MovieChat Forums > Renny Harlin Discussion > Bizarre career

Bizarre career

posted 4 years ago by Drooch (5333)
14 replies | jump to latest

Dude directed seminal 90’s action films like Cliffhanger and Die Hard 2, then he made DTV duds for a couple decades, now he’s making Chinese fantasies and thrillers, and is about to return to his homeland to shoot a Finnish comedy.

Why isn’t this guy making Olympus Has Fallen sequels or original action comedies? Give him a decent script and he’ll make it sing, as he did with the awesome Long Kiss Goodnight. He’s married to Gena Davis - surely that gets him into a few Hollywood parties..?

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8544) 3 years ago

It's very strange. He had a really solid run from 1990 to 1999. Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Deep Blue Sea was all well-made, enjoyable action films. Even Cutthroat Island is not as bad as many say it is.

After DBS though, it's like his knowledge of how to make a good film just progressively evaporated. To be fair, I haven't seen everything he made during this time period. Mindhunters, for instance, I've heard some people say is good. But I did see Driven and Exorcist: The Beginning, and neither were particularly good, and certainly both weren't anywhere near as good as his earlier films. By the time he got to The Legend of Hercules, it had just all gone to shit for him. That was legit one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Before rendering any kind of final verdict, I should make more of a point to see the rest of his filmography. But it's clear from what I have seen that something changed for him right around the year 2000.

[–] TMC-4 (19640) 2 years ago

I read a theory in the Die Hard 2 forums about why Renny Harlin's status as a reliable A-list director began to sink right after the financial failure that was Cutthroat Island:

https://moviechat.org/tt0099423/Die-Hard-2/5ecb08e24836122f65dff7f3/Incredible-sequel

Renny Harlin was a very successful director by the time he had turned 30. I like Die Hard 2 more than I like DH1/DH3/DH4. He was very talented and his directing style was fresh & crisp. Not many directors his age have managed this level of success.

It was not until his run-ins with Carolco Pictures and the vindictive Andrew G. Vajna that his career had its first huge blow.

Andrew G. Vajna basically managed to get Renny Harlin canceled. Blaming him for sinking Vajna life work, Carolco Pictures.

This devastated Renny Harlin career. He did not work for 4-5 years after this.

When he returned he had changes his directing style trying to copy Michael Bays visual style. Driven was another failure. So have basically every project he has been in involved with since. He now have to travel to Asia in order to get work.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8544) 2 years ago

That's interesting. There's certainly no doubt that the failure of Cutthroat Island damaged his career, and not just his career but also his then-wife's Geena Davis. But he went on to make The Long Kiss Goodnight just a year later. TLKG is a fucking great film but it failed at the box office. He then made Deep Blue Sea, which did pretty well, but followed it up with another failure in Driven.

After that it seemed that he slowly forgot how to make movies. I watched The Legend of Hercules just a little while back and it was LAUGHABLY bad. It's shocking to think that the guy who made Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and The Long Kiss Goodnight made that piece of shit. I'm not even sure how it's possible.

[–] Drooch (5333) 2 years ago

Renny Harlin is Finnish, and now he’s finished.

It was always in the name.

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

He and Davis have been divorced for ages.

I heard some unpleasant rumors about this guy back when he was hot, maybe he made enemies or failed to endear himself to the right people. Building a solid career in Hollywood takes a lot more than a couple of hit films, you have to have people who will hire you after a flop. That's one of the reasons that actors like Keanu Reeves and Brad Pitt have been able to come back from flop after flopped, they're liked and they have allies. Someone who pisses people off isn't going to get that kind of break.

[–] Drooch (5333) 2 years ago

What did Harlin do wrong?

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

I don't know, all I recall are vague rumors about jerkitude. I'm just speculating, based on totally unreliable information.

[–] WhitePrivilege (96) 2 years ago

It's a bit hard to explain but Renny Harlin is looked at as someone who has worked with Willis & Stallone. In China a famous director will never be un-famous or loose his social standing like run the West where careers come and go.
China was a well paid gig for him.

[–] WhitePrivilege (96) 2 years ago

The films he did are no longer being made or has an audience. However he has had great success in China in the recent years. He is now a hot ticket again in Hollywood , not for directing, but they wish to learn how he "broke the code" with Chinese filmmaking. A market Hollywood is dying to break into but struggle with.

[–] Drooch (5333) 2 years ago

So he got captured by the Chinese Communist Party? He’s been assimilated by the Borg. Great.

[–] Stratego (29773) 2 years ago

He hasn't been married to Geena since 1998.

[–] Drooch (5333) 2 years ago

Genda Davis.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16840) 2 years ago

It happens. Directors rise and fall. He did two back-to-back financial flops with Cutthroat Island and The Long Kiss Goodnight;I myself like those movies but clearly audiences didn't flock towards them at the time.
Remember Wolfgang Petersen? Did a lot of solid work in the 90s and 2000s as a blockbuster director. Outbreak, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy. But then his Poseidon Adventure remake was a flop and he hasn't done much since.

[–] pjl69 (2586) 2 months ago

I predicted his downfall after I saw Cliffhanger. It showed he didn't have wings of his own as a director. He should have sticked to directing sequels to proven and tested franchises.