Steve Martin's downward slide

(I almost used ''downward trajectory'' -- but I liked the alliteration.)


I have a soft spot of Steve Martin: he stars in some of my favorite movies (L.A. Story; Planes, Trains, and Automobiles), and in interviews he always seems like a nice guy.

Which is why I'm disappointed that -- at least for my own tastes -- his movies have been pretty lackluster over the last... fifteen?... years.

All of his recent movies that came to mind were ones that I saw the t.v. ads, and went "Eh." Never saw 'em. But, I figured there'd be other movies that didn't come to mind, so I checked out the list of his movies (and t.v. appearances) at his www.imdb.com listing.

Based on this list, Father of the Bride (1991) was the most recent one that I actually **enjoyed**. A Simple Twist of Fate (1994; finds an abandoned baby) was... o.k., but not memorable; and in Leap of Faith (1992), where he's a con artist fake faith healer, nothing much happened, and it wasn't particularly funny -- but maybe it was an attempt at a "serious" movie?


Maybe he's lost the ability -- or never had it -- to read a script, see who's directing, and go ''This'll be a good one'', or ''This'll really stink''. Or, maybe he just needs to keep up on his mansion payments, so he needs the work and will take just about anything.

Anyhow: I know he still has it in him (and I haven't seen Shopgirl; heard it's pretty o.k.) -- but I'm still waiting.


--GG