10 Great Casts Who Wasted Their Talent On Bad Movies

4) Ocean’s Twelve

Oceans Twelve is perhaps a disappointment solely because of how great and refreshing Ocean’s Eleven was. When you think about it, Steven Soderbergh’s remake of the 1960 classic is better than it has any right to be and succeeds thanks not only to Soderbergh’s direction, but also becuase of the great cast he managed to assemble: George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia, Bernie Mac, Scott Caan, Casey Affleck, Carl Reiner, Elliott Gould, Eddie Jemison and Shaobo Qin.

They say lightning never strikes the same place twice, and that holds true for Ocean’s Twelve, a movie that falls far short of its predecessor, even with the added talents of Catherine Zeta-Jones, Eddie Izzard, Jared Harris, Albert Finney, and Vincent Cassel.

It’s certainly not the cast’s fault, as they are all equally enjoyable as they were the first time around. Soderbergh bites off a bit more than he can chew with this follow-up, skipping the fresh, fun and fast-paced heist that made the first so enjoyable and replacing those elements with a more convoluted plot and sloppy storytelling. Thankfully, things went back to normal with Ocean’s Thirteen, which rounded out the trilogy with a bang.

Ironically, Soderbergh’s stated that Twelve is his favorite Oceans film, which is a very Soderbergh thing to do, don’t you think?

3) The Men Who Stare At Goats

When you bring together the likes of George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey, Ewan McGreggor, Stephen Root, Stephen Lang and J.K. Simmons for a wacky and mind boggling true story, you expect greatness. Sadly, The Men Who Stare at Goats is anything but.

Bob Wilton’s bizarre true story tells of a group of soldiers who believe that they’re “Warrior Monks” of the New Earth Army, whose psychic powers will forever chance the way wars are fought. It’s material that’s almost too good for the big screen, and in the right hands very well could have been.

Unfortunately though, director Grant Heslov doesn’t quite manage to wrangle in all of the film’s quirky elements, leading to a disjointed and frustratingly derivative dark comedy that looks like it was more fun to make than it is to watch.