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'''1) The stars must be about equal in success and popularity.'''
For instance, ''[[Lethal Weapon]]'' is ''not'' a DSM: people didn't say "Aw man, [[Mel Gibson (Creator)|Mel Gibson]] and Danny Glover are making a movie together, I gotta see this!"; Gibson provided the star power here (in fact, this is the movie that made Glover a star). Similarly, ''[[Rush Hour]]'' wouldn't be considered this either: people didn't give a damn about seeing [[Jackie Chan]] and Chris Tucker going at it, they wanted to see [[Jackie Chan]] kick ass, and Tucker was along for the ride. This wasn't the case with the next two films though, where Jackie Chan was billed under Chris Tucker.
 
'''2) We are interested in seeing the film not only for the ''characters'' the actors play, but primarily to see ''them''.'''
People didn't go to see ''[[Lethal Weapon]]'' to watch Gibson and Glover play off each other, they went to see ''Murtagh and Riggs'' do that, which is an important distinction. In the same vein, while movies like ''[[Harry Potter (Filmfilm)|Harry Potter]]'' and ''[[X-Men (Filmfilm)|X-Men]]'' may have big name stars to their credit that we love to see together ([[Alan Rickman]], Jason Isaacs, [[Kenneth Branagh]], etc. for the former; [[Ian McKellen]] and [[Patrick Stewart]] for the latter), we don't go just to see them, we go to see Snape, Magneto, Professor X, and so on.
 
Now ''[[Face Off|Face/Off]]'', on the other hand, is perhaps the poster boy of this trope. The sheer [[Crazy Awesome|awesome ridiculousness]] of the plot was just icing on the cake; what people really wanted to see was '''"[[John Travolta (Creator)|Travolta]]/[[Nicolas Cage|Cage]]"''' (as the poster proclaimed) to see who could better [[Chew the Scenery]] and blow up more stuff. Of course, a DSM need not be merely a action-blockbuster; sometimes we can get films where we actually want to see the stars ''act'': ''[[The Lion in Winter]]'' is a good example of this, as the main draw is seeing two of the best actors in Hollywood (Peter O'Toole and [[Katherine Hepburn]]) give it their all while they verbally eviscerate each other for two hours (Hepburn actually won Best Actress at the Oscars for her performance).
 
