On the occasion of Fool's Gold, arguably the laziest and stupidest movie of Matthew McConaughey's increasingly lazy and stupid career, I'd like to raise the question: What the hell are you doing, man?

For over a decade, the only guarantee McConaughey's made to audience is that he'll be bare-chested. In Fool's Gold (see photo above), McConaughey's co-star Kate Hudson keeps her shirt on, but not our boy. He makes it a pec fest. His old pal Matt Damon ragged on him on Letterman (check the clip on YouTube), mimicking McConaughey's Texas twang as he tells a director: "Today's scene I think would be a good opportunity to take my shirt off."

It's true that McConaughey looks great with his shirt off. But I can remember when people noticed his acting. Here's a few memory nudgers:

DAZED AND CONFUSED 1993 McConaughey debuts with a bang as Dave Wooderson, a twentysomething stoner still hanging with the teens. "That's what I love about high school girls," he says, "I get older, they stay the same age." Primo stuff, right down to the porn star mustache.

A TIME TO KILL 1996 The film version of John Grisham's 1989 novel put McConaughey on the map. Grisham rejected the usual star suspects (Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer, Woody Harrelson) but sparked when director Joel Schumacher brought him McConaughey, a Texas greenhorn best known as Drew Barrymore's cop loverman in Boys on the Side. Grisham was right to hold out. McConaughey, then twenty six, is dynamite in a performance of smarts, sexiness, scrappy humor and unmistakable star sizzle.

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