From star-studded successes to surprising flops, we're exploring the world of ensemble casts in cinema. Join us as we dive into the movies that perfectly utilized their talented teams and those that failed to live up to expectations. Which ensemble cast was your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
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00:00She's crazier than him, and more fearless.
00:04Stupid bats, you're ruining date night!
00:08Welcome to MsMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the movies that let their star-studded ensembles shine,
00:15and the ones that couldn't match their cast's combined talents.
00:19I'm obviously familiar with you all as well. Governor, Dr. Toussaint.
00:25WORKED – LOVE ACTUALLY
00:27It may be a holiday rom-com, but it's no Hallmark movie.
00:30If you believe in Father Christmas, children, like your Uncle Billy does,
00:35buy my festering turd of a record.
00:38LOVE ACTUALLY features some of the most esteemed British actors of the era,
00:43and it even throws in a few token Americans too.
00:46Starring Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, and many, many, many more,
00:51LOVE ACTUALLY follows a group of Londoners as they experience love and heartbreak at Christmas.
00:57He said I was getting fat.
00:58I beg your pardon?
00:59He said no one's gonna fancy a girl with thighs the size of big tree trunks.
01:03Not a nice guy, actually, in the end.
01:06This electrifying and star-powered ensemble ensures that there's not a dud among these vignettes.
01:12If you want to see something cute and light, you can't go wrong.
01:16All I want for Christmas is you.
01:22Right.
01:23If you need something raw and devastating, there's a story and a performance for that too.
01:29Number 5. Failed Valentine's Day
01:32This 2010 rom-com has too many balls to juggle, and it ends up dropping all of them.
01:38I need happy, I need romantic, I need love, and I need it from you.
01:43Using the title Holiday as a backdrop to tell some bland love stories,
01:47it's clearly trying to recapture the magic of charming movies like LOVE ACTUALLY.
01:52Valentine's Day isn't just a retread,
01:54it's a stark reminder of how chaotic a movie like this can be when it's done this badly.
02:00Julia Roberts may be the queen of romantic comedy,
02:03but neither she nor the rest of the famous cast can make this a worthwhile watch.
02:08Still, its poor quality didn't stop it from making enough at the box office to inspire two unofficial sequels.
02:15You want me to come in on New Year's Eve at midnight and perform a C-section?
02:21Is it New Year's?
02:23Oh, boy.
02:24Weird. I completely just forgot.
02:28Number 4. Worked Pulp Fiction
02:31A bracing, non-linear caper about a group of interconnected criminals
02:35was a breath of fresh air in the early 90s.
02:38You got the idea, taking their wallets.
02:40Now that was a good idea.
02:43Made more from the wallets than we did from the register.
02:45Yes, we did.
02:46A lot of people come to restaurants.
02:48A lot of wallets.
02:49Writer-director Quentin Tarantino weaves between several different stories in a shared universe.
02:55Presented out of order, our perspective shifts with each extended sequence,
03:00and so does our point-of-view character.
03:03This was your great-grandfather's war watch, and he wore it every day he was in that war.
03:08A strong cast is essential to keep us invested for the entire runtime,
03:12and everyone gets an iconic moment.
03:15From Uma Thurman and John Travolta's now-famous retro-inspired dance
03:20to Samuel L. Jackson's monologue of biblical fury,
03:23Pulp Fiction's cast is given a meal, and they leave zero crumbs.
03:28And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
03:35Number 4. Failed The Counselor
03:38Ridley Scott directing a Cormac McCarthy story with some of the biggest stars of the 2010s
03:43should have been a home run.
03:45The fact that a lot of people probably don't even remember it should tell you how that went.
03:50What has he done?
03:51You don't know anything about this?
03:53About what?
03:54Like I said, it's in the paper.
03:56An ensemble crime drama about drug cartels, The Counselor,
04:00was taken to task for being a thriller without any thrills.
04:04Scott chalked up the lack of love to the movie's dark tone.
04:07I don't want to get mixed up in something heavy.
04:09You already are.
04:11How would you know he won't come looking for you?
04:14Considering it has the talents of Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt,
04:18Michael Fassbender, and Cameron Diaz, it's a shame and a shocker it isn't well regarded.
04:24Guess some people involved in the production could have used some counsel.
04:28You don't think that's a bit cold?
04:32I think truth has no temperature.
04:34Number 3.
04:35Worked.
04:36The Lord of the Rings.
04:37The Fellowship of the Ring.
04:39Before you came along, we Bagginses were very well thought of.
04:41Indeed.
04:42Never had any adventures or did anything unexpected.
04:45If you're referring to the incident with the dragon, I was barely involved.
04:50While all three movies are successful,
04:52the very first installment of Peter Jackson's first Tolkien trilogy
04:56has the biggest hurdle to clear.
04:58It has to make sure we become familiar with each and every one of its key characters,
05:03and there are a lot of them.
05:05You have my sword.
05:09And you have my bow.
05:11And my axe.
05:13With over a dozen principal characters,
05:16The Fellowship of the Ring is written and performed with so much specificity
05:20that it's hard to get lost.
05:22Despite the sprawling narrative,
05:24we come to understand the personality differences between the hobbits,
05:27the elves, and all the other Middle-Earth denizens with minimal confusion.
05:32What about breakfast?
05:33We've already had it.
05:34We've had one, yes.
05:36What about second breakfast?
05:41I don't think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.
05:44The exceptional ensemble having chemistry to rule them all
05:48certainly doesn't hurt either.
05:50Number 3.
05:51Failed.
05:52All the King's Men.
