Good Director, Baaaad Movie...

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What are the worst films made by so called "Good" Directors?

Faraway, So Close Wenders - not only a terrible film but possibly the worst film ever made.

Bitter Moon Polanski's cringeworthy "thriller"

Pret A Porter There are lots to choose from with Altman but i'd go for this over the equally dreadful Cookie's Fortune and Short Cuts. Pret is another contender for worst movie of all time, for sure.

― jed (jed_e_3), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Raimi, A Stupid Plan

and probably the Costner/baseball movie too, but chances are against me ever verifying this.

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:10 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Bitter Moon!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Though I didn't realize it was supposed to be a "thriller." Maybe I would have been disappointed if I was under the impression that's what it was supposed to be.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't seen Woody Allen's Anything Else, and I am a rabid fan, seen everything else he's so much as farted in. That must count for something.

― adaml (adaml), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Piranha 2: The Spawning: James Cameron's 1982 debut. I think he now a days defends it by calling it the best movie ever made about flying carnivorous fish. Or someting to that effect.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Ishtar, anyone? Elaine May has such talent within comedy; had top actors like Dustin Hoffman...and the film was still crap.

Bet she still has nightmares about it.

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

bitter moon - yeah i really liked the bit in the sex scene when the guy was about to come the toast popped out of the toaster! classy!

― jed (jed_e_3), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

and I haven't seen much Polanksi, but Bitter Moon I enjoyed a lot more than Rosemary's Baby, Repulsion, Frantic and The Ninth Gate.

dude, since when was Polanski's classy?

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Have you never seen Pirates?

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

oh woody allen - thats a good one

Interiors

September

Celebrity

Shadows and Fog

Quite a few!

― jed (jed_e_3), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

~~Joel Schumacher really let me down with 8mm~~

― adaml (adaml), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:20 (twenty-two years ago)

wild side :(

― jones (actual), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:21 (twenty-two years ago)

oh i quite liked wildside!

― jed (jed_e_3), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:25 (twenty-two years ago)

i love it too but cammell was so distraught over the studio cut he killed himself

gangs of new york owns this thread but let's keep going anyway

― jones (actual), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:31 (twenty-two years ago)

O Brother hatahz be damned--The Hudsucker Proxy!!!

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:32 (twenty-two years ago)

oh if we're bringing the Coens into it i nominate "The Big Lebowski"

― jed (jed_e_3), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Days Of Thunder could have been better

― jones (actual), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:38 (twenty-two years ago)

who directed that?

― jed (jed_e_3), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Isn't it like Tony Scott or something? Or might as well've been?

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I loved a simple plan! what was wrong with it?

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:42 (twenty-two years ago)

a lot of the people being mentioned I can't think of a flat out BAD movie they've done (that I've seen).

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:43 (twenty-two years ago)

The Trouble With Harry

― jones (actual), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I loved a simple plan! what was wrong with it?

The whole thing just felt like a bad coke jones. Everything and everyone involved in the plan is in-credibly stupid, and 15 minutes in you know it's all only going to get stupider. Also Sam reaching for all this arty grave symbolic stuff--those fucking flocks of crows, again and again and again, the endless sledgehammer foreshadowing--"Hmmm, I wonder if this is gonna turn out all right. What's that? Sorry, I can't hear you over these CHIMES OF DOOM here." Just seemed utterly lifeless in this horribly strained, empty, tense, pretentious way. Trying to be way more serious/mature than I think Sam can really pull off.

But the shotgunning is good, and the movie springs briefly to life when Gary Cole shows ...

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 20 October 2003 22:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Marnie

(unless it's the best)

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:00 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.2hot-hot-hot.com/images/12194.GIF

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't seen it, but was it really much worse than...
http://www.jgeoff.com/godfather/gf3/img/gf3sndtk.jpg

(at least nobody expects anything good from the cover of Jack)

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

marnie is a definite wtf eyebrow-raiser but that makes it less boring than TTWH (and the horseriding process-shots are beautiful and strange). some of his early b/w pictures are duller than both but i don't remember which ones.

