As EXPEND4BLES is currently making abundantly clear in the midst of taking a critical pounding on its way to box office disaster, dropping an array of big names into an explosive epic is no guarantee of quality. On the other side of the coin, A Bridge Too Far tells the complete opposite story.
Despite its status as a certifiable classic of the war genre, reviews following its initial release in 1977 were hardly unanimously enthusiastic, even if it did prove to be a commercial success that quickly embedded itself as one of the most iconic World War II stories ever committed to film.
It also helps no end that it boasts one of the most ridiculously stacked ensembles to ever gather together this side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Avengers crossovers, which isn’t even hyperbolic when you consider that even legendary director Richard Attenborough only dropped by for an uncredited cameo as “Lunatic Wearing Glasses.”
The roster includes – but isn’t even limited to – Dirk Bogarde, Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, Indiana Jones favorite Denholm Elliott, Academy Award winner Ryan O’Neal, Elliott Gould, James Cann, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, and Laurence Olivier, which is quite frankly ludicrous looking at their individual and collective status as marquee names of cinema’s past, present, and always.
Star power aside, the rollicking adventure that sees American and British forces band together to try and take a key stretch of land in an effort to turn the tide of conflict remains as entertaining now as it ever was, a sentiment Prime Video subscribers appear to agree with after FlixPatrol revealed it as one of the streaming service’s top-viewed features this weekend.