A Perfect World

Actors : Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Laura Dern, T.J. Lowther, Keith Szarabajka

Double Academy Award winners' Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood confront each other from opposite sides of the law in A Perfect World, an acclaimed, multilayered manhunt saga (directed by Eastwood) that rumbles down Texas backroads toward a harrowing collision with fate. Costner plays Butch Haynes, a hardened prison escapee on the lam with a young hostage (T.J. Lowther in a remarkable film debut) who sees in Butch the father figure he never had. Eastwood is wily Texas Ranger Red Garnett, leading deputies and a criminologist (Laura Dern) in a statewide pursuit. Red knows every road and pothole in the Panhandle. What's more, he knows the elusive Haynes-because their paths have crossed before.

Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood

Kevin Costner

Wyatt Earp 1994

Wyatt Earp

Stars: Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, Gene Hackman

This massive, in-depth study of the dark Western icon comes off with mixed results. Trying to capture the whole life, (warts and all) of the lawman-criminal-brother-fortune hunter, director Lawrence Kasdan gains points for sheer scale, giving us a rich epic painted in dark colors with gritty settings. But the visual poetry and extensive foreshadowing ruin the dramatic drive. Some scenes have as much impact as stalker movies; you're just waiting for someone to get knocked off. As Earp, Kevin Costner is not afraid to look rumpled and play colorlessly (as in The Bodyguard), but it saps the energy of this 3-hour-plus film. The only relief is Dennis Quaid as a droll Doc Holiday, a much more engaging character. New faces Linden Ashby and Joanna Going (as an Earp brother and a lover, respectively) are solid finds, though the remainder of the female cast is barely given anything to do. Best is the first half, with Costner, as hip as he was in his Silverado days, going through a series of ups and downs until he accidentally finds his profession. Great set design (Ida Random) utilizes dozens of similar settings that always look distinctive. Recommended to fans of the star and the genre, but the story never justifies its length. --Doug Thomas

Whitney Huston and Kevin Costner

J.F.K. 1991

J.F.K.

Actors : Kevin Costner, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Laurie Metcalf, Gary Oldman

This historical thriller stars Kevin Costner and features a powerful supporting cast, including Donald Sutherland, Jack Lemmon, and Ed Asner. Upon examining the Warren Commission report on President Kennedy’s assassination, New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Costner) suspects that there is more to the story than the public is being told.

The Bodyguard 1992

Actors : Kevin Costner, Whitney Houston, Gary Kemp, Bill Cobbs, Ralph Waite

The Bodyguard stars Whitney Houston as a pop-music diva and Kevin Costner as the ultra-serious bodyguard assigned to protect her in teh aftermath of several death threats. Initially repelled by each other like water and oil, a passion ignites between them as teh danger increases, transforming them as everythign around them explodes.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves 1991

Actors : Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Christian Slater, Alan Rickman

Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Christian Slater, Alan Rickman, and Sean Connery star in this historical action-adventure breathing new life into the legendary, swashbuckling hero who defends the poor and battles the evil Sheriff of Nottingham in England's Sherwood Forest. After Robin barely survives a watery skirmish with Little John (Nick Brimble), the two become allies, and Robin joins forces with Little John's band of robber thieves, along with a philosophizing Moor (Freeman). The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.

Dances With Wolves 1990

Actors : Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant, Tantoo Cardinal

A Civil War soldier develops a relationship with a band of Lakota Indians. Attracted by the simplicity of their lifestyle, he chooses to leave his former life behind to be with them. Having observed him, they give the name Dances With Wolves. Soon he is a welcomed member of the tribe and falls in love with a white woman who has been raised in the tribe. Tragedy results when Union soldiers arrive with designs on the land.