Bruce Willis and Nic Cage get a lot of attention on this sub for all the straight to DVD/VOD low quality films they put out despite being very high profile stars, but over the past couple of years Mel Gibson has started doing the same. I’m a huge fan of Mel’s work having been obsessed with Braveheart and the Lethal Weapon films when I was younger and I try to watch everything he makes but it’s becoming a bit of a chore.
Following his comeback he had some success with the first films he made, and in 2016 Blood Father was his first lead in 4 years following Get the Gringo, and while it wasn’t a huge success it did find an audience and was generally well received (89% RT, 66 Metascore). Following BF he done commercial comedy Daddy’s Home 2 in 2017 which done decent at the box office with $180m worldwide on a $70m budget. This was then followed up by working on highly thought of S. Craig Zahler’s 3rd film Dragged Across Concrete, I personally loved this film and it was received pretty well (76% RT, 60 Metascore) but didn’t seem to find an audience, but still it was at least a project with a good director.
Since then its all gone a bit downhill, with a fair chunk of his work coming from directors who do the Willis and Cage projects and films that you aren’t likely to ever hear of: Force of Nature, Wake, Waldo, Panama, Agent Game.
Amidst those are a couple of exceptions, Boss Level found its audience and seems well thought of, Fatman was at least an interesting concept, and Father Stu received a theatrical release (although didn’t perform too well).
His upcoming slate also appears to be full of either first time or low budget directors as well, but there is at least the John Wick spin off series The Continental to look forward to.
I suppose my point is, even in recent years decent directors have hired him (Dragged Across Concrete, Boss Level) and he can still get theatrical releases (Daddy’s Home 2, Father Stu) and there’s no way he needs the money, so what’s with all the rubbish film choices?
tldr: Mel made a fairly successful comeback but for some reason has started doing films like Panama, Force of Nature, and Wake and should start picking better projects again
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/vl6gqn/mel_gibsons_descent_into_direct_to_vod_action/
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