An opening close-up between his legs, peeing in a jar, is a rough note to start on, but the heroic framing succeeds in making sure you know this guy is our way into this strange new world. Only a daring few are capable of setting sail on their own.Ĭostner stars as the nameless “Mariner,” a loner who survives by his grit and his wit. Almost all of Earth is submerged, leaving the remnants of civilization to scavenge for scraps on the high seas. In Waterworld, from director Kevin Reynolds (he maintains that credit but actually quit the film over heated battles with Costner) and co-written by Peter Rader and David Twohy, the film depicts a post-apocalyptic future in which climate change has fully melted the polar ice caps. Waterworld, the ambitious sci-fi “failure” starring Kevin Costner, is streaming on Netflix until November 30. While it’s unfair to say the film ruined Costner’s career - the man kept working and still works today, as the producer and star of the mega-popular Paramount series Yellowstone - Waterworld is often held up as a cautionary tale of what happens when a movie with too much money asks too much of its star. That year, Costner starred in the science-fiction action film Waterworld, a movie that wasn’t bad but so ludicrously expensive that its modest box office haul disrupted Costner’s momentum. A string of escapist blockbusters and adult thrillers followed: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and JFK, both in 1991, and The Bodyguard - responsible for many karaoke nights thanks to the might of Whitney Houston - in 1992.īut by 1995, the wind had shifted direction. His starring role in Field of Dreams, a sentimental celebration of not simply baseball but American tradition, cast in amber his image as the ultimate movie dad.īy the next year, Costner was on top of the film industry as the director and star of Dances With Wolves, which earned him two Oscars. In 1995, Kevin Costner was Hollywood’s crown prince, ruling the late ‘80s and ‘90s. How does a movie “fail,” anyhow? At what point do all the factors of filmmaking - like budget, vision, execution, and public interest - give way to the more subjective idea of merit?Įven if it’s poorly reviewed, does a movie “fail” if it leaves behind a legacy? Can a movie really be a “failure” if it’s still entertaining and more engrossing today than it was when it was first released?
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