Is Foxx Safe From The Gooding Effect?

Moviegoers last week who showed up ahead of time to watch the half-hour's worth of commercials and previews before Batman Begins saw trailers for an upcoming shoot-em-up flick called Stealth, the first big release to star Jamie Foxx since his Oscar-winning turn in Ray. A seemingly frenetic crossover between Top Gun, Flight of the Intruder, and Short Circuit ( Johnny 5 makes no appearance, but look for similarities) "Stealth" pits Navy figher pilot Foxx and his wise-cracking buddies against a new computer-flown jet, which the Navy wants eventually to replace all the human fliers. Not a bad premise, but also not one that afficianados or discerning bloggerati seem too excited about.

Which compels the unpleasant, but neccessary question -- can Foxx keep himself safe from The Gooding Effect? Just like Foxx, Cuba Gooding, Jr. once turned in an Oscar-worthy performance (Jerry McGuire) and then, with the clout that earned him, proceeded to churn out a long series of unwatchable bombs (Snow Dogs, Boat Trip, Radio and others).

Ah, but never fear, children. Foxx's upcoming projects indicate he at least can pick better scripts than Gooding: imdb reports Foxx's next two movies are a film adaptation of Marine Anthony Swofford's hard-hitting memoir "Jarhead" and the big-screen version of director Michael Mann's innovative 1980's TV show 'Miami Vice." No indication yet any of these movies involve computer-animated talking Huskies.

Posted by Philip Ewing at June 21, 2005 11:05 AM

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