Are moviegoers finally ready to forgive Kevin Costner for ‘Waterworld’ and ‘The Postman’?

Everyone loves a good comeback, and Kevin Costner has been trying to stage his own for a while now. With this weekend's release of Costner's latest film "Draft Day," are audiences ready to forgive him for his past mistakes?

"Draft Day" puts Costner in the role of Sonny Weaver, a football general manager who trades his No. 1 pick on draft day for the chance to rebuild his struggling team from the ground up. The sports dramedy is one of Costner's first starring roles since his Hollywood comeback began in earnest with a supporting part in 2013's "Man of Steel."

Believe it or not, but there was a time when Costner was the undisputed king of Hollywood. A string of major critical and financial hits in the late '80s and early '90s -- including classics like “The Untouchables” (1987), “Field of Dreams” (1989), “Dances with Wolves” (1990), “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” (1991) “JFK” (1991), and “The Bodyguard” (1992) -- helped transform the actor into the biggest movie star of his day. In 1991, Costner won the coveted Best Director Oscar for his filmmaking debut, the Civil War drama “Dances with Wolves.” Acting and directing: Costner was the total Hollywood package, a creative force to be reckoned with… or so everyone thought.

Costner’s Hollywood reign came to an abrupt end after a series of poor career choices. The latter half of the 1990s saw Costner attached both as an actor and filmmaker to the high-profile box office bomb “Waterworld” (1995), which was the most expensive movie ever produced at the time and ultimately only made back $88 million off of its $235 million budget. It certainly didn't help that "Waterworld" director Kevin Reynolds quit the film near the end of production, later telling Entertainment Weekly, ''In the future, Costner should only appear in pictures he directs himself. That way he can always be working with his favorite actor and his favorite director.''

Less than two years later, the actor/director was hard at work on his next ill-fated pet project: 1997's "The Postman." The epic tale of a drifter (Costner) who decides to become mailman in a dystopian future, the movie was about as exciting as that premise sounds. The critics were not kind. Roger Ebert gave "The Postman" one-and-a-half stars and called it both "goofy" and "pretentious," while Stephen Holden of the New York Times was far less charitable, painting the picture as jingoistic, "shamelessly corny," "ham-fisted," and a "bald-faced exercise in cinematic self-deification." Ouch. The $80-million film made just $17.6 million at the box office.

"Waterworld" and "The Postman" were both failures, but what the two films really did was change people's perceptions about Costner. In the eyes of the public, he was transformed from a smirking, handsome leading man into an egotistical control freak who didn't work well with others. Though Costner has continued to act and direct since the flops, those two films were a one-two punch that basically ended Costner’s A-list career, and he's still recovering from it to this day.

So, should audiences still be wary of any film featuring the former superstar? What does "Draft Day" have going for it that "Waterworld" and "The Postman" didn't?

Well, for one, Costner isn't directing this movie. That honour goes to Canadian filmmaker Ivan Reitman ("Ghostbusters"). Despite the actor/director's Oscar accolades for "Dances with Wolves," studios quickly learned after "The Postman" that having "A Film by Kevin Costner" on a poster was box office poison.

Another thing working in "Draft Day's" favour? The fact that Costner isn't playing the would-be saviour of humanity. Here, he's simply playing a sports-loving all-American guy -- exactly the sort of role that shot him to stardom in the late '80s. Early reviews of "Draft Day" have been fairly positive, and even the critics who don't like the movie have praised Costner's performance and presence.

Whether or not "Draft Day" is a financial success almost doesn't matter at this point. The modest $20-million film will almost certainly earn back its budget, but the real success story here is Costner, an actor who has worked steadily since falling out of favour and has managed to repair his image in the process.

Costner is unquestionably a talented actor and a fantastic screen presence. Seeing the former A-lister actor back in major Hollywood productions like "Man of Steel," "Jack Ryan," and now "Draft Day" is a treat for anyone who considered themselves fan of Costner's earlier work. It's enough to make audiences forget those past mistakes.

But what about filmmaking? Does Costner plan to use this comeback to get back behind the camera again?

For anyone who was forced to sit through "Waterworld" or "The Postman," the recent news about the actor/director's plans to make an epic three-part Western may be slightly distressing. While it's certainly fair to admire Costner's filmmaking ambitions, as his previous projects quite expensively demonstrated, "epic" is not a word moviegoers associate fondly with the actor.

That said, between "Dances with Wolves," "Open Range," and the recent "Hatfields & McCoys" miniseries, the 59-year-old has fared pretty well with Westerns. He could do worse, but Costner should probably stick to acting until the so-called "Costnergence" is complete. Then, and only then, will film audiences be willing to cut Costner some slack when he decides to direct again.

"Draft Day" hits theatres on April 11.