Uh...Jerry Bruckheimer...Jerry Bruckheimer...And, uh, Jerry Bruckheimer. Bruckheimer seems to be a producer that critics love to hate. There have been many of his films that critics have hated but it doesn't matter. The movies still become hits no matter what critics might think.

Bruckheimer's career started back in his home town of Detroit more than thirty years ago, as an award winning commercial producer. He served as associate producer on his first film, The Culpepper Cattle Company (1972). His first film as a producer was Farewell, My Lovely (1975).
But it was not until 1983 when Bruckheimer hit it really big with the movie, Flashdance. It was a movie about a steel-working woman that dreams to become a dancer. The film became a cultural phenomenon.

Bruckheimer followed that up with two more memorable classics: Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Top Gun (1986) which helped make stars out of Eddie Murphy and Tom Cruise. One thing that Bruckheimer-produced films seem to do most of the time is that the story creates seemingly insurmountable circumstances for the main characters. The audience sees no way for a wannabe dancer to make it big. What are the chances that a group of oil drillers can go up in space and destroy a meteor before it hits earth?

But if you look at the endings of his movies it's always a jump-for-joy feel good movie. You will most likely feel sad or cry about something along the way, but at the end you will feel good.
Most of the time the critics don't seem to like this style of filmmaking. Sure, they liked Remember The Titans and there is some Oscar buzz for Black Hawk Down. But for every Bruckheimer movie they like, they dislike five. Armageddon received terrible reviews. The same for The Rock (1996) and Con Air (1997).

I can understand the reasoning for some of the bad reviews. The demise of a certain character at the end of Con Air pretty much ruined an enjoyable movie. But you have to take these reviews with a grain of salt. These movies are made to be fun. If there ever were "popcorn" movies Bruckheimer's films are a prime example. Leave all your common sense at the front door and just relax and watch.

Still, Bruckheimer's movies have had their fair share of nominations and awards in both film and music. Movies produced by Bruckheimer have received several Oscar nominations and have won for Best Songs. There has also been a handful of Grammy and Golden Globe awards. In a life-imitating-art sort of coincidence, Bruckheimer suffered a major loss in early 1996 when producing partner of 13 years, Don Simpson, died of heart failure unexpectedly. Simpson had been there through the important early years and had co-produced a list of incredible movies.
The list includes Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop (and its first sequel in 1987), Top Gun (the film where the doomed couple Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise met, Days Of Thunder in 1990), the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence action comedy, Bad Boys (in 1995, which helped the two leads make the leap from TV to the big screen in high fashion), the Gene Hackman/Denzel Washington submarine film, Crimson Tide in 1995, the Michelle Pfeiffer high school drama, Dangerous Minds also in 1995 and the Sean Connery/Nicolas Cage actioneer, The Rock in 1996).

But like the characters in his movies, Bruckheimer fought adversity and jumped back into action and produced some more memorable movies, of which many made over the $100 million mark.

Other than the movies already mentioned above there was the Will Smith/Gene Hackman thriller, Enemy Of The State (1998), the Nicolas Cage/Angelina Jolie auto theft actioneer, Gone In Sixty Seconds (2000), the surprise hit, Coyote Ugly (2000) and the based-on-truth football movie, Remember The Titans, also starring Denzel Washington (2000).

Now there is yet another soon-to-be hit in Black Hawk Down, a war movie based on true events. The movie stars many young actors, one of which is Josh Hartnett who costarred in 2001's Pearl Harbor. One thing that I have realized as I wrote this Star File is that Bruckheimer sticks with the same actors. He has produced two movies each with Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman and three with Nicolas Cage. Is it that these actors like working with Bruckheimer or is it just that Bruckheimer and the actors know that these movies will be enjoyable and that audiences will flock to them?

And as if an outstanding movie career isn't enough, Bruckheimer was also executive producer on the critically acclaimed TV show, The Amazing Race, which might not have received great ratings but still had more tension and emotion in any one episode than Survivor 3 had all season.

Bruckheimer is also serving as executive producer on the surprise hit show CSI, which has this entire season been one of the top five rated shows.  And the ratings just keep going up with every passing week.  When the show premiered last season it was on after the much-hyped The Fugitive on Friday nights. CBS had hoped that the lead in show would give some good numbers for CSI.  Instead, CSI received higher ratings and while The Fugitive was canceled, CBS moved CSI to Thursdays after Survivor 2. Now the same thing has happened. CSI actually received higher numbers than Survivor 3 this TV season. If you're not one of the more than 20 million watching this show every week I suggest you start watching. It is one of my favorite TV shows of all time.

There are several projects on the horizon for Bruckheimer. He has two movies that will premiere this year. The Chris Rock/Anthony Hopkins action comedy, Bad Company and the Jerry O'Connell action comedy, Down and Under. There is also a possible sequel to come for Bad Boys.