There's only so much Hollywood good will a monster hit will afford you. 300 turned Frank Miller (and adaptations of his graphic novel work) into a hot Hollywood commodity, but Miller probably extinguished his own flame by directing the ridiculous The Spirit. 300 also made its director Zack Snyder an event filmmaker, and though Watchmen may not have performed as well as people expected, Snyder's talent was never in question. As for 300's star Gerard Butler, who for a while seemed ready to rise from Vin Diesel's ashes as the next great action star, he's since removed most of his cachet with astounding surgical precision. Since 300, his films (P.S. I Love You, Nim's Island, RocknRolla, The Ugly Truth, Gamer) have grossed an approximate total of $214 million dollars. But even worse, each one of them was utterly forgettable. And now, less than a month after Gamer tanked comes Law Abiding Citizen, Butler's new thriller with Jamie Foxx. And, well, things aren't looking good.
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