What can you say about an actor who has been reduced to playing the role of a henchman (in ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO)? Mickey showed a lot of promise in movies like THE POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE and DINER, but I predict a long future of minor roles and direct-to-video features for poor Mickey.
I also enjoyed ANGEL HEART, and he had a small part in "1941." You sure don't hear of him doing much in the mainstream anymore.
I think ANGEL HEART - or as it was released on the East Coast, THAT MOVIE WHERE THE GIRL FROM COSBY SHOW GETS NAKED AND DOES A SEX SCENE - was pretty much his high water mark in terms of recognition, and only because of the fact that Lisa Bonet was in it. I never really thought much of him or the scripts he picked. My college room mate once forced me to suffer through some crap with him as a boxer (HOMEBOY was the title maybe?). Good God.
Maybe I'm weird (okay, not maybe), but I liked ANGEL HEART and cannot STAND Lisa Bonet. It's been years since I have seen it, so I may not even like it now; I just remember watching with friends and thinking it was fun.
THE POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE was pretty cool, too...who can deny the cinematic history made with Eric Roberts screaming "my thumb, Pauli, they cut off my thumb"??? Having just read the book the first time I saw it, I thought Mickey Rourke captured the character pretty good.
Not getting defensive about Rourke, because I have not seen that many of his movies, but there are a few that I have seen that I liked.
Others? Well, HARLEY DAVIDSON AND THE MARLBORO MAN annoyed me. And a friend praised WILD ORCHID so much I finally watched it - can't say I liked that one too much.
Wild Orchid -- where he gets to screw Carre Otis (lucky dog). As softcore porn it was meh. Europeans, IIRC, seemed to like it more than Americans.
Rourke had a brief boxing career, I guess he got out of the Hollywood loop and isn't able to get back in.
I did like Angel Heart, forgot that he was in Pope of Greenwich Village -- that was a good movie.
Watch Rourke in the more recent movie "Spun" as the methamphetamine making porn-loving freak!
He was absolutely fantastic in that film!
Try sitting through his mid 90s straight-to-cable western "The Last Outlaw". Sloppy film, sloppy acting. Even his funky catfish mustache is irritating.
I guess he still has some box office clout overseas maybe. The only other reason I can think that he still has even the pitiful career he does is that there are women who find his "wannabe bad boy who doesn't bathe" image appealing and will watch anything he's in. I know a few women who still think he's a big deal.