Mickey Rourke; great to see him back?

O.K., so it doesn't look like him, especially for those of us old enough to remember him in the 80's, but the talent is still there. My first memory of Mickey Rourke(M.R. from now on) was in Francis Ford Coppola's " Rumble Fish ". I love this movie, and it had black and white film with colour decades before Sin City. My early memories of M.R. were all good; " Diner " by Barry Levinson, " Pope of Greenwich Village ", " 9 and a half weeks ", "Angel Heart ", and " White Sands ".
Unfortunately the 90's weren't so good, and let's be honest, if I never see any of these movies again it would be too soon; " Johnny Handsome ", " Wild Orchid ", " Harley Davidson...", and " Double Team "-especially this one, who would ever want to be in afilm with J.C. Van Damme and Dennis Rodman????
But then came the Ressurection of M.R.,with fine performances in the following; " The Animal Factory ", " Once Upon a Time in Mexico ", " Man on Fire ",and the excellent " Sin City ".

So, what does everyone think, what are his best roles/movies, what are his worst roles/movies? IMO I think it's great to see him back, after " Sin City " I can see him go from strength to strength.

Hit me with your opinions people, I can handle the truth!!!!

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Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour?

I've always been a fan of Mickey Rourke's. That's kind of a tough thing to still say today, considering the has-been burnt-out shell of an actor that's left (at least pre-SIN CITY), but overall, yeah - I'm still a fan of his. His early work is quite good, some of it flat-out great.

Here are what I think are the best Mickey Rourke performances...

1. Barfly (1987)
2. Angel Heart (1987)
3. SIN CITY (2005)
4. The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)
5. Johnny Handsome (1989)
6. Diner (1982)
7. Year of the Dragon (1985)
8. Homeboy (1988)

He was also a scene-stealer in Body Heat (1981) and Rumble Fish (1983), and better than the silly if sweaty material in 91/2 Weeks (1986). His career was going great until he chose to do Francesco (1989), where his portrayal of St. Francis of Assisi joins Duck Wayne's turn as Genghis Khan (in The Conqueror) as one of the biggest casting mistakes in the history of cinema. It was about that time that he got involved in a disastrous relationship full of all sorts of abuse and drug allegations with model Carre Otis, AND he thought he'd try professional boxing for a while. Yowza. Ever since then, his face puffed-up, his body went to ***** (though he still remains buff - but he looks like Hell warmed over), whatever looks he had were flushed down the toilet, and his performances became entirely one-note, usually in awful straight-to-video movies. There have been a few exceptions, such as the sympathetic loser he payed in the disappointing Once Upon A Time in Mexico (2003), the double-dealing agent in White Sands (1992), the mobbed-up scuzzy lawyer in The Rainmaker (1997), and the bookie in Buffalo '66 (1998). He has a niche role to fill now, and when the material is right he's fine. When it's not, like the horrid Get Carter re-make with Sly Stallone or playing the heavy to Jean-Claude Van Damme & Dennis Rodman in Double Take, it's just sad. But Barfly was true Oscar-calibur work. He had so much potential, and he completely pissed it all away in less than ten years after hitting it big. An old story, but sad just the same. Idiot.


But he so frippin' is Marv, and SIN CITY was a wonderful glimpse of what Mickey used to be. It's almost as if all the crap he did to himself and others in the past fifteen years or so was all prep work so he'd be a perfect Marv. But I do agree with David Letterman that Rourke should walk around in those prosthetics full-time now, on and off the set, no matter the role: he should just totally BECOME Marv. We'll have to see what he does with some of the SIN CITY heat, if he can translate it into any other great parts or if this was a one-time shot at glory and soon he'll be back to inflated cameos in Stallone flicks.

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funny at work we were talking about mickey rourke and the pope of greenwich village...

i thought marv was one of his best roles in a good long time....

I've always liked Rourke, Holden's list pretty much mirrors my own. He's also responsible for one of the most hilarious Irish accents I've ever heard in A Prayer For The Dying.

Awful, shiny facelift thesedays too, probably the result of using his face as a punchbag for a selection of journeyman Light Heavyweights in the early '90s...

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The truth is I think you should give Johnny Handsome (1989) another chance sometime.

Directed by Walter Hill (The Long Riders, Southern Comfort) just as his early promise had all but evaporated, it's a fun B-movie potboiler - and in the way "B-movie" used to mean something. It's a simple crime flick about crooks, double crosses, and revenge. Rourke stars as the title character. As the movie opens in New Orleans, we see his name is a misnomer: he is beyond ugly, with a disfiguring disease like John Merrick's (The Elephant Man) that has left his body a hideous sight. He's a criminal, but one of those honest thieves the movies like. He and his kindly partner (Scott Wilson, of In Cold Blood and In the Heat of the Night) begrudgingly team-up with a few leather-bound hotshots to pull a jewlery store score. The leader of this dangerous crew is Rafe (Lance Henricksen), and his Lady MacBeth is Sunny (Ellen Barkin). Of course after they get the loot, Rafe double-crosses Johnny and his friend, shooting them and leaving them for dead. But Johnny lives.


In the prison hospital, a cool old cop (Morgan Freeman) is pressuring Johnny to give up his murderous ex-partners. But Johnny's saving that for himself. A kindly doctor (Forest Whitaker) at the prison takes an interest in Johnny's unique disability, and signs him up for a special program where they want to try radical experimental new surgical procedures to reconstruct his face and frame. He agrees of course, and by the time all the cutting is done, Johnny looks like...well, Mickey Rourke. Part of agreeing to the surgery is a parole and new identity. He gets out on the street and looks to take revenge on Rafe and Sunny - who now of course don't recognize him.

