I made the mistake of renting “Bringing Down The House” last night. I know the reviews were pretty lukewarm, but figured that since the cast included Steve Martin, Queen Latifah, Eugene Levy, Jean Smart and Betty White, there would at least be some good comedic timing and some decent laughs.
What a piece of crap! Martin was so obviously bored with the project and the insipid dialogue that he could barely be roused from his lethargy to deliver his lines. Latifah tried, but without anyone to play off of just went flat. Betty White was just obnoxious with the racial bullshit. I only made it through the first half hour or so before calling it quits.
I’ve been trying to recall other films with potentially good casts that have just gone nowhere. “Heaven’s Gate” comes to mind, as does “Ishtar” and “The Two Jakes”. Your opinions?
Liv Tyler, John Goodman, Paul Reiser, Michael Douglas, and post-Mary Matt Dillon in One Night at McCool’s. I like all of them a whole lot, but the movie was a disappoitment.
Mystery Men’s cast sounded like a miracle on Earth, and I actually liked the movie, but it often feels like I’m the only one.
Holy Christ, the craptacular ass-vapor that is Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin leaps into my mind very, VERY easily. :rolleyes:
If you told me back in 1997 you were making a superhero movie with George Clooney, Chris O’Donnell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Alicia Silverstone, and Uma Thurman, I’d be pretty excited.
“Steaming pile” is too kind a term. I bought this pre-viewed on VHS at a Blockbuster for $1.00. I watched exactly 18 minutes before turning it off and disposing of the evidence.
“Wag the Dog”. Dustin Hoffman gave an inspired performance while Denis Lery, Andrea Martin, Greg Kinner, and Anne Hesche all did their best to inject some light into a screenplay that started out dark and moved towards a total eclispe. It might have worked except for Robert deNiro’s performance weighing the entire movie down. (The guy can’t do comedy unless he’s playing a character who happens to have some humorous aspect.)
Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Stanley Tucci, Delroy Lindo, Bruce Greenwood, and Alfre Woodard Starring In:[ul][li]Neil LaBute’s latest misanthropic angst-fest?[/li][li]The newest eclectic masterpiece from indie god, John Sayles?[/li][li]A firey, racially charged Spike Lee tract.[/li][li]A goofy, laughably bad, high-camp big budget special effects sci-fi/disaster flick about how the Earth’s core has stopped spinning and all of the resultant wacky electro-magnetic hijinks.[/ul]Pick the movie that actually got made.[/li]
[sub]I actually enjoyed it immensely but I admit the putrescence of the whole endeavour.[/sub]
Well, there are two of us, then. I liked it the one time I saw it in the theater, and again a couple months ago when I rented it. Not enough to buy it, though. Guess it goes to show, no matter how bad everyone else thinks a film is, there’s someone who loves it.
The first thing to spring to my mind was the dreadful version of The Man in the Iron Mask that came out a few years back – Gabriel Byrne as D’Artagnan, John Malkovich as Athos, Gerard Depardieu as Porthos, Jeremy Irons as Aramis, and, for that matter, I thought Leo DiCaprio was actually well cast as the pissy young Louis XIV. But the movie turned out to be a total waste of celluloid (and, for that matter, of two hours). I blame the script.
The classic example from the 60s was The Madwoman of Chaillot:
Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Oskar Homolka, Yul Brynner, Richard Chamberlain, Dame Edith Evans, Donald Pleasence, John Gavin, Danny Kaye,
Giulietta Masina, and Charles Boyer were all in the cast. It didn’t help.
Then I’m the third person chiming in for Mystery Men. Not only did I love the cast, but I’m a huge fan of comic books and superheroes, and especially stories that mixed typical superhero melodrama with humor. While the movie wasn’t horrible by any stretch, I think it was a box office disappointment. Even I, the perfect target audience member, wasn’t impressed enough to want to own a copy. Did that director, Kinka Usher, ever work again?
I liked it too. In fact, it’s the only movie with Ben Stiller that I’ve ever enjoyed. Though I did stop seeing Ben Stiller productions a few movies back.
The Cast:
Ellen Barkin, Gabriel Byrne, Richard Dreyfuss, Jeff Goldblum, Diane Lane, Burt Reynolds, Joey Bishop, Kyle MacLachlan, Angie Everhart, Henry Silva, Michael J. Pollard, Gregory Hines, Billy Idol, Billy Drago, Paul Anka, Richard Pryor, Rob Reiner
Roger Ebert said this one of the few films he had ever seen which was not an improvement over two hours spent staring at a blank screen. I saw the film on cable and was so confused by its total lack of sense that I read up on it on the IMDB. Consider yourselves warned.
I am sure a top nominee for most conspicuous waste of talent, ever.
Mystery Men, like Hudson Hawk is something that everyone is convinced no one else likes, when in fact, lots of people like it.
My nomination: Hook. Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Bob Hoskins, Maggie Smith, and even a brief appearance from a not-yet-famous Gwyneth Paltrow. Oh, and it was directed by a reasonably good director… Steven Something
Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, José Ferrer, Slim Pickens, Fred MacMurray and Henry Fonda.
