00:00Hello friends!
00:01With the upcoming Dune remake, Denis Villeneuve is assembling one of the most star-packed
00:04casts of the decade.
00:06Maybe even the century.
00:07Will the roster of A-list talent be enough to bring people to the theaters, though?
00:10This week on Heat Vision Breakdown, we ask the question, does having an all-star cast
00:14really translate to big screen success?
00:16I want to be in Dune, and you never even asked me.
00:24We're still far away from Dune's November 2020 release date, but that hasn't stopped
00:28the film from dominating the news on an almost daily basis, with casting stories continuing
00:32to pour in.
00:33Let me just try to name who we know so far.
00:35Ahem!
00:36Timothee Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Dave Bautista, Javier Bardem,
00:41Stellan Skarsgård, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling, and David Malstachian, Dast Malchian.
00:47Whew!
00:48I did all of that with no help from any list anywhere.
00:50You can have your phone back.
00:51Villeneuve is known for his ambitious, critic and fan-pleasing movies.
00:55Arrival earned a Best Pick nomination a few years back, and Blade Runner 2049 is one of
00:59the most acclaimed sci-fi movies of the past decade, but it was also a big financial disappointment,
01:03which nobody really ever talks about.
01:05Maybe you all should have spent more time buying tickets and less time making reddit threads
01:08about it.
01:09Expectations are sky high for Dune, which of course is based on an acclaimed book that
01:13everyone claims to have read to seem smart, but only like a quarter of those people have
01:16actually read the book.
01:17I have.
01:18I read it.
01:19The story takes place on a desert planet and centers on a teen boy with strange powers,
01:22who is the galaxy's only hope.
01:23Sound familiar?
01:24Well, that's because George Lucas was influenced by Frank Herbert's book when he created Star
01:28Wars.
01:29Not sure where we got the blue milk from, though.
01:35Hollywood has had mixed reactions when it comes to all-star cast in the past.
01:38Sometimes they are seen as gimmicks.
01:39I refer you to some of the final movies of the late and legendary filmmaker Gary Marshall.
01:44Or other films like Ocean's 8 and the earlier Ocean's films.
01:47While other times, films full of A-list stars are a chance for our greatest actors to dig into
01:51meaty roles together, like in Pulp Fiction or The Dark Knight.
01:54Take for instance Heat, a movie that finally got Al Pacino and Robert De Niro to square
01:58off and also managed to cram in peak Val Kilmer and not quite as peak John Voight.
02:02It balanced the screen time for many of its stars beautifully, giving us memorable moments
02:06of them together on screen, but also individual scenes for them to really show off their talents
02:10individually.
02:11That film was so good that Christopher Nolan geeks out about it in the same way that I geek
02:15out about his movies.
02:15Another great example is The Departed, Marty Scorsese, I call him Marty, remake of the
02:20Chinese film Infernal Affairs that brought every single A-list actor in the world at
02:24the time together to settle once and for all who does the best Boston accent.
02:28Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen, Vera Farmiga,
02:32Anthony Anderson all worked together to make a film that ultimately won Best Picture.
02:36Heck, that movie was so great that Mark Wahlberg actually earned an Oscar nomination for playing
02:39an aggressive, smart-mouthed guy from Boston.
02:42Huge stretch, Mark.
02:43Okay, fine.
02:44He was great in that movie.
02:45I admit it.
02:46He was better in Boogie Nights, though, and speaking of, that movie's cast was also stacked
02:50with Burt Reynolds, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, tons of people.
02:55However great, Heat, and The Departed are, those examples are years old.
02:58The Departed came out 13 years old.
03:00What?!
03:01I know.
03:02Going by box office and critical analyses over the past decade, the star-driven movie
03:06system of the past, oh, nine decades, is basically over.
03:09Audiences largely go to see movies now because they're based on familiar IP, promise new
03:13worlds and narratives, or have a connection to a larger fandom.
03:17Or because Dwayne Johnson is in it.
03:18I'll see anything with that guy.
