Carrey, Cruise, Pitt, Smith, DiCaprio. In the coming days, these A-listers all will be in movie theaters with new projects — and, in some cases, much different roles than what we’re used to seeing. Some will surprise us. Some will delight. Some, undoubtedly, will bomb. Here’s a quick preview of what’s to come from Hollywood’s leading men between now and the end of the year.
Brad Pitt
What he’s done
“Thelma & Louise,” “Se7en,” “Twelve Monkeys,” “Fight Club,” “Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen,” “Babel.” Need we go on?
What he’s done wrong
Potboilers like “The Mexican,” “Troy” and “Spy Game” made what they did because of him; “Babel” and “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” were art films; and the Coen brothers’ “Burn After Reading” might have shown a nervy willingness for Pitt to play against his image, but it did jack for his marketability. And while Angelina Jolie may have taken the tabloid brunt of the whole Bradgelina issue, it’s his albatross too.
What’s new
David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Dec. 25), after a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, about a man who was born old and gets younger as everyone around him ages.
What’s at stake
“Button” is elegant and bittersweet, but it isn’t a blockbuster. And the fewer blockbuster movies you make, the less you are perceived as a blockbuster actor. Pitt may not care — he has his philanthropic causes and his children; his collaborations with Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney and his own Plan B production company have been about making quality movies. But if his clout is going to mean anything to lesser-known filmmakers, or worthy films, he has to remain a movie star.
Jim Carrey
What he’s done
“Ace Ventura,” “The Mask” and “Dumb and Dumber,” which made Jim Carrey the first $20 million-per-picture comedian. While his first pic at that price — “The Cable Guy” — got bad reception, he followed up with “Liar Liar,” “Man on the Moon,” “Me, Myself & Irene,” a change of pace with “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” then back to form with “Bruce Almighty.”
What he’s done wrong
“The Majestic” (what?), “Fun With Dick and Jane” (huh?), “The Number 23” (eh?) and “Lemony Snicket” (isn’t that on the Food Network?). He also has assumed that his brand of desperation comedy would have an unlimited shelf life.
What’s new
“Yes Man” (opening Friday), based on the book by Danny Wallace, in which Carrey’s character challenges himself to say “yes” to everything for a year.
What’s at stake
Carrey reportedly is doing “Yes Man” with no money upfront — it’s all back-end, with a payoff dependent on the movie making at least $70 million. If audiences say no to “Yes Man,” well …
Will Smith
What he’s done
Become the biggest actor in the world, thanks to “Bad Boys,” “Men in Black” (and their respective sequels), “Independence Day” and “Shark Tale.”
What he’s done wrong
Gotten serious. Smith’s box-office potency remains unquestioned — the disastrous “Hancock” still made more than half a billion dollars worldwide. But did anyone really want to see “The Pursuit of Happyness”? And with the weighty “Seven Pounds,” he’s reunited with “Happyness” director Gabriele Muccino. But no one’s been talking about Smith the way they did after “Independence Day” — how brash and fresh and funny he was, and how his movies were a good time and how he straddled all those nettlesome demographic boundaries. What he’s got is the money; what he wants is the Oscar. And he’s going to make leaden movies until he gets one.
What’s new
“Seven Pounds” (opens Friday), “an extraordinary journey of redemption,” which is the kind of description applied to movies that make you wanna go “zzzzzzzzzz.”
What’s at stake
Smith is huge, and when you’re huge, you’re a target. If “Seven Pounds” is a dog — and we have no reason to think it is, except the oh-so-ponderous advertising campaign — then he’ll start to become an object of amusement, which isn’t glamorous.
Tom Cruise
What he’s done
“Risky Business,” “Top Gun,” “The Firm,” “A Few Good Men,” “Jerry Maguire,” “Mission: Impossible I, II and III,” “Magnolia,” Nicole, Katie, while maintaining a place setting at the high end of the Hollywood food chain for 20 years.
What he’s done wrong
Bounced on Oprah’s couch, made himself the middle-age poster child for Scientological weirdness and underdelivered at the box office with “M:I 3” to the extent it allowed petulant Viacom chief Sumner Redstone to cut him loose. He also danced, in “Tropic Thunder.”
What’s new
“Valkyrie” (opening Dec. 25), the story of Claus von Stauffenberg, a much-honored, much-wounded Nazi officer who was at the center of a German plot to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944.
What’s at stake
Cruise’s place at the box office, which teeters on the risky premise of making a Nazi — even a well-intentioned Nazi — sympathetic. “Hitler’s Germany,” Cruise says in the trailer, “has seen its last sunrise.” Yeah, well, the same might be said for Cruise. Love the eye patch.
Leonardo DiCaprio
What he’s done
“What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” indicated that DiCaprio was among the greatest actors alive, and he hasn’t done much to convince anyone otherwise. But few of his films have captured the mainstream imagination in a major way. “Gangs of New York,” “Catch Me If You Can,” “The Aviator” and “The Departed” were all serious — in some cases brilliant — movies, but they weren’t “Titanic.”
What he’s done wrong
“Blood Diamond” and, certainly, the documentary “The 11th Hour” were movies DiCaprio was motivated to do for their sociopolitical content. While he does consistently good, important work — his last, “Body of Lies,” was an overlooked gem, probably because of its Middle East content — he hasn’t become the exhibitor’s best friend.
What’s new
“Revolutionary Road” (Dec. 26), directed by Sam Mendes, about a ’50s couple seeking fulfillment in France. In it, he’s reunited with his “Titanic” co-star, Kate Winslet.
What’s at stake
Like George Clooney with an age advantage, DiCaprio probably is the male star best able to survive box-office dips and acting misfires, because he has a surfeit of talent, natural magnetism and a contagious sense of conviction about whatever he’s doing.
