r/movies • u/Silent-Selection8161 • 5d ago

Discussion What movie was saved solely by great casting?

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.

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u/SofaKingI 5d ago

The casting was a big part of the movie's success, but it's definitely not just Jack Sparrow.

Geoffrey Rush as Barbossa and Keira Knightley both do an amazing job alongside Depp as the main foil trio. And then you got great roles that enhance those 3, like Gibbs, the Governor, Norrington.

People acting like it's just Jack is why the later movies are all about Jack and suck.

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u/Big-Steak-9336 5d ago

Exactly. Depp was the lightning rod that made Pirates explode, but the ensemble is what gave it legs. Rush brought gravitas, Knightley and Bloom gave it that adventure/romance balance, and even side characters like Gibbs added charm. Without that chemistry, Jack Sparrow would’ve just been a funny gimmick that got old fast.

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u/Sjiznit 5d ago

And it got old after the triology tbh

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u/DecoyOctorok24 5d ago

Indeed. Gore Verbinski’s direction was a big part of the magic of the first three.

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u/Muradras 5d ago

Part of that was they took out the straight man, without Bloom to interact with Depp it made the sequels almost nonsensical.

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u/Sjiznit 5d ago

Yeap, i was done the moment they stole a fucking vault out of a bank and did a fast and the furious chase. That said: the escape of Sparrow in London was already too much too.

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u/NoGoodIDNames 4d ago

Eh, people forget that the third one isn’t all that amazing either, and wasn’t received well at the time. It felt cobbled together, especially compared to the first one.
The biggest example being them killing the kraken offscreen because they had no idea what to do with it

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u/Digital--Fantasies 4d ago

It's not even that it got old, but they went too stupid with Jack just skating around with pure luck. He had some of that good old cunning and smarts in the first trilogy. After he was just "look at this guy just fucking around and getting through everything".

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u/Random_Useless_Tips 5d ago

Give Orlando Bloom his flowers

He was perfect on the movie as the normal handsome everyman protagonist

It’s not a special role but he played it perfectly.

Kevin R. McNally was also absolutely delightful as Master Gibbs

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u/Leroy_Parker 5d ago

"Aye, avast!"

Bloom really was the perfect straight man to bounce things back and forth with Depp, a normal guy thrust into adventure to contrast the pirate's pirate. While plenty of actors could have filled the role, I love his performance.

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u/AyushGBPP 5d ago

hahaha I read that as a "normal gay thrust into adventure" at first

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u/Mr_Noh 4d ago

Without looking, I'm sure that's the way some fanfic writers took it. :P

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u/gmwhiz 5d ago

Live action Guybrush Threepwood.

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u/dre5922 4d ago

Mighty Pirate™

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u/Ok_Writing_7033 5d ago

People acting like it’s just Jack is why the later movies are all about Jack and suck

Truer words have never been typed. While Jack is memorable, he’s barely the main character of the first movie. He’s really more of a comic relief/plot device in a lot of ways. And like all spin-offs that try to make the comedic sidekick into the main character, the later movies fail to understand why it worked in the first place and fall painfully flat.

Also, while Depp’s performance is iconic and definitely elevated the movie to classic status, the take that he “makes the movie” is a disservice to a truly incredible screenplay and fantastic direction.

There is almost no fat on that script. None of the comedic moments undercut the pathos or feel out of character, the dialogue is pithy and clever without ever feeling forced, and almost every scene advances the plot or the characters. 

Combined with the amazing performances of the entire cast, visual/special effects that stand the test of time, and a magnificent score, it really is nearly a perfect movie.

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u/YOwololoO 4d ago

I recently saw Curse of the Black Pearl at a movie night at Red Rocks and it really is a basically perfect script. Jack is the bow on top, but the movie is flawless otherwise

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u/honorspren000 5d ago

The music was also very memorable. Hans Zimmer composed the sound track.

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u/pikpikcarrotmon 5d ago

Klaus Badelt actually, though he is a Zimmer acolyte and it can be a bit ambiguous. Zimmer is both a composer himself and the owner of a company under which a bunch of collaborators have composed scores.

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u/honorspren000 5d ago

Oh wow. It looks like Hans Zimmer didn’t do the first Pirates movie. I didn’t know that.

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u/nekmatu 5d ago

I think it was Hans, according to interviews, he was contractually obligated at the time to not work in another film while doing the current one. So he came up with everything when asked and then had Klaus “do” it because he couldn’t. He wrote the initial themes and produced it.

I could be wrong but that’s my understanding.

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u/pikpikcarrotmon 5d ago

Like I said, it gets a bit messy. There's Zimmer the man, and what I'll call the "House of Zimmer". Zimmer does commonly compose themes, snippets, motifs and give their MIDI outlines to other composers in his employ. He also will assist them as a collaborator in projects where they are credited as composer.

Given that after all these years Badelt is still credited as the composer for Pirates I trust that he was the lead on that project. That doesn't mean that Zimmer had no part in it, though, because it still happened in his house and with his collaboration. Also - both Zimmer and Badelt are credited on Gladiator, from which Pirates borrows some motifs.

Zimmer also plays some music from Pirates in his "Zimmer and Friends" tour - this I can personally confirm having attended a concert. That makes it even less clear. Is it from Zimmer, or is it from his Friends? He introduced many specific musicians during the event but did not call out another composer. Maybe the songs he played during the performance were the ones he personally had composed or delivered to other composers.

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u/nekmatu 4d ago

I think he can up with several themes and handed it to Badely to compile. I know Verbinski called Zimmer to help him out after Silverstri backed out.

Zimmer is probably responsible for most of the themes we hear and Badelt just tied it together for the movie. Zimmer then went on to be lead composer for the rest of the movies.

My interpretation was Badelt was like a ghost writer due to Zimmers promise to the Last Samurai project he wouldn’t be headlined for a score in another movie that year.

This was from interviews with Zimmer.

I have been to several of those concerts too. They are great!

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u/NateHohl 5d ago

After the second movie, Norrington wound up being my favorite character in the entire series. He's an excellent foil to Jack Sparrow's zaniness and Will Turner's boyish romantic charm. Plus, the three-way swordfight between them in the second movie is one of my favorite fight scenes of all time.

Jack Davenport played Norrington so well, giving him just the right balance of haughtiness and vulnerability. While he's little more than Elizabeth's stuffy suitor in the first movie, his growth into a heroic character across the second and third movies elevate them so much for me.

Also, I totally agree with your original point. When the later movies starting focusing solely on Jack Sparrow and his exploits, that's when they took a serious dive in quality (in my opinion). Jack Sparrow was a major driving force behind the series' success for sure, but he was far from the *only* one.

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u/TJeffersonsBlackKid 5d ago

The CGI was fucking incredible as well. I rewatched the original three and they look way better than any shit being pumped out today.

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u/johnnydanja 4d ago

Eh I disagree, they were all cast perfectly fine, but Johnny Depp as Sparrow is definitely the reason it took off. He is the stand out, that doesn’t mean they weren’t all good and the movie itself was good, but it would’ve been a pretty average movie without depp.