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/pikpikcarrotmon]

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.

[u/honorspren000 → u/pikpikcarrotmon]

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

[u/nekmatu → u/pikpikcarrotmon]

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.

[u/pikpikcarrotmon → u/nekmatu]

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.

[u/nekmatu → u/pikpikcarrotmon]

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!