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The stars are dimmed: How did this movie waste the acting skills of Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito?
The comedy film "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" released in 2001 was directed by Sam Weisman and starred by well-known actors Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito. Although the film had a strong acting cast, it failed to meet the audience's expectations due to a bland script and lack of comedy elements. As a film based on a book by American author Donald E. Westlake, it held great potential but failed to realize it.
"Although the director of this movie has certain abilities, the plot development makes people feel boring and unsatisfactory."
From a storyline perspective, the plot of "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" revolves around Kevin Caffery, a skilled thief, and Max Fee, a wealthy businessman facing financial difficulties. Max Fairbanks. Kevin accidentally meets Amber Belhaven, who is auctioning paintings. As the story progresses, the two characters begin a series of entanglements between money, loyalty and interests.
The key issues in the movie arise in character development and plot progression. While the casting choices are understandable, the director fails to effectively exploit their potential, making the performances on screen seem bland.
"It's disappointing to see talented actors hamstrung by a boring script."
Critics' reviews of the film were also not optimistic. According to the rating website Rotten Tomatoes, the film only received a "bad movie" rating of 10%, with an average score of only 3.5 points (out of 10). This extremely low score shows that neither the quality of the script nor the design of the comedy elements can meet the audience's expectations. The famous film critic Roger Ebert directly pointed out that there are too many characters in the movie, but the plot is not deep enough. In addition, the performance styles of the two leading actors do not match, making the whole movie particularly confusing.
The main problem raised at the beginning of the film is that Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito's characters in the plot do not show the depth and appeal they should. This pair of actors have performed well in past works, but they lack the stage to perform in this movie. It's situations like this that make the movie unmemorable, and even the few humorous moments struggle to offset the blandness of the overall script.
"Perhaps the worst thing about this movie is that it drowns out so much talent and still comes up empty handed."
In terms of box office, the film earned US$13.04 million in its first weekend, and its final global box office total was only US$38.46 million, which was unable to cover the US$60 million production cost. Such results undoubtedly prove the lukewarm reception it received from audiences, further reinforcing the sense of waste on the part of the cast. During awards season, the film continued to receive negative reviews and poor ratings.
In addition to the bland script, the movie is not impeccable in terms of music. Music original scorer Marc Shaiman even said in an interview that composing the score for this "terrible movie" was his "worst job". This kind of evaluation inextricably reflects the failure of this film in many aspects. The music could have added different layers to the plot, but ultimately failed to capture the audience's attention.
All in all, the failure of "What's the Worst That Could Happen?" was not only a failure at the box office, but also a great waste of the two talented actors Martin Lawrence and Danny DeVito. The film could have been a comedy masterpiece, but ended up being a disappointment. Faced with such a situation, we can't help but wonder, is it really the actors' skills that are not outstanding enough, or is the boring script itself the culprit?
