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[Rolling Stone] 50 Terrible Movies by Great Directors

Dice

Dice

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Oct 25, 2017
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50 Terrible Movies by Great Directors

Cinematic disasters Hollywood's greatest geniuses would love to forget
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Sometimes in life you do a bad job. Or say 'fuck it' and phone it in. It happens! Shit happens. 🍻 So here's Director's giving it their least! It's a pretty fun list, I don't agree with all of it, but I also agree with a lot of it. Anyways: Enjoy a list and check out the write-ups!

Like I had no idea "How Do You Know" was L. Brooks; the movie is about as remarkable as the title would imply (it's sooo boring). But Death Becomes Her is awesome against the 'genius' that is Zemechis's Polar Express or Disney's Pinocchio shoulda been there. Jack is indeed terrible and I don't know why we owned the VHS of it -- cuz I hated it as a kid too lol.

  • 50.Renaissance Man (Penny Marshall)
  • The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky)
  • How Do You Know (James L. Brooks)
  • The Truth About Charlie (Jonathan Demme)
  • Look Who's Talking Too (Amy Heckerling)
  • Bicentennial Man (Christopher Columbus)
  • Basic (John McTiernan)
  • Assassins (Richard Donner)
  • Girl 6 (Spike Lee)
  • The Good German (Steven Soderbergh)
  • Random Hearts (Sydney Pollack)Jupiter Ascending (The Wachowskis)
  • Downsizing (Alexander Payne)
  • Garbo Talks (Sidney Lumet)
  • The Ward (John Carpenter)
  • The Stepford Wives (Frank Oz)
  • Gemini Man (Ang Lee)
  • Buddy Buddy (Billy Wilder)
  • Goya's Ghosts (Milos Forman)
  • Sphere (Barry Levinson)
  • The Last Tycoon (Elia Kazan)
  • Oz The Great and Powerful (Sam Raimi)
  • Beyond Therapy (Robert Altman)
  • Pocketful of Miracles (Frank Capra)
  • Wild Wild West (Barry Sonnenfeld)
  • Phobia (John Huston)
  • The Wings of Eagles (John Ford)
  • The 15:17 to Paris (Clint Eastwood)
  • Joan of Arc (Victor Fleming)
  • Juno and the Paycock (Alfred Hitchcock)
  • What Planet Are You From? (Mike Nichols)
  • Death Becomes Her (Robert Zemeckis)
  • A Good Year (Ridley Scott)
  • Alien 3 (David Fincher)
  • Jade (William Friedkin)
  • Club Paradise (Harold Ramis)
  • Junior (Ivan Reitman)
  • Boxcar Bertha (Martin Scorsese)
  • The Stupids (John Landis)
  • The Ladykillers (The Coen Brothers)
  • How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Ron Howard)
  • She's Having a Baby (John Hughes)
  • Amsterdam (David O. Russell)
  • Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (George Lucas)
  • Piranha II: The Spawning (James Cameron)
  • Planet of the Apes (Tim Burton)
  • Psycho (Gus Van Sant)
  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg)
  • North (Rob Reiner)
  • 1.Jack (Francis Ford Coppola)
 

kowhite

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May 14, 2019
4,714
hey now I liked Death Becomes Her! Kinda enjoy Sphere. Heck the assembly cut of Alien 3 I'm fond of. Oz was ok.

Ok I'm ok with most of this list.

Though I'll defend Gus Van Saint's Pyscho. It's not a bad movie. I mean it's a copy of a good movie. Completely unnecessary and useless? Yup.

Ive also for a soft spot for Burtons Planet of the Apes. Two key moments…first thing I saw day after lasik, I got to watch a movie without glasses! Also I got to watch them film the dinner scene in person. It was funny seeing the Apes hanging around set just reading the news paper. Memorable stuff! Still not really a good movie.
 
Strings

Strings

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Oct 27, 2017
31,810
Eh, a lot of these folks have done worse than the thing they have listed...

- 1941 is weaker than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull for Spielberg (it's his only bad movie, everything else he's able to push to at least a 5/10 through his virtuoso craft level).

- Pinocchio is a lot weaker than Death Becomes Her for Zemeckis.

- My Super Ex-Girlfriend is a lot weaker than Junior for Ivan Reitman.

- Rollerball and Nomads are both worse than Basic for McTiernan.

And so on. Rolling Stone really suck at lists.
 
