Another regular feature of this blog will be an assessment of the careers of certain actors and actresses and a determination of their value and worth in the movie business. I'll try my best to make this a fair and complete analysis of the work they've done onscreen and put aside personal feelings and tabloid nonsense. I'm gonna start with John Voight's daughter, the former wild child turned Oscar-winning sex symbol, humanitarian A-list darling and mother of the world Ms. Angelina Jolie. Oh wait, this is gonna be harder than I thought.
After making her film debut in 1995's "Hackers", Jolie was a rising star during the latter part of the decade, earning positive reviews in small releases and made-for-TV movies. Her big break came in the 1999 mental patient drama "Girl Interrupted". Intended as a comeback for fading pixie star Winona Ryder, it instead launched Jolie who stole the film and picked up the Best Supporting Actress Oscar at age 23. She followed that up with 2000's "Gone in 60 Seconds", a decent Nicholas Cage action flick that did well at the box office. With the Hollywood hype machine now firmly behind her, she was then cast as an Indiana Jones style-adventurer in 2001's "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider". This was Jolie's first attempt to become the female action star of the 21st century, something she continues to try to this day(more on that later). Aimed primarily at preteen boys, the nicest thing I can say about this film and it's 2003 sequel is that they don't completely suck. In between "Tomb Raider" outings, she starred in the romantic comedy "Life or Something Like It". She looked great as the platinum blonde reporter who learns she may only have a week to live. The film was lightweight but harmless.
2004 brought a trio of flops. She played an FBI profiler in the cliched thriller "Taking Lives". She wore an eyepatch in the forgotten fantasy "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow". She played Colin Farrell's mother in Oliver Stone's now infamous "Alexander"(she is only one year older than Farrell). It's fair to say that her career may have faded at this point if it wasn't for her next movie. You know I'm talking about 2005's "Mr and Mrs Smith". Jolie and Pitt played husband and wife spies in this summer box office hit. This Pitt guy never really made it big but they had chemistry and I heard they became a real life couple. I don't really pay attention to that stuff, though.
The 2006 drama "The Good Shepherd" was well received but Jolie wasn't given much to do as the wife of Matt Damon's CIA founder. She got rave reviews for 2007's "A Mighty Heart" and appeared half naked(in CGI) for Robert Zemeckis in "Beowulf" that same year. She went back to the well to play another gun-toting bad-ass female(what else?) in the 2008 action thriller "Wanted", an overly stylized, bullshit "Matrix" rip-off. For me, she gave her best performance in Clint Eastwood's period drama "The Changeling". As a 1920s mother desperately searching for her missing son, she earned a Best Actress nomination. She probably should have won but Kate Winslet was overdue. In 2010, she starred in two disappointments. "Salt" casts her as a secret agent who makes Sarah Connor look like Mary Poppins. The action is routine and way over the top and Jolie has simply played this card too many times before. Let's hope she drops this superwoman shit already and that the strongly-hinted-at sequel never materializes. She then teamed up with Johnny Depp in the dull romantic mystery thriller "The Tourist". She struts around like a supermodel on the catwalk, with plenty of vain close-ups and glamour shots. But who needs a plot, character development or suspense when you've got Hollywood's two reigning sex symbols, right? She definitely has talent and usually shines in dramas but she rarely does any real acting anymore and seems obsessed with her image. I don't even know if she cares about making good movies and probably only works to fund her globetrotting adventures with Pitt and the brood. She's only in her mid-30s and will presumably break the infamous age barrier for women in the industry and continue to headline films for another decade or so. I may have to revisit this subject then. The jury is still out on Ms. Jolie.
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