiders. The teen cast includes Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise and Diane Lane who needless to say will become A-listers for the next twenty years. Emilio Estevez is the 80's teen king, with St Elmo's Fire and The Breakfast Club proving talent runs in the family. Ralph Maccio's biggest role will be Karate Kid, and Thomas C. Howell, who's the main character and shows the most talent of all, will unfortunately go on to lead a TV career. Patrick Swayze and Rob Lowe 'll have hits and flops, and for the record, even daddy's-little-girl Sofia and Tom Waits have screen time. So, quality plus quantity earned The Outsiders first place.

Contenders
Saving Private Ryan (Barry Pepper, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, Matt Damon, Paul Giamatti,Nathan Fillion), Godfather I & II (Coppola, Pacino, De Niro, Diane Keaton, John Cazale), Star Wars (George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher), Lord Of The Rings ( Jackson, Bloom, Elijah Wood, Andy Serkis, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Marton Csokas) are all high-profile movies. As high as it gets actually, so doors are bound to open when somebody has this kind of movies in his biography. Dazed And Confused (Adam Goldberg again, Matthew McConaughey, Cole Hauser, Milla Jovovich, Ben Affleck) and Flatliners (Kiefer Sutherland, Julia Roberts, William Baldwin, Oliver Platt, Hope Davis) can't keep up with the rest. Boogie Nights pretty much built only Mark Wahlberg's career and established everybody else. Cruel Intentions, The Talented Mr Ripley and Scream have a young but already experienced cast, so none of them qualifies.

1 comment:

muebles en pozuelo de alarcon said...

I consider one and all should look at it.