Ryan Reynolds is now firmly and comfortably established as one of the biggest, most popular and busiest stars in the industry, but success didn’t come overnight for the actor, producer, gin magnate, advertising executive and soccer team part-owner.
One of the first major leading roles of his career came in 2005 comedy Waiting…, which didn’t fare too well with critics and ended up with a fairly weak Rotten Tomatoes score of 40%, but an $18 million haul at the box office against a budget of just $3 million ensured that it turned a tidy profit nonetheless.
However, in the years since it’s gone on to find a second life as something of a cult favorite, even if it doesn’t bring anything new, inventive or exciting to the well-worn staple of the workplace comedy subgenre. It’s an effortlessly charismatic performance from Reynolds, though, backed by a stellar supporting cast that includes Justin Long, Anna Faris, David Koechner and Luis Guzman.
Having cracked the Netflix most-watched list earlier this year and remained there for weeks before vanishing from the library at the end of April, Waiting… will be looking to repeat the same trick again now that it’s upped sticks and migrated to HBO Max.