Stinkers By Great Directors (1 Viewer)

[Thomas T]

I can't disagree with you more as the films listed below are among my favorite films of all-time and are not boring at all to me. Hell, even "The Brother from Another Planet", "Sunshine State" and "Passion Fish" have their moments.

• Eight Men Out
• Matewan
• Lone Star

We'll simply have to agree to disagree then. Years ago on another movie site I did battle with another poster on Robert Altman vs. John Sayles. He couldn't stand Altman and thought Sayles was the better director and, of course, I had the opposite viewpoint. We went back and forth and back and forth and never did come to an agreement. But it was stimulating and thankfully, never got ugly or personal. Passion Fish is the one Sayles film I can get through successfully and that's because of Mary McDonnell and Alfre Woodard, two actresses that are hard to resist (well, almost. I did successfully resist McDonnell in Dances With Wolves).

 

[Thomas T]

"GoodFellas" is one of the most rewatchable movies ever made!

I'll take your word for it I've only seen it once and while I didn't hate it, I'd never want to watch it again.

 

[WillG]

No idea, but I actually agree with you. I've only seen 1941 once, and it's not something I feel compelled to re-watch, but I think it's an underrated early Spielberg film. I'd rather have my kidneys harvested than watch E.T. again.

all the mentions of Spielberg and no one has brought up The Terminal?

 

[TravisR]

all the mentions of Spielberg and no one has brought up The Terminal?

I think that's because people forget that movie all together. Personally, I don't mind it as much as some (probably because Tom Hanks is a likeable guy so I root for him in the movie) but it's not something I feel a need to defend either.

 

[Thomas T]

all the mentions of Spielberg and no one has brought up The Terminal?

Spielberg has 34 films as a director (and I worked on two of them) but I've skipped 6 of them (Amistad, The Terminal, Adventures Of Tintin, Bridge Of Spies, The BFG, Ready Player One). I used to wait in anticipation for his next film but I've lost interest in him as a director in recent years though I did like The Post and I'll probably watch his West Side Story reboot (though I have a bad feeling on that one).

 

[TravisR]

Spielberg has 34 films as a director (and I worked on two of them) but I've skipped 6 of them (Amistad, The Terminal, Adventures Of Tintin, Bridge Of Spies, The BFG, Ready Player One). I used to wait in anticipation for his next film but I've lost interest in him as a director in recent years though I did like The Post and I'll probably watch his West Side Story reboot (though I have a bad feeling on that one).

You might not dig the CG animation but I thought Tintin was one of his best movies of this century. It's an animated Indiana Jones and just a ton of fun. I thought Bridge Of Spies was really good too.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Yes - interestingly, Rob Reiner didn't put a foot wrong from This Is Spinal Tap (1984) to A Few Good Men (1992). His first eight movies were all critical successes and many of them have a devoted legion of fans today.

Rob Reiner is someone I put in a category with Barry Levinson. They both start directing movies in the 1980s, have some success, and then as they get into the 1990s they get sort of hit or miss, then by 2000 that success starts to fade. They are both still directing and I think stay pretty busy. I just don't think I would call either of them a "great director" probably good or solid directors.

 

[Thomas T]

You might not dig the CG animation but I thought Tintin was one of his best movies of this century. It's an animated Indiana Jones and just a ton of fun. I thought Bridge Of Spies was really good too.

Alas, I'm not an animation kind of guy outside of Japanese anime (I love Miyazaki). Hell I don't even like Pinocchio, Bambi or Dumbo! I even prefer the live action musical remake of Beauty And The Beast to its animated counterpart.

 

[Robert Crawford]

We'll simply have to agree to disagree then. Years ago on another movie site I did battle with another poster on Robert Altman vs. John Sayles. He couldn't stand Altman and thought Sayles was the better director and, of course, I had the opposite viewpoint. We went back and forth and back and forth and never did come to an agreement. But it was stimulating and thankfully, never got ugly or personal. Passion Fish is the one Sayles film I can get through successfully and that's because of Mary McDonnell and Alfre Woodard, two actresses that are hard to resist (well, almost. I did successfully resist McDonnell in Dances With Wolves).

It seems your disagreement about Sayles is more than just with me here.

 

[Thomas T]

It seems your disagreement about Sayles is more than just with me here.

Oh, I march to my own drummer! I've a list of "respected" directors and "beloved" movies I don't respect or love I take on all challengers. It does amaze me though that while people will concede that popular films are often bad (the unwashed masses thing), somehow popular directors are exempt (though some of the anti-Spielberg sentiment on this thread indicates otherwise).

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I'm glad I saw Starship Troopers in a theater rather than at home, as I would've had to buy a new TV after throwing some heavy object at it.

So, I've never seen Starship Troopers, I believe I started watching it once, got about 10 or 15 minutes in and bailed on it. A good friend believes this picture is a modern masterpiece and rates it as an utterly brilliant piece of writing. I've been tempted to watch it ever since having a conversation with him about it over dinner in a restaurant. Of course his love of the film and the writing leans heavily into the subtext and he admits that the overt aspect of the film is goofy and sort of stupid but that is, in his words, intentional. So, I keep thinking am I missing out here on some deeply thoughtful bit of satire? I mean every clip of the film I have seen looks pretty awful but I should not judge because I have never sat down to watch the entire thing. I'm also kind of concerned that he is playing some sort of gag on me and will say "Ha, I got you to watch that piece of garbage."

