The world was saddened. 78 films. This was a herculean task, but if any actor deserved the effort, it's Hackman.
78. The worst film that Gene Hackman ever appeared in
Gene has a brief voice role in this ill-fated "Grease" reunion for John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. He's the voice of God at least, but the film is god-awful.
Roeg
Gene Hackman loved acting. His blue-collar approach to the business led to appearances in several two-star movies, and we're going to start running through them. This flat-footed thriller from his "Bonnie Clyde" director Arthur Penn
Another one for the totally-forgotten file. Gene couldn't muster much energy for this drab drama about a Texas bar owner with a dead wife and a wheelchair-bound father(Burgess Meredith). Teri Garr, as his new love interest, must have known that her "Tootsie" goodwill was gone when "Water" barely cracked the top-twenty at the box office.
With Sidney Lumet directing Gene, Richard Gere, Julie Christie, and Denzel Washington, this political thriller should be remembered. It isn't. Ironically, "Power" has none, and quickly disappeared during the popcorn-movie craze of the mid-to-late '80s. NYT critic Vincent Canby called it "well-meaning but witless and insufferably smug".
The CIA and the KGB collide in Nicholas Meyer's tiresome thriller that the "Star Trek" writer-director himself described as a "catastrophe". An exhausted Hackman tried to back out of the film over an unfinished script, and only stayed to avoid a lawsuit with MGM. The result was a $1.5 million gross on an $18 million budget.
What would Gene Hackman's Hannibal Lecter have looked like? It's a tantalizing question(he briefly held the Thomas Harris rights). His imprisoned KKK killer on Mississippi's death row is as close as we'll ever get to knowing. Too bad Chris O'Donnell's crusading lawyer is his costar. John Grisham hated almost everything about the least successful '90s adaptation of his work("Hackman is the only good thing in it").
Gene is also good in this San Juan-set mystery thriller but is badly-directed by Stephen Hopkins("Predator 2"). His reunion with Morgan Freeman didn't get any traction at the fall box office, and their screenwriters(Tom Provost, W. Peter Iliff) wound up with no Wikipedia page- never a positive sign. Is Hackman a murderer of young women? I'm here to report that you needn't bother finding out.
Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman. Two guys that fit as many movies into their schedules as humanly possible. Keanu's quarterback is looking for love with Brooke Langdon and a comeback on the fictional Washington Sentinels. I'd probably like this more if I was a football fan. For a guy that doesn't give a shit when August rolls around, it feels like a poor man's "Major League".
This is it, the last one. Film fans may always wonder why Gene chose to end his forty-year career in a comedy with Ray Romano, who everybody loved in TV land at this time. It's not that it's really bad, it's just bland and lightweight and unbecoming. It's the answer to a trivia question. The mismatched duo are in a small town mayoral race. Director Donald Petrie peaked early, with "Grumpy Old Men".
Gene appears briefly(minutes, to be exact) in this Brad Pitt-Julia Roberts romcom, in which the superstar pair spend most of the film apart. I vaguely remember a plot about the mob and an antique gun. It isn't very good.
The fourth and final film in the Christopher Reeve-led series isn't respected, but Hackman gives the silly story his all(Nucleur Man?), and there's guilty pleasure to be had for fans of both men, in watching Lex Luthor plot against our hero one last time.
Speaking of guilty pleasures, Sigourney Weaver and Jennifer Love Hewitt(wow) were the stars of this con-artist comedy. The supporting cast includes Ray Liotta and Gene, as an unhealthy widowed tycoon, in a year in which he appeared in four films.
This nihilistic Western gives us nobody to root for. A 24 year old Candice Bergen never looked better as the kidnapped victim of an illiterate Oliver Reed and his gang of ruffian cowboys. Gene is her husband, a violent, rifle-toting rancher hot on their trail. Does she even want to be rescued? Murky morality aside, I DIDN'T have a terrible time watching this on Tubi.
Gregory Peck got top billing for this sci-fi drama, the last big job for director John Sturges("The Great Escape"). Three U.S. astronauts(Hackman, Richard Crenna, James Franciscus) are stranded on an experimental space station with fuel and oxygen shortages. Forever overshadowed by "2001: A Space Odyssey"(and the Apollo 11 Moon landing), the film did win the Best Visual Effects Oscar.
Gene's Lt. Colonel is trapped behind enemy lines, waiting for a rescue from Danny Glover's heroic helicopter pilot in 1972. An unremarkable director(Peter Markle) couldn't make a classic out of this fact-based tale, even with two big-time talents. "Bat" was part of the Vietnam cycle, but failed to impress critics and audiences already satiated on the subject by "Apocalypse Now", "Platoon", and "Full Metal Jacket".
become a cult film
Gene released two military-themed films in '83, and they can both be accurately placed in the good-but-not-great category. "Fire"
Tommy Lee Jones went on to play many Hackman-type roles in the '90s, most notably in "The Fugitive"(his relationship with director Andrew Davis started here). This is one of those 2.5 star movies that my Dad rented at our mom-and-pop video store, and liked well enough, but never thought about again.
The penultimate Gene Hackman movie is mostly a predictable John Grisham legal thriller, led by juror-hero John Cusack, the last in a long line. A three-minute restroom rumble with longtime pal Dustin Hoffman isn't exactly De Niro vs. Pacino in "Heat", but it's a neat meeting of 'New Hollywood' legends that had never shared the screen before. Gene wins the unfriendly face-off. He doesn't give a shit!
Gene lent his gruff voice to the first DreamWorks animated film, that is perhaps best known for the feud it sparked with Pixar's "A Bug's Life".
Costner
Margaret
Patric
worked with Penn more than any other director.
sequel
Pacino
The Kevin Costner-Lawrence Kasdan version of the legendary lawman is better than it's box office and reputation. Forget about "Tombstone" for a few hours and give it a chance on a lazy Sunday. The sprawling three-hour story includes Hackman in it's opening scenes, as Wyatt's hard-ass pop.
blockbuster
Robin Williams
Travolta
Streep
Sean Connery,
best of the disaster cycle
Beatty
can now be considered a passing of the tough-guy torch.
Gene got top billing in the super sequel that was either directed by Richard Donner or Richard Lester, depending on where you stand on that. It's still a blast, even after a million Marvel movies. Luthor's White House meeting(pictured above) with Terence Stamp's iconic General Zod may be the funniest moment in the franchise.
Parker
sports movie
Douglas
kryptonite
Coppola
Beatty
Doyle
.
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