05:53In the mid-2000s, it seemed like you couldn't go wrong with a cast
05:57that included Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, and Jude Law.
06:01Even Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins, and the Soprano star James Gandolfini
06:06got in on the action.
06:08You could run for mayor of Mason City and you could win
06:11without climbing out of bed in the morning.
06:14You just put the word out.
06:15All the King's Men was a remake of a movie
06:18that had already won the Best Picture Oscar in 1950.
06:22There was an awards pedigree built into this thing from the jump.
06:26So how did it manage to bomb
06:28and then disappear from the greater culture completely?
06:30Don't ruin it.
06:32What?
06:33Don't ruin this?
06:35Or that fine, beautiful time we all had here once?
06:38No one wanted a bite of this Oscar bait.
06:40The few people who did come to see it actually hated it.
06:44Well, if you're clear on that and finish with your drink,
06:46I'd appreciate it if you'd just get the heck out of my house.
06:48It remains a largely forgotten disaster,
06:51thanks to its slow pace and overly complex storytelling.
06:54Number 2.
06:56Worked.
06:57Knives Out.
06:58A mystery writer dies under mysterious circumstances,
07:01and his spoiled relatives have their hands out for their inheritance.
07:05Inspired by classic whodunit,
07:07the first Benoit Blanc mystery is old-fashioned in all the best ways.
07:12A little bird has told me.
07:14How shall I put this delicately?
07:17You have a regurgitative reaction to mistruthin'.
07:24Elite actors in their prime and fresh-faced newcomers
07:27share the screen here.
07:29The great thing about Knives Out is how horrible everyone gets to be.
07:32That's none of your business.
07:34You stay out of my marriage.
07:35I know my daughter, and she would want to know.
07:38No matter how much these murder suspects try to hide their true nature from Blanc,
07:42it all comes out as the detective puts the screws to them.
07:46It's great fun to watch everyone sink their teeth into the script
07:49that's as fun, stylish, and truly suspenseful as this one.
07:54A twisted web.
07:57And we are not finished untangling it, not yet.
08:00Number two, Failed.
08:02Suicide Squad.
08:03This DC offering boasted an incredible cast,
08:06with an ensemble that included Oscar winners Viola Davis, Jared Leto, and Will Smith.
08:12It's hard to say what went wrong here.
08:14Now you know what you're buying.
08:16Let me tell you the price.
08:18First, I want out of here.
08:19Was it that weird press cycle about Jared Leto's method acting,
08:23only for most of his performance to end up cut from the film?
08:26Was it the story, which was just too muddled to come together?
08:30Outside of a few memes, Suicide Squad was poised to be a major event.
08:35Sorry.
08:37The voices.
08:39I'm kidding. Jeez.
08:42That's not what they really said.
08:44It made money, but the reviews were pretty devastating.
08:47Even more surprising than its failure is that it received a 2021 sequel
08:51that garnered much better reviews.
08:53I cherish peace with all my heart.
08:55I don't care how many men, women, and children I need to kill to get it.
08:59I thought you were the crazy one.
09:02I am.
09:03Regardless, these stars playing villains out to do good
09:06couldn't save their own movie.
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09:24Number 1. Worked – Magnolia
09:28Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson has demonstrated his deftness
09:32with lots of characters.
09:34I'm Frank T.J. Mackie.
09:36I'm Jimmy Gator.
09:38I'm Phil Parma.
09:40I'm Dixon.
09:42I'm Crisket Donnie Smith.
09:44I'm Linda Partridge.
09:45In Magnolia, we follow multiple characters across Los Angeles,
09:49with themes touching upon reconciliation and trying to find one's purpose in life.
09:54The movie makes some big swings,
09:56and has its actors volleying back and forth between comedy and drama seemingly,
10:01with little notice.
10:03Take it on headfirst with the skills that I will teach you at work,
10:06and say, Noah!
10:08Noah!
10:09You will not control me, Noah!
10:11Tom Cruise scored an Oscar nomination for Magnolia,
10:14but it's chock-full of performances that could have easily shared that honor.
10:18From Julianne Moore to John C. Reilly,
10:21William H. Macy to Philip Seymour Hoffman,
10:24there's no one here bringing down the curve.
10:27I can't... I can't hold out of this any longer.
10:31I'll get another pain pill, another morphine pill.
10:33It's a movie full of actors doing some career best work.
10:37Number 1. Failed – Cats
10:40What's your name?
10:45Cat got your tongue?
10:47The original Broadway production is one of the most successful shows of all time,
10:52but can the spectacle of the live show and its threadbare plot
10:56carry over to the big screen?
10:58The answer is a resounding no.
11:00Unfortunately, Cats can't be saved by a truly luminous cast.
11:04And you see the corner of her eye
11:12twist like a crooked pin.
11:17Pulling some big names from movies and pop music alike,
11:20its ensemble is a veritable who said yes.
11:24Cats is a dirty litter box that not even Judi Dench, Jennifer Hudson,
11:28Ian McKellen, and Taylor Swift can clean.
11:31If powers of levitation could make a fakie stare,
11:38but when they reach the scene of crime,
11:41Macavity's not there.
11:43Between baffling creative choices,
11:45some truly awful musical numbers,
11:48and controversial special effects changes,
11:50it's safe to say that no one in the cast was set up for success.
11:55What are your favorite and not-so-favorite movie ensembles?
11:59Get together in the comments to tell us.
12:01And the name is in, like, bright blue neon lights with, like, purple outline.
12:06And this name is just so bright and so sharp
12:09that the sign, it just blows up because the name is just so powerful.
12:13Do you agree with our picks?
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12:31You