High-profile movies tend to stack their casts with as many A-listers as possible, resulting in some that have amazing ensemble casts and completely waste them. In contrast tomovies that handle ensembles well, theselesser movies act as though the mere presence of so many stars is enough to make it a success and ensure its longevity.However, screen time is divided poorly among the stars, individual characters aren’t complex enough to merit such an actor playing them, or the movie is just below the people who are in it.
Thebest ensemble TV shows of all timeat least have the luxury of enough screen time to get to everyone eventually, while ensemble movies have to be more strategic about it.Screen Rant’sBorderlandsreview, similar to other assessments, argues that the actors are making a huge effort, but the movie just isn’t that great.Such is the problem with bad movies starring too many great actors,not giving any of them the material they need to truly shine.
10Borderlands (2024)
Biggest Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Jamie Lee Curtis, & Jack Black
It is no secret that the video game adaptation is agenre that has blown up in movies and TV, mostly giving rise to acclaimed TV shows likeArcaneandThe Last of Us.Movies likeBorderlandsare the outliers of this genre,trying to do something different with this cultural trend and not living up to its potential.BorderlandsandDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thievesboth demonstrate more comedic tones, but the inherent goofiness of the premise doesn’t mesh well with the star-studded cast in the case of the more recent release.
Borderlands
Cast
Based on the video game franchise, Borderlands is a sci-fi action-comedy film that follows Cate Blanchett as Lilith, a treasure hunter who returns to her home planet, Pandora, to find a tycoon’s missing daughter. Together with a group of unlikely allies, such as a soldier, a teenaged demolitions expert, a wise-cracking robot, and an eccentric scientist, the group will work together to save the girl - all while learning to deal with each other’s unyielding quirks.
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Borderlandsdoesn’t take the time to properly delve into the video game lore,which might have resulted in a better blend of comedy and action. Cate Blanchett’s performance is the glue holding it together when it doesn’t have much else going for it. Critics are tearing the movie to pieces while the cast signed on either because of admiration for the game or a potential co-star, rather than the script giving them good arcs. Yet an additional 20 minutes in the movie might have fleshed out both the world and the characters.
9Amsterdam (2022)
Biggest Stars: Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, & Robert De Niro
Most of the people who got involved withAmsterdamprobably thought they were in for another hit from David O. Russell. The acclaimed director previously took his moviesSilver Linings PlaybookandAmerican Hustleto the Oscars, in both cases working with a cast of four to eight major stars. It is possible that he simply recruited too many people to do what he is good at when it came toAmsterdam.Russell’s previous collaborators Christian Bale and Robert De Niro returned,along with about a dozen other people.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is a comedy/thriller written and directed by David. O. Russell centers around a political conspiracy in the 1930s known as the Business Plot, where it was said members of Wall Street sought to overthrow Franklin D. Roosevelt and set a dictator in his place. Three friends that met in World War I reunite fifteen years after they went their separate ways in Amsterdam under range circumstances. Burt (Christian Bale), now a doctor who serves veterans, is visited by his friend Harold (John David Washington) to help identify the cause of death of a United States Senator. Ruling his cause of death to be likely murder, the two bear witness to another murder. Framed for the death of the requestor of the autopsy, Burt and Harold will seek out their old friend Valerie as they discover they’ve accidentally been roped into a government conspiracy far beyond their wildest beliefs.
Many bad reviews agreed that the movie is a confused mess, which seems like an inevitable result with a cast this big (viaRotten Tomatoes). Trying to justify the inclusion of every actor in a relatively reasonable runtime is difficult, even if the individuals all give decent performances. EvenTaylor Swift’s cameo inAmsterdamis serviceable, butRussell did not have enough experience with the whodunit story to pull off this ambitious take on the genre.
8Movie 43 (2013)
Biggest Stars: Emma Stone, Richard Gere, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, & Halle Berry
James Gunn’s notoriously bad and moderately meta movie of many individual but connected short movies shocked all of Hollywood when it first came out. It is not a good sign whenThe Guardianpublishes an article titled:Journalist Catherine Shoard attributes it to a"domino effect"of a couple of known collaborators signing on together, attracting more of their past co-stars and other admirers from within Hollywood, with no one realizing how bad the movie was until it was too late.
Maybe some can enjoy Movie 43 as a “so bad it’s good” watch, but it has few redeeming qualities.
Movie 43
The 2013 anthology comedy Movie 43 collects 14 comedy shorts starring A-list actors such as Hugh Jackman, Emma Stone, Kristen Bell, Uma Thurman, Halle Berry, Naomi Watts, and Richard Gere. All segments, connected by an overarching plot revolving around a frustrated screenwriter coming up with ideas for a film, are also directed by various directors, including Bob Odenkirk, Elizabeth Banks, and James Gunn.
