Actor-producer Michael Douglas is the recipient of this year’s AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. And the Daily Variety offers a nice retrospective of Douglas’ top grossing movies. The list is as follows:
Fatal Attraction: $157M
Traffic: $124M
Basic Instinct: $118M
The War of the Roses: $84M
Disclosure: $83M
Romancing the Stone: $75M
A Perfect Murder: $68M
Jewel of the Nile: $66M
The American President: $60M
Not included are other notable movies including Coma, The China Syndrome, Wall Street, Black Rain, and Falling Down.
Looking at this list, three thing stand out to me: (1) Douglas has played some really interesting and wide-ranging roles. (2) Many of those roles are deeply flawed characters. (3) And apart from Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, very few of the roles are those popcorn-movie, romanticized, mainstream ‘leading man’ type of thing.
In fact, it’s probably fair to say that Douglas is one of the handful of Hwood stars who isn’t afraid to play an anti-hero or a ‘negative’ Protagonist.
What’s your favorite Michael Douglas role?
An American President
Wonder Boys
Romancing the Stone
Wall Street
The War of the Roses
I was amazed by the ferociousness of the black humor contained in War of the Roses. I remember going to see it with a date who believed in things like "true love" and "happily ever after." As she sat horrified there I was, one seat away, howling like a madman.
Our first and last date…
Ballsy career move for Douglas.
Falling Down, equally so.
My favorite Michael Douglas movie of all time is "Romancing the Stone." Also liked "Wall Street."
Seeing that "Wall Street" wasn't one of the top 3 grossers surprised me. BUT I look it up on IMBD only a 43.8 million gross in the U.S.
Isn't Michael Douglas a big believer in a movie's "redemption?" "Where's the redemption?" I swear he's said that before, but I can't place where. What I'm getting at is I think Michael Douglas is a story disciple of someone (a line of thought that he uses to evaluate stories)
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
King of California. A little seen gem that Douglas infuses with exuberance and heartbreak.
Woah –
How about The Game…?
As ridiculous as THE GAME is (I'm sorry, the end is completely unbelievable — I'd have killed a mofo for doing that to me), he was great in that.
But I really love him in FALLING DOWN. Not a perfect film, but damn it's great to watch him crack.
Laugh, some friends and I were just talking about how he always plays the same character :p
Our list was much shorter though :p.
Fatal Attraction
Basic Instinct
Disclosure
Not sure how much of this is choice and how much of it is type casting.
To play Devil's Advocate… he is badass in Wall Street — such an under rated movie.
Yes, it is interesting.
Could it be because he is not this incredibly handsome fellows, but just looks ordinary?
Or is he simply a damn good actor with guts?