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What The Hell Happened To Wesley Snipes?

From the A-list to direct-to-video...the Tomatometer tracks where he went wrong.

by Jen Yamato | Wednesday, Aug. 13 2008
123 comments

In the first part of a new Rotten Tomatoes feature, we examine the career ups and downs of our favorite fallen celebrities -- as charted by the Tomatometer, of course, and with only the best of intentions in mind. ("See how far you've plunged? Get that Celebrity Tomatometer back in Fresh territory!")

And so, with his three-year prison sentence for tax evasion looming, and an all new film hitting the home video market (the direct-to-DVD Art of War 2: Betrayal), we're kicking off our What The Hell Happened To...? series with a look at the past, present, and future of actor, fifth degree black belt, and enemy of the 16th Amendment, Wesley Snipes.



The complete Tomatometer history of Wesley Snipes. Click for more info.


What are you waiting for? Begin your journey down memory lane with the Tomatometer as your guide...

First up: The Early Years

Comments

hewpot

Ballsack Enormous

snip

Aug 13 - 07:51 PM

Jen Yamato

Jen Yamato

snip?

Aug 13 - 08:13 PM

NuBz18

Christopher Lozier

lovely, jen. hilarious and wonderfully informative. how about de niro? pacino? while they're not forgotten, they've made some very odd career choices lately (godsend, gigli, 88 minutes, hide and seek, et al). cheers! :)

Aug 15 - 02:47 PM

djwoogiefresh

DJ Woogie Fresh

Snipes is the biggest actor that you will every know. It's kinda of like the 2-Pac story but better. It's like the Mohammed Ali story and even bigger. It's like the rebirth of SAM COOK. You will never be able really know about Snipes until he is dead and gone because of the respect that people have for him. He is one of the greatest Actors ever...
DJ WOOGIE FRESH/SOUNDSTHATPOUND

Sep 2 - 08:57 AM

Brian82

Brian McAleer

What a shame! Very talented actor, but I always guessed he had personal issues. I got that impression from seeing him in interviews and at premieres. He's only human after all. And he might make a comeback. Just look at Robert Downey Jnr....

Aug 13 - 08:22 PM

Brian82

Brian McAleer

What a shame! Very talented actor, but I always guessed he had personal issues. I got that impression from seeing him in interviews and at premieres. He's only human after all. And he might make a comeback. Just look at Robert Downey Jnr....

Aug 13 - 08:25 PM

StonetheCrow

First Last

He should just do that ' Black Panther ' film
right ****ing NOW.
That will save him.

Aug 13 - 08:25 PM

Jen Yamato

Jen Yamato

Good point. If only Snipes could make a comeback like RDjr...

Aug 13 - 08:26 PM

jokerboy1991

jack giroux

You know I have had this idea for months its awesome! No need to thank me... Yeah but I think with Downey he has been making plenty of great films to lead him up to his big summer comeback, like Zodiac, Scanner Darkly, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and I dont think Snipes has made any movies close to RD'J's level. Plus doesnt Snipes have to go too jail?!?!?!

Aug 13 - 08:33 PM

fullmetal_medji

John Reese

Snipes could make a comeback, but of course he would have to stop giving us bad movies like The Art of War 2. Seriously though did the world need a bad sequel to that horrible first movie.

Aug 13 - 08:45 PM

thug4life1979

jamie boot

come back? this guy isnt a has-been, he is a never-was

Aug 13 - 08:53 PM

Matanuki

Matanuki .

Wesley Snipes is a "never-was"? lol. Maybe in the world that exists only in your head.

Aug 14 - 01:21 AM

LoMaX

andrew lomax

I didn't realize that blade was so poorly reviewed.....22%

Aug 13 - 08:58 PM

stealingjoy

Luke Hahn

Blade has a 55% on RT... don't know why it says 22%.

Aug 13 - 09:17 PM

randal1013

Randal 1013

US marshalls is way better than a 25%. sometimes the critics are just wrong.

Aug 13 - 09:22 PM

jokerboy1991

jack giroux

Yeah I thought US Marshalls was actually pretty good, sure it was a rip off of the awesome "The Fugitive" but it was pretty entertaining.

Aug 13 - 09:59 PM

jeremyd4

jeremy d

Wasn't US Marshalls a spin-off/sequel to The Fugitive?

Aug 14 - 12:08 AM

Brad 3000

Brad Arnold

Um, US Marshals wasn't a rip off of The Fugitive- it was a sequel. I'm not making a joke here. Tommy Lee Jones was the same character - US Marshal Samuel Gerard - that he played in The Fugitive. That said, it is a horrible movie and all of you people who are defending it must be high.

Aug 14 - 10:01 AM

dontknow252

aj meadows

jokerboy, that is the single raddest avatar ever!

