Bad Films by Great Directors

johnny_ultimate

They all miss the mark eventually. Pretty much all of the world's greatest auteurs made a stinker or two in their lifetime. Let's point the finger at otherwise brilliant directors' mistakes and missteps.

My Blueberry Nights - I haven't seen this since it's cinema release in 2007, but this is still a disgraceful English-language effort from Wong Kar-wai. Perhaps it's the loss of cinematographer Christopher Doyle, with replacement Darius Khondji's photography irritating rather than stylish. Or maybe it's the misguided attempt to put the untested Norah Jones front and centre - Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung Andy Lau or Faye Wong she ain't, and the supporting cast don't have a chance to shine in an overly episodic structure. A film that simply doesn't work. Hopefully The Grandmasters can rectify it after Wai's half decade absence.

The Serpent's Egg - what is it about international talents and Hollywood? The Serpent's Egg is just an ugly, annoying film. It would be called a bad parody of a Bergman film if the man himself didn't have a director credit.

I Live In Fear - I haven't yet gotten around to some of the more 'minor' Kurosawa works, so I Live in Fear is the only film of his I've actively disliked. Ikiru and Stray Dog are proof that he could handle contemporary tales as well as his more famous period ones, but I Live In Fear's attempt at reflecting post-nuclear Japan feel misguided, blunt and melodramatic. I even thoroughly appreciated the oft-criticised Dreams, but this I just could not warm to.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - Others may have differing views on Lynch, and Dune is often cited as his real dud. But I haven't yet seen it, and that was clearly an experimental director's failed attempt at wooing the mainstream with a massive budget effort. Twin Peaks, on the other hand, is distinctly Lynchian, and the follow-up to a (mostly) beloved TV show. That makes its redundancies all the more disappointing. Oh well, at least it has a cool David Bowie cameo.

Steven Spielberg / Woody Allen - I'm not even going to ****ing go there :pac:

FishBowel

Countess from Hong Kong - rubbish movie from Charlie Chaplin.

Popeye - Robert Altman turkey.

Hammett - Wim Wenders noir from the 1980s, disappointing.

Jack - FF Coppola, anyone who rates this director should watch this crap.

Dreamhouse - Jim Sheridan at his very worst.

High spirits - Neil Jordan trying a Hollywood movie but failing.

Tipsy McSwagger

FishBowel wrote: »

Countess from Hong Kong - rubbish movie from Charlie Chaplin.

Popeye - Robert Altman turkey.

Hammett - Wim Wenders noir from the 1980s, disappointing.

Jack - FF Coppola, anyone who rates this director should watch this crap.

Dreamhouse - Jim Sheridan at his very worst.

High spirits - Neil Jordan trying a Hollywood movie but failing.

Anyone who doesn't rate Coppola shouldn't be watching films.

quickbeam

FishBowel wrote: »

Jack - FF Coppola, anyone who rates this director should watch this crap.

His segment of New York Stories was much, much worse.

Daveysil15

Alexander by Ridley Scott. That was awful.

johnny_ultimate

Ridley Scott and Francis Ford Coppolla have both made their fair share of mediocre or downright awful films. Same with Woody Allen & Steven Spielberg. They're far too easy to pick on. More interesting are the ones who only missed the mark once or twice in otherwise fairly consistent careers.

mike65

Hitchcock - Jamaica Inn and Topaz (mind you the studio sure didn't help with the latter - three different endings cobbled together two of which were used simultaneously in different markets!) would be the stand outs, though of course you can make a case for a few others.

Daveysil15

Well this is only my personal opinion, and I'm sure many will disagree, but I thought Memento was terrible and the only bad film Chris Nolan made.

pixelburp

Daveysil15 wrote: »

Alexander by Ridley Scott. That was awful.

Ridley Scott never made Alexander, you're thinking of Oliver Stone.

Mind you, Scott himself has had his fair share of duds and has been showing a distinct dropping off in his abilities when compared against his early work

mikhail

Daveysil15 wrote: »

Alexander by Ridley Scott. That was awful.

Ridley Scott has made a lot of bad movies, but Alexander ain't one of them. Did you mean Oliver Stone or Kingdom of Heaven?

krudler

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Anyone who doesn't rate Coppola shouldn't be watching films.

