Back in 2000-2004, Mel Gibson was in peak form. Lethal Weapon 4, Payback (great movie), What Women Want, The Patriot, We Were Soldiers, Signs and even a little movie he directed called The Passion of the Christ were all box office hits. Even with the Christ movie controversy, Mel Gibson was a likable guy. He seemed like the kind of guy you would love to have a beer with.
Then his estranged girlfriend recorded a PRIVATE call…
Then, he was intoxicated, arrested and said some anti-Semitic remarks while being hauled off to jail…
Mr. Gibson was no stranger to the tabloids in the past but this time with the internet and TMZ and youtube, his status as a top movie star was in serious trouble. The roles and offers that came to him so easily were now drying up. A lot of actors and execs were turning their backs on him. Even a cameo in The Hangover Part II that was given to Mel was taken away from him because actor Zach Galifianakis was offended by the anti-Semitic remarks said by Gibson, but was totally ok with Mike Tyson, a convicted rapist, being in the movie. The hypocrisy.
Cut to 2010, Mel was slowly starting to come back to starring in films again. Only die hard Mel Gibson fans cared. His box office grosses were not what they once were. Edge of Darkness was met with lukewarm reviews and went on to gross $43 million at the domestic box office, a far cry from the $227 million take of his last starring film, Signs. His next film, directed by Jodie Foster, The Beaver came and went. Seemed like Mel Gibson was done.
After those box office flops, it seemed like Mel Gibson decided to just embrace the darkside and own it. He went on to make Get the Gringo. Gringo was more in line with Payback, where he’s the hero by default. An anti-hero. The movie was met with good reviews but was sent to straight to DVD.
His next role two roles were playing flat-out villains. One was in the goofy Machete Kills and the other was in The Expendables III. Both films weren’t huge hits but to no fault of Gibson. One would say Gibson was the best part of both movies. He followed up those movies with Blood Father, another film that was met with a good response but had a limited run in theaters. Besides Machete Kills, had any of these movies been made in Gibson’s peak, they would all have made over $100 million at the box office.
Gibson is slowly but surely getting back in people’s good graces with the small movies he’s been making. Now hot off of his most recent directorial effort, Hacksaw Ridge is now co-starring in Daddy’s Home 2 with Mark Wahlberg, Will Ferrell and John Lithgow playing Mark Wahlberg’s tough dad. The most recent trailer shows Mel Gibson still sporting those crazy eyes that benefitted him through the Lethal Weapon franchise and didn’t benefit him during the phone call he made to his former girlfriend.
Gibson, by no means, is a perfect person at all. The guy is human. The guy has skeletons in his closet just like everyone else. The only difference is his skeletons are there for everyone to see and maybe having those skeletons on display has made him rethink his life and how he approaches making films. Maybe his role in Daddy’s Home 2 gets him access to bigger movies that he can hopefully approach with the same flair of the smaller movies he’s been making recently.
You can follow us on Twitter @Official_FAN. The opinions stated above belong solely to the author of the piece. And while we agree Blood Father was a solid flick, any @’s of hate you want to throw regarding this article can be sent to @manbat33 where he tweets all kinds of Gibson-like rants when he’s not recording the Talented Slackers Podcast.