However, I know the subtext in RoboCop is important in a big way to understanding and appreciating that picture.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I'm not going to argue that Sayles has an impeccable track record, but Eight Men Out, Matewan, and Lone Star are all excellent features. I think Lone Star was easily one of the best films of 1996 which is no small feat as '96 was a terrific year for film in general. Easily in my top ten for that year, and perhaps top five. (Off topic, I sure wish there was a Blu-Ray release for Lone Star.)

- Walter.

I think (hope) Criterion is going to do a Lone Star Blu-ray.

 

[Worth]

I'm tempted to call The Irishman a stinker. I think Shutter Island is a worse film, but The Irishman is certainly Scorsese's most over-rated. If it had anyone else's name on it, I doubt it would have received anywhere near the sort of praise that it did.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Oh, I march to my own drummer! I've a list of "respected" directors and "beloved" movies I don't respect or love I take on all challengers. It does amaze me though that while people will concede that popular films are often bad (the unwashed masses thing), somehow popular directors are exempt (though some of the anti-Spielberg sentiment on this thread indicates otherwise).

On this forum, I think we all march to our own drummer! As to popular directors, there isn't a prolific director that hasn't directed a bad film with just about all of them doing so multiple times.

 

[Worth]

So, I've never seen Starship Troopers, I believe I started watching it once, got about 10 or 15 minutes in and bailed on it. A good friend believes this picture is a modern masterpiece and rates it as an utterly brilliant piece of writing. I've been tempted to watch it ever since having a conversation with him about it over dinner in a restaurant. Of course his love of the film and the writing leans heavily into the subtext and he admits that the overt aspect of the film is goofy and sort of stupid but that is, in his words, intentional. So, I keep thinking am I missing out here on some deeply thoughtful bit of satire? I mean every clip of the film I have seen looks pretty awful but I should not judge because I have never sat down to watch the entire thing. I'm also kind of concerned that he is playing some sort of gag on me and will say "Ha, I got you to watch that piece of garbage."

However, I know the subtext in RoboCop is important in a big way to understanding and appreciating that picture.

I think Starship Troopers anticipated America's growing inclination towards fascism.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I think Starship Troopers anticipated America's growing inclination towards fascism.

Let's cease with such discussion right now! I don't want to start deleting posts which I just did with one post, but I will do so along with thread bans to keep political references out of this thread.

 

[TravisR]

So, I've never seen Starship Troopers, I believe I started watching it once, got about 10 or 15 minutes in and bailed on it. A good friend believes this picture is a modern masterpiece and rates it as an utterly brilliant piece of writing.

It's a good movie, a funny and smart satire and certainly more intelligent than it may look from the trailer but I wouldn't go in expecting a Masterpiece with a capital M either.

Oh, I march to my own drummer! I've a list of "respected" directors and "beloved" movies I don't respect or love I take on all challengers. It does amaze me though that while people will concede that popular films are often bad (the unwashed masses thing), somehow popular directors are exempt (though some of the anti-Spielberg sentiment on this thread indicates otherwise).

I'd say that when talking about a great director that even their mistakes are still interesting on some level so for me, that can save a movie from being a failure. Not to mention that when I look back on guys that are now part of history like HItchcock or Welles or Wilder, it's just nice that there's more work (even if it's flawed) from a great artist. And using titles from this page, while people might not like Shutter Island or The Irishman or The Adventures Of Tintin or Bambi, I don't think they're trying to say that they are completely devoid of artistic merit either.

 

[Nick*Z]

Steven Spielberg - 1941
William Wyler - The Good Fairy
John Guillerman - King Kong
Sidney Lumet - The Wiz
Gene Saks - Mame
Robert Wise - The Hindenburg
Mike Nichols - Wolf
John Ford - Gideon of Scotland Yard (a.k.a. Gideon's Day)
Robert Zemeckis - The Polar Express
Billy Wilder - Buddy Buddy
Alfred Hitchcock - Family Plot, Torn Curtain, Topaz
Victor Fleming - Joan of Arc
Vincente Minnelli - On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
George Sidney - Jupiter's Darling
George Cukor - Let's Make Love
Robert Benton - Nadine
Richard Donner - Lethal Weapon 3 & 4
Harold Lloyd - The Sin of Harold Diddleback
Henry King - The Sun Also Rises
Joseph L. Mankiewicz - The Honey Pot
Guy Hamilton - The Mirror Crack'd, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
Stanley Donen - Arabesque, Saturn 3, Movie Movie
Terance Young - Jackpot
Charlie Chaplin - A King in New York
Martin Scorsese - The Aviator, Shutter Island
Sergio Leone - The Colossus of Rhodes
Stanley Kubrick - Eyes Wide Shut
John Carpenter - Village of the Damned, Memoirs of the Invisible Man
Peter Bogdanovich - At Long Last Love
William Friedkin - Good Times
Francis Ford Coppola - Twixt
Ang Lee - Hulk
David Fincher - Panic Room
Andy Tennant - Hitch
Clint Eastwood - Gran Torino

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

It's a good movie, a funny and smart satire and certainly more intelligent than it may look from the trailer but I wouldn't go in expecting a masterpiece either.

Yes, I think when I started watching it I just was not in the mood for it. I also don't think at the time I was paying much attention to the subtext, which I had guessed at the time would likely be about "manufacturing consent" in a tip of the hat to Chomsky. I like Michael Ironside though so I would watch it specifically for him.

Also I should say that Starship Troopers is one of those pictures that has a bunch of sequels that I did not know had sequels.

 

[TravisR]

Clint Eastwood - Gran Torino

Clint's been mentioned a few times but does anyone remember Blood Work? It's not a bad movie but it'd be my pick for his weakest. I think it's like Spielberg and The Terminal where people just forget about it.