He hasnt made a great movie since Apocalypse Now though. Godfather 1&2 are classics, The Conversation is excellent, Bram Stoker's Dracula is a mess but has its moments, evreything else varies from meh to woeful. His early CV is amazing though.

Psychedelic

mike65 wrote: »

Hitchcock - Jamaica Inn and Topaz (mind you the studio sure didn't help with the latter - three different endings cobbled together two of which were used simultaneously in different markets!) would be the stand outs, though of course you can make a case for a few others.

I would add The Birds too, I thought it was an absolute stinker in every department.

Tipsy McSwagger

krudler wrote: »

He hasnt made a great movie since Apocalypse Now though. Godfather 1&2 are classics, The Conversation is excellent, Bram Stoker's Dracula is a mess but has its moments, evreything else varies from meh to woeful. His early CV is amazing though.

John Carpenter hasn't made a great film since They Live in 1988 but when you have Halloween, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from New York on your CV then it doesn't matter if he directs crap for the rest of his life,he is still rated as a great director because of his earlier films. If someone doesn't rate him after watching Ghosts of Mars then they have never watched The Thing which is a masterpiece.

KenSwee

Stanley Kubrick
Eyes Wide Shut. Bad way to finish.

saintsaltynuts

Tim Burton has been sh1te of late.

SirDelboy18

David Fincher - Alien 3 ( Although we all know that he had it unbearably tough behind the scenes )

Quentin Tarantino - Death Proof.

MJ23

James Cameron, anything after T2

FishBowel

Roman Polanski - Frantic, stupid Euro thriller about his wife going missing

Neil La Bute - Wicker man remake

Ken Russell - Fall of the Louse of Usher, home-video quality rubbish

Oliver Stone - The hand, guess what this is about?

Detour

A lot of the people listed are bad directors who made one or two good movies, as opposed to the other way around. Tim Burton has made more bad than good movies at this point.

old hippy

Disappointed with Ridley Scott and Scorsese over the last twenty years. IMHO, last good film from the latter was Goodfellas...

krudler

Detour wrote: »

A lot of the people listed are bad directors who made one or two good movies, as opposed to the other way around. Tim Burton has made more bad than good movies at this point.

last film of his I really enjoyed was Big Fish, that was what? 8 years ago? just the same old kooky sh1te ever since. I like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands is by far his best film, Batman is great, most of his other stuff is hit and miss and it feels like he's just making the same film over and over again, oh look some gnarled trees, stripey things and Johnny Depp.

Midlife Crashes

Brian DePalma -The Black Dahlia four sub plots, didn't focus enough on a main story.

Gus Van Saant Psycho Awful, Awful movie that never should have happened

Oliver Stone Alexander Most poorly cast film of all time. Angelina Jolie's accent was sh*t, awful script and Colin Farrell

mike65 wrote: »

Hitchcock - Jamaica Inn and Topaz (mind you the studio sure didn't help with the latter - three different endings cobbled together two of which were used simultaneously in different markets!) would be the stand outs, though of course you can make a case for a few others.

IMO To Catch A Thief was his worst . Complete lack of suspense throughout.

old hippy

krudler wrote: »

last film of his I really enjoyed was Big Fish, that was what? 8 years ago? just the same old kooky sh1te ever since. I like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands is by far his best film, Batman is great, most of his other stuff is hit and miss and it feels like he's just making the same film over and over again, oh look some gnarled trees, stripey things and Johnny Depp.

For me, his standout was Ed Wood. Probably Edward Scissorhands next, followed by Beetlejuice and his 2 Batman films.

Kinski

Terence Malick's The New World. Poorly-received by many on release, but may be a candidate for re-evaluation, with a couple of critics declaring it one of the best films of the 00s...but I don't know if I want to re-evaluate anything with Colin Farrell in it.

old hippy

Kinski wrote: »

Terence Malick's The New World. Poorly-received by many on release, but may be a candidate for re-evaluation, with a couple of critics declaring it one of the best films of the 00s...but I don't know if I want to re-evaluate anything with Colin Farrell in it.

Not his biggest fan (Farrell) but it's really a beautiful film. Worth a look, IMHO.

