59 thoughts on “Michael Douglas Movies”

1. Happy 75th birthday to Michael Douglas!

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2. I saw Behind the Candelabra in our local Art House theatre which is called The Queen’s Film Theatre [maybe an ironic place to show that particular film!]. The Queen’s plays movies that don’t get a mainstream release because (1) their subject matter is too racy or controversial [eg political] in other respects for widespread release and/or (2) they are not commercial but are unusual productions with perceived fine artistic content.

   Brando’s 1969 Burn [aka Queimada] is another example of a film which was shown at The Queens and indeed given a re-release when Godpop was going the rounds. It seems that they chose well because you give it an excellent 76% rating, IMDB dishes out a 73%, and Marlon himself is said to have considered it his fave among all his own films. Not unnaturally I thoroughly enjoyed it though maybe it’s a bit presumptuous of me to include my own opinion along with that of such lofty company!

   Douglas and Damon were terrific in Behind the Candelabra. Musical enthusiasts over here always talked about Liberace [or Lee as he liked to be called] as a MUSICIAN. However he made just one feature film in which he had the lead role – 1955’s Sincerely Yours [a remake of George Arliss/|Bette Davis’ 1932 The Man Who Played God]. He played cameos and/or guests star or supporting parts in several other movies but I saw [on a 1955 theatrical re-run] only one of that entire lo t, a 1950 adventure yarn called East of Java [aka South Sea Sinner] with Macdonald Carey and Shelley Winters in which Lee was billed 14th. I did see Sincerely Yours though.

   When he appeared on screen playing the piano in East of Java [a remake of the Duke and Dietrich’s 1940 Seven Sinners] the audience roared with laughter and at only 14 years of age I couldn’t understand why but later was able to work out that it was because of the strong prejudice that existed against one’s actual or suspected gay fellow-citizens at that time.

   Anyway does seeing Lee in his own only full-length role qualify me at last for membership of that exclusive club which includes stalwarts of this site such as Lensman, Breen Robison and Cogerson who have on many occasions seen ALL of a performer’s main movies?

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3. If the gossip columns are to be trusted there are many celebs in all fields of entertainment and even sports who are no strangers to involvement with drugs. However Michael Douglas is the only movie star whom I personally have heard publicly admit that he uses the drug Sildenafil to help cope with the ageing process [so that’s how Arnie dug the Suez Canal with his own bare hands!]. Mike quipped in the interview that “The mind still works the way it used to and wants all the same things so the body has to be given a chance to keep pace!”

   Anyway in my opinion Mike is not only one of the greatest and most entertaining stars of the modern cinema but also one of the most relaxing to watch – a true chip off the old block. 17 of Douglas Junior’s movies have crashed the Cogerson magical domestic $100 million barrier in adjusted dollars and the overall adjusted gross of those 17 is approx. $3.7 billion, or a whopping average of about $220 per movie.

   Bruce’s tables show as well that Mike’s Top 15 global hits collectively grossed $8.37 billion worldwide in 2019 money, a stunning average of just under $560 million per movie. Michael has a reported personal net worth of $300 million, making him one of the richest movie stars ever according to Celebrity Net Worth site. IMDB credits him with 52 acting awards and 42 nominations.

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   1. When I watched Mike Douglas in his early days as the joint star along with Karl Malden of the Street of San Francisco on TV I never thought he would make a successful mega star on the big screen, especially as initially he was under the shadow of his famous legendary dad. However as Bruce knows when I’m wrong I, unlike some others on this site, SAY I’m wrong and ultimately Kirk was proud to quip “These days I’m known as Michael Douglas’ father!”