Aug 15 - 11:25 PM

Dachshund96

Alpha Z

Snipe is an idiot. He friking stuck on himself. If he doesn't get things to go his way he plays the race card. Plays the same damn character every movie.

Aug 13 - 09:37 PM

KISSman

Tommy D

After going through this list of films, it actually surprised me that it takes a second hand to count how many Snipes movies that I really like. My favorite is probably "Demolition Man" (which I was shocked to find out was deemed 'fresh').

"Blade", "Blade: Trinity", "Murder at 1600", "U.S. Marshalls" and "Passenger 57" are all really good flicks and yet totally 'rotten' according to the Tomatometer. IMO, the problem has more to do with the screwy Tomatometer and less to do with Snipes.

Aug 13 - 09:59 PM

mandrake2004

robert drake

Snip.

Aug 13 - 10:38 PM

buttamack

Ronnie Lewis

Wesley Snipes should punch his agent square in the nuts! He needs to be doing movies like Keanu Reeves instead of Steven segal. He is a better actor than reeves and a more bankable action star, because his athleticism allows him to do most of his own stunts even in his mid 40's. I would love to see snipes in one of these new genration Action/Dramas where he can show off both his "acting and Karate chops"!

Aug 13 - 10:43 PM

Product_of_You

Steven Edwards

How exactly did Robert Downey Jr. make a comeback? He never really fell out. And he was certainly nowhere near starring in strictly straight to dvd films like Wesley Snipes. RDJ just happened to land a couple of really big movies around the same time.

Aug 13 - 11:21 PM

Jen Yamato

Jen Yamato

Hmm. I may have been temporarily dyslexic, posted 22 instead of 55. It's Rotten anyhow! (No offense to the dyslexics in the room.) Fixed it, thanks.

Aug 14 - 12:10 AM

gigaherc

Michal Jakubowski

Whoa, dude - Downey Jr certainly had his great movies in the '90s:

Air America (1990) (not so great but ok...)
Chaplin (1992)
Short Cuts (1993)
Natural Born Killers (1994)

And then, suddenly:

Only You (1994)
Home for the Holidays (1995)
Danger Zone (1997) (with Billy DVD Zane)
One Night Stand (1997) (actually with said Wesley Snipes)
Hugo Pool (1997)

than some more mediocre stuff, than Ally McBeal (ugh), and than he REALLY CAME BACK in all the glory to the mainstream with great roles such as:

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)
A Scanner Darkly (2006)

And finally Iron Man.


So you really can say RDJr made a come back like Travolta (but hey, it's not a good comparison *COUGH*Battlefield Earth*COUGH*)


Aug 14 - 12:12 AM

Jen Yamato

Jen Yamato

Buttamack, I totally agree! Snipes needs some career advice and a turnaround in the vein of Keanu could really work for him. I still think he's got that special something...if only he made better movies with his talent and his fifth degree black belt martial arts training. I never even saw Blade 3; by that time he'd already lost me.

Aug 14 - 12:14 AM

Product_of_You

Steven Edwards

I don't know if career advice would do any good. He probably just can't get into theatrical pictures anymore.

Kinda like what happened to Cuba Gooding Jr. Do you really think he'd be taking all of the crappy straight to video roles if he could get better ones?

Aug 14 - 01:59 AM

Matanuki

Matanuki .

Gooding Jr. is yet another tragic case. Great, proven actor. But where are the scripts? The offers? The roles?

"I see in Fight Club some of the greatest men that ever lived, pumping gas and waiting tables." The same sentiment applies. So much wasted talent in us every one, so much squandered potential. The greatest downside of the Hollywood machine, and probably the single most depressing human condition; that so much is steadily in waste, and so little is steadily in excess.

Aug 14 - 03:04 AM

Desiree

Desiree Davis

You've never worked in a video store then. I spent much of my college years in ther early 90's working in places like Blockbuster (where I was a manager for a while as well), Tower, Sam Goody and Wherehouse. People rent whatever is on the new release shelf. Once they have seen the 2 or 3 major releases for a week (or the big blockbuster they were looking for is all checked out), they work there way down the ladder to the STV (STDVD now I guess) releases. So much the better if the box cover has a known name on it. But it's not a requirement, as guys like Michael Dudikoff and Wings Hauser may never be known by the general public, but their fans will rent whatever comes out. Plus, once something is sitting in a video box, no one can tell if it was straight-to-video or not. People often thing they just missed seeing it in the theater.

Aug 19 - 06:23 AM

closetmovielvr

John Haughterton

So - I've never understood how direct to DVD movies make money. Who rents them? Who the heck buys them? I guess someone has to, since Steven Segall and Snipes can keep making them. It's kind of like Weinerschnitzel - I've never heard anyone say "hey let's go eat at Weinerschnitzel" yet somehow they manage to stay in business. I have yet to see someone rent a straight to DVD movie at the video store.

Aug 14 - 12:15 AM

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