Pretty silly genre stuff on the suface, but all elevated to better than you'd think because of the cast and their performances. Rourke really plays it straight, and the scene where he first sees his 'new' face is very well acted. Plus with Morgan Freeman, Forest Whitaker and Lance Henricksen running around, they all make the material better than it is on paper. Hill does a good job with the tone, and Ry Cooder lends maybe my favorite score of his (after Paris, Texas anyway), just great Bluesy stuff. Terrific use of the New Orleans locations too. Elizabeth McGovern (who rather disappeared at the end of the '80s after some good work in the likes of Ragtime, Racing with the Moon, Ordinary People and Once Upon A Time in America) is fine as Johnny's innocent new girlfriend trying to get him and go straight and forego his revenge.


Johnny Handsome is certainly not a great movie, it's all silly and you pretty well know where it's going with a lot less of the information than I gave above, but it's a great B-movie pulp, and loads of fun free of pretension. In the '40s and '50s, solid crime genre pics like this one were cranked-out by the Studios and filled with their roster of stars - often either "slumming it" in these productions or up and coming actors unproven in bigger vehicles, and always with those great character actors in support. Having Mickey Rourke surrounded by supporting players the likes of Freeman and Whitaker just feels good, and makes this one of the last really fine B-movies exhibited theatrically before all of this stuff went almost exclusively straight-to-video.

Unfortunately, it was the last good movie Rourke ever starred in...until SIN CITY that is.

O.K., on your recommendation, I'll give it another go, perehaps I've just lumped it together with the rest of his 90's work unfairly.
I take it you didn't rate " Once upon a time in Mexico ", I think Rodriguez could do for Rouke what Tarantino did for Travolta, but I'm a little worried after Sin City that Mickey gets typecasted. Most of the films he been in since 2000 cast him as a loser, even Marv eventually looses, however if I never see him again in drag(Animal Factory) it'll be too soon. Perhaps Mikey could be a villan in the next Batman film? Who knows, I'll watch with intrest where his career goes from here.

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I was very pleased with his performance in Sln City.

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I haven't seen Sin City yet...but i am glad he is back inthe business. I always thought he has some potential and it seems like he has done a good job in this movie (Sin City)

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I'm quite fond of his performance in Spun.

I loved his reply to "How does it feel for you to come back in such a film?" when interviewed about Sin City at Cannes for Australia's At The Movies;

It's good to see that he knows that he pissed his career away.

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It's great to see an actor like Mickey Rourke disappear of our screens and reapppear with such an awesome performance, and creat an iconic figure like Marv. Welcome back mickey Rourke next up Domino

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So have any of you who were turned on to Mickey by SIN CITY gone back to discover or revisit his great work from the '80s?

As far as what he's doing with his newfound sliver of respect in the industry, other than appearing once again as Marv in the upcoming SIN CITY sequel, there are a couple projects he's attached to that have potential to be good (or at least much better than crud like Domino). He's in the Elmore Leonard adaptation Killshot, directed by John Madden (Proof, Shakespeare in Love) and co-starring Diane Lane, Thomas Jane, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Johnny Knoxville and Rosario Dawson. He'll also be part of Grind House, a horror movie mini-double feature from Rodriguez and Tarantino. It's less star-studded than SIN CITY but does have folks like Rosario Dawson, Michael Biehn, Nicky Katt, Danny Trejo, Michael Parks and Josh Brolin. Could be fun. Could be *****. Time will tell. Mickey has also been attached to something called The Night Job for director John McNaughton (Mad Dog & Glory, Wild Things) with Ray Liotta and Marisa Tomei.

Hopefully at least one of those will spotlight Mickey well again and he'll get even better offers in the next couple years.

Updating this one, the next SIN CITY movie still hasn't come to be yet, he didn't wind up in Grindhouse (no loss there) and the oft-delayed Killshot still doesn't have an official release date (never a good sign). And now the role in the Alex Rider kiddie spy pic Stormbreaker doesn't do anything for me. BUT, the light at the end of the tunnel, career wise, may be his role in Darren Aronofsky's next picture, The Wrestler, which will play the film festival circuit the rest of this year and, if it gets good notices and attention, maybe a release for Oscar season?

He is a great actor and he was a great boxer to.

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A classical actor in his youth. I get what he has done to himself but I have watched his movies and he looked completely different in those times. A movie like Harley Davidson where his role was amazing with Don Johnson. He wore a leather costume. The jacket which he has worn is available at Sky-Seller.

You gotta give him credit, he absolutely wrecked himself and still was able to reinvent himself then make a comeback.



Truth be told he looks so rough now they really didnt need to put a rubber mask on him to play Marv.

woah whats with the sin city love? crap movie.

ive seen him in a few movies from earlier,but i dont know much about him.
why did he get plastic surgery? i mean,was it vanity or did something happen?
also saw him the wrestler,which i thought was an okay movie.

Why do you think it is crap? I haven't seen it i'm just wondering because i rarely hear anything bad about it.

Really? thats why im surprised to see its so well liked here,ive never met anyone whos actually liked it lol

i liked the black and white and comic book feel of it.thats about.i really dont have anything else nice to say about it or anyone in it.

Everybody who i know that has seen it liked it and it is pretty acclaimed, it's usually named one of the best comic book films.

Guess i'll just have to see for myself.