MovieChat Forums > Michael J. Fox Discussion > He failed as a movie star!

He failed as a movie star!

posted a year ago by Ticketsplease (4024)
39 replies | jump to latest

Don't get me wrong, I love the guy (well, sorta), but he blew his shot at hollywood.

Let's dissect where it all went wrong.

1. Back To The Future was amazing. He followed this up with Teen Wolf. Not great but people loved it nonetheless. So far so good, what's next, hopefully something more like Back To The Future, right?

2. Light of Day, 1987. The movie wasn't a flop but it was not what audiences wanted. A drama about some musicians!

3. The Secret of My Success - 1987 - Finally, a movie audiences enjoyed! A box office hit! What's next? You learned the lesson of Light of Day, right?

4. Bright Lights, Big City - 1988 - A flop. I won't even get into how big a flop this was. They lost a lot of money.

5. Casualties of War - 1989 - It did okay, commercially, critically, but Fox was WAY off brand with this one. Nobody wants to see Marty McFly or Alex Keaton in some depressing Vietnam war movie.

6. Back To The Future II - 1989 and Back To The Future III 1990 - Yes! He's back on brand! Two huge movies to satisfy his fans. He can still salvage his career.

7. The Hard Way - 1991 - A buddy cop movie with James Woods? Who thought audiences would want to see this tired format in 1991? Wasn't Beverly Hills Cop from 1985? A flop

8. Doc Hollywood - 1991 - A flop. Not a horrible flop, it may have broken even, but it wasn't exactly making backers want to throw money his way anytime soon.

9. Life With Mickey - 1993 - The death of his film career. The movie is basically unheard of because nobody saw it (debuted at number 7 at the box office) and never got shown on TV. It apparently made 12 million, which I'm guessing wouldn't even cover the budget.

Unfortunately for his backers, they still had a movie of his to promote coming out at the end of 1993.

10. For Love or Money - 1993. This flopped so hard we shouldn't even be discussing it. Okay, let's dissect. Critics hated it. It only made 11 million, less than Life With Mickey, which is hard to believe, but true.

So what was his mistakes? 1, not sticking to his brand. Comedy. Fun stuff. Action. Adventure.

He really needed another franchise vehicle to attach himself to. Perhaps instead of teaming up with James Woods he should have teamed up with Maculay Culkin or John Candy or someone who would also bring in the audiences and the laughs.

He claims that he turned down Ghosts 1990, and all I can say is THANK GOD, because Patrick Swayze brought the sexuality to that role that sealed the chemistry of a love story between a grieving woman and a ghost.

So that's his career in a nutshell. He took some detours, was given a few second chances, but failed to capitalize on his fame and team up with other comedians to really rake in the cash.

[–] [deleted] a year ago

Oh, shut up.

[–] Ticketsplease (4024) a year ago

He only had the BTTF movies and The Secret of My Success as box office hits. Something went wrong, wouldn't you agree?

[–] StinkyPoopyPants (2838) a year ago

🤣😂

[–] StinkyPoopyPants (2838) a year ago

I don't agree with this. I think I may be one of the few people that loved him in Casualties of War, but I really did. I thought his young, naïve, good guy persona played off well against Sean Penn's nasty character.

[–] GolfnGuitars (2434) a year ago

I really liked "Casualties Of War" and thought Fox was great in it. That was one of the few movies I saw in the theater when it first came out during my college years.

[–] BrandNewPoster (8405) a year ago

I thought he did a great job in Casualties of War.

[–] Pete314 (2518) a year ago

What about The Frighteners? A great movie, unfortunately in competition with Independence Day when it came out... Not MJFs fault.

[–] Ticketsplease (4024) a year ago

That was after his career was over, it was an outliner. But let's discuss.

Budget: $26 million
Box office: $29.3 million

This thing was another nail in the coffin.

[–] Pete314 (2518) a year ago

Still a great movie. Proof that MJF was able to do more than silly teenager comedies. Box office? The movie was released in the summer, stupid time to do so.

[–] sslssg (30257) a year ago

I agree. It's probably my favourite Peter Jackson movie.

[–] Miyagido (2944) a year ago

How can it be after his career was over when it's a part of his career? If he was still a working actor making movies then his career wasn't over.

[–] Ticketsplease (4024) a year ago

Over in the sense that his movies didn't turn a profit.

