Bad Movies by Great Directors
April 16th 2007 22:29
Personally, I enjoyed Eyes Wide Shut. Sure, it was a flawed, monotonous film, but I watched it by myself one dark and stormy night in China, and the mood was perfect for that dark, creepy film. But then, I've always enjoyed Kubrick's movies.
I'd have to say that Bertolucci's worst movie is Last Tango in Paris, though it's probably unfair, since I watched it recently, not 10, 20 years ago when it was considered erotic and controversial.
Sergio Leone made one of my favourite movies of all time, Once Upon a Time in the West, a hypnotically perfect, structured movies imbued with the danger and ferocity of the American Wild Wild West. It seems only natural that I'd be excited to see Once Upon a Time in America.
Why not? It's got Robert de Niro in the main role, it's about gangsters. It's got sex and violence - what's not to love?
I dunno, I just couldn't enjoy it. It goes on forever, with that miserable first act, when the gangsters are all kids. And James Wood's ridiculously burning plastic acting makes me roll my eyes in disbelief. From filmcritic.com:
"but how did this hateful and often tasteless Godfather ripoff become a classic? What, just because it's four hours long?"
Update: Why must we focus on the negative? JohnDoe posted 10 Great Movies by all the directors on this 'Bad' list....
* this image is from the article
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Comment by Damo
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Nothing dates faster than controversy.
Comment by Cibbuano
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what's controversial now? Global warming? Video games?
Comment by Damo
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What was Kubrick Thinking?
Tom Cruise star of a loony secretive cult in a film bagging another loony secretive cult.
He was either brilliantly sarcastic or senile.
Comment by Jonathon
Anthroblogogy
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Totally with you on Hidden Fortress Jonathon....I dont think any of Kurosawa' s films can be labelled as bad filmmaking.
Scorsese's Cape Fear remake was full of flaws and not a patch on the original, but still a fun film and certainly not worthy of such a tag.
War of The Worlds was a pretty lame remake too, it tried very hard to achieve nothing and personally I hated it... but that doesnt mean it was a bad film...For me when Spielberg takes himself seriously is when he slips into the z grade. ( I liked 1941)
Im a De Palma fan and he ahs made some masterpieces but such even more epic duds. To single out Black Dalhia is ridiculous. Especially when you remember he made the unwatchable film called Snake Eyes, which cant even be classed as a guilty pleasure.
The Godfather III just isnt that bad for a reworking of Shakespeare, its just that the other two films were so good. If we are going to pick on Coppolla why would you not go after the irredeemable sin Jack.
Brorthers Grimm is Terry Gilliam weakest film
With Hitchcock saying his worst film was To catch a Thief shows he never really made a stinker, its a fun film. Admittedly he sometimes dipped into Hollywood fairy floss but its no worse than the Doris Day remake of The Man Who Knew To Much.
I think Matchstick men was a good film, just not the usual epic we are used to...When we talk Ridley Scott stinkers he made a fantasy mess called Legend, a guilty pleasure but also a lack of control from the helm makes it ana example of bad filmmaking...
his worst film is the recent clunker A Good Year Year...Thelma and Louise isnt much better.
To say Cable Hogue is a bad film just plain hurts this peckinpah lover. Full of coke, and a bad attitudwe he made Convoy after all!
And how badly they missed the point with Sergio Leone's stylistic celluloid epic Once Upon A Time In America...I cant even talk about it..
Comment by yoda76
The Tube Blog
I've not seen all of these, by my two cents for anyone that cares:
I though War Of The Worlds was a good film - it's hard to mess up HG Wells, and I don't think that's what has happened here. And to say it's trashy filmmaking in the same breath as hailing Independence Day as a wonderful film with awesome actors kinds kills the statement's credibility!
Kurosawa can't really be classed as bad in any way - everyone's right on that one, but Lucas 'borrowed' more of Hidden Fortress than filmwad concedes. I managed to write a Uni essay on how much he flogged for Star Wars, and not just from Kurosawa!
Godfather III is not the best film of that trilogy by far, but personally I think a fitting conclusion to the sprawling epic. Exceptional? No. Good? Yes. Bad? Not even close.
Eyes Wide Shut? JD's right about the casting. Read the book. Although I did find the film weirdly hypnotic.
To a Scorsese-worshipper (me), Cape Fear is not a bad film. De Niro is kinda scary! But you can't say that this is the worst film in a director's body of work when that body of work contains "Boxcar Bertha". Geez... what a stinker...
As for Death Proof, not that I've seen it, but it'd have to be pretty bad to top Kill Bill 2 in the crap stakes.
;o)
Comment by Luke
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Cape Fear is great too, totally agree with JD on that one... it's a 'fun' film.
and some of the opinions here... sheesh, Kill Bill 2 bad? Did we see the same movie? I thought it was great. And whilst Once Upon a Time in America might not be a classic, it's still a good film... you want to see a bad Godfather ripoff then check of Michael Cimino's The Sicillian.
And I wouldn't call Brian De Palma a 'Great' director either, he's made some good films but nothing that's elevated him to the status of 'Great'.
Comment by yoda76
The Tube Blog
Yup. The crap one. Terrible - a complete letdown after Kill Bill 1, which rocked.
But you're right about Once Upon A Time... good film.
Comment by black_warrior
Comment by Jonathon
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Personally I thought Kill Bill 2 was better than the first half. It played out like a Leone western....
Comment by Cibbuano
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Me, too, I preferred Kill Bill 1, though the second one did play out like a western. It was unexpected, which always good to see.
I can appreciate that people like Once Upon in America, but I'd have to say that Goodfellas is my favourite gangster film.
Comment by yoda76
The Tube Blog
I think the problem for me is that I walked in expecting an extension of the first film. If Kill Bill was a standalone film, and not a sequel -I may have liked it better. Isn't subjectivity a funny thing...
Personally, I think Goodfellas is close to the top of the list of the best films ever made. I watched it a zillion times, and I still have trouble faulting it.
Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
I didn't think Cape Fear was that bad. Not as good as the original, but I found it entertaining.
I'm interested to see Death Proof. I like most of Tarantino's stuff. I'm surprised to see a few people who thought Kill Bill 2 was crap. I loved that film. I actually thought it was better than the first one!