Films of Robert Downey Junior

N

NYCisthebomb

New member
I've only ever seen him in two films:

Chaplin - this was an eye opener, for most of the film I thought I was watching the real Chaplin - I loved the music hall scene where he pretended to be an observer in the wings and he did a kind of drunken slapstick stint - brilliant. I read he learnt to play the violin and tennis left handed as Chaplin did. Great performance.

Zodiac - he played Paul Avery, a boozy etc. journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle in the late 60s to 70s involved in the hunt for the Zodiac killer with Robert Graysmith. Another fine performance.
 
Agreed on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. That and Zodiac are probably his best performances of this decade so far.

Hop over to ebay and pick up a region 2 copy of Less Than Zero for a couple of quid.

That was the late 80s movie, based on the Brett Easton Ellis novel of the same name, where people really started to take notice of him after his portrayal of a hapless junkie, a part he was actually close to living at the time due to his coke addiction.

Very talented actor who is incredible in a handful of films but who has never quite fulfilled his potential due to him constantly being in trouble via his drug/booze/law problems, which have led to him being passed over for or unable to sign on for certain films, and him often picking roles in movies which are beneath him.
 
Mart F said:
Agreed on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. That and Zodiac are probably his best performances of this decade so far.

Hop over to ebay and pick up a region 2 copy of Less Than Zero for a couple of quid.

That was the late 80s movie, based on the Brett Easton Ellis novel of the same name, where people really started to take notice of him after his portrayal of a hapless junkie, a part he was actually close to living at the time due to his coke addiction.

Very talented actor who is incredible in a handful of films but who has never quite fulfilled his potential due to him constantly being in trouble via his drug/booze/law problems, which have led to him being passed over for or unable to sign on for certain films, and him often picking roles in movies which are beneath him.[/QUOTE]


Why are these talented people often like this ? - thinking here re Georgie Best, Amy Winehouse etc.
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Bad management/the artists in question being around drink 'n' drugs constantly.

Also, quite a few of those 80s actors who were initially part of the whole Brat Pack, as Downey was, made some terrible career choices turning down roles in movies which went on to be huge :

Emilio Estevez turned down Platoon and Wall Street

Molly Ringwald turned down Blue Velvet, Pretty Woman and Ghost

Mickey Rourke turned down Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun and Pulp Fiction

Ally Sheedy turned down Top Gun and Wild Orchid

Anthony Michael Hall turned down Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Pretty In Pink

Charlie Sheen turned down Born On The 4th Of July, Indecent Proposal and White Men Can't Jump
 
But they do, it seems, turn down sure fire movies.

I mean, Rourke turning down Beverly Hills Cop when Eddie Murphy was the hottest new star in America who'd just come off Saturday Night Live, Delirious, 48 Hours and Trading Places? Or turning down Pulp Fiction after Tarantino had just made Reservoir Dogs?

Estevez turning down Platoon after Stone had just wrote Scarface and made Salvador?

Molly Ringwald turning down Blue Velvet to make The Pick Up Artist and then trying to break out of the Hughsian high-school princess mold after Pretty In Pink only to do some crackpot Shakespeare adaption by Goddard in France and turn down Top Gun and Ghost, effectively killing her career stone dead?

These were some terrible, terrible decisions.
 
Beverly Hills Cop started out life as a Sylvester Stallone vehicle I believe.

So it was a film in turnaround when Eddie Murphy got aboard & by no means a sure fire hit.

Murphy also did a salvage job on Best Defence round about that time & that sank without trace.

Making films is a crap shoot.

There are no sure fire winners.
 
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