Directors Who Have Ruined Potentially Good Movies...

[Brian Damage]

Can you think of any directors that had a great script idea in their hands and turned the movie into sh*t?

I immediately think of Oliver Stone who took a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino called Natural Born Killers and turned it into a horrifying mess. It was so bad, that Tarantino demanded that his named be removed from any credits in the film.

Any others?

[MusicJunkie]

Bryan Singer and Superman Returns. I think after the X-Men movies, he let his ego get the best of him and he figured he had the midas touch with Superman also, and the movie was horrible. However, I do feel bad that Brandon Rough is out of a job because SR was a turd of a movie. I think he should be allowed another chance because it isn't like SR opened the doors to a huge career for him and he wasn't really bad in it.

The words Michael Cimino and Heaven's Gate speak for themselves as well.

[Brian Damage]

Bryan Singer and Superman Returns. I think after the X-Men movies, he let his ego get the best of him and he figured he had the midas touch with Superman also, and the movie was horrible. However, I do feel bad that Brandon Rough is out of a job because SR was a turd of a movie. I think he should be allowed another chance because it isn't like SR opened the doors to a huge career for him and he wasn't really bad in it.

The words Michael Cimino and Heaven's Gate speak for themselves as well.


That's an excellent example, Brandon Routh hasn't been in anything solid since then. Speaking of super hero movies, Brett Ratner destroyed the final X-Men movie.

[Jack Gomez]

I think Star Trek Nemesis would have been a better movie if Jonathan Frakes or Levar Burton had directed it. Stuart Baird had no knowledge of Star Trek. He cut a bunch of character stuff that would have added a little emotion to the story. Patrick Stewart once said that if there was a Director's Cut of the movie it would probably be even shorter than what was in the theater. He also said they needed an Actor's Cut. Levar Burton has also commented on Baird not very positively.

[TJL]

I think Star Trek Nemesis would have been a better movie if Jonathan Frakes or Levar Burton had directed it. Stuart Baird had no knowledge of Star Trek. He cut a bunch of character stuff that would have added a little emotion to the story. Patrick Stewart once said that if there was a Director's Cut of the movie it would probably be even shorter than what was in the theater. He also said they needed an Actor's Cut. Levar Burton has also commented on Baird not very positively.

I've always liked Nemesis, even though it wasn't a very happy end to the Next Generation film series. I wish they let Frakes direct it. He did a great job directing Trek movies.

[TJL]

Joel "let's put nipples on the batsuit" Schumacher.

Your terrible Batman moves almost buried the franchise.

They should send Christain Bale over to his house (in his nipple free Batsuit) to kick his ass!

;)

[Jack Gomez]

I've always liked Nemesis, even though it wasn't a very happy end to the Next Generation film series. I wish they let Frakes direct it. He did a great job directing Trek movies.

Yeah, I agree. I actually like Nemesis too, for the most part. The deleted scenes are what got to me because a lot of them should have been in the movie. The one at the top of my list would be the scene with Picard and Data talking about the crew moving on. That would have added much to the ending. Also, the goodbye scene between Picard and Crusher was a real nice exchange between the two. I feel bad for Gates McFadden. She was always given the least to do in the movies and then they go and cut the few scenes she's in. I always liked her character. Usually with deleted scenes I can see why they were cut, but for this movie I think it hurt it somewhat.

[MusicJunkie]

a big one that is pretty much a big "duh" to any horror fan.

Rob Zombie's Halloween. Rob's not a bad director on his own, and Halloween is one of the bar-setters for horror, but together they made a toxic combination because Rob changed around too many crucial scenes and made the movie more depraved to please fans of House Of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. The biggest insult to injury was the "genius" idea of killing Loomis off, the character that kept the franchise alive until the mid-90's when Donald Pleasance himself died. There was no point in turning the Myers family into white trash when in the original movie (IMO basically Zombie's way of giving his hot misses some screentime), they looked like upstanding citizens who just happened to have a monster for a son.

Sad thing is, I bet the new Friday The 13th will suck even worse. A remake of the original where Jason's the killer in a hockey mask? Makes you wonder if these people have even seen the original movie.

[TJL]

Yeah, I agree. I actually like Nemesis too, for the most part. The deleted scenes are what got to me because a lot of them should have been in the movie. The one at the top of my list would be the scene with Picard and Data talking about the crew moving on. That would have added much to the ending. Also, the goodbye scene between Picard and Crusher was a real nice exchange between the two. I feel bad for Gates McFadden. She was always given the least to do in the movies and then they go and cut the few scenes she's in. I always liked her character. Usually with deleted scenes I can see why they were cut, but for this movie I think it hurt it somewhat.

I'll have to rent the DVD and check out the cut scenes. You are right about Gates McFadden. I watched Nemesis again last night on AMC and I don't think she was in the last half of the movie!

[TMC]

Joel "let's put nipples on the batsuit" Schumacher.

Your terrible Batman moves almost buried the franchise.

They should send Christain Bale over to his house (in his nipple free Batsuit) to kick his ass!

;)

In fairness to Joel Schumacher, he was brought in after Tim Burton's "Batman Returns" alienated a good share of the audience by making it more twisted, dark, and somber than his first Batman movie. What went wrong with "Batman Returns" in my book was that Burton got way too much carte blanche after the success of "Batman '89". What made the first movie work was that there was a good balance between film noir, the pulp elements of the old comic books, and Burton's trademark style. With "Batman Returns", Burton and company went way overboard, and it as a result felt more like a live-action version of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" than a Batman movie.

Joel Schumacher for all of the criticism, but his own touch to the Batman mythos. Tim Burton specialized in Gothic, German expressionism type of themes with his take on Batman, while Schumacher had a more "razzle dazzle", bright and flashy, "whiz/bang", spectacle approach to Batman. He for the most part gave the studio execs what they really wanted in Batman, marketable and commercialized. Schumacher supposedly, always wanted to do an adaption of the "Batman: Year One" graphic novel (which eventually, became the template for "Batman Begins").

Unforuntately, like Tim Burton with "Batman Returns", "Batman & Robin" created a serious unbalance. Schumacher and company misunderstood what made "Batman Forever" for the most part, more appealing to casual audiences than "Batman Returns". "Baman Forever" portrayed Batman in a more heroic, positive, sensitive, and uplifting light. "Batman Returns" on the other hand, portrayed Batman as a senseless, cold blooded killer and featured a rather empty, bittersweet ending. Instead, we're fed a barrage of corny one-liners and overdone (even more so than "Batman Forever") action sequences. "Batman & Robin" seemed more like a two hour toy commercial than an actual movie (with characters and a story to truly and seriously care about).

[TMC]

That's an excellent example, Brandon Routh hasn't been in anything solid since then. Speaking of super hero movies, Brett Ratner destroyed the final X-Men movie.

In fairness to Brett Ratner "X-Men 3" had a lot of things working against it from the jump. For starters, the studio really rushed the production process. It seemed like, they wanted to get the movie out just prior to "Superman Returns" as a way to screw Bryan Singer.

Secondly, Bryan Singer himself, abandoned the project so that he can make "Superman Returns". Singer greatly did the series a disservice by not returning to conclude his story arc. Instead, he quite naively, insisted on the studio to wait until he was finished making "SR". It didn't help matters, that Singer took his writers to the Superman project. The storyline for "X-Men 3" feels like it could've been split up into two different movies.

Matthew Vaughn, who directed "Layer Cake" (featuring a pre-James Bond Daniel Craig) and later, "Stardust" was slated to direct after Singer left to work on "SR". But just a week or two before filming was going to begin, Vaughn left the project because he couldn't deal with the pressure of handling such a major project.