Movies where a lot of talent is wasted

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by 64FALCON, Nov 24, 2022.

  1. 64FALCON

    64FALCON Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I was thinking about various movies I've seen over the years with a lot talented people involved that did not turn out too well for any number of reasons. I don't mean movies that turned out 'Average' but those that were 'Below Average' to 'BOMB'.

    What movies cross your viewfinders in this regard? Movies that could and should have been so much better than they actually were.

    One movie I think of that was not a good movie when first released and has certainly not aged like fine wine:

    TOY, The (1982) Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleason, Ned Beatty, Wilfred Hyde-White, Scott Schwartz and Teresa Ganzel.

    I'd have to look it up, but I'd guess "The Toy" made money upon its release upon the strength of the cast but it really is a misfire. I watched Richard Pryor's 1987 movie "Critical Condition" recently and it seems to have been critically trashed by every review I've read but I found it better than I thought it would be and much more watchable than "The Toy".

    Another one that springs to mind is CANNONBALL RUN 2. Makes "The Cannonball Run" look quite good by comparison -- heck, the competitors don't even finish the race in CR2. What was that all about not having a race winner? Very unsatisfying! At least in the original "Cannonball Run" there was a winner of the race.

    What do y'all think about movies you've seen where a lot of talent is squandered? Maybe you still like the movie despite its shortcomings but can't believe it wasn't better than it turned out.
     
  2. mmars982

    mmars982 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pittsburgh, PA
    Misconduct has my two favorite actors of all time paired together for the first time, and is one of the biggest waste of time movies ever made.

    [​IMG]
     
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  3. MikaelaArsenault

    MikaelaArsenault Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    Jack and Jill (2011)

    [​IMG]
     
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  4. Hanglow

    Hanglow Forum Resident

    Location:
    Saratoga New York
    Ha,I'm thinking a few of those "disaster" flicks from the 70's, some had major,major stars in them i.e. The Towering Inferno,Airport '75,76,77...was there more?:shh: ...don't forget Rollercoaster and Earthquake both in the new Sensurround:righton:
     
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  5. Mosep

    Mosep Senior Member

    Location:
    St.Louis, MO
    Casino Royale (1967), though at least that has an excellent soundtrack and plenty of "eye candy" to ogle.
     
  6. Roland Stone

    Roland Stone Offending Member

    For me, it would be BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES. An incredible waste of talent and source material.
     
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  7. 64FALCON

    64FALCON Forum Resident Thread Starter

    @Hanglow: Some of the 'Disaster Flicks' were better than others, to be sure. I thought "Beyond The Poseidon Adventure" was an amazing waste of talent. Ick!

    The theatrical version of THE SWARM (1978), which ran 116 minutes, was atrocious. The continuity was so cho/ppy due to Warner Bros. insisting on cuts from Irwin Allen's intended 155-minute version that it made a bad film even worse. Irwin Allen's 155-minute version has since surfaced and while no one would say "The Swarm" is a good movie I thought it was better (relatively speaking) because there's not large hunks of plot missing so I didn't get annoyed by the obvious cuts to the shorter, theatrical version.

    AIRPORT '79: THE CONCORDE is hilariously bad, but I still like it despite its badness. Director DAVID LOWELL RICH shortly thereafter made the 'BOMB' 1981 comedy CHU CHU AND THE PHILLY FLASH with Carol Burnett, Alan Arkin, Jack Warden and other familiar faces. "Chu Chu and the Philly Flash" has never had a DVD or Blu-Ray release that I'm aware of -- could it be because the movie's so bad? Danny Aiello is the funniest person in the movie.

    → I'm guilty of liking the poorly-regarded 1980 Irwin Allen disaster film WHEN TIME RAN OUT . . . When I watch the movie I simply put my brain in 'Neutral' so I don't think too much. It really makes the movie better when I do that. :goodie: I thought there were a few effective moments in "When Time Ran Out . . . " like when the oil workers want to keep going because they don't have the kind of money that their Boss (P. Newman) does. They simply can't afford to have the job stopped.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2022
  8. Claude

    Claude Senior Member

    Location:
    Luxembourg
    And also many romantic comedies using top stars.

    The problem is I don't remember those movies. If I saw them in a cinema, I have forgotten them and I certainly don't own them on DVD/Blu-ray. I'll have to go through filmographies to be reminded that they exist.

    It's only those movies which are spectacularly bad that get talked about still years later.

    Like this one:

    Movie 43 - Wikipedia
     
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  9. 64FALCON

    64FALCON Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I'd not heard of MOVIE 43 until now. I shall have a read of it on Wikipedia to see what it says.
     
  10. 64FALCON

    64FALCON Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Speaking of 'RomCom's . . . I almost forgot I saw THE WEDDING PLANNER once. There was no chemistry between JLo and Matthew M. Curse of death for any kind of 'Romance' movie. What a waste!

