It's rare that one single movie would be the most regretful installment in the filmographies of so many people, but The Bonfire of the Vanities is just that universally disliked. It's odd, because it's not an offensively terrible movie (it even opens with one of the greatest tracking shots in film history). Instead, it's a movie that everyone thought would succeed, a film with a huge budget, helmed by the great Brian De Palma and featuring major stars like Tom Hanks, Melanie Griffith, Bruce Willis, Kim Cattrall, Morgan Freeman, Kirsten Dunst, and F. Murray Abraham.
The film is based on an acclaimed novel by Tom Wolfe, so what went wrong? According to most people, it all came down to casting. Nobody was right for their part, except perhaps Melanie Griffith, who delivered a standout performance. Even the cast and filmmaker have acknowledged the film's shortcomings over the years. Tom Hanks, for instance, bluntly described it as 'one of the crappiest movies ever made.'
