The film Robert Downey Jr calls “the worst action movie of all time”
Film purists might say otherwise, but the box office doesn’t lie: Robert Downey Jr is one of the most pivotal action stars of the 21st century. The man behind the Iron Man mask, Downey Jr has changed the face of cinema by being the driving force behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a franchise that has created some of the most popular action flicks of modern filmmaking.
Joining the franchise in 2008, Downey Jr helped to make Marvel into the sensational box office juggernaut that it was, largely thanks to his bulging ego that translated perfectly to his Iron Man character. Soon joining the likes of Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth and Scarlett Johansson in The Avengers, many believe Downey Jr to be the lynchpin of the superhero movie series.
But, Downey Jr existed in the industry long before Iron Man, first emerging in the 1970s as a child star before later collaborating with the likes of John Hughes, Oliver Stone, Richard Attenborough and Robert Altman in the following decades. But, he wouldn’t show potential as an action hero until the turn of the new millennium, appearing in such movies as 1996’s Danger Zone and 1998’s U.S. Marshals.
Yet, the actor’s fondness for the genre wouldn’t come until many years later, being very vocal in his dislike of U.S. Marshals in particular. Hating the role more than being in prison, the film tells the story of a team of Marshals assigned to take down a violent killer and sees Downey Jr collaborate with Tommy Lee Jones and Wesley Snipes.
Speaking about the movie in the book The Fall and Rise of the Comeback Kid by Ben Falk, the actor blasted the movie as “possibly the worst action movie of all time” before adding: “You’ve had a traumatic year, you’ve been practically suicidal — what do you think would be really healing for you? How about like twelve weeks of running around as Johnny Handgun? I think that if you talk to a spirit guide, they would say, ‘That’ll kill you.’…I thought maybe there was something I was missing, and what I really needed to do was to be in one of those films that I love taking my kid to. It would end up being really depressing”.
Making $102million from a budget of $45m, the action flick wasn’t a total waste of time and money, but it would pale in comparison to the critical and commercial success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that kicked off years later.
Take a look at the trailer for U.S. Marshals below.