      Best POSTERS for me in Mike’s video: 1/And so it Goes 2/Beyond a Reasonable Doubt 3/One Night at McCool’s 4/Wall Street- Money Never Sleeps 5/The Star Chamber 6/2 foreign language ones for Unlocked 7/raunchy one for A Chorus Line 8/Jewel of the Nile

      9/A Perfect Murder 10/King of California 11/two for Disclosure 12/1st one for Black Rain 13/1st one for Coma 14/the complete sets of posters/stills for Ant Man films 15/ Behind the Candelabra 16/Fatal Attraction 17/The Game 18/The American President 19/foreign language one for China Syndrome 20/Romancing the Stone 21/1st one for Traffic.

      My personal pick of the other best STILLS 1/Father and Son 2/two with Kiefer 3/Shining Through [lobby card?] 4/Jewel of the Nile 5/with Susan Sarandon 6/Las Vegas quartet 7/A Perfect Murder – a remake of Hitch’s Dial M for Murder 8/Ghost and the Darkness 9/Gimme More! 10/Black Rain 11/War of the Roses 12/raunchy one for Basic Instinct 13/Falling Down 14/with Glenn Close 15/Wall Street.

      Excellent video worth a 98% rating to me. You and WH agree on 4 of Mike’s Top 6 best reviewed flicks but my own fave 5 Mike Douglas films are: Behind the Candelabra/A Perfect Murder/Don’t Say a Word/The American President [my top fave]/Running. The latter is not included in your video but WH lists it with a less-than-good 57% review rating [he WOULD, wouldn’t he?]

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      1. Hey Bob…enjoyed reading your two part comment on Mr. Michael Douglas. I bet Behind the Candelabra would have ranked high on our table if it had been a movie released in theaters. Good information on your comments.

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      2. Hi Bob, thanks for the review, generous rating, info and trivia, always appreciated.

         Happy you liked the posters, stills and lobby card.

         Yep that was a rare modern lobby card for Shining Through, they were getting scarce by that time. There may be countries still doing the old style lobby cards.

         Sorry I left out Running, it wasn’t a high scorer and some films had to get the boot. Bruce is more of a completist so you were bound to find your favorite here.

         Funnily enough there are films included in my recent videos that aren’t on any of Bruce’s charts [cue gasps] they are direct-to-video (and a few direct-to-cable) movies. The posters for these films are usually quite striking and I can’t resist including them in my videos. I never turn down a good poster design. 🙂

         One film scored 10 out of 10 from my sources – The China Syndrome, there is a 9 – Traffic, and six films scoring 8 out of 10 including Wall Street, Romancing the Stone and The American President.

         Traffic tops IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes charts. I haven’t watched that film in ages, nominated for Best Picture Oscar in 2000, lost to Gladiator. It did win Best Director – Steven Soderbergh – director of one of your Douglas favorites – Behind the Candelabra.

         Michael on watching movies – “I’m not a big filmophile. I don’t watch movies a lot for a hobby. I spend all my time watching sporting events. Because, opposed to movies, you can never tell how they’re going to end.”

         Michael on wife Catherine Zeta-Jones – “She is not only beautiful but also very deep and we understand each other extremely well. I love her above all. Catherine is the woman of my life. A dream.”

         Michael on his father Kirk Douglas – “His career was constant, overwhelming. The guy didn’t stop. Back then, they were doing five movies a year. My father did 90-plus films. He was Spartacus! I always admired his tenacity and stamina but he was intimidating to me as a child. Like a lot of actors, he was consumed with ambition and his career. He was also consumed with guilt because of the time he spent away from the family. It took him a long time to come to terms with it. But we get on very well now.”

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         1. Thanks for the usual comprehensive and attentive feedback. Mike’s is one career that is always a pleasure to write about as it has reasonable diversity in it and he’s a wonderful actor

            Conversely I always find posts about, and summaries of, Stallone’s career very difficult to write up because all the numerical-style titles like Rocky 3, First Blood Part 2, Rambo 3, Expendables 2, Spy Kids 3 etc can make it very confusing to grapple with so many divergent numbers for very similar films/groups of films.

