91 thoughts on “Kurt Russell Movies”

1. STEVE Thanks for the response to my Kurt Russell posts. I enjoyed the revealing quotes and backchat about the scores. My personal fave Russell performances are in Executive Decision, The Thing, Breakdown, Tombstone, and towering above them all [no pun intended!] Kurt’s Reno Hightower in Best of Times.

   Kurt is obviously a “thinker”. He professes to be a Libertarian [they lean both right and left but I think he would go more to the left or maybe down the middle] and claims that he ignores the mainstream parties in the US because he thinks there is no real difference between them in terms of what he likes to believe in.

   I thought that Kurt’s The Thing was much superior to Hawks’ 1951 version but then again Howard didn’t have the special effects that benefited the Kurt version, though of course neither did Hitch with Mother Bates! Psycho cost a mere $7 million in today’s money to make whereas the budget for Kurt’s Thing was 43 million in 2018 dollars. Hawks’ Thing was produced for $15.5 million in current dollars. By the way we both refer to it as Hawks’ movie but at the time Hawks wan’t credited as director of The Thing in 1951 and the acknowledged director was Christian Nyby

   One of the fascinating things for me about a visual montage that one finds in comprehensive video presentations such as yours is that they often chart the change over the years of stars such as Kurt and Jeff Bridges from handsome young pin-ups to grizzled veterans. A bonus in your presentation are pictures of Kurt as a boy.

   1/“He had such a pretty face in his peak period of stardom that it distracted many from spotting how fine an actor he actually was.” [Robert Preston co star of Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire, Wild Harvest and Whispering Smith]

   2/”Many of the movies of the legendary stars of Hollywood’s golden era have not dated well today, one reason being possibly the black and white processes of the time. An exception is Mr Alan Ladd who was so strikingly handsome in his younger years that he was highly photogenic. This author finds it a pity therefore that some of the old Ladd scenes are ruined by frantic over-the-top efforts by Paramount to make Ladd look much taller than he was. In This Gun for Hire for example we see him at the start rising from a bed and his head hitting the ceiling, which had it been a true reflection of his stature would have made him 7ft tall!” [Film historian ]

   3/”One of the most striking photographs in this week’s exhibition of the work of Sir Cecil Beaton CBE ***of England is of the 23 year-old Marlon Brando in 1947 and in it Sir Cecil captures the beauty of pristine youth that has been lost forever, sort of ‘gone with the wind’ in Hollywood jargon.” [Art critic]

   4/***Have there ever been any Brits who are just plain Mr or Mrs? [ROBERT ROY Cogerson regular viewer]

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2. Kurt Russell has been in a reasonable number of movies that crashed the magical Cogerson $100 million barrier in adjusted domestic grosses, 14 in all. However he was the out and out star in just 6 of those

   Also a reported broad rule of thumb in today’s US film market is that to be regarded as a reasonable hit with audiences a film should ideally gross at least $80 million. 30 of Kurt’s movies fall under that threshold and indeed have an average adjusted domestic gross of just $34.75 million. However in your opening quote Kurt makes the point that many of his movies have become cult films, which must be very satisfying.

   At end of Part One examination of your video my personal satisfaction scores were averaging out at 97 % but there was such a feast of further exceptional goodies that the average rose to 98.5% by the end of Part Two [with several 100% efforts thrown in]

   Best POSTERS entries 1-25 Touchback, 1st one for Overboard, iconic one of Elvis, 2nd one for Deepwater Horizon, both for Death Proof one of which I thought quite raunchy, Bone Tomahawk, Miracle, all 3 for Big Trouble in Little Manchester [my own brother’s fave Russell movie] foreign language one for Escape from New York, 2nd one for The Hateful 8, and the entire marvellous set for The Thing. I also liked Follow me Boys involving Fred and the entire set for Guardians of Galaxy 2

   Great STILLS (1) Kurt with Halle Berry (2) Sky High (3) Stargate (4) Kurt with another of your robotic action heroes Vin D [5] Backdraft with I thought Kurt holding his own in the acting stakes with the great Robert D Ne (6) Big Trouble in Little Manchester (7) Escape from New York (8) Kurt taking on The Thing and (9) both ones for Wyatt Earp and I see that Bruce managed to get into one of them.

   Speaking of whom, he and you agree on just 3 of Kurt’s Top 6 for Review – Tombstone, Guardians of Galaxy 2 and Escape from New York. I agree with your making The Thing No 1 and giving it 81.5%. It was a visually stunning and frightening film and I am disappointed at The Work Horse ranking it just 13th with a 74% rating. Superb stuff from you overall – Vote Up +++.