    → It jogs my memory a bit of when I watched the 1952 movie APRIL IN PARIS on TCM a few years ago. I'd never seen a movie where the leads had less chemistry together than Doris Day and Ray Bolger. Both were likeable in their roles but as a 'couple' . . . zero in the 'Believable Romance' department. Really is amazing to watch the movie and shake your head as to how the movie was cast. Who thought Doris and Ray would make a believable couple?
     
  11. a customer

    a customer Forum Resident

    Location:
    virginia
    Reindeer games
     
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  12. Red, Ocean's 12

    All that talent, wasted on hacky plotlines, mundane dialog, and predictable scene scripting. Boom! Bang! The work of actors utterly unchallenged by the roles written for them.

    The Men Who Stare At Goats
    wasn't quite as bad in that respect, but underwhelming nevertheless. I wanted to like it, but I expected a lot better from the storytelling. The ending was all very ah transcendent, but a little too easy.

    Masked And Anonymous
    , that's just a puzzler. Unlike the other pictures I've mentioned, I don't get the impression that the actual actors in the all-star cast (i.e., not Bob Dylan) are dialing back their abilities to go through the motions for a canned, prepackaged product. But I can't figure out if M&A even qualifies as a movie.

    Both Denzel and Liam are much better than any of their "special skill, licensed to kill" flicks.

    I don't have the same reaction to Damon or Cruise playing similar roles, for some reason. I don't get the same sense that their talents are wasted by doing "action" films. Even though their best work is to be found elsewhere.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2022
  13. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader

    Location:
    ontario canada
    Used to frequent the chat forum on bobdylan.com years ago.
    When 'Masked and Anonymous' was released the praise and accolades it got there were overwhelming.
    Masterpiece! Best movie ever! Top 10 film!
    Couldn't wait to see it.
    What a dud.
     
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  14. MekkaGodzilla

    MekkaGodzilla Forum Resident

    Location:
    Westerville, Ohio
    The Monuments Men (2014)

    [​IMG]

    I was literally falling asleep and could barely make it to the end. I just DID NOT care.
     
  15. Some of the scenes are memorable. And others are not. But as far as assembling them into a coherent movie, few of them are even held together with cellophane tape from one transition to the next.
     
  16. 64FALCON

    64FALCON Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Here's a movie so pointless it's astonishing: SECOND-HAND HEARTS (1981). Directed by Hal Ashby. Starring Robert Blake and Barbara Harris. His character name is 'Loyal Muke' and her character name is 'Dinette Dusty' and she's a waitress. Except in this awful movie that's apparently her character's real name as opposed to 'nickname' because her character is a waitress. She has a son in the movie named 'Human Dusty'. I found it rather incomprehensible. Hal Ashby's getting accolades for "Being There" with Peter Sellers and then he makes this movie in '79 after he made "Being There". But why?

    It's not a very involving movie; the opening scenes don't exactly spark interest in the rest of the movie. Maybe there's some kind of hidden existentialist meaning to this film that I completely missed . . . ?

    Nah! It's just really, really bad. → If you know someone who brags they'll watch any movie and get through it show them this mess. Some 'bad' movies are still quite watchable; this one will test one's patience to the 'nth' degree.
     
  17. The story of Monuments Men was very slight. A puzzling choice for a film plot. But I seem to recall finding it watchable enough, even though I don't recall a single scene of it. I preferred it to the retrospective contrivance gimmickry of any of those movies like Ocean's 12, where the filmmakers show the heist and only afterward re-stage the scenes using slo-mo and close-ups to reveal the details of the sleight of hand (more like deus ex machina) tricks that were used to pull it off. Like, "Clever!"

    < more like hokey
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2022
  18. George Co-Stanza

    George Co-Stanza Forum Resident

    Location:
    America
    I always thought it was bizarre the Cr2 had such a dud of an ending, with no winner. We didn't even see the main characters (Burt, Dom, Sammy, Dean) after the one guy finished and was told they were all racing back tomorrow. Very strange.

    That said, it still has lines my brothers and I quote to this day, so it is still one I mostly enjoy a lot. But yeah, that ending sucks.
     
  19. Crack To The Egg

    Crack To The Egg Forum Resident

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  20. Crack To The Egg

    Crack To The Egg Forum Resident

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  21. Halloween_Jack

    Halloween_Jack Senior Member

    Location:
    Hampshire, UK
    Not having Han, Leia and Luke have even a brief moment together... Still stuns me what a waste of talent that was. And as for the films... Well.

    [​IMG]
     
  22. HenryH

    HenryH Miserable Git

    I guess this one...

    [​IMG]
     
  23. keys74

    keys74 Forum Resident

    "The Sound of Thunder" with Ben Kingsley and Ed Burns. As one reviewer put it so succinctly: "The Sound of Thunder.....the smell of garbage."
     
  24. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader

    Location:
    ontario canada
    I kinda liked this one.
    It never came across as trying to be anything other than what it was. A medium budget adaptation of a Ray Bradbury story.
    It was never going to win any awards but it was an enjoyable watch.
     
  25. mattright

    mattright Forum Resident

    Location:
    Savannah, GA
    There was a lot of talent behind and in front of the camera for Spielberg s 1941.
     

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