# When a great cast rescues a cheesy movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 25, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959 "2009-01-25T21:16:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/21 "2009-01-26T03:26:53Z")
Oh, and _Crash_. It wasn’t just the acting that saved _Crash_; I give credit to the director and director of photography, too. But that movie could have been unbelievably preachy, and it came across as only slightly so. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/22 "2009-01-26T03:33:43Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Ha! I just got [that joke](http://www.lionel.com/). Wait till you find out his address. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/23 "2009-01-26T03:39:34Z")
actually a great cast probably rescues a TV show more often than it does a movie. Would anyone have watched “The Wild Wild West” without the two lead actors? ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/24 "2009-01-26T03:59:42Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > _The Princess Bride_. I can’t think of anything corny, with goofier sets, weirder writing, or a lamer plot. But Cary Elwes, Peter Falk, Fred Savage, Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Andre the Giant, Christopher Guest, Mandy Patinkin, Billy Crystal, and Carol Kane make it great. I think you may have just come up with the perfect answer! ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/25 "2009-01-26T04:03:13Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > I think you may have just come up with the perfect answer! The plot wasn’t lame at all. The Princess Bride is a horrible example. That movie was amazing from top to bottom. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/26 "2009-01-26T04:15:08Z")
Old School - it has the barest semblance of a plot, but who cares because you’ve got Will Ferrell and Vince Vaughn in hilarious roles along with Luke Wilson, Sean William Scott, Jeremy Piven, and others in the supporting cast. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/27 "2009-01-26T04:19:19Z")
I’ll nominate I.Q., which was on HBO a couple of weeks ago. Walter Matthau as Albert Einstein with Lou Jacobi, Gene Saks and Joseph Maher as his brain trust, Stephen Fry as a pompous Brit, Tim Robbins and Meg Ryan as the romantic leads, as well as Charles Durning, Tony Shalhoub and Frank Whaley. I liked it a lot and Walter Matthau really made it work. ---
**Author:** ![groo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecd19e/32.png) [@groo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groo)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/28 "2009-01-26T04:36:01Z")
[From another thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=7904776#post7904776) > [@Movies everyone hates but you](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-everyone-hates-but-you/377951/38): > > **The Core**. Why do people hate this movie? All you have to do is that old “suspension of disbelief” thing … I mean, why do people think that elves and gnomes and Darth Vader are believable, but tunneling through molten lava is implausible? Or landing a space shuttle in a drainage canal? Or restarting the rotation of the planet’s molten core with a few nukes? Hmm; I’m not helping my case much. Suffice to say, pay no attention to that physicist behind the curtain; just focus on the characters. > > **A Knight’s Tale** First off, it’s just a good movie (‘change your stars’ and all that). Second, the DVD commentary is good. > > I second and third _The Fifth Element, Joe vs the Volcano and Enemy of the State_. [And another thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=10428087&highlight=core#post10428087) > [@What If The Earth Spun The Other Way](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-the-earth-spun-the-other-way/471844/38): > > Note that in [this documentary](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298814/), they showed how it’s possible to use strategically placed nukes throughout the liquid hot magma of the earth’s core to inject enough angular momentum that it can resume its rotation. Presumably, we could just use a little more energy to stop the rotation and subsequently start it back up in the opposite direction. We should be able to test this theory in just a few days, but we’d have to get more than $100 billion (2003 dollars) of unobtanium which, obviously, we won’t be able to do until we get the economy back in shape. Welcome! Now, let me tell you why they had to pretend that Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers were some sort of “fictional” characters … ETA: In The Core, an intelligent, high-performing person learns that she must experience failure spectacularly before she can get an accurate measure of herself. That is a very good point, and for some reason, not a point made too often in movies. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/29 "2009-01-26T04:49:46Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I’ll nominate I.Q., which was on HBO a couple of weeks ago. Walter Matthau as Albert Einstein with Lou Jacobi, Gene Saks and Joseph Maher as his brain trust, Stephen Fry as a pompous Brit, Tim Robbins and Meg Ryan as the romantic leads, as well as Charles Durning, Tony Shalhoub and Frank Whaley. I liked it a lot and Walter Matthau really made it work. Brilliant example, waaaaay underappreciated movie. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/30 "2009-01-26T04:50:27Z")
Noises off. With Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine. A pretty basic farce, but the cast made it funny as hell. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/31 "2009-01-26T05:17:17Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Noises off. > > With Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine. > > A pretty basic farce, but the cast made it funny as hell. Hm. I thought that one was unwatchable. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/32 "2009-01-26T05:32:07Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > The plot wasn’t lame at all. The Princess Bride is a horrible example. That movie was amazing from top to bottom. Perhaps, but it definitely would’ve suffered greatly without that exact cast. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/33 "2009-01-26T08:53:38Z")
