22 thoughts on “Mickey Rourke Movies”

1. I wonder if it would be a different story if Mickey had made some of the movies that item 3 of your Interesting Facts reveals he turned down. Maybe not – because he had a behaviour problem and could well have ended up another Russell Crowe but without Russell’s survival skills however Crowe managed those.

   Interesting that Mickey turned down Pulp Fiction as I always saw him as another -albeit nowhere nearly as successful – Mr Gimme More. However could this site have withstood the impact of two successful Mr Mores? For one thing there might have been no grosses left in the tills of films like Split to credit to the stars who actually appeared in such movies!!

   It is interesting too that among Mickey’s fave films are Godpop and On the Waterfront. That’s the 2nd time recently that your Possibly Interesting Facts have revealed professional actors who have chosen Brando films as their personal favourites. If you keep that trend up you will succeed in conclusively outing Joel as the ‘odd man out’ – Hirsch will have nowhere to hide any longer!

   NB: Maybe the Cogerson site is now ‘setting fashion’ because On the Waterfront is getting a re-run on our Sony Movies Classics channel tomorrow afternoon. Here’s what my television guide has to say about it “The film is famed for its authenticity and a naturalistic performance from Marlon Brando.”

   Anyway whilst the great promise that Mickey once held has regretfully not come to fruition at least in terms of top stardom he nevertheless remains for me a fascinating character so I welcome this new page with a “Vote Up!”

   PS: Thanks for your further comments about the site’s current financial predicament. I am pleased to see that you continue to adopt a positive attitude.

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   1. Hey Bob….I also noticed that On The Waterfront was getting mentioned again in the trivia….I think that Brando guy might have been well liked…though that is not how I was brought up under the Joel umbrella…lol. I liked Rourke a lot when he came up…Body Heat, Diner, Angel Heart….all ones I like. I actually started a fiction book….and his comments to William Hurt in Body Heat where how the book started. Rourke is telling Hurt “….there is no perfect crime….. a genius can think of 100 ways a perfect crime can go wrong….and you my friend, are no genius”. Somewhere in my boxes of crap is about 100 pages of that unfinished book. Good stuff as always.

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      1. BRUCE: Thanks for the feedback on both parts of my Rourke post.

         A large element of Mickey’s failure to sustain stardom may have had something to do with his being perceived as one of Hollywood’s “bad boys” like Russell Crowe and Johnny Depp. The one distinction between him and them could well be that HE annoyed people who had power of one kind or another whereas Depp self-harmed in a fit of temper and Crowe tended to upset “little people”.

         For example Russell allegedly threw a telephone at a hotel receptionist ; apparently got into a racial spat with a female coloured singer who would have had no special clout; and as I told you before was financially sued for physically attacking a ‘man in the street’ acquaintance of a friend of my brother in Australia.

         Mickey therefore seems to me to be a more eccentric version of James Caan who claims that his bid for super stardom was harmed by his upsetting people in Hollywood who “counted”.

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      2. Brando tended to draw criticism from Hollywood’s Old Guard in particular and it has been suggested that there was broadly a twofold reason for that-

         (1) he was perceived as moving American acting away from the traditional style that was the Old Guard’s bread and butter and naturally such a situation will always create resentment. Tracy seemed to detest most people but was especially openly critical of Brando whose IQ Spence even dismissed as low. It was thought Brando attracted Tracy’s ire because Marlon was a perceived threat to Tracy’s status as THE American Actor.

         (2) politically Brando was a perceived “leftie” and the Hollywood that Brando encountered when he came on the scene in the early 1950s was largely politically conservative and The Senator from Wisconsin was of course in full cry. To the likes of Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea for example Brando and the ‘method’ boys would have been like say Barack Obama would be to a redneck or the Donald would be to a liberal. “I have never seen a Brando film and I don’t intend to.” said Republican James [Yankee Doodle Dandy] Cagney.
         The Duke on the political “right” also draws ire from certain moviegoers because of his perceived “hawkish” political ideology.