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IDreamOfHime

IDreamOfHime

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Oct 27, 2017
14,718
Putting the Grinch for Ron Howard is some bullshit, they know he made 3 movies based on Dan Brown novels right? 3 of them!
 
gforguava

gforguava

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Oct 25, 2017
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Garbage list, so much of it is just mediocrity rather than outright disasters.

And no list of "terrible movies" should have anything as remotely quality as Death Becomes Her, The Fountain, or heck, even Alien 3 or Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.


edit: Just noticed Piranha 2 is on there for James Cameron, just shows what a vapid, nothing of a article this is.
 
No Depth

No Depth

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Oct 27, 2017
18,515
Thank god I wasn't the only one that immediately spat water over Death Becomes Her!

The Fountain was a critic darling iirc? I didn't love it, but I don't see it belonging here either.

Crystal Skull felt like a contract job by Spielberg following orders from Lucas. Hard to really point blame entirely on Steven…or maybe? I just assumed it was all Lucas' ideas.

Phantom Menace over Attack of the Clones?
 
CloudWolf

CloudWolf

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Oct 26, 2017
15,831
The Fountain? Really?

They could've picked The Whale. Hell, I would've understood it if they'd said Noah or even mother!, but The Fountain? The fuck?
 
Cipher Peon

Cipher Peon

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Oct 25, 2017
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I haven't seen Crystal Skull (or any Indy movie), but I can't imagine it's worse than AI. That movie was unwatchable, one of the worst things I've ever seen.

First movie to come to mind when clicking on the thread is Insomnia by Nolan. Horrible movie, glad it seems to be a one time thing, I've liked to adored everything else he's made.
 
Strings

Strings

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Oct 27, 2017
31,810
Tbh I really don't like The Fountain (it's basically the most expensive student film ever made), but it's hard to argue Aronfsky hasn't done worse.
 
DrScruffleton

DrScruffleton

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Oct 26, 2017
12,769
Didn't know the grinch was considered a "terrible movie". It's a christmas classic for my family.

Just checked and its not even close to being Ron Howards lowest rated directed movie
 

kowhite

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May 14, 2019
4,714
Cipher Peon said:
I haven't seen Crystal Skull (or any Indy movie), but I can't imagine it's worse than AI. That movie was unwatchable, one of the worst things I've ever seen.

First movie to come to mind when clicking on the thread is Insomnia by Nolan. Horrible movie, glad it seems to be a one time thing, I've liked to adored everything else he's made.
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I like both AI and Insomnia. I cannot relate to this post in anyway. I'd take those two movies anyday over Indy 4.
 
CloudWolf

CloudWolf

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Oct 26, 2017
15,831
Cipher Peon said:
I haven't seen Crystal Skull (or any Indy movie), but I can't imagine it's worse than AI. That movie was unwatchable, one of the worst things I've ever seen.

First movie to come to mind when clicking on the thread is Insomnia by Nolan. Horrible movie, glad it seems to be a one time thing, I've liked to adored everything else he's made.
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What? A.I. is one of Spielberg's best movies.

He has definitely done worse than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull though. 1941 and Ready Player One are both worse.
 
Cipher Peon

Cipher Peon

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Oct 25, 2017
7,979
CloudWolf said:
What? A.I. is one of Spielberg's best movies.

He has definitely done worse than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull though. 1941 and Ready Player One are both worse.
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The only movie of his that comes close to AI for me is West Side Story. Could not stand his homage to Kubrick, a director I completely despise unlike Spielberg. And I loved Ready Player One, sorry friend đź’€
 
Psamtik

Psamtik

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Oct 27, 2017
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The theatrical cut of Alien 3 is a decent movie and the assembly cut is a pretty good movie. I get being annoyed by the fate of Newt and Hicks, but it features great work from Sigourney Weaver and Charles S. Dutton just crushes it. Great ending in the assembly cut, too.

Not even close to a terrible movie.
 
EatChildren

EatChildren

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Oct 27, 2017
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The Fountain is legitimately one of my favourite films. It's a gorgeous, beautiful, deeply meditative work rich with meaningful thought and intention. It's well shot, written, acted, and edited. Nonsense addition, especially given Aronfosky's other output.

Alien 3 I can understand making the list for a multitude of reasons, including its mangled production cycle, and by point of comparison to Alien and Aliens. But the studio cut is a solid film and even the theatrical release captures the essence of Alien, as seen in its predecessors, better than basically any Alien branded film that came afterwards.