Kinski

Another one occurs to me: Todd Haynes, for Safe and Velvet Goldmine.

johnny_ultimate

I certainly wouldn't call the New World awful either. It's certainly the worst Terence Malick film I've seen (only yet to check out Badlands, an unfortunate absence on my watched list), but it's still a whole lot more visually and atmospherically engaging than 99.9% of other filmmakers can manage. The plot doesn't have a whole lot to it in comparison to his grander pictures, and it (sacrilege, someone shouts!) could have done with a leaner running time, but sub-par Terence Malick is still worthy of attention.

old hippy

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

I certainly wouldn't call the New World awful either. It's certainly the worst Terence Malick film I've seen (only yet to check out Badlands, an unfortunate absence on my watched list), but it's still a whole lot more visually and atmospherically engaging than 99.9% of other filmmakers can manage. The plot doesn't have a whole lot to it in comparison to his grander pictures, and it (sacrilege, someone shouts!) could have done with a leaner running time, but sub-par Terence Malick is still worthy of attention.

Ah, Badlands. You wouldn't have Kalifornia, True Romance (even nicked the soundtrack) and Natural Born Killers without it. Great film

Just to add - relatively tame & slow paced to it's imitators but def one of the great films from a great era of movie making.

OldeCinemaSoz

M BUTTERFLY.

how could the director of VIDEODROME and CRASH direct
rubbish like this?!?!

:eek:

mike65

Cronenbergs most "arty" films are also his least satisfying, its not a coincidence I think. He is striving for kudos from the wrong people and its doing him no favours.

OldeCinemaSoz

mike65 wrote: »

Cronenbergs most "arty" films are also his least satisfying, its not a coincidence I think. He is striving for kudos from the wrong people and its doing him no favours.

i fondly remember a spoilt brat reviewer in starburst lamenting
that the brilliant dead zone wasn't up to standards because it
didn't feature the twisted future vision from a director he expected.

old hippy

OldeCinemaSoz wrote: »

i fondly remember a spoilt brat reviewer in starburst lamenting
that the brilliant dead zone wasn't up to standards because it
didn't feature the twisted future vision from a director he expected.

Did Cronenberg do The Dead Zone? I quite liked it...

mike65

OldeCinemaSoz wrote: »

i fondly remember a spoilt brat reviewer in starburst lamenting that the brilliant dead zone wasn't up to standards because it didn't feature the twisted future vision from a director he expected.

Ha, I have the review (by Phil Edwards) on my lap right now! His essential lament is that Dead Zone is a dull commercial project and not a personal one for the director - that it feels like anyone could have made it. I'd tend to agree to be honest. He ends with review looking forward to Cronenbergs next "real" film - which was.....The Fly!

OldeCinemaSoz

Walken, Cronenberg, King? What's not to like about that combo?!?!

El Tarangu

old hippy wrote: »

Disappointed with Ridley Scott and Scorsese over the last twenty years. IMHO, last good film from the latter was Goodfellas...

Ah here, The Departed was good, and Shutter Island was class (not to mention Casino).

MJ23

Alexander. Brutal film. Only good bit is when Miley Byrne is in it, very funny.

krudler

MJ23 wrote: »

Alexander. Brutal film. Only good bit is when Miley Byrne is in it, very funny.

someone in the cinema I saw it shouting "well holy god!" got the biggest laugh from the audience in the movie.

Corholio

I liked Alexander. Certainly wasn't as bad as people made out. The accent thing was a little weird, but wasn't it proved that Macedonians had gaelic accents at the time? Thought I read that somewhere. Decent film though.

The scene

at the end when Alexander is on the horse against the elephant in slow motion is an incredible scene IMO. Beautifully shot.

old hippy

El Tarangu wrote: »

Ah here, The Departed was good, and Shutter Island was class (not to mention Casino).

The Departed is ok but compared to the original Infernal Affairs it suffers.

Casino is an inferior re-tread of Goodfellas, that said I haven't seen it since it came out but that's what I felt at the time. I'll give it another go.

Shutter Island - read the book, have no real urge to see it since the reviews painted it anything other than "class". Maybe when it's on the telly.

To me, "class" is Raging Bull, Mean Streets, The King of Comedy, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas.

I will give honorary nods to New York New York, After Hours, The Color of Money and possibly... Gangs of New York.

Mickeroo

I think Scorsese has been fairly consistent through out his whole career. Shutter Island got mostly good reviews so I don't see why that would put you off watching it old hippy.