[–] BillyLoomisBaby (100) a year ago

Oh yes! Great movie! This weekend, as an 11 year old, I had to choose between The Frighteners and Independence Day. I loved Horror, Ghosts and Alien stuff all from a young age, so it was hard to choose lol. But ultimately I went with ID4 and rented this the day it went to Blockbuster. Both were great in my opinion but this movie really had big competition in a big blockbuster starring Will Smith, so it didn’t have much of a chance. Though it did decent at the box office. Now if it were released at Halloween time? That would have helped tremendously!

[–] BillyLoomisBaby (100) a year ago

[deleted]

[–] Porsche911 (2870) a year ago

He started to get sick around 1993-94 and was forced to drop out of a few projects. This hurt his career obviously.

[–] samoanjoes (52986) a year ago

He found out in 1991.

[–] Cac1981 (331) a year ago

[deleted]

[–] Corbell (9572) a year ago

Doc hollywood was a nice rom com, but yeah, your time line seems about right.

[–] pioneergrrrl (2391) a year ago

he's still making very good money off of anything connected to Back to the Future today....so obviously he's had a good career.

[–] ebhaynz (3612) a year ago

Michael J. Fox has admitted that only in hindsight he is "shaken" by all the bad movie roles he chose. He apologizes for his mistakes and wishes he could go "back in time" to correct all of them.

[–] GolfnGuitars (2434) a year ago

I think "failed" is way, way too strong of a word to describe Fox's movie career. Even if every single movie after the original "Back To The Future" would have flopped...he still had that movie on his resume.

I remember my brother rented "Bright Lights, Big City" and we watched it years ago. I don't remember a whole lot about it...just that it was depressing and not as good as "The Secret Of My Success."

He's actually one of the few stars who can say he/she had a hit TV show ("Family Ties") and a classic movie ("Back To The Future"). There haven't been too many who have done both (By the way, I will always respect Fox for sticking with "Family Ties" to the very end...he could have left that show and concentrated solely on his film career, but he didn't).

I think a more arguable case would be Shelley Long. I just watched "The Money Pit" a few days ago (I had never seen that movie)...it wasn't bad, but I don't think her film career ever took off like she thought it would after leaving "Cheers."

[–] DoctorThirteen (11530) a year ago

I liked Shelley Long in Cheers but I never saw anything in her that made me think she could be a movie star.

[–] Heisenberg (6466) a year ago

Hey man, it's not easy.
What young 80s star got out unscathed?
I can think of only 1, Tom Cruise.

MJF tried to grow out his young persona from BTTF and Family Ties, but the 80s and 90s were not an easy time for his kind of gentle comedy.
He tried rom coms but got stuck with the same yuppie typecasting, which was not very welcomed nor useful to further his carrer.

He needed an old guy to be paired with, as in BTTF, but he got only James Woods, and the chemistry was not there. And he got sick, so that must have stopped any real comeback after Spin City.

[–] pioneergrrrl (2391) a year ago

Cruise has had 'meh' movies too.

Far and Away wasn't as memorable as Risky Business a Few Good Men or Top Gun

But even their 'bad' movies don't stop them permanently.

Fox however was in a league of his own since he was successfully doing a TV series AND very popular movies. Were it not for the Parkinsons, he probably would have done Spin City for several more years.

[–] Callahan7 (986) a year ago

"What young 80s star got out unscathed? I can think of only 1, Tom Cruise."

You've got a point. Tom Cruise has had a great career. I wouldn't go so far as to say he was "unscathed" though. I doubt anyone on Earth can make that claim.

Kevin Costner had a good career. Maybe Tim Robbins. Not as successful as Tom Cruise but pretty good.

I found out that Michael J. Fox was cast in BTTF because Eric Stoltz was fired. I didn't know this until about 8 or 9 years ago when I found out on IMDB.

[–] Heisenberg (6466) a year ago

MJF was their first choice.
But he was busy with FT.
Zemeckis half heartedly shot some scenes with Stoltz, only to replace him the first chance he got.

Kostner was never a young star, he has always played grown men.
Robbins was never a star.
All great actors, but seriously, no kid from the 80s (and there were a ton) has endured on the big screen, except for Cruise.

[–] Callahan7 (986) a year ago

https://www.distractify.com/p/why-did-eric-stoltz-leave-back-to-the-future

You seem to know about this already. I came across it yesterday and I thought of this post.

Sometimes an actor really suits a part. That seems to be the case here with MJF.

This reminds me of Apocalypse Now. Coppola cast Harvey Keitel in the lead and fired him in early production. Going from memory- he thought Harvey was too New York looking and sounding. One reason anyway. So he replaced him with Martin Sheen who is from Ohio.