He is literally the ham sandwich of actors in the history of hollywood. He has the most monotone voice, slow in his vernacular. All of his roles are almost the same damn stoic bullshit crappy character.
He went out of his comfort zone one time in a 40 year career to make Mr Brooks. Other than that, this dude is the very definiition of mediocrity
You're not wrong.
I still like him, however.
Not everyone can be the greatest.
Completely disagree.
While I won't say that Costner is one of the best actors we have today--he doesn't have the chameleon-like abilities of Gary Oldman, for instance--but he's certainly charismatic and likable and he's made a hell of a lot of good movies.
I loved Costner when I was younger, around the time he made Field of Dreams, Robin Hood and Dance With Wolves. He sort of faded from memory in the 00s but around the mid-2010s you could say I rediscovered him and was reminded of how awesome he is. I'm glad to see that he's having a late-career resurgence.
He had a lot of good movies early on, but the last movie of his that I really liked was Open Range in 2003. Also, you aren't wrong, he does play a very similar character in his movies, but so do a lot of other stars (e.g. Will Smith, Ryan Reynolds)
Have you seen Let Him Go yet? That one was really good!
shareHe's like every other actor out there - playing himself with a few minor modifications.
He does have a good eye for picking the right scripts though - and he was literally the biggest reason why dancing with wolves was made. Mr Brooks is shite - dancing with wolves is his mona lisa - not just in terms of quality, but also in terms of the gigantic role he played in getting that film created/written/directed/etc.
Kevin Costner deserves more respect than 99% of the other actors in hollywood - so you can buzz off.
What a random observation. He has fans and he definitely can act when the camera rolls, hence his ability to stay relevant four decades later. He might not have the range of some of the greats but that doesn't mean he can't act. Not everybody's a method actor.
shareThe masses love mediocrity. Excellence scares most people.
I agree that the guy is a tapioca-and-Wonder Bread sandwich, served with a glass of milk.
I find him watchable sometimes, boring others. I agree he's generally uncharismatic.
shareI’m hardly a fan but I’d have to be fair in saying he has taken some very big chances with films. Waterworld and The Postman to name two which both failed.
Someone wishing to stay in their comfort zone would have switched between Robin Hood and Dances with Wolves sequels.
He does appear to make things he is interested in regardless of likely box office outcome.
(Previously ecarle.)
Kevin Costner made his name -- and earned his stardom -- with an almost unbreakable stiring of hit movies from 1987 through 1993. Then he lost it all. Then he came back.
But that string of movies first:
He'd been around -- and good -- in 1985 in the movies "Silverado" and "Fandango."
But 1987 brought him his starring hits, in the same summer: "No Way Out"(holding up his end of the deal in a hot sex scene with Sean Young) and in the epic "The Untouchables" with superstar Sean Connery befriending him on screen and telling us "this guy is OK by me" even as Robert DeNiro's Al Capone was out to kill him.
Then Costner did two offbeat, back to back baseball movies -- Bull Durham(1988) and Field of Dreams(1989.) The latter proved to be a kind of male tearjerker fantasy that hit big.
There was a misfire in a movie called Revenge, but at least Costner kept up his sex star thing and gave the movie a quality that helped make him a star : he was tempermental and ornery. (Audiences like ornery, rebellious men.)
Then came his epic Oscar winner: Dances With Wolves. Best Picture. Best Director(an award that Hitchcock never won.) And a big head.
But no matter: the hits kept coming. "Robin Hood" -- miscast with an American look and voice - his biggest hit! (And Connery turned up for a cameo at the end.) The same year(1991): controversial prestige with Oliver Stone's JFK -- and an Oscar nomination for acting. (And such an all-star cast orbiting around Costner -- but SOMEBODY has to play the lead.)
1992: Another big hit The Bodyguard with its Number One Theme song and Whitney Houston's biggest star turn. (Costner stayed ornery in it, too: a pretty woman walks up to him and says "I've been waiting all evening to cross this room and meet you," and Costner, angry about Houston for some reason, snarls "Well, why don't you go back across the room and leave me alone?" Or something like that. Again: a key to Costner was his mean edge.
CONT
The "wobble" started in 1993. Co-starring with Clint Eastwood -- and being directed by him -- in the weird and arty "A Perfect World," Costner's prima donna ways enraged Eastwood -- who threated to complete the movie using Costner's double.
Then came "Wyatt Earp" in 1994. Costner was making another "Dances With Wolves" style epic, telling the tale of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holiday...but Tombstone got there first and suddenly Kurt Russell and especially Val Kilmer as Holiday just stole the room right out from under Costner and HIS Doc Holliday, an emaciated Dennis Quaid. (Quaid is great, too - Doc Holliday is a foolproof role, but it is interesting to see how Costner's movie barely uses Holliday -- the star is the star.)
"Wyatt Earp" flopped. The next year, "Waterworld" got crowds but was way too over budget and over schedule to succeed ...and that was laid at Costner's feet. Two years later in 1997, Costner delievered ANOTHER overlong flop("The Postman") and that was it. Hollywood took his major stardom away. He wasn't bankable anymore.
But he worked, well into the 2000's(where he delivered the comeback hit Western "Open Range" with Robert Duvall) and on into the 2010's and then on to a spectacular comeback (on "TV" but not TV with "Yellowstone.")
"Yellowstone" is a classic case of how a star can come back. It was over 20 years in the wilderness for Costner, but his early run of hits and Oscar cred kept his NAME alive. And -- he got better looking as he aged. And when the right vehicle showed up, he ran with it.
And now all of a sudden, Costner is back with a superstar's woes -- a costly public divorce (already divorced once, he said "I would love to get married again, but I don't want to get divorce again...and now it has happened.) A feud with the Yellowstone showrunner and expressed desire to escape the chains of a TV series. And another LONG movie on the horizon called "Horizon."
CONT
To the OP's contention. There WAS something wrong with Kevin Costner in the beginning. His flat, boyish California surfer guy voice; his somewhat featureless blond features (it was noted that Mike Myers "Goldmember" villain looked rather like Costner), his sometimes dull way with a line.
But not really. Producers of the 80's saw two previous stars in Costner's face and build: Steve McQueen and Gary Cooper. They must have been on to something, because he lasted.
And he also knew how to pick great, unique, offbeat scripts -- after the surefire "Untouchables," that is. And did I say he played ornery good(look how ornery he is in Bull Durham versus his goofy co-star Tim Robbins.)
Costner swore he would never make a sequel film. Not to The Untouchables. Not to Robin Hood. (And yet, maybe , he said, to The Bodyguard. With Princess Di, maybe.)
He is 68 as I post this. How will his final act go? All the way to his 90s, ala Clint?