id say Clint Eastwood has made about 10 wack movies in a row.
Agnes Varda
JP
Damn, I disagree, but good pick.
Joel Schumacher, Uwe Boll, Shyamalan…also Brett Ratner…should die :O
There is no such thing as a “bad film” in my opinion. If you look hard enough, there is always something redeeming about any film.
After The Usual Suspects, Bryan Singer just needs to stop.
Sometimes it’s easy to think of Brett Ratner or the usual suspects. I mean shit I expect bad movies from those types. What really dissapoints me are filmmakers who I know have a great flick in them but for various reasons just can’t get over the hump. Some that come to mind for me are…
Peter Berg
Barry Sonnenfeld
Joss Whedon
Richard Kelley
Alex Proyas
justin-I think you nered to make more than 1 film to be called consistant(Josh Whedon whose Serenity is a likeable film) or 2 films(Richard Kelly). Alex Proyas did the awful I Robot but before that he did Dark City one of the best SF films of the last 10 years.
Joe Swanberg
Tom DiCillo
McG
Tony Scott
Garry Marshall
Mike Nichols
Jonathan Demme
Richard Kelly
Rob Reiner
Ken Kwapis
Richard Kelly should not be allowed to make another film after Southland Tales. I thought Donnie Darko was wildly overrrated. I know he’s made the Box since ST, but I think he’s an absolute hack.
Dark City is the best Sci-Fi film since Blad Runner. Better than the Matrix.
Dark City is the best Sci-Fi film since Blade Runner. Better than the Matrix.
Shinya Tsukamoto. He made TETSUO IRON MAN and has been steadily declining ever since. He had a fair way to fall, but VITAL and NIGHTMARE DETECTIVE were the end of the line for me. I should have jumped ship long ago.
Mark Forster. I think every movie including MONSTER’S BALL which I feel is a travesty of a film. I suppose he’s a craftsman, he can make a movie that’s serviceable. What separates him from another craftsman like Ron Howard? One is his choice in scripts and another is the fact that he brings zero life to his films. They are hollow, formulaic, facsimile constructs. Mark Forster is a hack.
Matthieu Kassovitz.
He obviously knows what a good movie is; he made La Haine, a critically acclaimed film and had a lead role in Amelie, another astounding French film. Now he puts out shit like Gothika and Babylon A.D.. Has Hollywood tainted him? Or does he not care anymore and just want the money?
Danny Boyle, Baz Luhrmann.
@ Jim W – I haven’t seen Babylon AD, but Gothika was pretty bad. I think you’re maybe right with the Hollywood thing – wasn’t Babylon AD effectively taken away from him? Seems to have been a miserable time for him. As well as La Haine, his other French work is worth seeing – The Crimson Rivers and Metisse are both fine; perhaps there’s just the pattern that his 2 US films so far haven’t worked out at all, but I’m still interested to see what he does. Ideally, his next will see him back in France.
Dazza-Babylon AD was a French production, not Hollywood, based on a popular French SF novel. He was taken off the film during editing I believe and disoqned the finished result.
I rather like Danny Boyle=Shallow Grave, Trainspotting(one of my favorite films), 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire(I know its ragged on a lot on this site).
Since everyone else is afraid to say it I will. Woody Allen. I can’t take another smarmy/half-witted, bullshit love story. This guy should stick to making straight forward comedies. I love his sick sense of humor a lot more. Excluding Sweet and Lowdown which is the best film he has made since Manhattan and before that Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask. Those three are the only films, out of the forty plus that he has made, I actually think are good.
I really Dislike M. Night Shyamalan as a filmmaker, but to be honest I would watch his entire catalog back-to-back before I ever watch another Uwe Boll film. Of Boll’s catalog of crap I’ve seen House of the Dead, Alone in the Dark, Blood Rayne, In The Name of the King, and Blackwoods and those films are actually 5 of the 10 worst films I’ve ever seen. I could only put one M. Night film into that worst 10 list (Lady in the Water).