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3. TRIVIA [Unless you’re the bank manager of one of the millionaires!]

   Kurt Russell’s net worth is said to be 70 million dollars and that of his romantic partner since 1983 Goldie Hawn 60 million so between them Team Russell/Hawn have obviously $130 million.

   In relation to other famous Hollywood couples that figure compares with a combined $330 million as at 2018 for former Team Willis/Moore [$180 mil for Bruce and $150 mil for Demi] and a whopping $700 million as of this year for ex-Team Cruise/Kidman [Tom on $570 mil and Nicole with $130 million in the bank]

   Father and son Hanks have currently an alleged combined fortune of $365 million banked [dad Tom $350 million, son Colin $15 million]

   Best STILLS in entries 45-26 in your video are in my opinion Captain Ron, Poseidon [stunning and frightening image] Graceland, Escape from LA, both for Soldier, raunchy one for Swing Shift, It Happened at the World Fair, Unlawful Entry [ I wonder whatever happened to the lovely Madeline Stowe?] Dreamer, Dark Blue and The Best of times.

   The latter is my fave Russell movie and if you have been following recent exchanges between Bruce and me you will know that I credit it with the inspiration for the magnificent recent surprise sporting success of The Work Horse’s old Alma Mater

   First class STILLS in Part one are in my view (1) Poseidon (2) Escape from LA (3) Kurt & Mel (4) with Goldie in Swing Shift (5) Now You See Him (6) with Elvis – a collector’s item, memorabilia about The King usually selling for a fortune and (7) Tango and Cash. I’m no photographic expert like you but it seems to me the latter one could have been improved by omitting Tango.

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   1. Hello Bob, thanks for reviewing my Kurt Russell video, appreciate the generous rating, box office info, triva and comparison.

      Glad you enjoyed the picture gallery, 21 stills included in this one.

      I was pleasantly surprised at your comments on The Thing, wasn’t expecting that from you. Nice. It’s my favorite John Carpenter film. I was expecting something like “I see you have that awful remake of Howard Hawks The Thing at no.1 instead of Tombstone. tut tut” 😉

      Now all I need is Flora saying she’s a Snake Plissken fan and my day will be complete.

      Kurt Russell only had a small part to play in ‘It Happened at the World’s Fair’ but considering Kurt’s later Elvis connections I had to include it. He even voiced Elvis for scenes in Forrest Gump featuring young Gump interacting with young Elvis.

      Kurt, like Dennis Quaid and Jeff Bridges, has segued into supporting roles in old age. Richard Gere still dreams of being top billed though, eventually he too will have no choice but to accept ‘grizzled old coot’ roles and forget his cherished ‘sexy leading man’ status.

      Kurt and Goldie Hawn have been a couple since 1983, they have no plans to marry, when asked why he replied “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

      There are no 10 or 9 scores from my sources in Kurt’s filmography but there are 19 films scoring 8 out 10 including The Thing, Tombstone and The Hateful Eight.

      Tops at IMDB is The Thing, scoring 8.1. Numero uno at Rotten Tomatoes is Guardians of the Galaxy vol.2 which scored 8.4.

      Tombstone, Guardians and Grindhouse tops Bruce’s critics chart.

      ‘Grindhouse’ includes two films – Death Proof which starred Kurt and was directed by Quentin Tarantino and the other film is Planet Terror which guest stars Bruce Willis and was directed by Robert Rodriguez. I keep those two films separate on my files.

      “To go on about acting as art is ridiculous. If it is an art, then it’s a very low form. You don’t have to be gifted just to hit a mark and say a line. And as far as I’m concerned, hitting my marks and knowing my lines is 90% of the job. I’m always criticized for talking like that. I was acting by the time I was nine so it seemed like a natural thing to do. Anyone who finds acting difficult just shouldn’t be doing it.”

      “I have a secret admiration for insurance salesmen, doormen, taxi drivers, guys working on the Alaska pipeline…many hundreds of jobs where they work. There’s lots of jobs now in the world where we don’t work, we push a button. I don’t work. I’ve never worked. I take great pride in the fact that I played baseball, I drove race cars, I drove racing boats, I flew airplanes and I acted. None of those things are work. Doing what you want to do, that’s not work.”

      “Somebody once said to me ‘I look at your career and it looks like it was controlled by a drunk driver.’ And I said that’s true. I can’t deny it.”

      “If it hadn’t been for video cassette, I may not have had a career at all.”

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4. My IDOL !!!

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5. My honey. All good movies. My heart ❤️ prefers the funny ones.

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