MovieChat Forums > Kevin Costner Discussion > I remember this guy used to be king of t...

I remember this guy used to be king of the world...


I distinctly remember a time when he was pretty much the biggest movie star on earth...no doubt a few others have gone through that phase (Jim Carrey comes to mind, now it's probably Johnny Depp or Christian Bale). I remember a David Letterman show from this time that I was watching, where Dave mentioned what a huge star he was.

There's no point to this post...just that I'm getting old and time moves on I guess...you dont hear much from Costner anymore.

reply

Respectfully, Prism10 I disagree. I always thought that critics were savagely unfair about Waterworld and The Postman. I thought they were decent films and did exactly what they were intended to do. They were entertaining,for me. The director's cut of Waterworld is a great cut of the film with about 40 minutes additional that were not in the theatrical edition. Heck, the movies he made I did not care for like A Perfect World (also one of the few Clint Eastwood films I did not like), Dragonfly, The New Daughter, and Swing Vote were decent attempts but ended up like a movie of the week. Some of the best performances that people have never seen are his portrayels of real bad guys (A Perfect World not included of course). 3000 Miles To Graceland and MR. Brooks showed his darker side and it was fun to watch. But oh well, I love to see he is playing a REAL bastard in the Hatfields And The McCoys on the History channel. I did some research on his character and from what I have read "Devil" Anse Hatfield was a mean son of a bitch. I can't wait for the series to start. Anyway my opinion anyway and you have yours, I love to chat about films so jsut thought I would chat. Take it easy and have a great day! Respectfully [email protected]

reply

I remember reading this message years ago. Yup, Costner had his heyday in the ‘80s.

reply

If you think about it it's a majority of A listers that have their rise and fall. Very few stay on the very top for more than 10 or 15 years.

The few exceptions are A listers such as Tom Cruise...which mystifies me since hardly anyone doesn't bash him or admit to liking him yet most of his films continue to do well.
Forever it seems..
Most others seem to decline or to come and go as they redefine their images through different generations.

reply

10-15 years definitely seems to be the lifespan. Look at the example the OP used in the original post. Johnny Depp ain't no big star no more. That post is 9 years old and his heydey has already run its course.

Tom wisely stays out of the public eye. Even when he splashes in the tabloids, he doesn't respond, he doesn't have twitter meltdowns, he doesn't get drunk and scream about the jews. He goes back to Tom Cruise Mountain and does whatever the hell he does there. He rarely even attends events or awards ceremonies. He's not running around pushing his causes on people. Or yapping about politics. Tom figured it all out. He knows how to stay famous. Less is more. Probably figured all that out after the couch incident on Oprah lol. Maybe less appearances on talk shows...

In regard to Kevin, I don't think anything with him changed so much as the times around him changed. Men like Costner simply wern't in style anymore, outside of the 80s and 90s.

The women of Hollywood seem to have a good second life in their careers. After they finish their young and beautiful phase of cranking out romcoms and whatnot, they seem to disappear for ten or twenty years. Suddenly, they're back, older and now doing very serious drama stuff and everybody loves it. It's weird. It's almost formula. Julia Roberts is doing it right now.

reply

Concerning Cruise, I hate to say this but he's a very good looking guy, and he's been able to pick a number of films that suit him to a T. Costner isn't quite so lucky. I think he started believing his own hype and wanted to helm his own projects. He thought he could do no wrong. And he was wrong.

reply

Having two high profile box office flops does that.

reply

[deleted]