They Had It, Then Lost It

Cracked.com ran an interesting little story labeled "Sick Boy Syndrome, Top 5 Comedians That Had It, Then Lost It." Sick boy is the dude from Trainspotting who tells the hero of the story of Sean Connery, had it, but lost it and only got the oscar for The Untouchables because the Academy felt like they had to give him something. Well the comedians they claimed that lost it were: Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Eddy Murphy, Robin Williams and Steve Martin. I agreed with them all except Mike Myers, I don't think he neccesarily lost it, I just think he ran out of original jokes midway through Wayne's World II. Even Austin Powers had a ton of jokes lifted directly from Wayne's World. I actually like Mike Myers but were all going to have to get used to the fact that his last funny moment was his reaction to Kanye West's rant about Bush. Anyways, I thought I would continue the list of those who had it, but lost it.

Ed Norton

In The Beginning: Primal Fear, American History X, People Vs. Larry Flynt, Rounders

Peaked: Fight Club

The First Indication Something Was Wrong: Keeping The Faith

The Demise: Everything since. I know people like Hulk but fuck me, he's basically Tyler Durden again, but instead of turning into Brad Pitt smoking, beating the shit out of people and banging everything that moves he turns into the exact same thing Eric Bana turned into in 2003. All of his political and environmental hypocricy aside he really hasn't starred in a good movie since Fight Club, I even thought The Illusionist was a complete bore.

John Cusack

In The Beginning: Better Off Dead, Tapeheads, One Crazy Summer, Eight Men Out, The Grifters

Peaked: Somewhere between Gross Point Blank and High Fidelity

The First Indication Something Was Wrong: Identity

The Demise: The Iraq War. Hey, if you don't like the war and really hate Bush be my guest, it's definatley your right to say so but at least make some decent fucking movies. Grace Is Gone? War, Inc.? Crap. His overly simplistic view of the U.S. profiteering off war was kind of funny because technically he's making money off the war with his movies with the Iraq War as a backdrop. Unless he's giving the profits to charity. I didn't think so. Even his non protest movies suck; The Ice Harvest, American Sweethearts, Serendipity, Must Love Dogs. Jesus, just complete sell out shit movies.

Adrien Brody

In The Beginning: Basically hit and miss movies throughout his career such as Bread and Roses, Harrison's Flowers and Thin Red Line (Hey, I liked it).

Peaked: The Pianist

The First Indication Something Was Wrong: Dummy. The Pianist was so good and so gut wretching that I could only see it once, like Schindler's List. It was one of the few nominations that I actually agreed with the Academy. Then Adrien went the way of Cuba Gooding, Jr. and hasn't starred in a good role since. I have yet to see the Darjeeling Limited but I've heard it was pretty disapointing. Well, for some fucking reason I liked The Life Aqautic with Steve Zassou.....

Brad Pitt

In The Beginning: Seven, Legends Of The Fall (yes, I liked it, sue me), Interview With A Vampire, Twelve Monkeys, Fight Club, Snatch

Peaked: Ocean's Eleven

The First Indication Something Was Wrong: The Mexican. Really this isn't Brad's fault, he's more TMZ now than an actor. So when I saw Assissination of Jesse James (pretty boring by the way, and fucking looong. I didn't finish it) all I could think of was Bradgelina, or Angiebrad or whatever the fuck they call themselves. But really his film qualities have dipped since Ocean's Eleven.

Kevin Spacey

In The Beginning: Henry and June, Glengarry Glen Ross (GO TO FUCKING LUNCH YOU FUCK!!!), Usual Suspects, Seven, The Ref, Doomsday Gun, The Big Kahuna, L.A. Confidential, Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil

Peaked: American Beauty

The First Indication Something Was Wrong: K-PAX. Unfortunately Kevin Spacey is clearly in his check cashing mailing it in phase along with with the likes of Al Pacino and DeNiro.


Actors who have been pretty steady their entire career: Morgan Freeman, Harrison Ford (well, kinda), Sam Rockwell, Tony Shaloub, Stanley Tucci, Helena Bohnam Carter, Ewan McGregor (though he has starred in complete shitballs), Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and others I can't think of.