Films hurt by their large, stellar casts
Submitted by ash_campbell on Wed, 05/28/2003 - 05:34
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- The idea on this one is that the making of the film must have been much more fun than the viewing it. It's not that these films are bad, but the filling of every character actor by a top-notch actor/actress starts to detract from the overall film. Similarly, it can be that the film isn't very gripping, and that it was only made so the cast could have fun. I'm sure there are many others, but here are 5 obvious ones:
- 1. Ocean’s 11 (1960). The Rat Pack must have had a blast, but great filmmaking it ain’t.
- 2. Ocean’s 11 (2001). It was only remade so that Julia, George, Brad, and Steven could have a good time. And is it just me, or does the idea of a sequel to a remake of a movie that didn’t have a sequel and was originally made 40 years ago seem odd?
- 3. Battle of Britain. War films seem to dominate this category, and this example is the British entry.
- 4. The Longest Day. Dude, this cast is insane: Mitchum, Fonda, Wayne, and that whole European group. Crazy.
- 5. Murder on the Orient Express. At least here, they seemed to be trying. This may be the best example of the film becoming a distraction, since there are so few characters.
- 6. The Thin Red Line (1998). This shows up here because the list of cameos is huge and it really detracts from an otherwise solid movie.
- 7. The Score (2001). Thanks to grizham1 for this one. Interestingly, this seems like an exception to the general idea that making it was a lot of fun. All reports I've heard/read say that filming was horrible, as Brando and director Frank Oz dislked each other intensely.
The Score
A Bridge Too Far
for your consideration
Oohhh, The Score is a good call. It should have been way better.
The Longest Day does have a large, stellar cast but it's a great movie. Another great movie with a large stellar cast might be Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) with Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Maximilian Schell, Judy Garland & Montgomery Clift.
The Towering Inferno - ? I don't know if the cast had fun, but I'm sure that if they could have seen into the future to 9/11 they would have been horrified. McQueen, Newman, Holden, Dunaway, Astaire, Vaughn, Wagner...
That's a good one. I've never seen it, but it would seem to fit the mold. I've heard McQueen enjoyed filming, but I don't know how much the cast joked around...