Big names are no guarantee of big success – or even big quality – but even at that, 2012 comedy Wanderlust would lead you to believe that something special was lurking on the horizon based solely on the sum of its esteemed parts.
Produced by the genre’s resident overlord Judd Apatow, Wet Hot American Summer and Role Models‘ David Wain co-wrote the screenplay and directed, with the cast loaded up to the eyeballs and then some with comic talents, recognizable stars, and even the odd esteemed thespian or two.
Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Kathryn Hahn, Alan Alda, Ken Marino, both Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, Malin Akerman, Justin Theroux, Ray Liotta, and Joe Lo Truglio are among the names to crop up at various points as Rudd and Aniston’s put-upon couple end up being welcomed into a commune during their cross-country trip from Manhattan to Atlanta after the former loses his job.
The pieces were all there, but it was the execution where Wanderlust fell apart, after middling responses from both critics and crowds parlayed into a dismal box office haul of just $24 million against production costs of $35 million.
As always, though, a gamut of famous faces paired together in the same film can always be counted on to emerge from the wilderness on streaming, with Wanderlust being the latest beneficiary of the ironclad trend after FlixPatrol proclaimed it to be one of the most-watched features on the Rakuten rankings this week. It’s not great, but it does the job if you’ve got 98 minutes to spare and no intention of your sides being split.