10 Terrible Movies That Wasted Amazing Casts

If a waste of a great cast is a crime, these films are guilty as sin.

By Helen Jones /

Columbia Pictures

Though there are many magical ingredients key to a successful film, from screenplay and cinematography to editing and marketing, one element that is absolutely vital is a talented and well selected cast. There's no better key to bringing the film’s story and characters to life.

Advertisement

That's why casting is so profoundly important now. But sometimes even with the most enviable, star-studded and acclaimed cast on board, a film can fall way short of the mark.

Considering there are so many factors that can wrong during the making of a film, it isn’t so surprising that a film can flop even with stellar casts. Hollywood can be a crapshoot after all. But often the disappointing end result appears worse chiefly because of the lofty reputations and past work of those involved.

Whatever the reason, if a waste of a great cast is a crime these films are all guilty as sin.

10. Movie 43

Gross-out comedy king Peter Farrelly and his multitude of co-directors aren’t entirely to blame for Movie 43. The blame for such an atrocity has to be shared also by its impressive cast, most of whom really should’ve known better.

Advertisement

You’d think given a huge, talented cast featuring a handful of Oscar winners and nominees that Farrelly and Co may have been able to pull a semi-decent movie out of the hat. You’d be wrong.

Accompanied by rightfully scathing reviews, Movie 43 was dubbed the ‘Citizen Kane of awful’ and ‘the biggest waste of talent in cinema history’. If that isn’t proof enough of its awfulness then a few examples of its fourteen skits – Hugh Jackman as a man with a pair of testicles attached to his neck on a blind date with a horrified Kate Winslet and Chris Pratt experimenting with a bit of coprophilia alongside real-life wife Anna Faris with predictably gross results – should suffice.

In fact, the only redeemable factor of Movie 43 is fantasizing about what kind of salacious dirt Peter Farrelly had on its stars to blackmail them into appearing in the film in the first place.

Advertisement