Critics are calling Mickey Rourke‘s titular performance in The Wrestler an Oscar front-runner—and easily his best in over twenty years. What this really means is that it’s been that long since the sleazy loudmouth made a movie that film critics could even blink at. In the gallery, we recommend ten films of wildly varying quality that will help the curious understand how a new Marlon Brando quickly became the (very) poor man’s Bruce Willis—and why everyone’s excited for his comeback.
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Wild Orchid (1990): A virginal lawyer meets a rich sleazeball and gets nailed eight ways to Sunday. Rourke wound up marrying Carre Otis, his young co-star, and rumors of unsimulated sex scenes brought in crowds. But critics gave up on the guy entirely after this soft-core silliness.
