Based on the recommendations herein, I watched Murder by Death last night.
I would like that hour and a half back, pls.
GREAT call on Sneakers, which is practically the winning definition of the OP.
I mean, the movie is as light as a feather, but the cast is fantastic. I mean, Robert Redford, Sidney Potier, and Ben Kingsley? (Yes, Ben Kingsley. . . remember back when the movie was released, he was still the guy from Gandhi, not the guy from “every bad movie ever made in the last decade.”)
I will also ditto Armageddon, Con-Air, and add The Rock. I generally hate hate HATE Michael Bay movies with a passion, I recognize and despise his evil, yet. . . those movies are consistently entertaining and watchable every time they show up on TV. The casting has a lot to do with it.
Finally, cheers for Old School. I’m growing sick of seeing these guys in every other movie released (not to mention the same Apatow or Apatow-lite formula endlessly repeated), but that movie just clicks, like great jazz.
Last night I watched The Ruins to test my theory that Jena Malone has never sucked, and generally elevates anything she’s in.
She, along with most of the rest of the cast, and a sufficiently good director, managed to do that. It doesn’t quite rescue the movie, though. The script is irredeemably bad, but it managed to be just barely entertaining.
Based on that theory, I’ve started this thread on actors who rarely/never show up in bad movies.
For once, no one has mentioned my pick yet.
Clue, with Madeleine Kahn, Tim Curry, Michael McKean, and Christopher Lloyd (among others). And did I mention Madeleine Kahn? Here’s her signature scene (YouTube).
In my family, if you want to convey that you got really angry, you say, “I was SO mad at her – flames. Flames, on the side of my face . . . .”
The movie didn’t actually make much sense, but the cast was great.
Could not agree more. IMHO, the scene where they detect the “fake” USD 100 bills is one of the best comic movie scenes of all time.
And Yaphet Kotto as Lt. Alonzo Mosely steals every scene he appears in.
I gotta watch this movie again soon.
I agree with Armageddon and Independence Day, among others.
But to my mind, one of the great examples of what the OP asks for is Tombstone. Could have been a ridiculously hokey retelling of one of the Old West’s cliches: the Showdown at the OK Corral. Saved by the performances of the actors – Sam Elliott and Bill Paxton as the “other” Earp brothers were excellent, but Val Kilmer gave the performance of his life as Doc Holliday – over-the-top, sure, but that seems to be what he was aiming for: a larger-than-life character with nothing to lose being most unmistakably himself at the defining moment of his life. And he pulled it off.
Ludovic, I have to agree about Troy. I disliked the movie because of the characters, writing and plot - I can only imagine how much I would have hated it if the cast, and casting, hadn’t been brilliant.
My vote is for Josie and the Pussycats. I’m still not sure it was a great movie, but Alan Cumming and Parker Posey sure made it fun to watch.
I also adore Hackers, but it’s not just for the cast, which, IMHO, was surprisingly good for a ridiculous no-star film - Angelina Jolie’s debut, Johnny Lee Miller, Matthew Lillard, Jesse Bradford, Lorraine Bracco and Alberta Watson.
I wanted to throw in another vote for Con Air. That movie plays like the writers were actively trying to screw it up: it’s apparently supposed to play like a gritty action flick, yet the actors get the stupidest lines imaginable… and manage to pull them off. The bunny scene has to be one of the most surreal moments in popcorn cinema I’ve ever seen.
I always thought of “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon”, “Deep Impact” was the better movie.
So does Dennis Farina.
“I’m gonna stab you through the heart with a f*ckin’ pencil.”
It may be frothy, but it gets a lot of love in the hacker community for making a lot more sense than the usual Hollywood nonsense (apart from the McGuffin of a universal decryptor). The existence of blind Phone Phreaks is not part of the mainstream.
Another vote for Midnight Run. I usually find Charles Grodin profoundly un-entertaining, but he’s perfectly cast in this movie – and to think that the studio (IIRC) wanted Robin Williams for the part. And, yes, Yaphet Kotto and Dennis Farina steal every scene that they’re in.
Primal Fear would have ranked as a mediocre little courtroom thriller without the amazing performance of the then-unknown Edward Norton. Richard Gere is so-so, some of the supporting player are quite good, but this is the movie that made Norton a star.
I was going to say Clue, but the cast is soooooo good, I honestly can’t judge if the rest of the movie is any good. It might be great, it might be terrible, but they are so damn funny, the movie is perfect.
“Australia” was not laughably bad thanks to the cast.
Uh, I think you accidentally included a “not” in your post.
Now that’s a great example of a movie that could have been completely horrible.
I’d throw in the first Riddick film (edit: it’s called “Pitch Black”), and Legally Blonde.