(and yes: Days of Thunder was directed by tony "the properly-rated scott" scott)

― jones (actual), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

re: coppola - can either of those really be worse than his third of "New York Stories" Life without zoe or whatever it was called?

hmm yes i think that Jack probably can.

― jed (jed_e_3), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Whatcha think Ridley's worst is? Naturally Legend comes to mind right away, but I'm kinda fond of it at this point.

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

oh god. I forgot about Life Without Zoe. Egad.

The Scott Brothers really qualify trackwise more for Bad Director, Good Movie.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

You have to allow for multiple good movies with Ridley, I have to say. With Tony, a much different story.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:32 (twenty-two years ago)

The director's cut of Blade Runner is the only one from IMDB's filmograpghy I'll stand by (ok, MAYBE Alien). The only one I haven't seen that I can fathom being good is White Squall (Jeff Bridges is in it).

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:35 (twenty-two years ago)

You'd lose that bet, Miccio. White Squall was terrible

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:36 (twenty-two years ago)

i also liked bitter moon. and i notice that no-one's mentioned dune yet.

― Little Big Macher (llamasfur), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:37 (twenty-two years ago)

well i like white squall cos its v homoerotic, yum, and i also like thelma and louise.

for my money Wild at Heart is a worse film than Dune.

― jed (jed_e_3), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:39 (twenty-two years ago)

ok, MAYBE Alien

You're supposed to flush the crack down the toilet, not gargle with it!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Naturally Dune comes to mind right away, but I'm kinda fond of it at this point.

(Fire Walk, anyone?)

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:41 (twenty-two years ago)

A friend of mine is in White Squall as "Danish schoolgirl #3".

― adaml (adaml), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:42 (twenty-two years ago)

brian i think fire walk is a masterpiece - every time i see it i love it more.

― jed (jed_e_3), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I like it too, but I think it's a mess. (Admission: I play this bottom-of-the-batting-order game with Dune, Fire Walk, and Wild all the time)

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:51 (twenty-two years ago)

best of Ridley:
Alien
G.I. Jane
the half of Blade Runner that doesn't suck ass

worst - black rain

― jones (actual), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I notice ILX is reacting with apathy to jed's punking of Short Cuts.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:52 (twenty-two years ago)

brian i think fire walk is a masterpiece - every time i see it i love it more

Heh. Exactly how I feel about Lebowski.

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I notice ILX is reacting with apathy to jed's punking of Short Cuts.

Not me.

Errr...GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

― adaml (adaml), Monday, 20 October 2003 23:59 (twenty-two years ago)

if you love Raymond Carver you can only hate this film!

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Au contraire! Only if you hate Raymond Carver! Or think he's inviolable or something.

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 00:05 (twenty-two years ago)

ok point taken - i cant even remember short cuts but i remember hating it!

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

in fact i cant even work out why i included altman in this question - i think he makes mostly bad films and the very occasional good one. (mccabe and mrs miller and Nashville)

― jed (jed_e_3), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 00:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Me too, actually, on both posts. Vague image of Tim Robbins or something--I totally misread Carver as Chandler. (Never mind.)

― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Tuesday, 21 October 2003 00:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Skipping 152 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Ryan O'Neal vs. Tom Cruise! I would still take Tom Cruise. Eyes Wide Shut is pretty bad though, but Barry Lyndon is still more boring to me somehow.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Tom Cruise.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Paths of Glory isn't as good as I want it to be. It's far too didactic in its portrayal of good/bad and anti-war stance. I prefer Full Metal Jacket's ambiguity. But the singing German girl at the end still makes me cry.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Full Metal Jacket is the best ever Vietnam movie shot in East London.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:36 (twenty-one years ago)

The second half of Full Metal Jacket feature maybe the most unrealistic sets this side of Plan 9 From Outer Space. I still think it is amazing though. The book by some crazy Norwegian named guy is even better IIRC though.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

It's odd that people say that about FMJ - I always see comments from people who were there (Hue, '68 no?) saying it's remarkably true to life.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Paths of Glory is amazing although I am beginning to think that The Thin Red Line was even better now. Either way probably the two best fictional war movies I've ever seen.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)

"It's odd that people say that about FMJ - I always see comments from people who were there (Hue, '68 no?) saying it's remarkably true to life."

