What do you get when you take three Oscar^® winning powerhouse actors like Al Pacino, Christopher Watken and Alan Arkin and put them together with the wrong director? Utter failure. Oh, I’m sure some critic will be nice and give Stand Up Guys something higher than two stars out of respect for the cast, but he’d be putting his readers in jeopardy of wasting their time – Not even worth watching on TV.

Director Fisher Stevens, known for his comedic acting, has several documentaries and short films under his belt as a director. Unfortunately, he was not able to ignite his powerful cast. Instead he created the worst film I’ve seen in some time. Stevens is a great actor in his own right, but might want to leave directing to others. Although, I will give him credit for bringing Allison Timlin on board to play Watkins’ granddaughter.

Broken City was another star-studded waste of time. It broke my heart to watch Russell Crowe and Mark Wahlberg play characters in a story that couldn’t get off the ground. I partially blame director Allen Hughes for this broken film, but mostly because I know his talent from the movie The Book of Eli. This thriller lacked the intensity and bored the audience to the point of discussing Crowe’s hairstyle over the weak twists in the story as they exited the theater.

The Book of Eli was officially directed by the Hughes Brothers (Allen and Albert), so it might be possible they make a better team than individual directors. Outside of his television work, I believe Broken City was Allen’s first solo directing gig.

Stand Up Guys and Broken City are two films that are worth missing in the theater and on TV. But for most, the names will still draw them into wasting hours of time in hopes of enjoying the talent, regardless of the story or poor direction.

The film opens with teen Seth McArdle (Samuel Davis) struggling to make ends meet for him and his two little sisters, while his father is out of town on business. Seth feels he has nowhere to turn for help, as God never answered his prayer for his dying mother. Since he feels like the solution is solely up to him, Seth works 2-3 jobs in an attempt to keep the family home.

It’s hard to feel for Seth in the beginning of the movie, since the story never reveals what he wants in life. While he struggles, one can only assume that he is doing what he desires, which gives the story nowhere to go until more bad news hits.

Abel (Kevin Sorbo), gives meaning to Seth’s life and helps the film to finally take off in the second act. Kevin’s performance drove the film, even though it seemed like he had less dialog than any other character. His charisma was held in check within an introspective character who was very careful about opening up to anyone until Seth crossed his path.

The two leads nearly turned the story into a buddy film, as they delivered the better part of their performances. Unfortunately, first time feature director Gordie Haakstad wasn’t able to help the actors maintain that level of energy. Nor was he able to find the right pacing for the story, which could have made it far more entertaining. However, Haakstad did succeed in creating one of the better faith-based films released to date in Abel’s Field.

Gangster Squad did not take advantage of its all-star cast, but was enjoyable enough to download someday as a rental. The 1949 story was about Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) who worked to build an empire that would take over all off-track-betting from the Pacific to the Mississippi. LAPD Chief “Whiskey Bill” Parker (Nick Nolte) pulled a task force together headed by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin), to bring Mickey down. O’Mara handpicked the team with his wife’s help and started banging heads before they were ready or trained.

While the film fired off more bullets in the climax than the action required, the story had a softer edge like the ABC series Castle, written by the same screenwriter, Will Beall. The softer edge might also be attributed to producers Kevin McCormick (The Lucky One) and Michael Tadross (Arthur).

This shoot’em up was R-rated for strong violence and language, which mostly took place in the second half of the film. Emma Stone did a great job playing Grace Faraday, Ryan Gosling’s love interest, but her scenes were designed more as eye-candy than plot or character development.

Sean Penn was the greatest disappointment, but not due to poor acting. He excelled as Mickey, but deserved a far meatier role than this story allowed. His fake nose was believable, but it wasn’t necessary given the soft TV oriented screenplay.

One scene was completely removed in order to soften the film and a replacement shot. The original scene depicted a group of men breaking through a movie screen and shooting up the audience. Once the news hit with the Aurora, CO Dark Knight tragedy, the film was shelved until January so the scene could be replaced.

Overall, Warner Brother’s attempt at bringing back the studio’s series of gangster films never left the ground except for those who like the bland gangster stories from their grandparents youth. In my mind the rebooting of this dusty franchise failed to capture the contemporary audience, for which it was intended.