And I mean, Death Becomes Her is like a perfect rainy day / late night film.
 

kowhite

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May 14, 2019
4,714
Cipher Peon said:
The only movie of his that comes close to AI for me is West Side Story. Could not stand his homage to Kubrick, a director I completely despise unlike Spielberg. And I loved Ready Player One, sorry friend đź’€
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Man. West Side Story was Spielberg flexing all of his directorial muscles. That movie was good. We clearly don't see eye to eye On movies.
 
CupOfDoom

CupOfDoom

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Dec 17, 2017
3,349
Bro, how are they putting "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on that list when Angles and Demon's is right there.

Also, "Death Becomes Her" over Pinocchio or The Witches or The Polar Express, is certainly a choice.
 
CupOfDoom

CupOfDoom

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Dec 17, 2017
3,349
kowhite said:
Cause…I understand a person that would rather watch Angels and Demons than that awful Grinch movie. God I hated that movie.
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Neither movie is great (or even good), but at least The Grinch is bad in an entertaining way. Angels and Demons is bad in a boring way.

Given the option I'd rather watch a movie where Jim Carrey is being a weirdo for 1/2 the run time than one where Tom Hanks is just babbling on about a fictional vatican conspiracy for 90 minutes.
 
GamerJM

GamerJM

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Nov 8, 2017
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Ones I've seen:

  • Girl 6 (Spike Lee) - Hell no. This one gets misinterpreted for being sex-negative imo, this is a really good portrait of the ways Hollywood sexualizes young black women against their will. And even if you don't like it, Spike has done much worse, they should have used his notoriously awful remake of Oldboy.
  • Oz The Great and Powerful (Sam Raimi) - It's fine. Probably the worst movie Raimi's made of the ones I've seen, but not a disaster or anything, just a forgettable 2010s Hollywood movie that I've never thought about since release aside from the context of it being a Raimi film.
  • Alien 3 (David Fincher) - Yeah this one is a good pick. Fincher is my favorite director working today, along with Makoto Shinkai, and I don't understand how this happened under him. It's the worst parts of Alien + the worst parts of Aliens + studio meddling. Not good.
  • Boxcar Bertha (Martin Scorsese) - Yeah this is notoriously shit and I don't really have anything else to add to it. I will say that I personally enjoyed "Who's That Knocking At My Door" even less when going through Marty's filmography, but at least that one has merits as a student film.
  • How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Ron Howard) - I disagree with Ron Howard being a good director. He's a very middle-of-the-road director with an eye for some garish/bad decisions and this movie is a pretty good representation of that.
  • Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (George Lucas) - This obviously sucks but I'm not sure if I can even call Lucas a good director. I mean, American Graffiti and A New Hope are incredible, but so much of the rest of what he did was not good.
  • Piranha II: The Spawning (James Cameron) - This movie is bad, and objectively the worst thing Cameron did by a longshot, so it's a pretty agreeable pick. That being said, I did enjoy it more than the first Piranha, and I think I actually got more entertainment out of it than the Abyss which is just straight boring to me (sorry).
  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg) - This movie is bad but Spielberg has done worse imo. Pick any of about half of his late career Oscarbait stuff from the late 2000s through the 2010s. I'm also one of those Crystal Skull > Temple of Doom folks, sue me.
 
Kinketsu

Kinketsu

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Nov 17, 2017
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The Fountain is really eyebrow raising. Crystal Skull is one of the lesser Indy movies, not the worst movie he ever made. Donner....Assassins is not fantastic but is it worse than Timeline? I at least remember some parts from Assasins. Zemecks for Death Becomes Her eh? So many fans of What Lies Beneath out there then I guess? Any of the CG shit he made recently?
 
astro

astro

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Oct 25, 2017
57,505
Psamtik said:
The theatrical cut of Alien 3 is a decent movie and the assembly cut is a pretty good movie. I get being annoyed by the fate of Newt and Hicks, but it features great work from Sigourney Weaver and Charles S. Dutton just crushes it. Great ending in the assembly cut, too.

Not even close to a terrible movie.
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Alien 3 is a good film with some issues imo. Some terrific c of performances yeh, Charles Dance as the doctor too.
 
lorddarkflare

lorddarkflare

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Oct 25, 2017
6,353
Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace is probably the best of the prequels in retrospect. Episode II is right there.

And I know that the Fountain is a sus choice, but I am just glad that Mother escaped the axe. It should have been Noah though.
 
Prompto

Prompto

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Oct 25, 2017
4,012
There's a lot of bad choices in this list but Death Becomes Her is especially egregious. That's one of his best! Had no idea people considered it "terrible"
 
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