It was a BOMB but a huge bomb, so well financed that it helped break the studio financially that made it, so sorry, not appropriate here.
Well it sounds like an art film that flopped, not a piece of crap that inexplicably got good actors.
I remember seeing the promos for “Town and Country” and thinking, “It LOOKS like it’s supposed to be a comedy, but none of these bits in the trailer are funny at all.” I imagine a lot of people had that response. But wasn’t it a big-budget film with major studio backing? Sounds like a garden-variety studio flop to me.
Sounds like exactly what I’m thinking of … I never heard of the film, I guess Kimmel or someone he knew pulled some strings to get that cast.
Interesting. I’ll keep an eye out.
I don’t think either version qualifies, as neither is really a bad movie. A mediocre spoof and a mediocre Bond film at worst.
Kind of cheating, because I haven’t actually seen the movie, but maybe a (Dis)Honorable Mention for Zardoz–granted, I haven’t really heard of most of those people, but Sean Connery was already a big name (“Bond. James Bond”), and Charlotte Rampling seems to have already had a reasonably prominent career at that point.
Oh, I think Zardoz is a GREAT example. I mean, how did they pitch that movie to Connery? “You’ll be a badass who carries a gun and wears braids, AND your costume will consist of an adult diaper!”
You don’t think the 67 Casino Royale is a bad movie? What made it rise above bad? The writing? The Story? The photography (which I will give a solid B to), the editing? The direction? It isn’t Plan B or Rocky Horror bad, but it is a truly awful turd sitting in the punch bowl that is bad movies.
Recent releases that are supposed to be pretty poor: Escape Plan, Schwartenegger, Stallone, Amy Ryan; and Last Vegas (Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen) is apparently just awful.
As for one I’ve actually seen, I give you The Two Jakes, the Nicholson-directed sequel to Chinatown: Nicholson (who should have stuck to acting), Harvey Keitel, Meg Tilly, Madeleine Stowe, Eli Wallach, Reuben Blades, David Keith, Richard Farnsworth, James Hong. Most of these people (with the exception of Tilly) can carry a film on their own. All of them together couldn’t save this mess.
Zardoz got typical so-so reviews from both critics and the audiences. It lost money on its original release. It probably has made a fair amount now, since it’s a cult film. I don’t think this fits your description in the OP.
That doesn’t count. Heigl signed a contract with the devil to get into movies. The fine print said the movies would all suck, each one more so than previous.
She can flop on my set anytime.
Maybe not quite at the level of some of the other films mentioned, but the first one that leaped to mind was The Keep, a book I really liked and thought should make a good horror film, especially with a cast like Ian McKellan, Scott Glenn, Gabriel Byrne, and Jurgen Prochnow, but it was pretty much a vast, non-scary, stupid pit of suck.
“I’m sick of being typecast as James Bond!”
“We hear you, Sean. Say, would 007 wear a red diaper with thigh-high boots?”
“No, he would not.”
“So throw in a handlebar mustache and it’s problem solved, buddy.”
I thought it was a fun little spoof. Especially Woody Allen as the Bond villain. YMMV.
Another suggestion: The Bonfire of the Vanities, a 1990 movie starring Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, Melanie Griffith, Kim Cattrall and Morgan Freeman. The movie was directed by Brian De Palma. You might remember that it was based on a novel by Tom Wolfe that was hugely popular in the late 1980s, so there was a lot of anticipation for the movie. But the movie flopped commercially and has a 16% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
A year after 1974’s Young Frankenstein (with writing credits going to Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder) came The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother, written by Wilder, and starring several of the YF cast: Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, and the voice of Brooks. Joining them: Dom DeLuise, Leo McKern, and Roy Kinnear.
I suppose the 1975 movie has its fans, but to me it’s really unfunny. Anytime I’ve tried to watch it I’ve found myself feeling embarrassed for the participants. It’s an odd experience because the movie made just the year before is such an evergreen source of laughs.
(And the failings of TAOSHSB can’t be solely attributed to Brook’s lesser involvement, since not absolutely everything he’s made has risen to the standard set by YF.)
Yep, video of all of them in Tijuana or something like that. It’s just so weird - Nielsen was hot at the time thanks to Airplane and Police Squad, Williams was shooting the last season of Laverne and Shirley, Graham was recognizable for Used Cars, at least, and Patrick MacNee was Patrick MacNee. You spend the whole movie wondering what the hell they’re all doing there. Btw, it was renamed Naked Space on video after Nielsen had a hit with Naked Gun, five years after it was released.
The “I Want To Eat Your Face” number is on Youtube.
Aww, I liked Town & Country. People should give it a second look because it really is quite funny. Movies like that are really out of style these days, but if it had come out in 1983 it would probably be considered a beloved classic.
Put me down for #3. I bought the DVD at a $2.99 bargain bin years ago and I think it’s hilarious. It’s a space movie that looks like it was filmed over a weekend with a camcorder and a $500 budget, but the dialog is hilarious and the facial expressions of the characters are often priceless.
The smartass computer, Nielson trying to act like he knows how to fly a spaceship, Gerrit Graham with his trucker hat and constant insubordination, John with his synthetic meals. I’m laughing just thinking about it.
Holy smokes, the full movie is on youtube