Looking at his filmography,, out of the films I've seen I don't think any were bad, Gangs of New York was probably the closest, though only because the final act was a bit meh and unsatisfying, the rest of it was great.

I've not seen Kundun or Bringing out the Dead, they're not generally regarded as high points are they?

Raekwon

John McTiernan - Rollerball

Guillermo Del Toro - Mimic

Steven Soderbergh - The Girlfriend Experience

Mickeroo

Raekwon wrote: »

Steven Soderbergh - The Girlfriend Experience

Is that worse than Ocean's Twelve? I've not watched it but Sasha Grey's involvement makes me curious. Ahem.

Raekwon

Mickeroo wrote: »

Is that worse than Ocean's Twelve? I've not watched it but Sasha Grey's involvement makes me curious. Ahem.

I thought that Ocean's Twelve was mildly entertaining although terribly clichéd.

I found The Girlfriend Experience to be an absolute borefest with very few redeeming aspects and a terrible wooden performance from Sasha Grey, which is odd because she always seems very animated and passionate in her other work, like eh.......Entourage, yeah that was it, she was great in Entourage

bnt

I found Michael Mann's Miami Vice and Public Enemies distinctly underwhelming after the excellence of such films as Heat and Collateral. Both suffered from too much of Mann's style and lacked substance.

delbertgrady

MJ23 wrote: »

Alexander. Brutal film. Only good bit is when Miley Byrne is in it, very funny.

No, the two best bits belong to Rosario Dawson.

mikhail

bnt wrote: »

I found Michael Mann's Miami Vice and Public Enemies distinctly underwhelming after the excellence of such films as Heat and Collateral. Both suffered from too much of Mann's style and lacked substance.

Miami Vice seems to have been enormously disrupted by the demands coming from Jamie Fox. From wikipedia:

Foxx was also characterized as unpleasant to work with. Foxx refused to fly commercially, forcing Universal to give him a private jet. Foxx would not participate in scenes on boats or planes. After gunshots were fired on set in the Dominican Republic on October 24, 2005, Foxx packed up and refused to return; this forced Mann to re-write the ending of the film, an ending that some crew members characterized as less dramatic than the original.[2] Foxx, who won an Academy Award after signing to do Miami Vice, was also reputed to complain about co-star Farrell's larger salary, something Foxx felt did not reflect his new status as an Oscar winner. Foxx received an increase in salary to match Farrell's. It was also reported that Foxx demanded top billing after winning an Oscar.[2]

Dont be at yourself

Danny Boyle's 127 Hours is by far and away the weakest film on an otherwise excellent CV. The nature of the source material made it come across more as an exercise in film-making. Not a 'bad' film, but missed the mark.

old hippy

Mickeroo wrote: »

I think Scorsese has been fairly consistent through out his whole career. Shutter Island got mostly good reviews so I don't see why that would put you off watching it old hippy.

Looking at his filmography,, out of the films I've seen I don't think any were bad, Gangs of New York was probably the closest, though only because the final act was a bit meh and unsatisfying, the rest of it was great.

I've not seen Kundun or Bringing out the Dead, they're not generally regarded as high points are they?

Forgot about them. Second one's ok, can't remember a lot about Kundun, in all honesty. How did you feel about The Aviator? For me, the best thing in it was Kate Blanchett.

lanvin

marie antoinette by sofia coppola. the film was diabetic and not that good..:rolleyes:

Mickeroo

old hippy wrote: »

Forgot about them. Second one's ok, can't remember a lot about Kundun, in all honesty. How did you feel about The Aviator? For me, the best thing in it was Kate Blanchett.

I thought it was grand, a bit of a chore to sit through if I'm honest though. Definitely couldn't call it a bad film though and from what some people say about it on here I think it might deserve another chance.

karma_

Corholio wrote: »

I liked Alexander. Certainly wasn't as bad as people made out. The accent thing was a little weird, but wasn't it proved that Macedonians had gaelic accents at the time? Thought I read that somewhere. Decent film though.

The scene

at the end when Alexander is on the horse against the elephant in slow motion is an incredible scene IMO. Beautifully shot.

I think it's a good film also. The accents were like that deliberately to differentiate the Macedonians from the Greeks in the film.