BAD MOVIES FROM GOOD DIRECTORS

retrorussell · January 24, 2010, 05:22:23 PM

Hey guys.
How about a topic on esteemed directors that somehow put together a total piece of garbage?
I'll start:
John Huston, director of classics like The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, Asphalt Jungle, Red Badge Of Courage, African Queen, and The Man Who Would Be King, ends up directing a crappy, universally panned horror flick called Phobia. What the hell happened?

Automan2k · January 24, 2010, 11:14:32 PM

John Carpenter made Ghosts of Mars.

retrorussell · January 25, 2010, 12:05:21 AM

Quote from: Automan2k on January 24, 2010, 11:14:32 PM
John Carpenter made Ghosts of Mars.

Ghosts Of Mars is indeed pretty terrible, but Mr. Carpenter has made a lot of crap. Probably at least as much garbage as good films, in fact. Halloween, The Fog, and Village Of The Damned were good. The Thing was okay, as was Big Trouble In Little China and Assault On Precinct 13 (the original). I don't remember much about In The Mouth Of Madness but a lot of people liked it. Then there were the likes of Prince Of Darkness, Ghosts Of Mars, Escape From L.A. (I didn't care much for Escape From New York either), Vampires, Christine, etc. that sucked.

Allhallowsday · January 25, 2010, 12:02:25 PM

Quote from: retrorussell on January 25, 2010, 12:05:21 AM
Quote from: Automan2k on January 24, 2010, 11:14:32 PM
John Carpenter made Ghosts of Mars.
Ghosts Of Mars is indeed pretty terrible, but Mr. Carpenter has made a lot of crap. Probably at least as much garbage as good films, in fact. Halloween, The Fog, and Village Of The Damned were good. The Thing was okay, as was Big Trouble In Little China and Assault On Precinct 13 (the original). I don't remember much about In The Mouth Of Madness but a lot of people liked it. Then there were the likes of Prince Of Darkness, Ghosts Of Mars, Escape From L.A. (I didn't care much for Escape From New York either), Vampires, Christine, etc. that sucked.

JOHN CARPENTER's THE THING is wonderful. THE FOG, on the other hand, despite much to recommend it, is way lame.

retrorussell · January 25, 2010, 03:25:52 PM

I thought The Thing was a (bit) overblown in terms of effects, but the tension was very well constructed. The Fog was sloppily put together at times but his cast acquitted themselves well, and there were some effective scenes. I liked it.

Flick James · January 25, 2010, 04:47:49 PM

The Fog, The Mist, what is it with movies about obsuring gaseous masses that makes for crappy movies? I'm going to get started on the screenplay for The Smoke, and it's going to be a crappy movie about a couple of potheads who are trying to get high and watch The Fog and The Mist, but they are smoking so much that their cloud obscures the screen.

Anyway, sorry about that. How about Peter Jackson? Not that everything he has done is terrific, but overall he makes good films, in my opinion. I hear The Lovely Bones is terrible.

retrorussell · January 25, 2010, 10:52:40 PM

I haven't seen The Lovely Bones. In fact I've not seen most of his films so I can't really judge.

George Lucas gets a failing grade from me for The Clone Wars (slightly worse than Phantom Menace).

Spielberg made a rather crappy Indy Jones flick recently. He also made Hook, and Minority Report (which I really didn't like).

SPazzo · January 25, 2010, 11:10:09 PM

I've seen the Lovely Bones. I liked it when I first saw it, but now that I think about it (a week or so later) I kind of find that it wasn't really that great. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good. I guess it's sort of good, so long as it's not compared to really good movies.

hellbilly · January 26, 2010, 01:45:49 AM

James Cameron: Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981)

Mike Figgis: Cold Creek Manor (2003)
Neil LaBute: The Wicker Man (2006) (one of the best bad movies in my opinion though)
Paul Verhoeven: Showgirls (1995) (again, another great bad movie)
Michael Caton-Jones: Basic Instinct 2 (2006)
Ridley Scott: G.I. Jane (1997)
Oliver Stone: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) (I predict this will be his worst movie ever)

retrorussell · January 26, 2010, 04:20:57 AM

Hannibal by Ridley Scott was pretty stupid too.

Takashi Miike gets a lot of love, but Osaka Boys was just brutally stupid.

Sam Peckinpah, who gained fame for The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs, among others, also directed the unbelievably bad Convoy.

Trevor · January 26, 2010, 05:14:56 AM

Michael Cimino: Heaven's Gate ~ need I say more?

AndyC · January 26, 2010, 02:12:15 PM

John Frankenheimer. The guy made classics like The Manchurian Candidate, The Birdman of Alcatraz, Seconds, Seven Days in May, and a bunch of other really good movies, but also made crap like Prophecy and The Island of Dr. Moreau. As directors go, I can't think of many who have swung as far between cinematic brilliance and laughable badness.

Flick James · January 26, 2010, 02:22:24 PM

Quote from: AndyC on January 26, 2010, 02:12:15 PM
John Frankenheimer. The guy made classics like The Manchurian Candidate, The Birdman of Alcatraz, Seconds, Seven Days in May, and a bunch of other really good movies, but also made crap like Prophecy and The Island of Dr. Moreau. As directors go, I can't think of many who have swung as far between cinematic brilliance and laughable badness.

I had to double-check there, I didn't know whick adaptation of The Island of Dr. Moreau you were talking about, because I liked the 1977 adaptation, but that wasn't Frankenheimer.

retrorussell · January 26, 2010, 02:47:36 PM

Don Taylor directed the 1977 one, and Frankenheimer directed the 1996 one.

AndyC · January 26, 2010, 03:18:55 PM

Quote from: retrorussell on January 26, 2010, 02:47:36 PM
Don Taylor directed the 1977 one, and Frankenheimer directed the 1996 one.

Right. Frankenheimer did the one with Marlon Brando in a muumuu, and the creepy little monkey guy who did everything he did.

BAD MOVIES FROM GOOD DIRECTORS

hellbilly