Saturday, January 22, 2011

Top 3 Films: Kevin Costner

Happy 56th Kevin!

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
This film based on the English folk hero had a really good cast and a really good story but a terrible soundtrack.

Also starring in this film were Morgan Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (as the maiden Marian), Alan Rickman (as the Sheriff of Nottingham), Chrisitan Slater, Michael Wincott and Sean Connery as King Richard the Lionhearted.

JFK (1991)

I'm a history geek and used to read a lot of stuff about the assassination so this is one of my favorite films.

Directed by Oliver Stone, this film was based on 2 novels. On the Trail of the Assassins and Jim Garrison and Crossfire: The Plot that Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs.

This film had an incredible cast! Costner played Jim Garrison, the New Orleans District Attorney, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman (as Lee Harvey Oswald), Joe Pesci, Kevin Bacon, Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Walter Matthau, Donald Sutherland, Ed Asner, Brian Doyle-Murray (as Jack Ruby), John Candy, Laurie Metcals, Wayne Knight, Michael Rooker and Vincent D'Onofrio. Jim Garrison himself did a cameo in the film as Chief Justice Earl Warren.

Wyatt Earp (1994

Although as a film based on Wyatt Earp I think some of the casting in Tombstone was better (except for Wyatt Earp himself, Kury Russell did not work for me), I liked this movie more and I think it was a little more historically accurate based on the stuff I have read about Wyatt Earp.

Costner stars as Wyatt. It also stars Dennis Quaid as Doc Holliday (Quaid did a good job but I liked Val Kilmer's portrayal in Tombstone better), Gene Hackman as Wyatt's father Nicholas, Mark Harmon, Jeff Fahey, Michael Madsen, Bill Pullman, Tom Sizemore, Adam Baldwin, Jim Caviezel, Tea Leoni and John Doe, among many, many others.

Interestingly enough, Costner was originally supposed to be in the movie Tombstone but did not like the direction that it was taking so he left the project and used his clout to get this one filmed. Wyatt Earp was released 6 months after Tombstone and did not do as well at the box office.

For Love of the Game (1999)

Another one of my favorite films and probably my favorite baseball film, this film was directed by Sam Raimi and is based on a novel of the same name.

Costner stars as Detroit Tigers pitcher Billy Chapel who is playing the last game of his career. 98% of the movie is flashbacks as he is reflecting on his life during the game.

Also starring in the film are John C Reilly as Tigers catcher Gus Sinski, Kelly Preston, J.K. Simmons, and Brian Cox.

Thirteen Days (2000)

Another great historical film, this film is based on the Cuban Missile Crisis and is based on book The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis written by Ernest May and Philip Zeikow. Interestingly enough, Robert Kennedy himself wrote a book called Thirteen Days about the same subject. Strange that a movie with the same name was based on a different book.

Costner starred as Kenny O'Donnell (one of John F Kennedy's top advisers), Bruce Greenwood as JFK, Steven Culp as Robert Kennedy, Dylan Baker as Robert McNamara (Secretary of Defense), Kevin Conway, Tom Everett, among many others.

Source: http://otterlimits.blogspot.com/2011/01/top-3-films-kevin-costner.html

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