Well, Mickey Rourke's problem was that he was the next Brando. That's not just in terms of charisma, but also in picking shitty scripts, which unsurprisingly tanked.

HARLEY DAVIDSON & THE MARLBORO MAN anyone?

Plus, Rourke sorta unofficially went nuts for a few years, then he became a decent boxer...by then, his once great looks were literally beaten away. Plus he kept being nuts with many people in Hollywood.

An example that is still unexplained is when Tarantino offered him the boxer Butch part in PULP FICTION, which reportedly Rourke

But its when fans of his like Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez started putting him in their works is when Rourke actually became sane enough for Hollywood to work with again. Besides, Rourke stealing the show in SIN CITY sort of helped him marketable again.

As a fan of alot of his 80s gems(POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE, the underrated-like-insane-mother-fuckin YEAR OF THE DRAGON, and the supernatural ANGEL HEART), I felt great for the guy when he suddenly became a headlining name on the poster and ad campaign for Tony Scott's DOMINO.

If you wanna know why Penn/Depp succeeded when Rourke was in hell for years, I'll tell it...since I've written enough on this post alone.

P.S. - Pizzaboy, you ever see rourke's DESPERATE HOURS where he teamed up with DRAGON's director Cimino?