When the ensemble cast movie becomes as annoying as sports dynasties...

Alcove Audio said:
What do any of you think about the original "Oceans 11" (1960) with the "Rat Pack"?

To me what sets it apart from the current crop of "Oceans" films is that the 1960 original was completely tongue-in-cheek, full of in-jokes, and was partially an excuse for the Rat Pack and affiliated folks have a good time together on a film set. (Apparently the partying on and off set was legendary.)

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After I watched the original I thought the newer movies were so much better. The original to me was boring and it seemed like no one had much character to them.
 
Well right I can relate to that. I think a reason I never got excited about them was because, they seem, on the face of it anyway, to be about bringing together big box office draws to rake in the doe. Fluff, in other words. Not unreasonable, but not very inspiring, either.

But I do have it my head that ensembles are the way to go though, hahah. Like Cheers on TV.

Reservoir Dogs is a good example of an ensemble feature film that works. I'm left wondering what other examples there might be of ensemble feature films that are not insufferable, but cool.

What are other examples of cool ensemble feature films?
 
I think there is a lot to be said for the size of the ensemble. An entirely different style from Pulp Fiction/Oceans 11 - The early Wes Anderson films (e.g. Royal Tenenbaums) work really well, but his more recent ones, (particularly The Grand Budapest Hotel) there are so many stars that you just spend the whole film wishing you got to see more of every character.
 
Size doesn't matter at all -- 12 Angry Men anyone?
 
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