In early ’05 I read an interview with Cuba Gooding that assessed the Snow Dog-ging and Boat Trip-ping of his career since the heyday of Jerry Maguire and As Good As It Gets. The piece seemed to be saying that Gooding was turning a corner with somewhat more serious parts in films like Lee Daniels‘ Shadowboxer (which wasn’t very good). I asked Gooding a question about this presumed turn-in-the-road at a Santa Barbara Film Festival screening in January or early February ’05, and he seemed to be in a good head-space about what lay ahead.

I realize that Gooding has a respectable dramatic role in Ridley Scott‘s American Gangster (which is supposed to be quite good) and I realize that we all need to eat and pay bills, etc., but as I used to really admire and enjoy Gooding it’s hard not to feel depressed or dispirited at seeing him back on family-crap, idiot-wind turf with Daddy Day Camp.