Casting Does Matter and One Hypothesis

I have seen two movies that will contribute to this post. The first was Lucky You, which, while not spectacular, was not objectionable. It would have made it into the positive scheme of things, however, if it had not starred Drew Barrymore. Now, I like Drew Barrymore to some degree. I liked her in Music and Lyrics, for example, though that was a bit of a stretch. She was well cast for 50 First Dates. She did not belong in this movie. This movie needed someone like Virginia Madsen or Maria Bello. Barrymore was way too much ofg a lightweight to carry the part with any believability. Catherine Keener would also have been good. Why the director thought Barrymore would work is beyond me. As for the others, Robert Duvall can play Robert Duvall better than anybody, though I can't think of a time when he wasn't playing the same notes. (But then, don't many "good" actors do the same?) Eric Bana was also fine and the story was ok. Nothing great but, it certainly could have been better. I think the same could be said for Next, only down the scale a notch or two. I had not heard much about Next, but it had Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, and Jessica Biel in it, so I thought I would give it a shot. The director, however, was horrible. As were the effects scenes. It's like they decided to make a good big movie, got some good stars, realized midway through that the story was ridiculous and decided to just get it out as quickly as possible. It sucked. Which leads me to my hypothesis: If faced with a choice between two "big" (that is to say not independent) movies, one a movie you have heard a little about with noname stars and the other you have heard nothing about with big-name stars, opt for the nonamers. If it has big-name stars and is getting no publicity, it must be reeeealy bad. I knew this before I made my choice of Next over The Invisible. Next time, I will follow my own advice. As for these movies, I'd stay away from both if I were you.