Cellars of IMDb: Corey Feldman is No Longer Addicted to Heroin


Hiya kids, it's time to get meet another Hollywood freakshow. This week we're going to deal with a young actor named Corey Feldman. Normally I tend to get rather excited in my heartfelt outwellings of praise. Not so this week. You see, no writer, not I, not Homer, not Shakespeare, not Hemingway, no one can sing Corey Feldman's praises better than Corey Feldman himself. From IMDb's quotes page:

"I'm more than an actor. I'm an icon, an industry."

"I was famous before I knew my own name."

Now there is some truth to these statements. Feldman does not quite qualify as an industry, but he is an icon. He wasn't exactly famous before he knew is own name, but he did begin his acting career at the age of three, and by the end of the 80's he was one of the two biggest teen stars in the world. It is possible that he was famous while he did not know his name, considering his heroin problem that culminated in an arrest in the early nineties, but that was certainly not before he knew his name.

Today he's probably most recognizable as either the moody ex-child star on the first season of Vh1's Surreal Life



or as the adorable bratty Mouth in The Goonies.



The Goonies typified his early Hollywood work: smart alecky little brats.

He got out of commercials and into television in the late 70's with roles in The Bad News Bears and Mork and Mindy.

In 1981 he had a minor role in the animated The Fox and the Hound, but didn't grace the silver screen again until 1984, when he had a leading role in the thankfully forgotten Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and a minor part in the cult classic Gremlins.

The next year was The Goonies and another terrible Friday the 13th sequel, and the year after brought us Rob Reiner's timeless Stand By Me.



A classic coming-of-age tale, Stand By Me follows four boys (Wil Wheaton, the late River Phoenix, the aforementioned Feldman, and a surprisingly Rubenesque eleven-year-old Jerry O'Connell in his first movie role) as they travel cross country in search of the missing body of a local boy. The boys are forced to contend with a rival group of older boys led by Kiefer Sutherland.



Stand By Me is one of those movies that is somehow greater than the sum of its parts, and all its parts are very strong on their own. Phoenix is the only one of the boys to achieve any sort of critical acclaim outside this picture; the others are roundly panned at every turn, and O'Connell is the only one to produce any noteworthy work in this millennium, none of which was well received. Yet somehow Reiner somehow evoked arresting portrayals out of all of them, and managed to weave the performers, the story, and the very setting together into a tapestry of nostalgia. If you see one Corey Feldman movie, make it this.



Stand By Me was the apex of our subject's career, he jumped the shark with next year's The Lost Boys.


The Lost Boys was a tight mixture of horror and black comedy, and was the beginning of the Corey Feldman/Corey Haim partnership which would last through seven movies of ever decreasing popularity and artistic merit.



None of their collaborations could really be considered bearable to a modern audience, but the two quickly became the highest paid teen stars of the 80's on the backs of these things, but the most recent of these were straight to video numbers, as were most of both Coreys' projects.

1987's The Lost Boys
1988's License to Drive
1989's Dream a Little Dream
1992's Blown Away
1994's Last Resort
1995's Dream a Little Dream 2
1996's Busted (directed by the Feldster himself!)

As Feldman's fame quickly spiraled away he found himself addicted to heroin,



forging questionable friendships,



and taking advantage of whatever TV guest star opportunities he could get, including, but not limited to:

Sliders


Son of the Beach


Greg the Bunny



All that aside, his primary duty in the 90's was in his role as Rock God and lead singer of the aptly named Corey Feldman Band.



I would call him an ironic rock star much in the vein of William Shatner, but there's a fundamental difference. Shatner we know he gets it, that he's in on the joke. We're completely certain of it, but still there's this nagging doubt that maybe, just maybe, he still believes in himself. With Feldman there is no doubt in anyone's mind that he really does think of himself as a talented rock and roll star. He isn't. He really, really isn't. There are mp3s out there if you're curious, but let me tell you now, it isn't worth it.

There's really only worthwhile thing Corey's done since the 80's. He provided the voice of a character I greatly respect.





And remember the guiding light, lest we forget the glory that be Lemon Party.
Because your blog sucks.
- posted by Odovaucer @ 11:59 PM