MovieChat Forums > Matthew Broderick Discussion > Broderick's career didn't work out

Broderick's career didn't work out


Glory was the peak I would say.

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Yeah, this dude definitely passed his prime a long time ago. Matthew's acting is atrocious now compared to his Ferris Bueller days.

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Hes been working steadily for about forty years now, in films and on Broadway.

That's about as good as being an actor gets.

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Yeah. most actors would envy his career.

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I think both you and the TS have a point.

On one hand, Broderick is definitely in that group of actors who were successful in their teens but who largely couldn't replicate that success as an adult. I was sitting here trying to remember the last thing I saw him in and couldn't remember. Then I looked up his filmography and remembered that he was Adult Ralphie in A Christmas Story Live and that he had a small role in Manchester by the Sea. Before that the last thing I would've seen him in was The Stepford Wives in 2004.

On the other hand though, as you say, while he had not seen the success of Bran Pitt or Matt Damon he has continued to work steadily all these years. He has a career and, considering he works in an industry where most people don't even begin to make it or they wash out early, it's a successful career. He's certainly done a lot better than, say, Ralph Macchio.

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I'd say any person who has a net worth of $45 million dollars has had a "successful" career which "worked out" just fine. In the Hollywood cycle of actors in - actors out he's staked his own claim in his own way. Tony awards and all. So what's the point in the attempt to tear down someone else's career? Does it make you feel better or bitter? I'm sure there is a person out there among the billions on the face of this planet that "Deck the Halls" is their favorite movie. I'm sure he is someone's favorite actor of all time.

And this isn't just Broderick - any actor. It's time to examine the motive behind the besmirching of someone's entire (and in this case lucrative) career. There has to be a point to taking the time to say it out loud. Bruce Willis was listed on the Hollywood's top 10 flop squad. $200 million net worth. Flop away.







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Exactly. Isn’t it that way in most careers too? Only a few make it to the top echelons and stay there? Take business. A few rise to be CEOs, others get stuck in middle management. Even CEOs have a bad quarter, get fired and have their glory days behind them. Acting seems a particularly brutal career in that regard. Broderick has had some amazing successes. Ask community theater actors or high school drama teachers if they’d consider Broderick a failure in their field.

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I agree..They seem to want to discount every actor that doesn't become A list and remain that way forever..But how few ever do?
Most have their day in the sun but continue to work in supporting or lesser roles or even retire.. It doesn't discount every thing they've ever done previously..
And, really, who would want the full onslaught of social media attention and/or the pressure of staying on top all their lives but a few of the most narcissistic?

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It must take a toll to spend years as an A lister. The ones that stay there are either exceptional talents (Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks) or desperados who resort to media stunts or do junky films just to stay on top. Those ones do show signs of narcissism and other personality disorders.

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He has had a pretty good career. He has been in some good movies after Glory. He was in Out on a Limb, The Lion King, Godzilla, Election, You Can Count on Me, The Producers, and Manchester by the Sea. Those are pretty good films.

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And he got to act with the great Marlon Brando in The Freshman, another really good film. Not bad for an actor of his generation to have had that experience.

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https://lebeauleblog.com/2013/01/12/what-the-hell-happened-to-matthew-broderick/

So, what the hell happened?

I have to start out by noting that by any reasonable measure, Broderick is still outrageously successful. He is a leading man on Broadway and married to Sex in the City star, Sarah Jessica Parker. While he may not be on the Hollywood A-list, he does still get work in TV and movies.

But why wasn’t Broderick’s film career more successful?

It’s tempting to say that Broderick was type-cast as Ferris Bueller. For much of his career, Broderick had a youthful look that made it diffiuclt to transition into more mature roles.

But, Broderick had more than his share of big budget movies to try to reinvent his image. The problem is, most of them were terrible. He continually popped up in crap like Godzilla, Inspector Gadget and The Stepford Wives.

Also, Broderick was rarely the star of these movies even when he had the leading role. He was frequently cast as the thankless straight man to Jim Carrey or even Danny DeVito.

Broderick’s filmography is filled with movies that were expected to be big hits but weren’t. Or if they were, they fell short of expectations. The only two movies he made that were legitimate hits with critics and audiences were War Games and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

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