MSNBC critic-commentator Erik Lundegaard is on the Kevin- Costner-is-back train…yes!…following my similar riff about eight or nine days ago. “Costner’s best work has an element of the rascal in it,” Lundegaard concludes. “[And] his roles this year — Denny Davies in The Upside of Anger and Beau Burroughs in Rumor Has It… — help underscore the point. In both he plays nice guy/rascals comfortably surrounded by women; in both he plays his age. But in the end Beau is a little dull because he’s too much nice guy and not enough rascal, while Denny is classic Costner: the not-smart man who wins smarter women through patience, persistence and frumpy charm.” I put it roughly the same way: “There’s no middle-aged actor around these days who seems quite as settled into himself…Costner is Mr. Anglo- Dangle Bojangles…the laid-back guy in loose shoes who can charm without trying but just as easily let the whole thing go if the vibe’s not right.” Lundegaard says “we need to see more of this. We need the Razzies to lay off already. Costner was never as great as people believed in 1990 nor as bad as people believed in 1997. But he’s always been good.”