Why does Matt Damon suck now?

Went to a preview screening of the new Matt Damon vehicle Downsizing last night. Came away wondering when the last time Damon was in a good movie. It's been disaster after disaster since The Martian, and that one broke a decent stretch of Damon blah.

Not that Downsizing is a bad movie. It's just not a good movie. With Damon, Alexander Payne, and Christoph Waltz involved, I expected much more. Damon is the weakest link in the movie, which includes a Thai actress who has been in about three things in her life. The movie is a mostly unfunny satire of the economy and environment that thinks it's being very profound. I predict Damon's third box office bomb of the year, after The Great Wall and Suburbicon. His highest ranked movies on Rotten Tomatoes are from years ago, except for The Martian, or he's hardly in or was behind the scenes, like Manchester by the Sea.

Plus he's catching lots of flak for his #NotAllMen press tour. Even Minnie Driver, Damon's costar in Good Will Hunting, denounced his recent comments. No matter what you think of what he's been saying, he's getting lots of blowback.



Plus he's getting a bit tubby. He's looking more like a fat Jesse Plemons than vice versa.

His only future credit on Wikipedia is Ocean's 8. Not really a Damon vehicle. I think he should shut everything down for a few months, do his humanitarian work, then reappear out of nowhere next fall in some Netflix or AMC show. Team up with Ben Affleck, do something Boston-centered, right in the wheelhouse. Or maybe bring Rounders to the small screen. He's only 47, plenty of life and career left. He's got a few years before he turns into Bruce Willis. But Damon needs a redirect before it happens.

 

The Martian was fucking great. That is all.

 

For reasons unrelated to his press tour, I'm not at all surprised Minnie Driver would take the opportunity to criticize Matt Damon publicly.

 

I heard Suburbicon was pretty good.
Didn't make it to the 2-plex here though.

 

5.4 on IMDB, 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, D- on Cinemascore, made $7.5 mil on a $25 mil budget.

Disaster on all levels.

 

Suburbicon reminds me that George Clooney's directorial career has been pretty inconsistent.

Good Night and Good Luck (which he co-wrote) was great. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and The Ides of March were good, too.

But Leatherheads and The Monuments Men were really bad, and apparently Suburbicon is as well.

He did star in Michael Clayton, however, which means he can do all things by me. One of my favourites and his single best performance as an actor. Fuck, he's good in that.

 

I didn't find The Monuments Men "really bad," but it definitely didn't live up to the hype.

 

Sounds like some of Matt's buddies were implicated.
As for his career, he is finding that as a carbon-based being that ages, he can't get away with playing 25-year-old douchebros anymore.
This will be happening soon for Leonardo also.

 

To be fair, he hasn't been trying to play 25-year-old douchebros.

His three movies this year he's played age-appropriate characters. (Not sure about The Wall, though he's definitely not playing a douchebro.) I don't think he's played a douchebro in 20 years.

 

To me he seems like he's playing the same character every time - some smart, urbane guy who is above it all. Is that not who he really is?
I remember the prep school movie he was in back in the '90s, where he for once played the bad kid, the shifty weasel. Before he was a known quantity.
I thought to myself at the time that I have gone to school with guys just like this - the Eddie Haskell type that will hit on your girlfriend and flash his shit-eating grin while doing it. Then kiss the headmaster's ass.

 

When was he good?

 

Seen on Twitter: Matt Damon is the Lena Dunham of men.