         It’s a pity that many people whether movie stars or members of the general public cannot take a leaf from this site’s book and keep their political convictions separate from the movies and often seem to allow off-screen politics to prejudice them against a thespian’s artistic qualities and entertainment value. I am a huge fan of Brando AND The Duke and obviously cannot share the politics of them BOTH – but that doesn’t bother me one little bit. For me to refuse to watch one or the other because of their political convictions which when all is said and done have got nothing to do with me is a bit like as the saying goes “cutting off your nose to spite your face” as I am entertainedby both of them.

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2. HI BRUCE: I’ve had the pleasure of copying to Mickey’s new page the exchanges between you and Steve and me on Steve’s U Tube page. An exercise like that gives us “Lockdown” Boys something to do!!

   I was pleased to see your Mickey page appearing as a complement to Steve’s video as I wanted to know how Rourke’s adjusted grosses stacked up. The numerous films that you’ve listed that didn’t even reach $1 million apiece in adjusted US grosses bears witness to how difficult it is to get box office stats for many of Mickey’s flicks. I counted 25 of his movies in your tables that didn’t make that $1 million cut which was almost half his total haul in the tables – so well done.

   As it is box office stats table above shows that (1) he was not THE star in any of his 5 movies that crashed the magical $100 million barrier (2) once you get beyond his 9th highest grosser in the table [Body Heat with just a respectable figure of $79 million] Mickey’s overall box office performance becomes very abysmal (3) his 47 other films outside the top 9 have a combined US adjusted gross of just $470 million – a paltry average of around $10 million per movie.

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   1. Hey Bob…thanks for transferring these comments over…your efforts are greatly appreciated. Wow half of his movies with less than 1 million in box office that is not too impressive. I think many of those movies have the lowest possible total in box office that will register in our database. That number is $51,000. Some of the Rourke movies have ridiculously low grosses like $2,832 and $16,333. So I had to move them to $51,000 or the database would refuse to include the movie in the total. Thanks for the breakdown of his bottom 47 movies…..I guess that is why almost all of his movies today are ones people have never heard. Look at his yearly table…of the Rourke movies of the 2010s….I had only heard of 4 of them. Sin City 2 was horrible. Ashby was actually not too bad. I Love Berlin has a very weird Rourke story. Good stuff.

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3. Cogerson
   April 11, 2020 at 12:25 pm

   Hey Steve. The next time I want to 1941 I will be on the lookout for him. Thanks for the information. I am sure your video will motivate me to knock out a page on Mickey Rourke soon.

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4. Steve Lensman
   April 11, 2020 at 7:51 am

   Hi Bruce, your tally 27 out of 35, mine 22. Year of the Dragon is one of my favorites too. Top rated films I haven’t seen include The Pledge, Diner and Barfly.

   If I remember Rourke actually gets his own roll call credit at the end of 1941, funny considering it was such a small part, but he can be spotted in several scenes. Thanks for the comment, vote and share, much appreciated.

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5. Cogerson
   April 10, 2020 at 12:14 pm

   Added Steve’s Mickey Rourke You Tube Video To The Page….Our Thoughts On The Video and Rourke.

   “Along with Renée Zellweger, might be the movie star whose looks have changed the most over the years. Nice new page. I like the music at the beginning…good find. I have seen a lot of his movies. I total of 27 of the 35 movies listed here. That would be a 77% rate. Favorties would include #23 Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man – guilty pleasure. #17 Ashby…a movie many have probably not even heard of before. #13 The Year of the Dragon….as a 21 year old back in 1988…this is listed as a 4 star movie…and listed among my favorite movies ever…..it does not rate as high 2020. #10 Angel Heart…saw in theaters…loved it then and now. #4 Sin City….great ground breaking movie…avoid the sequel #3 Diner….the movie that I first noticed Mickey Rourke. #2 Body Heat….his speech about people getting caught is something I think about often. Other thoughts. He is very good in The Wrestler…but it is not a favorite. Domino is one of the only movies I started but did not finish…did not like that one at all. 1941…seen it many times…can not remember his part…he must have been one of the GIs. Voted up and shared.”
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