) These are films in which Butler's input is secondary. Since the success of 300, only two of Butler's films have taken more than $100 m at the box in the United States, and once again, they are the animated How to Train Your Dragon and its sequel (the third film will doubtless add to this tally with its release in the US next week. Of the eight fresh films, three are How to Train Your Dragon and its sequels – hardly what you would call Butler vehicles, as he merely provides the voice for an animated dragon.Īnd it is not just the critics who think so. His big-budget attempt to recapture 300's historical epic action success Gods of Egypt, and the equally heavily budgeted bomb Geostorm are among the lows, with a 13 and 15 per cent rating respectively. Even when he sticks to action roles, they are rarely in well-received movies.Īside from 300, of the 42 films Butler stars in that are currently rated on Rotten Tomatoes, just eight are certified "fresh". Butler is not an "Oscars actor " and definitely not a romantic lead.Ī further perennial problem for Butler is that he simply does n ot pick very good films, or perhaps he simply does n ot get offered very good films. A scan through his award wins, however, reveals a healthy haul, but of populist awards such as MTV and Teen Choice prizes, along side a couple of Golden Raspberries. In fairness, in The Vanishing he displays a reasonable range of emotions, albeit while playing a burly Scotsman and engaging in a few fight scenes. Some of his recent self-produced films, such as A Family Man, seem to have been a (not entirely successful) vanity project effort to disprove the "lack of range" theory. There is no doubt that it is possible to be a naturally talented actor, but training helps, too, especially for those roles with accents or nuances that do n ot come easily to you.īutler plays a lighthouse-keeper in the indie film. Courtesy Graeme Hunter Pictures The actor came to the profession late, aged 27, having previously trained as a lawyer. PS I Love You (2007), The Ugly Truth (2009) and The Bounty Hunter (2010) were all roundly slammed, with many critics questioning Butler's casting and suggesting that he stick to the action.īutler's lack of range is no secret, perhaps in part due to his lack of training. Having established himself as a muscle-bound action hero – the " 300 workout " was one of the most Googled phrases of 2007 – the actor seemingly decided on a change of direction, taking on a series of romantic lead roles in critically panned rom-coms over the next few years. Butler shows he has more acting ability than we may usually give him credit for as keeper James, but is a $5 million (Dh18.4m) budget Scottish indie really where we expected to find "Hollywood's next big thing" 12 years after his record-breaking breakthrough?īutler may have partly been the instrument of his own demise here. Three lighthouse-keepers live together in an isolated Scottish lighthouse, but when a mysterious body washes up alongside a chest full of apparently unclaimed gold, our heroes' sanity is tested to the limit by the events that unfold. Once things do happen, however, it is a tense psychodrama in the vein of Shallow Grave. It takes a little while to get going, and Kr istoffer Nyholm's efforts to convey a sense of brooding isolation on a remote Scottish island can seem to convey more of a sense of waiting for something to happen in the film's opening act. In and of itself, it is a perfectly decent movie. It didn't quite work out like that, however, which brings us to The Vanishing.
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