Strange, I've heard the except opposite (esp. as it seems to captures none of the heat of Vietnam--it's like the driest looking Southeast Asian film ever.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:41 (twenty-one years ago)

exact

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:42 (twenty-one years ago)

FMJ - It's London's glamorous Docklands!!!

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Finally we agree re:The Thin Red Line!

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I think that's kind of the point, Alex in SF - it's a colonial city, not the jungle, and it's not the hopped-up Heart of Darkness version of Vietnam that most movies portray (banality of war, etc.). I've never seen anyone say exactly what's unrealistic about the depiction of Vietnam that isn't grounded in what we're supposed to think Vietnam was a generation or two removed.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I had a professor in school who taught a class on Vietnam War films and he liked Full Metal Jacket, but he was always really bothered by the portrayal of Tet/Hue massacres (which were apparently largely fictionalized and the numbers of dead incredibly overstated.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha hey you don't have to convince me that Full Metal Jacket is a better movie than Apocalypse Now!. All I's just saying what folks have told me. I weren't there either ya know.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, 19 January 2005 23:50 (twenty-one years ago)

The Long Goodbye and The Big Lebowski??!!! You people are either fucking crazy, have no sense of humor, or just hate LA. Those are Altman's and Coen Bros' greatest moments. I don't get the Nashville love though. I find that movie pretty unwatchable. And while Intolerable Cruelty and Ladykillers are both pretty weak, The Man Who Wasn't There is probably the low point.

Let me just quote this so I can read it again...
The Long Goodbye is so by far the WORST adaptation of a Chandler novel

Wow, talk about missing the point.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Thursday, 20 January 2005 07:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"The director's cut of Blade Runner is the only one from IMDB's filmograpghy I'll stand by (ok, MAYBE Alien). "

FUCK YOU MAN ALIEN KICKS YOUR ASS LIKE A GALLAGHER KILLS WATER EMLONS YOU ARE A BASTARD PEOPLE

― latebloomer, tru xenomorph soldier 4 life (latebloomer), Thursday, 20 January 2005 07:55 (twenty-one years ago)

The only Chandler novel I've read is The Big Sleep, and it seemed unmistakably the work of a hateful prick. Hawks improved it for film.

>Ryan O'Neal vs. Tom Cruise! I would still take Tom Cruise

But the point is that Redmond Barry is a fortunate buffoon, and Dr Bill is a confused, voyeuristic pantywaist. It's called typecasting!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 20 January 2005 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Still the worst thread ever.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 20 January 2005 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

la takedown, anyone

― :| (....), Thursday, 20 January 2005 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

We said "good" directors.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 20 January 2005 16:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha cruel but true.

"The only Chandler novel I've read is The Big Sleep, and it seemed unmistakably the work of a hateful prick. Hawks improved it for film."

I can see liking The Long Goodbye if you hate Chandler (also if you like boring pointless meandering pieces of pseudo intellectual tripe, but apparently I am just "missing the point" so feel free to ignore me.) I also hate Alan Rudoplph with a passion btw so maybe it IS just a deep seeded hatred of LA at work, but I doubt it.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Thursday, 20 January 2005 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

are there any bad billy wilder movies? gentlemen prefer blondes is pretty shitty howard hawks.

― Shmool McShmool (shmuel), Thursday, 20 January 2005 23:58 (twenty-one years ago)

It's okay Alex, I know you're not feeling well today.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Friday, 21 January 2005 00:01 (twenty-one years ago)

How long 'til Slutsky steps to the Mann-haters?

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Friday, 21 January 2005 05:42 (twenty-one years ago)

what where who!?!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 21 January 2005 06:20 (twenty-one years ago)

and yeah, there are definitely bad billy wilder movies!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 21 January 2005 06:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I can see liking The Long Goodbye if you hate Chandler

What about enjoying Chandler and also enjoying Altman taking the piss out of Chandler? I suppose I can see hating the Long Goodbye if you're looking for some kind of "faithful interpretation" of Chandler but wasn't that already done to death in the '40s?

