Your Top Five Worst Film Directors?

I agree about Kubrick (overrated), but I was sticking to current directors in my list. I do like some of his other movies before 2001, though.

 

De Palma's lost his mojo for sure, even Jason Statham passed on working with him.

 

Awww. I really enjoyed Femme Fatale, actually. Trashy, to be sure, but I dug it enough to pick up the DVD second-hand at one point.

 

Believe me, I wish I could agree. It just seemed like the work of a second-rate De Palma imitator. But hey, I know of a couple of movie critics who still love the guy and even think Mission to Mars is a great movie. I just don't see it.

 

Oh, I really like Dr. Strangelove. I actually think that most of the directors mentioned in this thread have at least one or two redeeming films. I get the sense that many here dislike the work of M. Night Shyamalan, but I found Sixth Sense and Unbreakable to be very well done, and he managed to get some really good performances from Bruce Willis in those two films (among his best, IMO.) It went downhill from there, though. I know that it is tempting to dislike whatever is "popular," but don't discount the validity of something that appeals to the "masses." I wanted to really hate Forrest Gump, as I thought the premise was vapid, but Zemeckis' direction was really very good, and he got charming performances from his cast. In the end, I fell in love with the film, even if it is a bit over-long.

 

]

Oh I have no issue with you picking Kubrick just that "The Shining" as an example of a poorly adapted book--I didn't feel that was fair. Kubrick adapted what he wanted for his vision of the film. I know King's track record as a writer/director is pretty poor.

I consider Kubrick more of a film artist who found popular appeal early on who made a couple of populist films rather than a populist filmmaker like Spielberg who later strived for appeal as an artist. There's nothing wrong with either approach. Spielberg wanted to make films for entertainment while Kubrick wanted to make films for the art. Both have legit arguments in their favor it just comes down to a matter of taste.

The irony, of course, is that Spielberg admired Kubrick and carried on a long term correspondence with him before doing "A.I." Which is a bizarre bit very interesting collision of their two styles.

 

I hate to say it but Russell was a talented director who quickly lost his muse IMHO. There is much to admire in his filmography (for example I do like "Altered States" flaws and all). Russell is the Carmen Miranda of film directors--entertaining in a big, garish sort of way and tech I ally proficient but who got caught up in too much navel gazing.

I lost interest in DePalma after "Blow Out" although he has done some I the resting stuff now and again such as "Carlito's Way" (I never cared for "Scarface" although I can see its appeal).

 

His BBC documentaries were groundbreaking at the time. The Devils has still not got a blu ray release. His music bio pics were interesting. Always a controversial director. Takes guts, spunk and moxie to be a genius !

 

No doubt, hence my take that it became more navel gazing later. I like The Devil's quite a bit z(and im disappoi ted that it STILL hasn't gotten the release it deserves)but his work certainly became more difficult for me to like with time.

Ken went his own way much as Kubrick did. I love much of Kubrick's work although there are some films I can do without. Even if I don't like the work though I still admire bits and chunks.

 

Agreed. Spielberg has his flaws--mostly bad endings, sentimental conceits and a penchant for gross-out humor and bloodlust--but technically he's one of the best ever. No one can get an idea from his brain to the final product better. And once in a while he can produce a true masterpiece such as Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Minority Report, E.T. and of course Schindler's List. Even Lincoln was very impressive in a lot of ways.

 

I sort of lost interest in Blow Out about two thirds of the way through. When Travolta puts Nancy Allen's life in danger -- in part because he's trying to atone for his involvement years earlier in the death of an associate -- well, I just didn't buy any of it. The very final scene is a classic, but I don't think the film fully recovers from that earlier lapse in logic (not to mention the sequence of Travolta running in slo-mo). However, up until that point, I think it's up there with De Palma's best.

After that, the only De Palma movies I really like are Casualties of War and Carlito's Way.

 

I just looked that up. They were going to do a remake of the Burt Reynolds movie Heat. Holy cow, when Jason Statham doesn't want to work with you, your career is really in the toilet!

 

Kinda sad. Think De Palma wanted to mold him into a Steve McQueen type vehicle along the lines of Papilion. Guess he went cold on the deal.

 

LOL, and my least favorite Spielberg film.....but one I enjoyed. I'll be the first to admit that my condemnation of The Shining might be unfair, but the book is so well done, I sort of "saw the movie" in my head while reading it. I just didn't get Kubrick's vision. BTW, I won't repeat what my girlfriend of the time said should happen to Kubrick as we were walking out of the film, but the words "strung up" were in her first sentence when the film ended....I don't think I'm harsh at all compared to that....

I honestly do get their different approaches, and it is a matter of taste as to which you prefer. While I can appreciate Kubrick's sense of the artistic, my issue with him has always been that he just doesn't engage me enough to keep me interested. And, I do go to the movies to be entertained. I guess my taste in directors runs more to Hitchcock, Wilder, and Norman Jewison types. I seem to be always engaged in their films.

 

When I heard about Spielberg's interest in A.I. -- and that it would be his version of a Kubrick film -- all I could do was . I avoided that movie like the plague.

 

I don't normally like to say this, because with things like Malick's "Tree Of Life" it is really not applicable, but here I will say it: sorry you didn't "get" Brown Bunny. I think it's fantastic.
And, to the person who said Robert Altman in this thread, I don't think you get it either. Sure, he made some clunkers, but his top shelf stuff is as good as it gets. It's like Neil Young once said, "Do you want the guitarist in your band who is 100% on every night, or do you want the guy who is 70% on an off night, and 150% on a good night? I want the second guy".

 

Off the cuff, Tony Scott, Paul W.S Anderson but the worst is Steven Soderbergh. Most of his films were turkeys but 'Haywire' takes the prize as one of the worst films ever made even when compared to B grade stuff!

 

Yes that was one stinking turd. Erudite guy. Sex lies.. Was good in its day. The HBO Liberace bio pic was excellent mind.

 

James Cameron
Ron Howard
M Night Shyamalan
Spielberg

 

let's make the list international:

Italy - Neri Parenti..do you have any italian friends? Just ask'em what they think of the "cinepanettoni" movies!

France - Pitof . Yeah, the guy who directed "Catwoman" starring Halle Berry.

Germany - Uwe Boll has no competition, really. I have two questions : who are the people funding his movies? And why on Earth was Sir Ben Kingsley in one of his films??

England (and Italy too) - Anthony Minghella. The Academy never awarded Stanley Kubrick for his work as a director but gave this guy the Oscar for The English Patient? Really?? The same year Fargo and The people vs Larry Flynt were on the list?. Come on!

USA - Rob Zombie. The horror is mainly in his directorial skills.

 

245 posts and no mention of Wes Craven???

 

Red Eye was pretty good, don't you think?

 

Just out of curiosity, do you see those four as equally bad? Because I think Shyamalan is much worse than the other three.

 

Ed Wood
Ron Ormond
Godgrey Ho
James Nguyen
Charles E Cullen

 

Once again "the worst" means "acclaimed and beloved - but I personally don't like them for some reason", as expected. I'm only suprised it took 9 pages before someone came up with Kubrick. I'm still eagerly waiting for the nomination of Orson Welles, Akira Kurusawa and Ernst Lubitsch.