            Here’s a copy of an extract from a post that I wrote in July 2017. It may need to be updated slightly but you’ll get the picture about his lack of versatility as any additions would bring nothing new in terms of versatility to the table. The summary also strongly indicates that away from the franchises Stallone has been generally OVER 33 non-franchise films hopeless at opening a film – a sort of male Jennifer Lawrence.

            “BRUCE: I’ve mentioned before that a film journalist opined that Sly’s career which the journalist said was largely defined by several franchises might be the template for future stardom in that performers who don’t get into successful franchises may not achieve stardom. Certainly if you exclude from Stallone’s overall adjusted domestic Cogerson gross of $4.9 billion the figures for the Rocky, Rambo, Expendables, Guardians of the Galaxy and Spy Kids 3D franchises you are left with just a total adjusted domestic figure of approx. $1.76 billion and an average of less than $54 million for the 33 non-franchise films.”

            With Sly’s filmography, one always has to keep checking and rechecking to be sure one is referring to the precise film in the numbers game that I mention in my 2nd para here so I am glad I don’t seem to have made a mess of things in my response to your Sly video.

            Anyway perhaps we should leave the final word on Douglas Senior v Douglas Junior to The Wasp, who wrote this review back in 1983: “Michael Douglas lacks his father’s brute power on the screen, but he has his own brand of amiable charm. The intelligence that made him capable of producing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, the winner of five major Oscars, can be felt in his performances.” I should add that perhaps there has never been a critic more suited to writing about THAT particular film! Nice that Mike and Kirk get on well – I wouldn’t have it any other way!

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4. Just added Steve’s Michael Douglas You Tube Video To This Page…Our Comments found on his channel.

   “Surprised you included so many of his movies…as he does not have that many more movies. I have seen 37 of the 40 moves listed here. Favorites include: #34 One Night At McCools…funny movie..at least to me. #24 Jewel of the Nile…I actually like the sequel more than the original. #14 War of the Roses….dark dark movie….but funny. #11 Falling Down….surprising movie that twists and turns in unexpected directions. Both Ant-Man movies as I like the Rudd/Douglas interactions. #6 The American President…which is one of WoC’s favorites. Douglas has done an excellent job of following in his dad’s footprints…plus he has an Oscar for producing One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Voted up and shared.”

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   1. Hi Bruce, 37 out of 40 watched is impressive, I’ve seen 27, Flora – 10.

      If I had included One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest it would probably be at no.1. I’ll stick to directing and acting credits for these videos otherwise it would get messy seeing some unlikely films popping up in these lists. For example did you know Brad Pitt was one of the producers of Kick-Ass? Imagine the confusion if that popped up in my upcoming Brad Pitt video. ;:)

      Thanks for the comment, vote and share, much appreciated.

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      1. Hey Steve….I agree….it could get confusing including producer credits…..still…when an actor wins an Oscar for producing a movie….that might merit an inclusion…..speaking of Brad Pitt..he won an Oscar for producing 12 Years A Slave. But generally….I avoid producing credits altogether too. Glad to share your video. I see that Michael Douglas is trending on Yahoo…so you picked a good time to put out that video. Good stuff.

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5. Hello Bruce, there’s a problem with your worldwide adjusted gross for “Romancing the Stone” ; it should be higher because as i say it before ( it will take me a few months…) i’m preparing a list of movies with admissions in Europe that aren’t counted on Box Office MOjo ; the problem is that for this particular movie, the admissions in Europe are higher than the foreign gross (after conversion of admissions into gross of course) published by BOM ; you should use the foreign gross published by “The Numbers” for this movie , they give 40 000 000 $ in foreign earning (vs 10 000 000 for BOM) it matches better with the admissions i’ve collected on various european box office websites, believe me…

   Thanks !!

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   1. Hey Max…..not sure when we switched it….but we have the $40 million as overseas box office…that would be about $106 million in adjusted gross….thanks for the headsup on that…it is greatly appreciated.

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