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Geektyrant1 of 10
The saying goes that you are only as good as the company you keep. While that may be true of life in general, it doesn't quite speak to comedy. The fact is, you can toss as many funny celebrities at a bad script as you want and it's still going to produce a bad final product. Case in point: this list of ten movies that had the star power, but lacked the premise (and the enthusiasm in some cases) to succeed as a funny film.
The Big Year
Cast: Steve Martin, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Kevin Pollack, Jim Parsons, Rashida Jones, Joel McHale, John Cleese (narrator)
There was a time when names like Owen Wilson, Jack Black, and Steve Martin actually meant something in the comedy world. If they were starring in it, their performances were going to at the very least make you laugh, no matter how ridiculous or uninteresting the story seemed to be. Sadly, that time had long passed by the time 2011's "The Big Year" rolled around. Not only did it fail to draw an audience due to its extremely boring premise of birdwatching, but even a stellar supporting cast couldn't do much with this stinker.
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DreamWorks/Photofest2 of 10
Envy
Cast: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Rachel Weisz, Amy Poehler, Christopher Walken
This one's a bit more shocking, considering it came out when actors like Ben Stiller and Jack Black were in their prime. But like we said, an excellent group of actors doesn't necessarily equate to big laughs, as most critics panned the film. However, it wasn't so much that the film didn't have an amusing premise, but more that it failed in execution, as it almost felt like no one in it knew it was a comedy, or aimed to entertain anyone.
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Polygram Films/Photofest3 of 10
Very Bad Things
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Christian Slater, Jeremy Piven, Jon Favreau, Daniel Stern, Jeanne Tripplehorn
Along the very same lines as "Envy," but to a much darker extent, "Very Bad Things" is not the movie you think you are walking into in all the wrong ways. Namely, you aren't going to laugh all that much. If your traditional dark comedy is essentially laughs with dark elements sprinkled on top, this one is the exact opposite -- and then someone forgets the sprinkles. Seriously, there is a drawn out scene near the beginning of the film where the lead characters stab a man to death with a corkscrew to the chest that makes "American Psycho" feel like "Patch Adams."
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New Line Cinema/Photofest4 of 10
Town & Country
Cast: Warren Beatty, Diane Keaton, Andie MacDowell, Goldie Hawn, Garry Shandling, Jenna Elfman, Charlton Heston
There's nothing worse than an unfunny comedy. Well, except for an unfunny comedy with a huge ensemble cast that was extremely expensive to produce and completely flopped. "Town & Country" has been dubbed one of the worst box office flops of all time, considering it cost $90 million to make, and only generated $10 million back. This was, of course, completely warranted because of the film's overly convoluted storyline and general vapidness.
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Universal Pictures/Photofest5 of 10
Little Fockers
Cast: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand, Harvey Keitel, Owen Wilson, Jessica Alba, Blythe Danner, Laura Dern
What sucks the most about this film is that you have so many talented actors, both in terms of comedy and general talent, completely phoning it in. It's obvious that most of the cast had no interest in making this film, and were simply doing it based on the financial success of the first two. The fact that Dustin Hoffman (arguably the funniest part of "Meet the Fockers") had to be added via reshoots after the film had already been shot illustrates how unfunny it was from the start, regardless of the big talent it had behind it.
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Warner Bros./Photofest6 of 10
Mars Attacks!
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Natalie Portman
There are movies that achieve cult status that honestly should not. "Mars Attacks!" is one of those movies. But of course, with the sheer amount of big celebrities it holsters, it was bound to happen on that fact alone. The problem with it as a comedy is that since almost all of the major players are killed off, their characters don't have to be all that likeable, interesting, or funny, and that's sort of a big deal when it comes to making people laugh. We'd also argue that there is nothing memorable about the movie besides the aliens themselves.
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Warner Bros./Photofest7 of 10
The Invention of Lying
Cast: Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill, Louis C.K., Rob Lowe, Jeffrey Tambor, Tina Fey
This movie is yet another example of a good idea with terrible execution. However, this is only because of a premise that isn't able to sustain itself as comedy for the 1 hr. 40 min. running time without getting too wishy-washy and full of itself. The harsh fact is, you want to like it going in, and it bolsters some major comedic talent, but unfortunately they are not utilized well (particularly Louis C.K.) and the entire movie would work much better as a short (and less heavy on the love) story.
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Columbia Pictures/Photofest8 of 10
Gigli
Cast: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken
This was a comedy so bad that A) it had to be on this list, and B) fortunately, most of us didn't even bother to see it because we had enough people telling us what a complete nightmare it is. And it really is. Unfortunately, most of the time when a movie is bad, it is laughably bad. No such luck on the "laughably" part with this one. It's just plain old godawful and hard to sit through, even with such veteran actors as Al Pacino and Christopher Walken in it.
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20th Century Fox/Photofest9 of 10
Stuck on You
Cast: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Eva Mendes, Cher
The Farrelly Brothers are responsible for some of the funniest films of our time, including "Dumb & Dumber," "Kingpin," and "There's Something About Mary." From there their films began to slip, and "Stuck on You" is the clear mark of where the films lost their touch. Honestly, this one could probably be blamed on casting, as while Damon and Kinnear are great actors, they aren't necessarily great comedy leading men, and it's painfully obvious here.
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Relativity Media/Photofest10 of 10Next: 20 Movies We Wish Were on Netflix
Movie 43
Cast: Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Jason Sudeikis, Uma Thurman, Halle Berry, Seann William Scott, Elizabeth Banks, Gerard Butler, Richard Gere, Chloe Grace Moretz, Josh Duhamel, Terrence Howard, Greg Kinnear, Dennis Quaid, Seth MacFarlane, Anna Faris
Let's be clear about one thing: vulgarity for the sake of vulgarity isn't funny. It doesn't matter who's involved, if a joke lacks any substance beyond shock value or crudeness, it's not going to land. Now, it is possible for something unfunny to become funny if you repeat it over and over again, but not for 90 minutes straight. In a nutshell, that is what "Movie 43" is and it makes perfect sense why the film boasts a 4% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Many critics agree that if you want to see a cinematic attempt at this type of comedy that actually succeeds, you should check out "The Kentucky Fried Movie" from 1977.
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