All-Star movies that work

Cafe Society
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TRYING TO AVOID SPOILERS, BUT NO PROMISES-- READ AT OWN RISK!
Will bold movie titles, so if you see a title you don’t want spoiled, you can skip the next few lines.
All-Star movies usually fail, because they often require that a lot of leading man/woman types play character roles, and they just don’t know how to do it. This is the reason that big budget films often flop-- they go for all-star casts, and you have a bunch of stars all trying to be “The” star of the movie. Sometimes the movie has one, and sometimes it doesn’t. Occasionally, the film takes a real chance and casts an unknown as the main character.

I’m thinking about this, because I saw Contagion for the first time today, and realized it was an all-star cast that worked really well.

It worked, because the one actress known for being a bit of a diva, Gwenyth Paltrow, can still manage to be professional in front of the camera, and at any rate, her character was still the “sun” around which the film revolved, even if she had less screen-time than most other people, and she did get the first death scene (it’s very early-- not a spoiler).

Additionally, some of the actors in the film who are stars, for one reason or another got their start as character actors, and so fall nicely back into it. Most of the rest are just very talented, and, I assume, professional. Two women started fairly young in their careers (Kate Winslet and Jennifer Ehle), and so have played supporting parts before.

Another film that was a remarkable All-Star ensemble piece was the original (1974, IIRC) ***Murder on the Orient Express. ***Even Sean Connery manages to be just another guy in the film. Ingrid Bergman was even offered Lauren Bacall’s glamorous part, and requested the drab part she ended up playing instead (and won an Oscar for it).

Alien is another great example. In fact, the only unknown in that film is Sigourney Weaver. NO ONE had heard of her before. So when the actors begin to die in order of famousness (Yes, John Hurt was the most famous in 1979), of course the red shirt was going to die. She should have died first. I was never more on the edge of my seat-- I was 12, and almost in hysterics waiting for the monster to jump out at the end of that movie.

The HBO film for TV And the Band Played on works beautifully too. In fact, I think It’s the only think I really like Steve Martin in.

What other All-Star films that actually work am I missing?

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It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

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Oceans 11…Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame

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I remember watching Rat Race and thinking “Whoa… John Cleese, Cuba Gooding, Kathy Bates… we’ve got a ton of Oscar-level talent here. And hey, Breckin and Amy, Whoopi, Lovitz, Newwwman, Mr Bean…”

Not sure it qualifies, but it is an All-Star Screwball Comedy.

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Clue. I’m not sure how we’re determining all star status (were they big stars before filming?) but…

Did you recognize Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go’s?

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OSCAR is in the same all-star comedic vein and is well worth your time in my opinion. The critics absolutely loathed it and I’ll admit that “Stallone” and comedy don’t naturally go together. If you look at the rest of the cast though, the talent just stacks up like cord wood. Marisa Tomei, Kurtwood Smith, Tim Curry, Arleen Sorkin, Don Ameche and Chazz Palminteri. Martin Ferrero and Harry Shearer come close to stealing the whole movie. Throw in a cameo by Kirk Douglass, more talented character actors than I could name and put them all under the direction of John Landis and you’re going to get comedy gold.

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More recently, Knives Out had what I’d consider an all-star cast. Not all BIG stars but lots of well-known names and faces. And I thought it was a terrific movie.

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**Heat **- Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, Val Kilmer, several other big names that were in every movie in the 90’s (Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Ted Levine, Dennis Haysbert, Natalie Portman).

Coincidentally I was just down a Val Kilmer rabbit hole and I was reading up on this movie - considered one of the best crime movies of the 90’s, or ever, I’d say.

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Best in Show, maybe.

Or the original Ghostbusterx.

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Most of the cast in both became stars later.

American Graffiti and MASH* also look like all-star casts, but they were unknown at the time they were made.

How the West Was Won was a decent movie with a true all-star cast. It worked, if not spectacularly. But it was clearly better than its Cinerama brother It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World with failed miserably as a comedy.

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I don’t know if I would agree with that. It’s certainly not memorable for it’s proposed good qualities but it’s enjoyable enough IMHO. Then again, I’m the guy who liked The Cannonball Run so you might want to take my opinion with about eight pounds of salt.

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It’s chic nowadays to hate on the movie, but I thought Love Actually worked really well and I still like that movie very much.

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Virus(1980). A Japanese film with a bunch of American stars…none of whom turn out to be the hero of the story.

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The Magnificent Seven - Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn.

Serious question - was Brad Dexter a “star” back in those days? Because I think this is the only movie I’ve ever seen him in.

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Among war movies, “The Longest Day” and “Midway” (1976) worked pretty well while having all-star casts.

“Midway” even survived having Erik Estrada in the role of “Chili Bean” Ramos.

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I think that might be another film that only has an all-star cast in retrospect. Yul Brenner’s fame at the time was well beyond the others’ and I suspect actors like James Coburn and Charles Bronson were no better known than Brad Dexter in 1960.

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War movies and disaster movies seem to be the genres rife with “all-star casts”. I wonder if it’s because the high salaries don’t look that daunting to producers compared to their already high production costs.

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You may be right. IMDB says it came out in 1960. I didn’t realize it was that early, I thought it was more like mid to late 60s. So yeah a lot of those big names were probably not yet “stars”.

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My husband turned on **Silverado **the other day and I was surprised at the number of names in the cast, tho I’m not sure how big they all were in 1985. To name a few: Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner, John Cleese, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Linda Hunt, Roseanna Arquette…

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(bolding mine)

The original Airport was pretty good (IMHO, it’s still watchable, unlike the sequels); I’m guessing Jackie Bisset was the least known “name” at the time.