Famous Film FailsBefore tickets even went on sale, every major motion picture employed dozens of people and cost thousands, if not millions, of dollars. Here is how some of them screwed it all up.
Updated April 16, 2021 12.3K votes 2.7K voters 128.3K views
Voting Rules
Vote up the movies that have the biggest discrepancy between the cast's talent and the quality of the film overall.
We love our movie stars, but even a good cast can't always save a bad movie. Which flat-out bad movies had great casts? Audiences are often mainly attracted to films based upon who is in them. Many times, a bad film can be saved by a fine performance. But the films on this list are so dreadful that not even Hollywood's best actor or actress can make the flick watchable. Imagine a film with an ensemble cast of Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Cary Elwes, Jessica Biel, Seth Meyers, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Ashton Kutcher, Josh Duhamel, Hilary Swank, Ryan Seacrest, and Abigail Breslin. Oh, and Garry Marshall is the director. Wouldn’t you rush out to the theater to see it?
You’ll recognize several repeat offenders on this list. You may be wondering why Robert De Niro, one of the best actors in the history of cinema, continues to make so many awful films. Of course, there are a couple Michael Bay projects on this list and even the lovable Bradley Cooper appears a few times.
It’s hard to believe that the most successful movie stars in Hollywood agree to appear in such awful movies. To show your disgust and disappointment, upvote the worst movies with the best ensemble casts below. Be sure to upvote the films you think were just not worth the star power in them.
The Cast: George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chris O'Donnell, Uma Thurman, Alicia Silverstone, Vivica A. Fox, Elle Macpherson.
This could have been the movie that ruined both Clooney's career and the entire Batman franchise. The ER stud took over as hero of Gotham following Val Kilmer's departure in 1997. Director Joel Schumacher took the film way over the top and filled it with so many bad puns that it seemed more like a lame comedy than a superhero flick. Perhaps the lone highlight of the movie was Uma Thurman's performance as Poison Ivy. George Clooney is a very good actor, but he looks lost in the Batman suit and the notorious Batnipples were more than an eye sore. (Clooney has since apologized for nearly ruining the franchise.)
The Cast: Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace, Susan Sarandon, Robin Williams, Ben Barnes.
This is a tough movie to watch. It's a bit painful to see iconic screen legends like De Niro, Keaton, Williams, and Sarandon in a film this bad. Josh Slater-Williams of The Skinnydescribes the train wreck best, "Built on chaotically disparate tones and extremely broad jokes that never hit their mark, The Big Wedding is completely devoid of laughs. It’s also fueled by some repugnant misogyny, homophobia and stereotyping of particular races, making it the perfect accompaniment to I Give It a Year, another disastrous and offensive marriage comedy from earlier this year." "Offensive" and "devoid of laughs" are never ways filmmakers and actors want their work described.
The Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Sarah Jessica Parker, Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Cary Elwes, Jessica Biel, Seth Meyers, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Ashton Kutcher, Josh Duhamel, Hilary Swank, Ryan Seacrest, Abigail Breslin.
Another Gary Marshall holiday-themed ensemble film that doesn't work, New Year's Eve, just like Valentine's Day, is overly sentimental and cliché-ridden. The dialogue is hokey, the characters are unlikeable, the narrative is predictable, and the film is not funny (even though it is supposed to be a romantic comedy). There are a few cute storylines, and although the novelty does wear off quickly, it's at least kind of fun to see so many great actors pop in and out of one movie.
The Cast: Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson, Tim Heidecker.
This big budget reboot of the Marvel Comics property enlisted a murderer's row of acclaimed young Hollywood talent to play the superpowered surrogate family. Director Josh Trank, hot off the hit Chronicle, went unconventional with his choices, even changing up the race of traditionally white Johnny Storm. While many critics praised the actors' attempts to elevate the material, Fantastic Four was thoroughly clobbered as one of the worst additions to the comic book movie canon.
The Cast: Bob Dylan, John Goodman, Penelope Cruz, Jeff Bridges, Jessica Lange, Angela Bassett, Ed Harris, Luke Wilson, Bruce Dern, Mickey Rourke, Christian Slater.
Perhaps Lou Leminick from the New York Postsays it best, "A contender for the worst movie of the century." Ouch. Most people would be beyond giddy to see Bob Dylan, perhaps the greatest singer-songwriter in the history of music, in a film. Let's just say that Dylan's mumbling style of speaking does not work well on the silver screen. Masked and Anonymous is a plotless train wreck, especially the dialogue that is supposed to emulate Dylan's lyrics. The only saving grace here is that the music in the film is actually very good.
The Cast: John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Vince Vaughn, Cedric the Entertainer, Dwayne Johnson, Harvey Keitel, James Woods, Danny DeVito.
Be Cool, the 2005 sequel to the enormously smart and funny Get Shorty, has John Travolta and Uma Thurman back on the dance floor. Unfortunately, that scene is the highlight of the film. Despite the movie's heavyweight cast and small snippets of entertaining moments, the story seems forced and contrived. It's almost like the producers wanted to make the movie just because someone thought there needed to be a sequel to Get Shorty. There didn't.
