Dwayne Johnson’s latest Christmas comedy might just be a Red One flop as critics are panning it left, right and centre but are we just coming to a time in our cinematic life where we’re fed up with the copy and paste Dwayne Johnson typecast movies?
A stacked cast featuring Chris Evans, J.K Simmons, Kieran Shipka and Lucy Liu is one thing but the film has been constantly marketed as the next big macho Dwayne Johnson movie and maybe we’re just getting a little tired of it as an audience.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Dwayne Johnson movies, I love his wrestling persona, and his work ethic and admire the success he has achieved but over the years we’ve had film after film after film where Dwayne has played the same macho role to some degree and rather than a remake, sequel, requel type of movie we get a copy and paste Dwayne in every single film. It’s this copy-and-paste film role placed in a different scenario and quite frankly it grates.
The same was happening with Kevin Hart as role after role after role he was thrust into the comedy sidekick role and whilst he’s one of the funniest guys on the planet at some point in your career you want to challenge yourself. Kevin mentioned once (jokingly) that he was fed up with his typecast but I always felt there was some truth behind it and that’s why he no doubt took the 2017 movie role inThe Upside where he showed a sensitive side and a completely different scope to his acting range.
At that moment, he wasn’t the funny guy anymore and delivered for me, one of his highlight career performances.
Red One has performed poorly at the box office during its opening weekend and whilst it still may break even it’s another poor Dwayne Johnson fronted film and while my heart goes out to him, my compassion ends the second I realise how much that man is paid and how much he is worth.
Once a surefire way to box office success is now slowly becoming a doubt and a questionable bet.
Dwayne needs to show the world his range, he needs to take on roles that challenge him and step away from some of his rumoured contractual stipulations like he can’t lose any fight, in any film, ever. If that’s true, I’d be surprised, considering his wrestling career where he wouldn’t win every match but maybe now he’s in charge this is not the case but it would be a very silly contract clause.
Long gone are the days when Dwayne seemed to be genuinely having fun on screen as film after film seems to play out like a self-preservation PR stunt to keep up that cool but nice guy image.
I’d love to see Dwayne back to his best but there has to be some sacrifice and compromise on his part to challenge himself as an actor. He has the talent but I just feel like it’s time for a challenge, reach a new range and maybe allow the audience to fall in love with you all over again.
Dwayne is most endearing when he’s not taking himself too seriously and recent roles have turned him into a very one-dimensional typecast.
Bring back The Tooth Fairy Dwayne, Jumanji Dwayne and Central Intelligence Dwayne.
I still love you buddy, you’re my childhood idol but sadly a little spark has been lost along the way and I hope and pray you get back to where you deserve to be.
He’ll never read this, it’s fine!
