There are a lot of actors/actresses out there that have a great talent but seem to stumble at the finishing line, they tend to pick out roles that are totally misplaced and/or choose to star in movies that are obviously bad. Of couse a lot of this depends on the actors agent, he or she has to have good contacts in the business and a sense for success.

This is sadly not the case for most of the agents out there. But I still think that the actors themselves are more responsible in steering their career into the right direction. It’s so sad to see a talented actor/actress throw their career out of the window by choosing bad roles. On the flip side of the coin we find the actors that really plan their career ahead and pick out roles and movies that are different and interesting, these are the ones you see in the magazines with shiny teeth and a big smile on their face. I think I would be comfortable in categorizing them into three groups;

• [The successful actors that are categorized] The actors that pick out roles that have a guaranteed success rate, regardless of the plot. Meaning that they will star in whatever movie as long as it gives big bucks and/or is directed/produced by someone famous. These are actors that are categorizing themselves, meaning that their famous for being comedians, action stars or stars of romantic flicks. Examples: Tom Cruise (Action), Julia Robers (Romantic comedy), Will Smith (Action, comedy

• [The unsuccessful actors] The actors that pick out roles with the throw of the dice, meaning that they aren't filtering the scripts well enough, they aren't looking for interesting plots and they're planning their career. These are of course the actors that have moderate or no success at all, starring in one bad movie is ok, starring in two consecutive is a disaster. Sometimes even a single movie can flush a actors future down the drain. Examples: Elizabeth Berkley ("Showgirls), Kevin Costner ("Water world", "The Postman")
  

• [The successful actors that actually have a talent] The actors that pick out roles carefully, they read the scripts, they plan ahead, they even say "no" in starring in big movies only because they don't like the scripts. These actors aren't categorized at all, they're like chameleons, they appear in almost every time of roles showing the same glow and talent. They achieve great respect both from their peers and the viewers. Examples: Stellan Skarsgård ("Good Will Hunting", "Dogville", "Amistad").

Mark Dacascos has to be one of the actors that has a great talent but fails to choose highlighted roles. He's done great movies like "Crying Freeman" and "Brotherhood of the Wolf", but his name is still pretty much unknown to the general public. His role in "Cradle 2 the grave" didn't help him out either.

Val Kilmer is one of the high profiled actors that hasn't spoiled us with movies, he turns up now and then to show his skills. Last time I saw him was in "Mind hunters", his role wasn't big but had a significant impact on the movie by showing authority over the other actors. I know that his both loved and hated, I’ll have to cast a vote for the first group, his charisma is almost contagious.

Forever branded with the role as "IceMan", Val Kilmer made two very funny movies before his hit "Top Gun". The first was "Top Secret," a parody of several movies, and the other was "Real Genius". This movie was just a wildcard rental on a Saturday night, I had never even heard about it or the star of the movie. My brothers were at the time hooked on everything that even remotely touched the subject of high school and college humor, a movie with the title "Real Genius" with the picture of a smiling airhead floating something shiny on his finger was o to compelling.

The setting is Caltech (California Institute of Technology) where we start off with the character of Mitch Taylor, a brilliant student who has been asked by his professor to work on a project involving laser beam technology. Mitch is given this project since he had worked on something similar, but in a smaller scale, for his Science Fair project. For starters Mitch is only thinking about working hard in finishing the laser, problems occur when he arrives at the student campus and is paired with a party boy genius called Chris Knight. Chris is already famous for being one of the smartest students of his time, he however doesn't use to much time in living up to his reputation. At least not in the lab. Preferably he uses most of his days to throw beach parties and doing mischief around the campus, like creating a indoor ice-skating rink in his dorm.

For starters we get to know a little bit more about the eccentric genius gang, one of them being the mystical Lazlo who lives in Chris' closet, or more correctly, disappears in and out of the closet. After some typical dorm-room humor, we start getting to the serious side of movie, after a while Chris and Mitch find out that their professor has actually had them working on a top secret laser weapon for the Defense Department. This doesn't come as a bolt of lightning to the viewer since the professor is played by the ever so annoying William Atherton ("Ghostbusters", "Die Hard"). He seems to have the act for playing these kind of roles.

The laser is completed and is just as powerful and they had expected, but Chris aims to live up to his last name and seek revenge for being used as a puppet in the professors elaborate scheme. He and the other geniuses plan on using the laser for other purposes, something that "pops". That's about it I guess, the plot doesn't require the genius brains of the characters to understand, luckily the movie has more to show for besides the laser-cold-war-threat-stereotypical-80's-scenario.

"Real Genius" is almost a feel good movie much to the credit of its honest humor. Much of the movie actually fails to fall into place, there's no logical explanation to anything, but that's expected from a college movie from this age. You have to leave your brain at the doorsteps on this one, first then can you fully enjoy the flick. There are some hilarious scenes where we see Chris do pranks on other more disciplined students. Somehow I even feel that Val Kilmer’s name in the movie is perfectly fitting too, "Knight".