03:19There's also a major difference between a film whose cast go on to become big stars,
03:23and a film that's made with already very established actors.
03:26Films like Dazed and Confused and Black Hawk Down are filled with familiar faces now, but
03:30when they were released, a lot of those stars were still largely unknowns.
03:33Or in the case of Josh Hartnett, it's kind of gone the other direction.
03:36Can you stop being me to Josh?
03:38Sorry, I'm still bitter about not being cast in Dune.
03:41Recent examples of films with stellar casts that made little to no impact include 2011's
03:45Contagion, which stars Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude
03:49Law, and Bryan Cranston.
03:512013's The Counselor, starring Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Michael Fassbender,
03:56and Cameron Diaz, or even last year's Bad Times at the El Royale, with Chris Hemsworth,
04:00Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm, Dakota Johnson, and Nick Offerman.
04:05Rarely do big-budget movies succeed on the merit of their cast alone nowadays.
04:09While the 90s were a goldmine for films that had names like Tom Cruise, Will Smith, and
04:12Brad Pitt attached to them, those stars now struggle to open films that aren't already
04:16associated with the franchise.
04:18The Mission Impossible series may still be earning bank, but Cruise's star power couldn't
04:22turn Rock of Ages, Oblivion, or even the excellent Edge of Tomorrow into commercial hits.
04:26Success stories from the past decade do exist, of course.
04:292010's The Expendables and 2017's Murder on the Orient Express are prime examples.
04:33Sylvester Stallone gathered every aging muscle man on Earth, besides maybe Lou Ferrigno, for
04:37his all-star throw pack to big, dumb, explosion-y movies of the 80s and 90s, bringing in stars
04:42like Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, and Mickey Rourke to
04:47basically smoke cigars, rub oil on their biceps, and blow up literally everything.
04:51Plot be damned.
04:52It resulted in a new franchise that spawned three separate films.
04:55Murder on the Orient Express didn't have much expectation weighing on it, except from
04:58die-hard Agatha Christie fans like my Aunt Mabel.
05:01The cast consisted of a global collection of both box office stars and awards season staples
05:05of the stage and screen, including Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench,
05:10Michelle Pfeiffer, and I guess Josh Gad, sure.
05:14With so many names, Murder on the Orient Express seemed destined to go off the rails, but it didn't.
05:18Well, I mean, it did technically literally go off the tracks in the movie, but metaphorically,
05:23it stayed on them.
05:24Looking ahead, even before Dune opens, Quentin Tarantino has Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
05:28due out on July 26th this year.
05:30With Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, and Al Pacino on the call sheet, it feels like
05:34a throwback in the vein of The Departed, a film that is both commercial and prestige
05:38prospects.
05:39Presumably, the lesson here is that an all-star cast alone doesn't make a watchable movie.
05:44It's how each star is implemented that results in a memorable film.
05:47The novelty of seeing five to ten very recognizable faces on screen isn't enough to put butts in
05:51seats, and I know you're going to bring up Infinity War, but let me stop you right there,
05:55because no one was lining up to see the actors in that film, they were there to see the characters
05:59meet for the first time on the big screen.
06:01And if you disagree, then maybe you can come back to me when The Voyage of Dr. Dolittle,
06:04which stars Iron Man Robert Downey Jr., and Spider-Man Tom Holland, alongside freaking
06:09Voldemort Ralph Fiennes, and Zorro Antonio Banderas, and Selena Gomez, and Octavia Spencer,
06:15and Emma Thompson, and the man himself, John Cena, makes over a billion dollars at the box
06:19office.
06:20I'll be waiting.
06:21So what do you guys think?
06:22Are there any movies with all-star cast that you feel do work?
06:24Or don't work?
06:25Let us know in the comments right down there.
06:27Don't forget to subscribe and join us here every Friday morning for new episodes of Heat
06:30Vision Breakdown.
06:31Oh my god, did you hear?
06:32Why are you covered in sand?
06:33I got cast in June.
06:34What?!
06:35It's going to be amazing.
06:36Come on!
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