Nicolas Cage has derailed his career too. His last great film role was in “Adaptation.”
Hello Colin! I am not the biggest McGregor expert, but he did Shakespeare on stage in London last year was in that good film with Michelle Williams and is cruising round the world in a motorcycle. He gave a lovely Masterclass talk to a group young and hopeful actors directors and writers about his life around 6 months ago which I attended and thorouhghly enjoyed. His point was that he considered his life to have been blessed and extremely lucky, I don´t think he is a case of Sienna Miller….
Although the movie with Zellweger 60s stuff Rock Hudsonesque that was bad :-)
Yes, I totally agree about Nicolas Cage and Adaptation. I bought the DVD and I can’t imagine how I’d ever consider buying another film he’ll appear in.
I think he just hit a lull. He has a good slate this year as he’ll be in 4 major films. He’s got A&D, I Love You Phillip Morris, Men Who Stare At Goats and Amelia. I don’t think it’s for his lack of trying to be truthful. He’s been working with big time directors like Woody Allen, Marc Forster and Michael Bay. He happened to be in one of Allen’s most poorly received movies ever and unpopular movies by popular directors.
Good point, Michael. Maybe this will be the year to turn things around. Like he cares about my criticism :-)
Although I should add, Michael Bay… Hmmm…
I don’t blame him for doing The Island(McGregor). It had a cool concept and doing a movie with Bay can make you a bigger name and allow for more freedom. It just so happened to backfire on him. Like I said, he did some of the most unpopular movies in a few directors’ careers in Allen, Bay, and Forster.
…in defense of Nicolas Cage (which is weird, because not too long ago i used to really dislike him) he was in The Weather Man, a pretty damned good movie that got very little love and is looked over far too often. it was smart, clever, and he was great in it. it wasn’t happy or overly cynical, or the same-ole Mid-life crisis, American Beauty-bullshit.
McGregor, on the other hand, well…can’t defend the Star Wars prequals, can i?
i actually liked McGregor and his the film he did with Forster, “Stay.” I’ve watched it a couple times and it’s a film that grows on you
I like cage. But i never know what to make of his work. Valley Girl beck in the day was THE film for me and pals. I liked Matchstickmen and Knowing. But as i like them i wonder what happened the guy who i really dug.
Never really liked McGregor as an actor. He’s to.. human. Not a good quality for someone who… Anyways, he did a pretty decent job with Long Way Round and Long Way Down.
edit: In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, LWR / LWD is a 2 part BBC doc about McGregor and his friend Charlie Boorman, traveling all over the world from UK to NY – the long way round and from Scotland to South Africa. If you love bikes and traveling, do try it!
He should fish his penis out of Loch Ness and share more screen time with it.
I’ve never found him to be that great of an actor. I mean, he’s obviously talented, but there’s something about him that I just find unconvincing. For me, he’s never really had a great role, though his character in Shallow Grave defines him perfectly for me; a guy who acts real cool but when it gets dirty he’s just a sniveling wuss. Ok maybe I’m biased…
Don’t think he is a good actor; like another guy with sparse talent, Jude Law, he just got lucky.
Colin Houlson
Having just read that Ewan McGregor is appearing in the sequel to The Da Vinci Code, it got me wondering what’s happening with him. Is his the most derailed movie career around at the moment? I can’t think of the last valid piece of work he did. He’s a decent actor and he’s certainly made some brave and interesting choices in the past, plus I can’t imagine he’s short of good job offers, so what’s the problem?