Why do so many people hate Kevin Costner? With the exception of a couple of movies in the mid 90s, he's been in good movie after good movie. Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, JFK, and Dances with Wolves are all classics. Why all the hate for an underrated actor?
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braves_snl,
I agree with you. It's really difficult to understand. Anyway, my wife and I plan on seeing Swing Vote this weekend.
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Then again, when was the last time you were in a movie?
sharemichaelflatley (and the other assheads on this thread) are clearly late for their shifts at McDonalds
Arthur
wewerethecoolkids.blogspot.com/
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Now try using full words to talk to me.
Arthur
wewerethecoolkids.blogspot.com/
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Clearly your family floated to America on a door, so I'm guessing that's why you're as dumb as a stick?
Arthur
wewerethecoolkids.blogspot.com/
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i like kevin costenr ok but he always seems to be playing himself in every role, he doesnt seem to change his acting style depending on the movie, take a great actor marlon brando for instance, his portrayal of the godfather is completely different from his role in apocalypse now. he changes everything about himself depending on what role he has, everything about kevin coster is the same in all of his movies, some of costners movies were great dances with wolves, and the untouchables comes to mind, but i havnt seen him in a great movie in years. now i have to go im late for my shift at mcdonalds
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Amen my friend. We can't compare the greatest actor of all time (Brando) with the 2nd worst actor of all time (Costner). For the record, worst actor of all time is Sylvestor Stallone.
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Wow I don't understand why some people are so ignorant. He has consistently put forth a memorable performance throughout his acting career (dancing with the wolves, tin cup, the guardian,JFK, etc.) He HAS earned his 2 oscars. Why don't you guys stop wasting your time being an ass and go watch a movie with Rob Schneider, if you havent seen them all. They will surely suit you better.
shareI also loved The Upside of Anger. Thought he played that part very well too.
But I have to disagree with you on Rob Schneider. I actually like him. He's my guilty pleasure and I usually don't enjoy dumb comedies. His seem to hit the spot though. lol.
Now try to spell them right.
Or maybe just leave this website and go back to grammar school.
two words
water world
It only appears that way on this board because most of the people posting on here are too young to know of, understand, or appreciate his work in the past. Most of the people posting on here are younger people and kids who want to see dumb comedies with kids sticking their *beep* into pies and idiots mocking classic TV shows. They probably havn't even seen movies like Dances with Wolves, Waterworld, JFK, or Field of Dreams. Hell, they probably couldn't even sit through them because of the short attention span they've developed from watching Spongebob all their lives!
I don't have a problem with Kevin Costner, but I think one of the other issues that some people have with him is the fact that he always seems to play the same type of role (with a few exceptions): the sort of trailer-trashy alcoholic. Atleast that's the role I've seen him portray most often. But I still think his career has been exceptional.
Some good movies you left out in your list:
Waterworld was good: roles were played well, and the story was an interesting view of what the world would be like if it really were all water (also brought up an idea of what global warming could result in back when the theory was in it's beginning and less known).
Upside of Anger was great: I thought it was funny to watch and i loved the cast.
Rumor Has It...not the best comedy of the year; I didn't expect it to win any awards, and I don't expect it to be part of "classics" set released on home video in 50 years, but I thought it was cute and entertaining. Same goes for Message in a Bottle and Tin Cup.
Mr. Brooks: this was one of the exceptions to that trailer-trash-like role he's been in lately. Great movie; great job by him and William Hurt. If you havn't seen it, you should.
Waterworld was not good. Please don't say that again. If you repeat that phrase three times a portal to hell opens and the planet will be overtaken by evil.
But yeah, he did used to make better movies than he has recently. He was really good in The Untouchables, No Way Out, Bull Durham.
Waterworld was a decent movie with some great parts and some bad parts. The only thing bad about Waterworld was really bad non-bungee bungee jump rescue... and the rehash of the motorcycle-gang deviants idea, which is used for some reason in all post-apocalyptic movies, even Artificial Intelligence. The rest of the movie was interesting and well done.
Costner likes big movies, so he makes big movies, people see this as arrogance. I'd rather have someone arrogant trying to make an epic and failing, than no one trying to make big epics at all. The Postman is a highly under-rated movie (one of my favorite sci-fi's of all time) which was hurt by the fact that it was released the same weekend as Titanic. Wyatt Earp is a great western retelling, and expands on the life of a western legend we know little about. Of course it is storytelling, so the facts are exaggerated, but it's a great film. (and the music is great). Costner can act and he's shown it in many different parts, but he is of that "leading man" type who cannot fully shed his natural personalities and mannerisms...
Decent is not good. Thank you for not repeating that phrase, which would have taken us one step closer to armageddon.
There are many degrees to everything in life... there are movies that are decent and movies that are good... by definition, the ones that are good are somewhat better than the ones that are decent... which is why I used the word decent, which is more toward 'good' on the spectrum than it is bad, or crappy. So I said exactly what I meant.
shareI totally understand, and believe you said what you meant. "Waterworld" is still not good. Is is bad.
At least, it is as bad to me as it is decent to you.
a rarden wrote:
"I don't have a problem with Kevin Costner, but I think one of the other issues that some people have with him is the fact that he always seems to play the same type of role (with a few exceptions): the sort of trailer-trashy alcoholic. Atleast that's the role I've seen him portray most often. But I still think his career has been exceptional."
I can only think of a few movies in which he played a boozer: Fandango, Tin Cup, The Upside of Anger, and Swing Vote. That's out of more than 30 films.
