(Credit: Netflix)

In the mid-2000s, the prospect of Matthew McConaughey winning an Academy Award could generously be described as remote, with the undeniably talented star opting to waste his time collecting easy paycheques in a string of forgettable romantic comedies.

The financial rewards were every bit as handsome as the man himself, and as much as they could be relied upon always to do a decent turn at the box office, McConaughey had spent the early years of his career focusing on range and versatility. Suddenly, though, parading around shirtless became his biggest selling point.

In the span of less than a decade, he co-headlined How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days and Fool’s Gold with Kate Hudson, sparred with Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner, and fell for Jennifer Garner in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. They were all cut from a very similar cloth, but ticket-buying patrons couldn’t get enough because he was so charming and charismatic.

If it wasn’t for the McConnaisance, he might have continued down that path forever. Fortunately, the star eventually grew bored of cinema’s lighter and fluffier side, reinventing himself as a powerhouse dramatic talent who ultimately scooped ‘Best Actor’ gold at the Oscars for a transformative performance in Dallas Buyers Club.

However, his rom-coms remain as popular as ever regardless, thanks to their light-hearted and undemanding nature, with one of them currently tearing it up on Netflix. Relying on his tried-and-trusted slacker shtick once more, director Tom Dey’s Failure to Launch would sail past $130 million at the box office in early 2006.

Playing a 35-year-old manchild, McConaughey’s Tripp is happy to spend his life doing nothing, as well as being waited on hand and foot by Kathy Bates’ mother Sue. He’s embarked on a series of short-term flings, which invariably come to a swift end when those potential paramours discover he still lives at home with his parents.

Deciding they’ve had enough of their unambitious son and his lackadaisical ways, Tripp’s parents hire Sarah Jessica Parker’s Paula, an expert in figuring out what makes men so happy to whittle away their lives without carrying a single shred of interest in a future outside the four walls of their childhood home.

In an incredible twist that nobody could have possibly seen coming, Paula’s professional concern blossoms into a personal interest, and the two begin to fall for each other in a truly revelatory development for the rom-com.

Of course, people don’t watch McConaughey’s rom-coms with the intention of being exposed to daring forms of experimental cinema, they just want to be entertained. With that in mind, Failure to Launch debuting on Netflix and immediately becoming the seventh most-watched movie on the global viewership charts is far from an unexpected development.