Kurt Russell names the most underrated movies of his career: “I love when people see it”
Kurt Russell became an icon of American cinema in the 1970s and ‘80s with a series of explosive roles. Escape from New York, The Thing, Tombstone, and Big Trouble in Little China all heralded him as the next big movie star, and he’s carried that persona through the decades to a recent career resurgence.
One of the ways Russell differed from other actors of the era was in the roles he took on. He developed a niche playing anti-heroes, particularly Snake Plissken in John Carpenter’s dystopian duo of films Escape from New York and Escape from LA. As Plissken, Russell was both menacing and honourable, a former Green Beret and current hardened criminal who can coolly and competently take out any threat. These films helped forge the actor’s tough guy persona, but unlike fellow action stars such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, he never seemed to take himself too seriously.
In recent years, Russell has returned to top form with similarly menacing yet charismatic roles in films such as Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and S Craig Zahler’s brutal western Bone Tomahawk.
Despite his many career successes, Russell still thinks about the films that, for whatever reason, didn’t find the audience they deserved. Speaking to FilmInk in 2015, the actor revealed which movies he thinks slid unfairly under the radar.
“I’m beginning to have people come up to me, now, and say, ‘I just saw Death Proof; that was great,’” Russell said, referencing his villainous turn in Tarantino’s 2007 slasher film about a stuntman who murders women with cars he’s modified for dangerous stunts.
“[The 1997 thriller] Breakdown was very successful,” he continued. “I can’t say that it wasn’t. It was very successful when it came out, but that’s a movie that I’m really proud of. It’s a really good movie to watch, and it doesn’t get talked about that much anymore.”
Directed and co-written by Jonathan Mostow, the film is a pre-Taken revenge thriller in which a man tracks down his wife’s kidnapper after she is abducted while the couple’s car is broken down on the side of the road during a cross-country road trip. It’s a tense, taut thriller without unnecessary plot contrivances, and it consequently holds up remarkably well decades later.
Russell also referenced the 2005 Disney movie Sky High, which follows a young superhero who attends a high school in the sky for kids with special powers. It’s one of the few superhero features that isn’t based on pre-existing comic book characters, and it tip-toes into parody without becoming an all-out satire. It received mixed reviews upon its release but has since become something of a cult classic, partly due to its cast. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Nicholas Braun would go on to great success in later life, while Cloris Leachman and Lynda Carter (along with Russell) provided some old-school credibility.
“I always thought [Sky High] was hysterical,” Russell concluded. “I love when people see it, and they all say the same thing – that it’s really funny. Now, that movie did well, but it wasn’t a monster hit or anything.”