Re: **Murder by Death** > [@choie](#): > > This is the film I came in here to mention. I think more highly of its humor than you do – there are lots of lowbrow but funny laughs in here: The butler named Jamessir Bensonmum, for example; and also Lionel Twain carping on the pseudo Charlie Chan’s Engrish pronunciation will never not make me laugh: I really like this movie, but the bit about Wang not saying his articles doesn’t really do anything for me. However: > [@](#): > > Dora Charleston: Oh, that’s probably the cook. Come in! > Dick Charleston: Darling, the poor woman is stone deaf. > Dora Charleston: I’m sorry, I forgot. COME IN! > [@](#): > > Sam Diamond: That man is dead, and all the doors are locked from the inside. That can only mean one thing. And I don’t know what it is. > [@](#): > > Dora Charleston: I don’t understand. Why would anybody want to steal a dead, naked body? > Dick Charleston: Well, dear, there are people who, um… > [whispers rest into her ear] > Dora Charleston: Oh, that’s tacky! That’s REALLY tacky! Brilliant! Fans of this movie have, of course, also seen **The Cheap Detective**? ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/34 "2009-01-26T14:25:25Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > _Joe Vs. the Volcano_, the entire plot is corny as hell, the audience is beaten over the head with the theme, the dialouge is cheesy but it has Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, Nathan Lane, Dan Hedaya and they make is funny and poignant. Or so says me, if you disagree, fuck off. You forgot it also starred steamer trunks, other than that, I’m with ya buddy. I adore that movie. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/35 "2009-01-26T14:56:42Z")
“What’s Up Doc?” was a good homage to screwball comedies but it worked well because of its supporting cast. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/36 "2009-01-26T15:09:26Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > _The Princess Bride_. I can’t think of anything corny, with … weirder writing You seriously need to see more movies. Start with the Coen brothers. > [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > actually a great cast probably rescues a TV show more often than it does a movie. Would anyone have watched “The Wild Wild West” without the two lead actors? Well, what fun would that have been? The camera sitting in the train for an hour, watching the pool table? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/37 "2009-01-26T15:31:19Z")
One counterexample I can think of: Casino Royale, the first one: David Niven, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, and I forget who else (Orson Welles, but it was a past-his-prime Orson Welles, so probably shouldn’t count). You’d think the resulting movie, no matter how bad the script, would still have funny in it. But it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/38 "2009-01-26T16:01:53Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > One counterexample I can think of: Casino Royale, the first one: David Niven, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen, and I forget who else (Orson Welles, but it was a past-his-prime Orson Welles, so probably shouldn’t count). You’d think the resulting movie, no matter how bad the script, would still have funny in it. > > But it doesn’t. I disagree. Given the amount of star power and the idea of spoofing James Bond, Casino Royale was certainly disappointing. But it had its moments, particularly Deborah Kerr’s hilariously over the top performance and a lot of Woody Allen’s material. An example I’d cite is _Airplane!_. True, the gags kept coming, but would it have been anywhere near as memorable without Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack and Barbara Billingsley? ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/39 "2009-01-26T16:12:07Z")
> [@choie](#): > > I’ll also add _Zorro, the Gay Blade_, thanks to terrific scenery-chewing performances by Ron Liebman, George Hamilton, and Brenda Vaccaro. I should be embarrassed to like this movie, but it’s such silly, stupid, good-natured humor that I can’t help myself. A _great_ movie, worth watching just for those three actors. > [@mswas](#): > > Governor Swann and Commodore Norrington were great characters. Played by great actors. Jonathon Pryce was fantastic as always. For my own contribution, **Undercover Blues**. The premise: two married spies are on leave with their new baby when they’re called back into action. It’s a very 80s/early 90s plot, and sounds almost like a cheap sitcom. The writing is better than that, but the cast (Dennis Quaid, Kathleen Turner, Fiona Shaw, Stanley Tucci, Obba Babatunde, Larry Miller) turn in absolutely fantastic performances. They’re all just a joy to watch, especially Quaid and Tucci. They turn a goofy premise into something absolutely entertaining. And although he doesn’t make up a great cast by himself, John Turturro saved **Transformers**. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959/40 "2009-01-26T16:14:47Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > _THEM!_ > > Giant ants–could have been a trainwreck. > > But– > > ``` > James Whitmore ... Police Sgt. Ben Peterson > Edmund Gwenn ... Dr. Harold Medford > Joan Weldon ... Dr. Patricia 'Pat' Medford > James Arness ... Robert Graham > Onslow Stevens ... Brig. Gen. Robert O'Brien > Sean McClory ... Maj. Kibbee > Chris Drake ... Trooper Ed Blackburn > Sandy Descher ... The Ellinson Girl > Mary Alan Hokanson ... Mrs. Lodge (as Mary Ann Hokanson) > Don Shelton ... Trooper Capt. Fred Edwards > Fess Parker ... Alan Crotty > > ``` > > Saved the day. “We don’t have time, Bob, to give you a quick course in insect pathology” is a catchphrase at our house. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-great-cast-rescues-a-cheesy-movie/482959.md?page=3)