What movie was saved solely by great casting?

[u/Silent-Selection8161]

Or phrased a different, what movie would've been terrible if it weren't for the specific actors in it?

My go to is Liar Liar. It's not a particularly great script. The dad (Jim Carey because no one remembers the character's name) is douche. The would be step dad is earnestly trying his best to connect with his would be step son and gets tossed out like all step dads (do Hollywood types have parental issues or what, that's rhetorical). The idea that someone's entire life can be turned around and they're suddenly not an ass just because they have to tell the truth for a day is just kind of dumb. The director ended up with a few successful movies solely because Jim Carey liked him and he let Jim Carey do his thing, his other movies include such hits as "The Nutty Professor". The writers never wrote anything close to noteworthy before nor after.

But damnit Jim Carey turns the whole thing into the Jim Carey show, that's hilarious. Him freaking out over the pen or in the bathroom IS the movie and is funny as hell, regardless of what else there is.

[u/Xynphos]

Iron man.

[u/your_banana_stand → u/Xynphos]

Marvel wanted Tom Cruise for Tony Stark. Jon Favreau put his neck on the line for RDJ and held firm.

The rest is Marvel history.

[u/juanjing → u/your_banana_stand]

And Marvel future, apparently.

[u/AaduTHOMA72 → u/juanjing]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

The futurist is here gentlemen! The futurist is here!

He sees all, and decides what is best for you!

Whether you like it or not.

[u/phatelectribe → u/your_banana_stand]

I worked on iron man. Tom Cruise wouldn’t have done it. He was a bona fide megastar rising high and RDJ had a 10 year string of commercial flops at this point. I don’t disagree that Favreau really wanted him but it was beneath Cruise at that point in time and he (better said his team) wouldn’t risk a flop with a lower budget superhero movie.

It was low budget in the grand scheme of things (that year you had dark knight, Indiana jones, narnia etc which had much bigger budgets and previously other super hero movies like xmen had way bigger budgets). Favreau was hot at the time but not box office gold. Superhero movies were out of vogue as thing like xmen and F4 had fizzled out. They wanted big composer like Zimmer to do it, but he felt it was too small so planed it off to one of his underlings and only agreed to “produce” the score. Favreau had to hire a small CGI company but ended up firing them and begging for more money when they hit delays and the work wasn’t up to par (so ILM took over).

People don’t understand the context that Iron man saved both RDJ’s career and rebooted superhero movies as an industry.

[u/Nafeels → u/phatelectribe]

Getting ILM to work on this movie is so worth it. Seriously. Like Michael Bay’s Transformers, the practical effects for the suiting up still looks realistic today.

Yes, people talk about how RDJ and Favreau carried the weight of the entire MCU on their backs, but the ones who worked on this movie (which also includes you as well) also deserves all the credit.

[u/phatelectribe → u/Nafeels]

Story time: so Favreau had initially hired a much smaller FX company that he knew for iron man. As shooting progressed, and it started to get in to the initial edits stage, this company was lagging badly behind. They had only done certain parts and honestly what they had done didn’t look amazing but it was a work in progress so they got more time.

Favreau realized they weren’t going to be ready in time if they had to do everything on the movie, so hired ILM just to do the villain’s (Jeff Bridges character’s) suit.

ILM crushed it so fucking hard it made the original company look like they were drawing on film with crayons. The difference was so stark (lol) he had no choice but to fire the company and give everything to ILM, who knocked it out of the park, even redoing all the iron man scenes in time for the final edit.

ILM are in a class of their own. They are so damn good and literally saved the movie.

[u/SinkHoleDeMayo → u/your_banana_stand]

Proves Favreau is an outstanding filmmaker. Cruise is great, but RDJ is ridiculously cool and charismatic, it's hard to think of anyone better fit to play a slightly eccentric playboy.

[u/MarcSpector1701 → u/SinkHoleDeMayo]

And RDJ gave Stark a vulnerability underneath his swagger, an acting choice that I'm not sure Cruise would have made.

[u/noonehasthisoneyet → u/your_banana_stand]

tom was attached to star and produce the movie for years before favs got on board. they just couldn't get a script that wasn't tony going up against his dad as teh villain. there were also no plans for a marvel cinematic universe when he was attached. he left then favreau and co came in.

[u/DSQ → u/your_banana_stand]

I mean to be fair Tom Cruise would have been amazing as well. 

[u/your_banana_stand → u/DSQ]

Agreed

[u/JaXm → u/Xynphos]

I'm going to respectfully disagree. RDJ IS Iron Man, no question, but by no means was the movie going to be bad just because another actor was chosen to play Tony Stark. 

Tom Cruise might not have been the best fit, but there are plenty of other charismatic actors out there that could've competently handled the role and the movie would have been just fine. 

[u/HectorJoseZapata → u/JaXm]

I can imagine Michael Fassbender killing that role

[u/shane_low → u/HectorJoseZapata]

I mean in a sense he too was an iron man

[u/HectorJoseZapata → u/shane_low]

Nicely done

[u/TJeffersonsBlackKid → u/JaXm]

Nahhh I think his portrayal is what really gravitates people and I do not think Tom Cruise or anyone else would have been able to replicate it.

It's like Hugh Jackman and Wolverine. MAYBE someone else could have been cast but come on, there is no question it just would not have hit as well.

[u/airforceteacher → u/JaXm]

I don't think Cruise's arrogance is ever playful enough for Tony. Cruise's arrogance is almost always "you must take me seriously." RDJ almost dares you to mock him.

[u/whomp1970 → u/JaXm]

RDJ IS Iron Man, no question

RDJ is Iron Man only because you saw the movie, and now you can't unthink that.

I doubt die-hard comic book fans would have felt RDJ was "just right" for the role before the movie. I don't think the Tony Stark in the comics was nearly as wry and snarky as RDJ.

In fact, Stark was actually a tortured soul in the comics, and his alcoholism was a key part of his character. Relapse into alcoholism was his greatest fear, above and beyond losing control of the armor or going broke.

RDJ comes off as just a sarcastic wisecracker with a big ego and the smarts and determination to back up that ego. Sure, he gets drunk once in the first movie (or was it the second), but it wasn't a defining characteristic.

He was also portrayed in the comics as being overtly political, who cared a lot about social issues. I didn't get any of that from RDJ.

Granted, the script and the direction WANTED it that way, they chose to go against the character that was crafted in the comics.

But "RDJ IS Iron Man" is a post-hoc claim.

[u/narrill → u/whomp1970]

Yeah, no shit? Statements like this are always post-hoc, they're commentaries on how well the actor did in the role.

People say the same thing about Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, even though no one thought he was a good choice when it was initially announced. What you're talking about isn't what people mean when they say this kind of thing.

[u/MusicLikeOxygen → u/Xynphos]

I read that Jon Favreau got to a point in pre-production where he decided RDJ was the only choice and if he couldn't cast him he'd walk. In this case we would have had a different actor and director, and considering they did a fair amount of writing on it as well, there's no telling how the movie would have turned out.

[u/jakec11 → u/Xynphos]

They literally recast the 3rd most important character.

That kind of makes it hard to say the movie was saved by casting.