Theater Owners Name Sandra Bullock 2009's Top Star

[EricMontreal22]

Exactly. I love musicals but there's no way I'd rank Mama Mia with Sondheim (or even Lloyd Webber LOL) but she elevated the role so much so that you enjoyed her performance and didn't wonder "what's she doing in this??" No one could say the same for DeNiro in exploitation junk like Righteous Kill.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Defending Your Life was a flop, as was She-Devil , which was promoted as a commercial film in 1989. Evil Angels was also a box office failure, though it netted her an Oscar nomination.

She later admitted that she thought she was all wrong for Postcards From The Edge, though it too netted her an Oscar nomination. It was more of a modest hit, I'd say.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I thought she was horrible and miscast in Mamma Mia, though I could tell her heart was in the right place. The film was a lousy adaption on its own merits though.

[JaneAusten]

With DeNiro it's obvious to me it's just the paycheck. It's not like he's done total crap this decade. He did Men of Honor which I really enjoyed. But the last performance he did where I really felt he put his all into it was Wag the Dog and Hoffman's performance great and OTT, got all the attention. He's my favorite actor and it pains me to see some of the choices he's made. But he's also never been a darling of Hollywood or wanted to like Nicholson has been for years.

With Streep she's been labeled as box office poison off and on for years but Death Becomes Her, The River Wild, and of course, The Bridges of Madison County were all box office successes worldwide.

[EricMontreal22]

I dunno, I've seen Mama Mia on stage a couple of times (a good friend was in the chorus of the second touring company) and it's fun, but it's hardly great. A huge reason it's fun is cuz it's live, so I think they realized (since it was the same director who did the stage and film versions) that for a non live medium the only way to get some of that fun and appeal was get big names making fools of themselves And they did that--anyway that said I certainly don't find her miscast at all, the role as written is so vague with so little in the dialogue and even less in the song lyrics to define the woman, that it could be played by almost anyone.

I have no idea why I thought She Devil had John Waters involvement, but I'll grant you it was mainstream. I don't think Cry in the Dark was as much though (was it called Evil Angels overseas?)--to me it always seemed like a prestige picture and on those terms did well. Postcards was no blockbuster I'll grant you but \i think it did better than expected.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I love Streep, but there's something about her performances in recent years that have left me cold. She seems to have developed these annoying tics that follow her from role to role since Prada, or even before then.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

The stage production isn't that great either, I agree. But sometimes, things that work on stage don't work at all on film (I mean, look at Hello Dolly!), I think Mamma Mia falls into a similar category, though audiences liked it.

[JaneAusten]

I adored Mama Mia on stage and the film but no way is it the caliber of a Sondheim or Fosse production. The roles in the musical to me are relatively non descript, I thought everyone was fine. But really there didn't appear to be much acting involved, just a bunch of named actors on screen having a good time. I admire Streep because she's not afraid to do roles where she looks ridiculous or horrible or bad or ugly whatever. I saw her in Mama Mia last year and then Doubt and what an amazing contrast.

I guess for me for a women to be gorgeous at 60 and achieving the biggest box office success at her age is amazing, especially with all the ludicrous stereotypes that come out of Hollywood with women. I wish people would take notice but it won't change the majority of garbage they tend to roll out for women especially. I like she's not afraid to show her age, wrinkles and all and is willing make a complete fool of herself to sell a role or movie.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I was very underwhelmed with Doubt, especially with her performance in that film. It was the epitome of the annoying tics that's penetrated her acting in recent years to me. It was a whole "look at me, I'm acting!" type of performance for me...

[EricMontreal22]

I agree with you there. It seems silly to say you like someone even more because she doesn't feel the need to get tons of plastic surgery--but I do.

Y&RTurner, I actually think, despite the classic movie musicals, adapting a stage musical to the screen is one of the hardest things to do and make work--maybe it's partly the fact that seeing someone sing on screen, ina real location just seems odd and at the least not too impressive--unlike seeing the performers sing/dance live. (Many of the best stage musicals work so well too cuz their so stylized--this can go from fairly serious pieces like Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George to less so like Fosse's Pippin)

[JaneAusten]

See now I felt that way more about Prada and J&J than I did Doubt, Mama Mia, or even the most recent It's Complicated, which I felt were more ensemble efforts. With J&J and Prada, I felt those 2 films did and were intended to showcase her character. And while I enjoyed both films, I've actually enjoyed her performances more in these other 3 than those 2 oddly enough. With Doubt there were so many other great roles and performances, she didn't come across as the attention center of the film like she did with Prada and J&J. But hey we all like what we like.

[EricMontreal22]

My problem with Doubt was I saw the wonderful, and yet very different, Cherry Jones in the role on Broadway. I did like Streep in the role but she didn't do anything to erase my memories (fair enough, why should she?). On the other hand I found Philip Seymour Hoffman oddly cast (again maybe cuz I saw Brían F. O'Byrne do it on stage though in this case, unlike Streep, I didn't understand the casting) and I don't think Shanley should have directed his own material. I prefered the more vague way the play ended.

[JaneAusten]

See I had the benefit(or should I say I didn't get the opportunity to see her wonderful performance) of not seeing Cherry Jones in the stage version, so that didn't impact my perception of Streep's take on the role, but one of my friends who is a huge Streep fan did and felt the same way you do about it. She actually didn't care for Streep's version of the role at all.

[DRW50]

Even Meryl herself has spoken out about some of the leaner periods of her career, and times when she was written off. Besides what Y&RWorldTurner mentioned, Meryl has also complained about her career in the late 90s. For most of the 90s Meryl was seen as past her sell by date and as something of a has been by a lot of Hollywood and the press. That's one of the reasons Meryl has spoken out against Hollywood and its sexism.

[DRW50]

Sandra's career had slumped somewhat over this decade, her films were never big critical favorites but they also started to get less support from the audience. Her comedies weren't as well-received and she did a lot of dramas which didn't get tons of notice (although my mother loves Lake House) or she was just a supporting player in. This year her career went back to heights it hasn't been at in about 10-15 years.