Inside the Ryan Reynolds backlash

Overall, Ryan Reynolds' most recent movie, Green Lantern raked in about Dh200 million at the international box office. Pretty decent amount, you might be thinking? Well, Hollywood studio bigwigs would be purple in the face and foaming at the mouth to hear you say that. In industry circles, Green Lantern was an unmitigated disaster, garnering poor reviews and failing to reach the heady financial heights of the likes of blockbusters Thor and Iron Man - and naturally, a large portion of the blame has been laid at the feet of its lead actor, Ryan. And, although every actor experiences at least one flop - whether commercial or critical - throughout their career, this summer, which was supposed to be the "Season of Ryan", has seen the 34-year-old Canadian have his "leading man" status firmly revoked. e+ reveals why Ryan's recent movies, have seen him sent to the back of the queue in T-town… "He can't carry a film" One of the biggest criticisms currently being levied at Ryan, is his apparent inability to carry a hit movie by himself - something the leading man likes of DiCaprio, Clooney, Pitt, Smith and Cruise all can. "His most successful movie was 2009's The Proposal, a Sandra Bullock vehicle from beginning to end," says movie critic Bill Simmons, in his analysis last week, of Ryan's career on grantland.com. "He's never carried a quality movie that succeeded, unless you want to count the aptly named Definitely, Maybe, which was well-received but made barely enough money to cover its budget." With a resume of solid work in TV since the age of 14, Ryan popped up in the likes of Sabrina The Teenage Witch, Scrubs and The X-Files, finally finding steady work in the US TV show, Two Guys, A Girl, And A Pizza Place, which ran between 1998 and 2001. But despite landing lead roles in 2005's remake of The Amityville Horror and 2006's celeb-packed mega-fail, Smokin' Aces, critical acclaim still eluded the personable Ryan. Missed opportunities With four movies out, 2009 looked to be Ryan's year. The year before, he'd married the object of many men's desires, Scarlett Johansson in a hush-hush ceremony in British Columbia, and 2009 saw the release of the critically acclaimed indie flick, Adventureland, X-Men spin-off, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the Sandra Bullock-starring The Proposal and another quirky indie offering, Paper Man. "Sadly, this should have been the Year of the Reynolds," insisted critic, Christopher Rosen in the UK's Observer newspaper. "He was the only supporting actor who managed to survive X-Men Origins: Wolverine with his reputation intact... [But] despite the matinee idol good looks and wonderfully quick comedic timing, Mr Reynolds has never carried anything on his very formidable shoulders. And while that's fine for a young actor, Mr Reynolds has been knocking around for the better part of a decade." "He should be careful" "… Artistically I don't know why he'd squander the capital from the Sandy Bullock movie to do this (Green Lantern)," one Hollywood agent told New York magazine before the superhero movie came out. "Here, his talents are being [wasted]… He's, like, the best version of Ashton Kutcher, and that's a compliment: he's charming, benign, sophisticated, and he green-lights movies. He should be more careful. The other Ryan - Gosling - would never [do this]." And with Ryan himself admitting of his career, "[It] has been an inch at a time. There was nothing meteoric about anything I've done," Simmons is more cutthroat, insisting, "[He has] starred in 20 movies over the past ten years. Four went straight to DVD or premiered on TV. Another four made little to no money whatsoever." Adding, "Of his 16 movies that were eligible for a ‘top critics' approval rating on RottenTomatoes.com, nine dipped lower than 30 per cent; only three rose above 50 per cent; and his average score was 36.3… we didn't need them to bang home the point that Ryan Reynolds isn't actually a movie star."