-Kevin Costner

-Kevin Costner? He is too old even for me!

This funny and weird conversation took place between me and my English teacher over a decade ago. I have a great memory that saves only the fun stuff. She was in her late 20’s and I was too stunned to reply to her comment. She thought I was too young to name him as my fav. actor. C’mon,it is not like I said I wanted to marry the guy! (Even if I had, which sane woman could blame me? ) and it is not like she could/would say no, were he to be interested…

OK-so I was 12 and loved Kevin‘s movies.As I grew up, he sure as hell made some bad ones. Such as Waterworld and The Postman. He doesn’t really pull off the whole post-apocalyptic era well. Men drinking their own urine for water, having fish-like organs (Waterworld…) C’mon!

I have no idea why he invested money from his own pocket. I know he believed this is a good idea…but… the guy was a marketing major at uni for God’s sake!!

Confession: Couldn’t watch the whole of these two. I just couldn’t.

And he has played in one too many baseball movies:

Field of Dreams? Classic. Bull Durham? Classic. For love of the game? C’mon- it is more a not-so-well-done combination of clichés. He also must be the only actor who has appeared in so many sport-themed movies (in addition to baseball, he has played a golfer and a cyclist).

But for every one movie that I didn’t like, he has done 5 that I have loved. The War and A Perfect World have touched me immensely. In fact, the latter belongs to my all time top 10 movies list. I daren’t give any spoilers on these two. But The War is one of the best anti-war movies I have ever seen and A Perfect World is a greatly different from the romantic/politic heroes he plays so often. I love his romantic roles. But it was quite a different ride to watch him as an escaped convict, turning into an unconventional father role model in this amazing Clint Eastwood movie.

The Romantic Roles…

Before I talk about the Bodyguard, Revenge, Robin Hood, Message in a Bottle and such, I want to mention Rumor Has It” first. Some fans of the classic “The Graduate” did not enjoy this supposed spin-off. I didn’t think it was great, but it was entertaining. And it really had the perfect cast.

The  plot of this movie has it that the events taking place in the movie “The Graduate” were based on Sarah Huttinger’s (Jennifer Aniston) family: Beau Burroughs (Kevin Costner) has slept with the grandma (Shirley MacLaine) and has fallen with the mother. And when Sarah suspects that Beau might indeed be her father, she learns that he is not (he has become infertile after an incident) and begins a romance with him herself. It is a weird concept. But what I find interesting about this movie is that three generations of women are attracted to Costner. My own grandmother thinks he is good-looking, my mother thinks he is gorgeous and I find him truly attractive in most of his roles. Guess what? My dad did not like this movie: )

You may not want to acknowledge his talent but I think he has more than proven it with Dances with Wolves, by directing it and playing the lead. He personally won two academy awards with it: Best Picture, Best Director.

But it all adds up to have a talented actor on your hands who also happens to very handsome.

He was great as the passionate and romantic Robin Hood. He was more than seductive in Revenge, where his attitude was a mixture of boyish,confident- and romantic.It took a couple of encounters for him to seduce us the females. He made me watch a movie with Whitney Houston in it with The Bodyguard ,which turned out to be surprisingly good. Of course it has clichés. Of course it has a masculine,self-protecting,strong guy who inevitably falls for “the girl” and all that. But it is a feel-good movie and it delivers. And Message in a Bottle? As much as I love comic book movies and good action, oras much as it is fun to watch gothic elements and some thrilling scenes, a big part of me will never be able to give up on the allure of the romantic film. And Kevin is a lovely choice to play the lead.

I guess this  last part is a  “girls only” zone:

He is charming, even as he gets older. He can pull off sexy and cute at the same time.

He can make you feel as if the character he is playing is real- that he can be real. Of course you know you have not met guys like that. You probably won’t. Hell, I’m almost certain they don’t exist. Even if they do, what are the odds they will look like that? Suppose they do exist, looking all dreamy- what are the odds you will be his type? Right? But for the duration of the movie, it is just good to let go, relax and let yourself live in a simpler world, even it carries some sad elements…