So I will say that my answer is, hands-down, UWE BOLL
http://www.stopuweboll.org/
Sign the petition to stop Uwe Boll from making any more films. He agreed that he would quit making films if the petition got 1,000,000 votes, it’s at 320,000 right now so we have a ways to go; please help.
ps. I’m surprised to see so many quality directors have been named in this list. I understand if some director makes films that you simply don’t care for, but Godard, Woody Allen, Danny Boyle, Varda, Kassovitz, Eastwood???? seriously? I personally don’t care for Truffaut’s body of work – except for 400 blows – but I wouldn’t name him on this list. There is a difference between a bad director and a director that you don’t care for. It’s a subtle distinction but there definitely is a difference.
Can’t agree more with that last bit by B Judge, it’s criminal to even throw anyone in this list after Uwe Boll, he makes a whole new level of pure crap.
@Steve: Thanks for the reply re; Kassovitz. I know AD was a French co-production (with StudioCanal in there), but have never really figured out how he was bumped off it. As I guess you know, in France the dir always gets final cut, so was it the fact that it wasn’t purely a French production that enabled a loophole where the film could be wrestled away from him? I have it on DVD, so should try to watch it soon.
And re: Boyle. Glad you like Trainspotting; I just feel very disappointed with most of what he’s done since then – 28 Days fell apart as soon as they got to that army base, Sunshine was a near-total mess, and the less said about Slumdog the better…
Sorry Dazza but I enjoyed Slumdog/seems to be a vry decisive film.
Haven’t seen Babylon AD yet-its on my Netflix list-not expecing much from the previews I saw.
Huzza, DAZZA!
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is for TV watchers since it is in fact a theatrically distributed TV special!
Add Danny Boyle to this list for sure. Ever since 28 DAYS LATER he’s dedicated himself to bad scripts with visual cliches. I mean, does he expect flash cuts and weird angles to constitute solely as an artistic style? HACK!
M. Night Shamalyan is a freaking moron, too! I mean, SIXTH SENSE and SIGNS are admitted guilty pleasures. They’re fine genre films with so-cheesy-you-kinda-hate-it-and-like-it-at-the-same-time endings. Expert suspense, beautiful angles, great acting, and then comes THE VILLAGE, LADY IN THE WATER, (oh god) and THE HAPPENING. Those movies were horrible! They aren’t even twist endings anymore, they are non-sequitors. And man, the stories, what the heck, they are so self-obsessed and bland and unimaginative.
His next film is a movie based on a Nickelodeon cartoon. AVATAR: The Last Air Bender, or something like that. Are you kidding, man?
M. Night is by my money the worst American director allowed to have any film he makes be greenlit.
This is monumentally easy: Guy Ritchie and Michael Bay
Michael Bay? Really? That’s such an easy target. The man is conscious of the kind of film he makes and he does it well.
The man can never be blamed for making films without visual flair, dexterous editing, and pulsating action. Yes, they are not very good in their script but oddly enough he gets great performances. I love Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in BAD BOYS 2, Nic Cage and Sean Connery in THE ROCK, the entire cast of ARMAGEDDON, Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johanssen (whom I don’t like much) in THE ISLAND, as well as Shia Lebouf with Bernie Mac and John Torturro (in brief roles) in TRANSFORMERS. He casts real personalities. And they are on board for a action-packed, nonsensical, visceral Michael Bay film.
I’m as big a film snob as anyone who buys their Criterions and catches flicks at the Nuart or the Sunset 5 but Michael Bay is far too easy a target and for all the wrong reasons. His movies are fun!
John Dahl has had sort of an uneven career. And ever since his split with screenwriter Nicholas St. John, Abel Ferrara has sort of been a shell of his former self. (But still doing better than St. John.)
I fail to see how this topic has existed for this long without someone mentioning Renny Harlin. The man has never made a film that remotely approaches watchable without at least a fifth of hard liquor around and he single-handedly ruined an entire genre of film for almost a decade. We all know Uwe makes shit, but he can only get funding through loopholes or shady German investors. Renny continually churns out shit with huge budgets from American studios. If he can be allowed to make movies, why the he’ll can’t I?
Spike Lee (arrogant, preachy and pompous) and Joel Schumacher.
David Twothy
g0atcheez
BOLL