Movie 43is an hour and a half of crude,not particularly clever jokes that are embarrassing for the actors delivering them and the audience watching it. Maybe some can enjoyMovie 43as a"so bad it’s good"watch, but it has few redeeming qualities. It is one of the strangest events to happen in cinema when it secured such an impressive cast when it did not deserve a single one of these stars, given its lazy and uncomfortable writing.
7Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets Of Dumbledore (2022)
Biggest Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Mads Mikkelsen, & Katherine Waterston
TheFantastic Beastsseries has been on a decline in quality, the effect on each new installment’s reception being compounded by controversies surrounding Johnny Depp and J.K. Rowling. The first movie does right by its core group of four characters and supporting cast; the second movie mostly continues this, but there is a clear divide between which new supporting characters are given their due and which are ignored.Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledorethought it was a good idea to add more supporting characterswhen none of them have substantial arcs.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
In the third and final installment of the Fantastic Beasts trilogy, the threat of Grindelwald grows ever larger. To defeat him, Albus Dumbledore recruits Newt Scamander, along with other talented witches and wizards, to fight Grindelwald and his acolytes before their plans to destroy the non-magic world come to pass.
The storylines of the main characters, including Newt, Jacob, Tine, Queenie, Credence, and Dumbledore, become increasingly convoluted and redundant,disrupting theHarry Pottercanon. Meanwhile, Newt’s brother Theseus returns seeming like the events of the last movie did not affect him, while Eulalie should be an interesting character but has no development. Yusuf, Bunty, and others are also underused. It doesn’t seem like there is any coming back from this, butFantastic Beasts 4is still in development.
6Cats (2019)
Biggest Stars: James Corden, Judi Dench, Francesca Hayward, & Idris Elba
Another infamous event in cinema, theCatsmovie is so badalmost exclusively because of the CGI. When the show is performed on stage, the practical cat costumes have an almost bohemian quality that makes them very interesting and beautiful.Catsmade the fateful, doomed decision that, because it is a live-action movie, it should feature actual"cats"who are also people,resulting in the nightmarish final product of many amazingly talented actors being cast as humanoid cats.
Cats
An adaptation of the stage musical by the same name, Cats boasts a star-studded cast playing the Jellicles, a tribe of street cats who make a choice once a year about which one of them will ascend to what they call the Heavenside Layer and be reborn to a new life. The original musical is itself based on a book by famous poet T.S. Eliot, and remains one of the longest-running Broadway shows.
Catsalso doesn’t have much of a storyto begin with. On stage, it is a surrealistic experience that works by immersing the audience in the music and aesthetics. The movie tried to accomplish something similar, but because its visuals are so appalling this did not happen at all. The most disappointing part about it is that there are a lot of talented actors and singers in this movie, including some up-and-coming stars who could have used a hit, but its conception distracts from everything else.
5Valentine’s Day (2010)
Biggest Stars: Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, Anne Hathaway, Kathy Bates, & Bradley Cooper
Valentine’s Dayis a less impactful and misguided attempt to be an AmericanLove Actually, which isn’t as clever concerning how it divides up its time and connects all the characters.The individual storylines ofValentine’s Dayaren’t as meaningful, failing to convey anything substantialabout making marriages or relationships work. It’s essentially a mash-up of a bunch of the most empty, basic rom-com storylines ever, while several characters serve no purpose other than adding another big name to the billing.
Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is a 2010 Comedy and Romance film by director Garry Marshall. The movie stars Bradley Cooper, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, and Kathy Bates. The premise revolves around multiple couples during Valentine’s Day.
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Gary Marshall directed a great rom-com inPretty Womanand a great ensemble movie inA League of Their Own, and tried to bring them together inValentine’s Day. Any one of the stars of this movie has the potential to lead a solid rom-com if they were the sole main character with a bigger story. Julia Roberts worked with Marshall before and did just this. As it is,Valentine’s Dayflattens most of the stories so it can squeeze in as many of them as possible.
4Pitch Perfect 3 (2017)
Biggest Stars: Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Elizabeth Banks, & John Lithgow
LikeFantastic Beasts,Pitch Perfectis a franchise that did remarkably well with its ensemble cast but bungled it with the most recent installment.The first two movies managed to showcase funny interactions among the Bellas, giving all their personalities a chance to shine, while also spending an appropriate amount of time on the Treblemakers. The characters who essentially fill the role of the Treblemakers in the final installment go from completely unlikable to begrudgingly acknowledging their competitors' talent in an instant and have no story of their own.