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 21 January 2005 06:27 (twenty-one years ago)

errrrrr....Coffee and Cigarettes?

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Friday, 21 January 2005 06:27 (twenty-one years ago)

there are no good directors, only good movies

― chew on that muthafuckahs (slutsky), Friday, 21 January 2005 06:44 (twenty-one years ago)

There is no Bono, only Larry.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 21 January 2005 10:36 (twenty-one years ago)

jesus 'coffee and cigarettes'!

what asshole said 'dune'?

― cozen (Cozen), Friday, 21 January 2005 11:49 (twenty-one years ago)

>are there any bad billy wilder movies?

Oh, man! The Front Page!

Buddy Buddy too, tho i don't recall if I actually saw it. I like Fedora and Avanti!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 21 January 2005 14:21 (twenty-one years ago)

love in the mother-lovin' afternoon

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

"What about enjoying Chandler and also enjoying Altman taking the piss out of Chandler?"

I think Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid does a better job of this than The Long Goodbye frankly.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 21 January 2005 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

errrrrr....Coffee and Cigarettes?

No way. Ghost Dog.

what asshole said 'dune'?

Yeah, more like Wild at Heart. Oh wait, someone already mentioned it but it bears repeating.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 21 January 2005 23:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Wild At Heart is great.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Friday, 21 January 2005 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)

jesus 'coffee and cigarettes'!

What??? Are you going to rep for Coffee and Cigarettes now??? With a straight face??? Oh wait...it's YOU.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Friday, 21 January 2005 23:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Ghost Dog?!?! Haha this is a joke, right.

I like Wild At Heart more than I like the Twin Peaks movie, but it's not as incredible as I was hoping it would be.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Friday, 21 January 2005 23:54 (twenty-one years ago)

ghost dog is a dog

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 21 January 2005 23:56 (twenty-one years ago)

it's HALF a dog.

― .ada.m. (nordicskilla), Friday, 21 January 2005 23:59 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a bird dog.

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I need to watch Wild at Heart again. I actually enjoyed Ghost Dog but my girlfriend hated it so vehemently that she brainwashed me into thinking it sucked. But yeah this whole thread is a joke. What you like sucks. No, what you like sucks. Etc. ad infinitum.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:10 (twenty-one years ago)

bad billy wilder - Ace in the Hole, One Two Three

― ade (Adrian Langston), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:16 (twenty-one years ago)

The Apartment haha.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:19 (twenty-one years ago)

haha, that's one of the few I actually like. young shirley maclaine, Fred macmurray playing what basically amounts to SATAN, and king vidor = yay!!!

― ade (Adrian Langston), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I sense that "One, Two, Three" is actually a rather cunning film; I at least liked it when I saw it 3/4 years ago. If nothing else, it is an examination of Cagney's changes in screen persona... and I don't know how literally one ought to take the political message.

David Lynch - "Wild at Heart". Quite emphatically so, for me. His style becomes something of a cliche here, only fully to be re-established with "Mulholland Dr.", although parts of "Lost Highway" are great, and I do like his S2 "Twin Peaks" episodes.

But there's nothing really worthwhile to hold onto in WAH; a crying shame that he chose to go off and work on that instead of sticking with "Twin Peaks" more closely after the first series...

― Tom May (Tom May), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Wild At Heart is a great novel, but for some reason the manic energy of it gets replaced in the movie by sort of typical Lynch weirdness (which is fine if you like Lynch--and I do--but it does sort of destroy a lot of what made the book great in the first place.)

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:28 (twenty-one years ago)

It's a better adaptation than The Long Goodbye though and that's all that matters haha

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Saturday, 22 January 2005 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)

wild at heart is great!! i dare any of you to dispute the sherilyn fenn car crash scene!!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 22 January 2005 02:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"wild at heart" is the Lynch lowpoint definately.

― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 22 January 2005 02:52 (twenty-one years ago)

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