Wild Orchid (1990)
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If you're wondering why Mickey Rourke's award-winning performance in 2008's The Wrestler was considered a 'comeback role', you only need to look at 1990's Wild Orchid to understand just how far down the tubes his career once was.
Rourke was a very respected actor throughout the 1980's with terrific work in such films as Diner, Angel Heart, Rumble Fish and Barfly. But around the turn of the decade, something went very, very wrong. He became puffed up with his own high opinion of himself, likened himself to some sort of Harley riding bad boy and went through a very unsuccessful attempt at a boxing career. The movies became more ponderous and indulgent and his star tarnished. His most laughable film from this era is the erotic crapsterpiece, Wild Orchid.
Wild Orchid stars the beautiful and thunderously untalented Carre Otis, Rourke's then girlfriend, playing an international lawyer who supposedly speaks six languages but seems quite at sea trying to do things like walk and talk at the same time. Otis is hired by Jacqueline Bisset and the two of them head down to Rio to broker a real-estate deal. Rourke, at his greasiest and least appealing, is, well, a Harley riding bad boy (shocker) and a multi-zillionaire who ushers the innocent Otis into a world of erotic abandon.
Let's see, Rourke makes Otis wear a mask and give herself over to strange men, they ride in a limousine and watch a married couple have sex, and they basically do a lot of thrust and parry in a 'will they or won't they screw' dance that takes forever to resolve itself. Rourke is a sensitive guy, see, and he won't let anyone get too close to his heart because of his dirt-poor upbringing. He oozes slime and pretention across every scene while Otis does her best impersonation of a piece of driftwood. Only Bisset brings any sense of life or energy to this movie which constantly flatlines at every given chance. Yes, the grand finale is the big sex scene between Rourke and Otis, and despite Rourke's insistence that the scene was not a simulation, it barely registers as anything other than two pieces of meat slapping against one another in slow motion.
As silly as all of this is, it's the dialogue that is the funniest. Well, actually, any line uttered by Otis is pretty giggle-inducing, such as admitting, "I'm not used to men in masks biting my neck", or, even better, "I guess I just let my emotions get the best of me", which she utters without anything resembling even one emotion let alone more than one.
With Wild Orchid (and Two Moon Junction), actor turned director Zalman King became the soft-core porn master and spawned his own cable television series The Red Shoe Diaries. Rourke followed it with turkeys like Desperate Hours, White Sands, and the jaw-droppingly hideous Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. So, yeah, he should really change his name to Lazarus.
If you're wondering why Mickey Rourke's award-winning performance in 2008's The Wrestler was considered a 'comeback role', you only need to look at 1990's Wild Orchid to understand just how far down the tubes his career once was.
Rourke was a very respected actor throughout the 1980's with terrific work in such films as Diner, Angel Heart, Rumble Fish and Barfly. But around the turn of the decade, something went very, very wrong. He became puffed up with his own high opinion of himself, likened himself to some sort of Harley riding bad boy and went through a very unsuccessful attempt at a boxing career. The movies became more ponderous and indulgent and his star tarnished. His most laughable film from this era is the erotic crapsterpiece, Wild Orchid.
Wild Orchid stars the beautiful and thunderously untalented Carre Otis, Rourke's then girlfriend, playing an international lawyer who supposedly speaks six languages but seems quite at sea trying to do things like walk and talk at the same time. Otis is hired by Jacqueline Bisset and the two of them head down to Rio to broker a real-estate deal. Rourke, at his greasiest and least appealing, is, well, a Harley riding bad boy (shocker) and a multi-zillionaire who ushers the innocent Otis into a world of erotic abandon.
Let's see, Rourke makes Otis wear a mask and give herself over to strange men, they ride in a limousine and watch a married couple have sex, and they basically do a lot of thrust and parry in a 'will they or won't they screw' dance that takes forever to resolve itself. Rourke is a sensitive guy, see, and he won't let anyone get too close to his heart because of his dirt-poor upbringing. He oozes slime and pretention across every scene while Otis does her best impersonation of a piece of driftwood. Only Bisset brings any sense of life or energy to this movie which constantly flatlines at every given chance. Yes, the grand finale is the big sex scene between Rourke and Otis, and despite Rourke's insistence that the scene was not a simulation, it barely registers as anything other than two pieces of meat slapping against one another in slow motion.
As silly as all of this is, it's the dialogue that is the funniest. Well, actually, any line uttered by Otis is pretty giggle-inducing, such as admitting, "I'm not used to men in masks biting my neck", or, even better, "I guess I just let my emotions get the best of me", which she utters without anything resembling even one emotion let alone more than one.
With Wild Orchid (and Two Moon Junction), actor turned director Zalman King became the soft-core porn master and spawned his own cable television series The Red Shoe Diaries. Rourke followed it with turkeys like Desperate Hours, White Sands, and the jaw-droppingly hideous Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man. So, yeah, he should really change his name to Lazarus.