Pitch Perfect 3
Pitch Perfect 3 is the final installment in a musical comedy trilogy. It features a final performance by the Barden Bellas on a USO tour right before graduation. Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Hailee Steinfield, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Hana Mae Lee, Ester Dean, Chrissie Fit, Alexis Knapp, and others reprise their roles, with Elizabeth Banks both acting and directing.
At this point, the gimmick of Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins' characters has grown stale, whilethe addition of John Lithgow as Amy’s father might have worked if it had not also led to a genre-inappropriate hostage scenario.Every other new character, like the Bellas' competition in the new story, only takes up space on the screen.Pitch Perfect 3is actually a serviceable conclusion when one only looks at the Bellas' story, but everything else is a pointless mess.
3Murder On The Orient Express (2017)
Biggest Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Penélope Cruz, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, & Judi Dench
All the recent movie adaptations of Agatha Christie’s novels follow the same format of a lot of impressive names but sloppy writing that doesn’t do justice to the source material.Murder on the Orient Expressestablishes the disappointing new status quo for this franchise,where Hercule Poirot is nothing like he is in the novels or previous adaptations, entirely missing the point of his character. Meanwhile, industry legends like Judi Dench and Penélope Cruz and promising newcomers like Daisy Ridley make the most of what they are given.
Murder on the Orient Express
Based on the novel and series by Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express is a mystery-drama film that follows a legendary detective known as Hercule Poirot as he finds himself in the middle of a major mystery. A lavish train ride unfolds into a stylish and suspenseful mystery; the film tells the story of thirteen stranded strangers forced to confront one another amidst rising tensions. in a whodunnit that will force Poirot to race to solve the puzzle before the murderer strikes again.
This adaptation of Poirot wants to adjust the story to cater to today’s tastes but misses out on the carefully crafted intrigue of the source material. Meanwhile,Knives Outarrived a few years later to show what could be done to liven up an overtrodden genre,while more Kenneth Branagh-led movies stuck to the same old formula.Murder on the Orient Expressis too basic of a whodunit that could have been transformed by giving the supporting cast more original material.
2Men, Women & Children (2014)
Biggest Stars: Jennifer Garner, Dean Norris, Judy Greer, & Emma Thompson
Men, Women & Childrenis a cringey movie that wants to say something meaningful about the advent of the internet,but the result is just weird. It also tries to copy theLove Actuallyformat of a bunch of normal, loosely connected families all simultaneously coming to emotional epiphanies about their lives. However, most of the parents are so objectively awful that it is hard to sympathize with their fears about how their children use the internet. Meanwhile, the teenage characters are all over the place.
Most of the parents are so objectively awful that it is hard to sympathize with their fears about how their children use the internet.
Men, Women & Children
Men, Women & Children examines the impact of the internet on interpersonal relationships, focusing on a group of high school students and their parents. Released in 2014, the film highlights changes in communication, self-image, and love lives shaped by the digital world.
Kaitlyn Dever and Ansel Elgort lead a wholesome teen romance storyline, constantly interrupted by the frankly disturbing scrutiny of Dever’s character’s mother. Two of the kids’ storylines are tragic, with their resolutions failing to make up for what they went through.Most of the characters inMen, Women & Childrenare downright detestable,and as people in real life have become more accustomed to the internet and adept at finding a middle ground in how it is used, these actors are completely wasted on a meaningless story.
1Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
Ocean’s Twelveis generally regarded as theworst of theOcean’s Elevenmovies, at least of the George Clooney era. The first sequel following the smash hit ofOcean’s Eleveninherently lacks the novelty of the first. Additionally,there is something much less satisfying about having to steal money to pay back the money they stolein the first movie. The heist itself doesn’t work as well in execution because it is spread out: Rather than a single, contained adventure, the group is moving across Europe over two weeks.
Ocean’s Twelve
Ocean’s Twelve is the sequel to Steven Soderbergh’s 2001 heist film Ocean’s Eleven. Released in 2004, the film reunites the ensemble cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon, as they undertake a series of heists across Europe. The plot centers on the group attempting to repay a large debt to a vindictive casino owner. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Vincent Cassel join the star-studded cast, adding new dimensions to the intricate heist narrative.
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This doesn’t allow the audience to appreciate the individual tasks and skills, translating into less emphasis on the characters and the people who play them. Catherine Zeta-Jone is a worthy addition to the cast, but her being a love interest to Brad Pitt only pads the runtime.Ocean’s Twelveisn’t the worst offender when it comes to misusing a great ensemble cast,but its mistakes still stand out where the franchise is concerned.
