Is McConaughey the New Travolta?

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Buscemi2
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Is McConaughey the New Travolta?

Post by Buscemi2 »

We all know about how John Travolta had his own renaissance after Pulp Fiction which lasted until Battlefield Earth and how he's now seen as a punchline again. Lately, I'd noticed that the McConaissance has been over for some time and was much shorter than Travolta's run. After Interstellar (hard to believe this was five years ago), McConaughey's mostly appeared in flops with Sing being the only big hit of his filmography since then. In addition, Neon seems to be dumping his new film The Beach Bum as I've seen very little promotion for it compared to their other Spring titles and the recent Serenity got a lot of criticism for its twist.

So where did it all go wrong for McConaughey (again)? It seems like it was The Sea of Trees, one of a few post-Milk flops for Gus Van Sant. It didn't get "worst movie ever"-level reviews like Battlefield Earth did but it got a number of dreadful reviews and was quickly dumped by A24 after Lionsgate dropped it. Using the Travolta analogy again, I guess that makes Sing like Swordfish (though no nude scenes but I think Jackman would have better fit the koala role in Sing).

What happens from here? McConaughey's latest film, a crime comedy called Bush, was picked up by STX for $7 million. Right now, he seems to be entering Travolta's early to mid 2000's phase of still milking that remaining box office pull (Ladder 49, Wild Hogs, Hairspray, and Bolt all made money during this time) but McConaughey hasn't even had that yet and the way his career is going, he might lose that popularity he had earlier in the decade altogether.

So do we see McConaughey giving over-the-top performances in misguided biopics a decade from now? Or does he get it together and pick better scripts again?
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