In short, this trope could be thought of as [[Just Here for Godzilla]] as applied to the film's stars, and as a result is practically ''made'' of [[And the Fandom Rejoiced]]. It will very often (nay, almost inevitably) involve copious amounts of [[Chewing the Scenery]], with the stars often making [[Large Ham|glorious hams of themselves]], to the point that the [[World of Ham|whole movie can be made of pure, juicy meat]], especially if the stars in question go after each other in a bout of [[Ham to Ham Combat]].
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* ''[[Face Off]]'': John Travolta vs. Nicolas Cage.
* ''[[The Lion in Winter]]'': Patrick Stewart vs. Glenn Close, in a remake of the above-mentioned O'Toole/Hepburn film.
* ''[[OceansOcean's Eleven]]'': Nobody cares about watching Danny Ocean and his crew rob a casino; they want to see [[George Clooney]], [[Matt Damon]], [[Brad Pitt]] [[All-Star Cast|and company]] rob a casino (and look damn cool while they were at it).
** The same holds true for the original ''Ocean's Eleven'' from [[The Sixties]], except replace Clooney, Damon, Pitt & Co. with the [[Rat Pack]] (that's [[Frank Sinatra]]'s gang--no, not [[The Mafia|that one]], the one with [[Dean Martin]] and Sammy Davis, Jr.).
* ''[[Heat]]'' was celebrated as the first film to finally star [[Al Pacino]] and [[Robert De Niro]] onscreen together. Later emulated by ''[[Righteous Kill]]'', which was made ''solely'' so the two would again star side-by-side.
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* ''[[Tango and Cash]]'': [[Sylvester Stallone]] and [[Kurt Russell]] team up to kick ass? Yes please.
* ''[[The Prestige]]'': While it's adapted from a novel, its main attraction is seeing [[Christian Bale]] and [[Hugh Jackman]] screw with each other (no, not ''[[Foe Yay|that]]'' way). Having [[David Bowie]] and Andy Serkis certainly didn't hurt, either.
* ''[[Mr. and Mrs. Smith]]'', or ''[[Brad Pitt]] and [[Angelina Jolie]] Fight Each Other And Do Sexy Things''
* One of Hollywood's most famous examples is ''[[The Sting]]'', where Robert Redford and Paul Newman get into dangerous situations and act manly together, following on from their huge success doing so in ''[[Butch Cassidy and Thethe Sundance Kid]]''.
* ''[[The African Queen]]'', which was [[Humphrey Bogart]] and [[Katherine Hepburn]]'s only screen pairing to boot.
* ''[[Catch Me If You Can]]'': [[Leonardo Di CaprioDiCaprio]] vs. [[Tom Hanks]].
* [[Bob Hope]] and [[Bing Crosby]] in the ''[[Road To]] ...'' movies--you were either watching to see those two spark off each other, or for Dorothy Lamour.
* Even though they're only together for one hilarious scene, ''Limelight'' was famous for finally putting two of the biggest stars of the silent film era, [[Charlie Chaplin]] and [[Buster Keaton]], on the same stage.
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* ''[[True Romance]]'' has an all-star cast but the best scene is arguably where Dennis Hopper faces off against [[Christopher Walken]].
* ''[[War]]'' was basically an excuse to see [[Jason Statham]] and [[Jet Li]] duke it out.
** Mostly because we barely got to see it in ''[[The One (Filmfilm)|The One]]''.
* <small>It was the perfect trip</small><br /><small>It was the perfect ''trap''</small><br /><small>[[Johnny Depp]] and [[Angelina Jolie]] in <del>'''TRIP TRAP!'''</del> [-'''The Tourist'''</small>.
* [[Audrey Hepburn]] and Peter O'Toole in ''How To Steal A Million''.
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* ''The Missouri Breaks''(1976) starring [[Jack Nicholson]] and [[Marlon Brando]].
* ''[[A Few Good Men]]'' has [[Jack Nicholson]] and [[Tom Cruise]].
* [[Mae West]] and [[WCW. C. Fields]] in ''My Little Chickadee''.
* ''Fast Five'', the fifth installment of ''[[The Fast and Thethe Furious]]'' series staring [[Vin Diesel]] and [[Dwayne Johnson]]. Johnson's character was originally going to be an older guy, but awesomely enough the filmmakers took up a fan's suggestion on [[Face BookFacebook]] that it would be great to see Diesel and Johnson in a movie together. And it ''was''.
* A lot of the [[Frat Pack]] flicks, but more specifically ''[[Tropic Thunder]].'' Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and the recently renewed [[Robert Downey, Jr.]].
* ''[[Viva Las Vegas]]'' starring [[Elvis Presley]] and Ann Margaret. The former who's rock star career cooled a little bit since joining the army and the latter who was white hot after ''[[Bye Bye Birdie]]''.
* ''[[Ishtar]]'' starring [[Dustin Hoffman]] and [[Warren Beatty]] is a notoriously unsuccessful example.
* ''[[Charlie WilsonsWilson's War]]'' and ''[[Larry Crowne]]'' starring [[Tom Hanks]] and [[Julia Roberts]].
* ''The Raven'', directed by [[Roger Corman]]: [[Vincent Price]] vs. [[Boris Karloff]] vs. [[Peter Lorre]].
* The ''[[Death Atat a Funeral]]'' remake, starring comedians [[Chris Rock]], [[Martin Lawrence]] and [[Tracy Morgan]].
* [[Jack Nicholson|The Joker]] and [[Leonardo Di CaprioDiCaprio|Jack]], together in [[The Departed|one movie]]? Sign me up!
 
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