You left out The Postman (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119925/). One of my favorites, but it has a terrible reputation for some reason.
shareMost of the hatred for Kevin Costner stems from his "Waterworld" effort; he has yet to live that down... The best Kevin Costner movie ever may have been his first (if not, it was very early in his career) - "No Way Out" with Gene Hackman and Sean Young.
share"Why do so many people hate Kevin Costner?"
Simple. He's good looking, he's manly, he's unapologetic about his attractiveness and his manliness, he's tall, he's white, he's American.
This is the type of star who has gone out of style.
Nowadays men pay to look at fat, ugly blobs. Too many to name here, or immature jerks who live in their mother's basements. That's today's hero.
It's envy.
You wanna see hate? You should go back and read the posts that collected on the Charlton Heston board around the time he died. Same phenomenon, only exaggerated, because Heston was a huge star with a long film history.
You had all these teenage boys and grown up men writing like teenage boys saying how much they hated Charlton Heston.
Then, if you go to the George Carlin board around the time he died, and you have all these teenagers talking about how much they LOVED Carlin, a fleabitten, drug addicted geezer who was ugly and bashed everything. Their taste.
Well said GOSKA!
shareI wouldn't say good looking, manly, unapologetic, tall, white, and American is out-of-style. I would say it all hinges on Costner himself, deserved or undeserved.
Christian Bale is all those things (well, not American but he plays one more often than not) and seems to be carrying The Dark Knight.
Brendan Fraser is a little chubby, but certainly not a fat ugly blob. And he has two of the top 5 right now.
Step Brothers is a comedy featuring a couple of blobby guys, but come on, when have comedy leads been held to "leading man" style? Never.
Then there's Hancock, and while Will Smith is certainly not white, I'm not sure that's what makes him to be so popular. I would say Will Smith has ALL your "out of style" attributes (except white) and is still in style.
Let's see, what else has been popular recently? Iron Man has a shorter lead actor than Costner, but other than that, it's "out-of-style" yet a huge hit too. Indiana Jones has a MORE classic, "out-of-style" leading man than Costner ever was, and did pretty well at the box office.
The rest seem to be animateds, comedies, or chick flicks. Not really "leading man" vehicles. And those genres were always around too, even in the days of John Wayne; you don't put classic leading men in EVERYTHING.
If by maturity, you mean Costner is getting too old to play the "in his prime" roles, okay. But that's not why people have turned on him. They never turned on Harrison Ford...
It's probably a combination of factors:
1. People like to see heroes fall. They get to experience that by tearing down Costner. The bigger they are, the harder people want to see them fall.
2. Costner seems one dimensional on screen, at least in the public consensus. He's not considered a dramatic actor with "range" like DeNiro or Duvall or Hackman or Daniel Day Lewis.
3. Some people think he's conceited. I don't know where this comes from because I don't pay attention to interviews and whatnot. But it's out there according to my wife. Personally, I don't tend to know nor care about the personalities or politics of actors; I just go to movies that look interesting. Costner (or anyone) could be the weirdest, biggest prick on the planet but if I like their movie, I like their movie.
4. He did make some big stinkers; The Postman and Waterworld come to mind. I know they have their fans, but they are simply WORSE than his better movies, so people leave disappointed. And blame him.
Please don't call DeNiro and actor with range...
Re-view The Postman, it is an excellent film with an amazing message. It is also one of the few movies that actually improves on the book it was based on. It suffers from an unnecessary love story, and the fact it was released the same weekend as Titanic, but it is a great film.
I find it strange that so many people dislike Kevin Costner. My wife and I actually spent this weekend with him. He and his group, Modern West, played at the House of Blues in Atlantic City Friday night. Their music was good, he is a decent singer and the crowd loved them.
Saturday night there was an "Up Close and Personal" appearance at another casino. He spoke at length about his movies and his career, we found him to be very candid and upfront. He took questions from the audience and came across as being very average. It was not unlike a bunch of friends sitting on a patio and shooting the bull. He finished the session with some of his songs, again with the Modern West.
We were fortunate enough to get excellent seats for both performances. Saturday night we were about fifteen feet away from him. We got a ton of pictures and two autographs to add to our collection of all of his movies.
We finished the weekend by going to see Swing Vote. We both enjoyed the movie for what it is, a light comedy and entertaining.
Kevin Costner is obviously an actor that is willing to take risks. Sometimes he wins and sometimes he does not, but he always goes for the gusto.
We can attest to the fact that not everybody hates Kevin Costner, there are several thousand folks in New Jersey who obviously like him and I for one hope that he continues to entertain us for many years to come.
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I think he is a better director than he is actor. He has been in many great movies, but most of them would have been better (imo) if a different actor would have played his character. The movies he directed, Dances With Wolves, Waterworld, and the Postman are no exceptions. I enjoyed all three of these movies for the story and direction, but they would have been better with a good actor.
Kevin Costner always has the same demeanor and expressions, whether he is playing Eliot Ness, Robin Hood, or Wyatt Earp. I expect a different performance, when a professional actor is playing different characters. Instead we get Kevin Costner in different outfits, always acting out the same role.
"Its nothing personal when bombs explode" - Chuck Palahnuik
"Kevin Costner always has the same demeanor and expressions, whether he is playing Eliot Ness, Robin Hood, or Wyatt Earp. I expect a different performance, when a professional actor is playing different characters. Instead we get Kevin Costner in different outfits, always acting out the same role."
this is how i think of tom cruise
and denzel washington recently
anyway, i don't have costner, i thought mr.brooks was great