When enough is enough

(5) Ben Affleck
We admit it: We liked Ben better in his early career, when he was playing jackasses. Consider, if you will, his turn as O'Bannion in "Dazed and Confused" — mostly an opportunity to appear on screen threatening to beat the holy heck out of younger kids. Or his "Mallrats" role as top-notch jerk Shannon Hamilton. (We can't repeat his infamous line, aside from saying, “someplace very uncomfortable.”)

Chris Pizzello / AP Ben Affleck and his then-fiancée Jennifer Lopez arrive at the premiere of "Daredevil" in Feb. 2003. We're certainly not going to point the finger at her for his sub-par choices in leading roles, but the timeline there does make us wonder.

The more unpleasant he was, the more fun he was to watch. And there's nothing wrong with that. Jack Nicholson defined his early career by making us squirm.

So what happened to Ben?  "Chasing Amy," in which he was Sensitive Man, sorta, though not as much as in "Jersey Girl," when even being cast opposite Liv Tyler couldn't make him charming. (C'mon, Kevin Smith, we knew you once.)  And the rancid glop that was "Armageddon." And ...

Who are we kidding?  It was J. Lo.

OK, maybe Gwyneth shares a bit of blame too, but she was long gone by the time we were subjected to "Changing Lanes" and "Daredevil."  Nope, you'll notice a distinct correlation between the ascendancy of Bennifer I and the great sucking sound that is Mr. Affleck's career.

He surely gets some blame as well, since we assume it was his hand signing the contracts, and there's no way Ms. Lopez had anything to do with "Reindeer Games."  But there's an eerie quality about the way his dating rituals seamlessly became more compelling than his career.

Now, we like Jennifer Garner a lot — she's smart, she's savvy and somehow we forgive her "Daredevil" appearance more than Ben's. We're not entirely sure what she sees in him, but we trust her judgment enough to think that maybe, just maybe, she can bring back old Ben, the one you don't really like, but you love to watch on-screen. Maybe marriage (and fatherhood) will convince him that his destiny lies neither in a romantic lead nor as a hard-bit action hero.

We just hope their match-up doesn't become another one of those Bruce-and-Demi things. Those two got married, and we got "Hudson Hawk" and "Color of Night." Scary.

Train wreck factor: 4 in 10.

Could take a lesson from: Matt Damon. The void between "Bourne Identity" and "Sum of All Fears" says it all.

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