Best films by rubbish directors

[Stumpy Pepys]

Joel Schumacher -- Phone Booth
George Lucas -- Star Wars
Jan de Bont -- Speed
Chris Columbus -- Home Alone was quite fun I suppose

[Purves Grundy]

Best films by rubbish directors

Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Best films by rubbish directors

I thing "best films" implies the fims must be good. Wide boy porn starring Vinnie Jones doesn't make for a good film.

[Reed John]

Best films by rubbish directors

I was just going to start this thread.

Chris Columbus also directed at least one (maybe more) of the Harry Potter films, which are pretty good.

Phone Booth was shockingly good for Schumacher.

Michael Bay - Transformers. Overall, it was pretty cool. Right in his wheelhouse.

[Incandenza]

Best films by rubbish directors

Glad I'm not the only Phone Booth fan here. It was on one of the movie channels and I came in 10 minutes into the movie, and got sucked into it and annoyed my wife (and myself) in saying that I had to finish the movie.

[blameless]

Best films by rubbish directors

Schumacher actually has two good films to his credit - the other of course being Falling Down. The rest of his oeuvre is utter dross, though.

[kugelrund]

Best films by rubbish directors

Paul Verhoeven - The Fourth Man

[Ubik]

Best films by rubbish directors

There's no love for Michael Bay's The Rock? I'd argue its one of the better action movies of the 1990s and probably his best film to date.

Transformers was pretty good but I thought it suffered from not lending its protagonists any sense of individuality or characterisation. I know a lack of gravitas and wit might be irrelevant in a film about giant transforming robots but I still need to care what happens. The action was incredibly well-realised and there were parts of it I loved, but, y'know, it was just a bit shallow.

Besides any live action Transformers movie is always going to suffer in comparison to the feature length cartoon version. The death of Optimus Prime is still about the saddest celluloid moment I've ever experienced. Chew on that Michael Bay. Kill off the hero within the first twenty minutes. A brave directorial decision if ever there was one.

[Ek weet nie]

Best films by rubbish directors

Bafflin wrote:

Paul Verhoeven - The Fourth Man

Come off it. Soldier of Orange, RoboCop and Zwartboek are all very good films. Starship Troopers is also a decent film.

[Wyatt Earp]

Best films by rubbish directors

Das Boot. I think you have to say.

[erwin]

Best films by rubbish directors

Ken Russel's 'The Devils'

[ian.64]

Best films by rubbish directors

Das Boot. I think you have to say.

In The Line Of Fire was quite acceptable, too.

[Wyatt Earp]

Best films by rubbish directors

Oh, was it? OK.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Best films by rubbish directors

Ken Russel's 'The Devils'

Ken Russell's very hit and miss, but he's certainly not a bad director.

[Guest]

Best films by rubbish directors

"murder by decree" is one of my favourite sherlock holmes films,the fact that Bob Clark,he of porkys and black christmas directed it is amazing

[De Geas Clean Linen]

Best films by rubbish directors

Nil Arshavin wrote:

Bafflin wrote:

Paul Verhoeven - The Fourth Man

Come off it. Soldier of Orange, RoboCop and Zwartboek are all very good films. Starship Troopers is also a decent film.

Everything that Verhoeven did after Total Recall has either been so-so or totally shit...

But his CV does contain some excellent films. You missed out Flesh and Blood there too, which I rather enjoyed...

[Ek weet nie]

Best films by rubbish directors

I haven't seen Flesh and Blood. I call my expert witness gerontophile to the stand to defend Zwartboek. I think we can agree that Paul Verhoeven isn't a rubbish director, just prone to making the occasional howler.

[ian.64]

Best films by rubbish directors

Oh, was it? OK.

Well, as far as mainstream thrillers go, very well made, hugely enjoyable and as sleek as you like. Petersen's rubbish Poseidon makes it seem Bergamanesque by comparison.

[Ginger Yellow]

Best films by rubbish directors

There's no love for Michael Bay's The Rock? I'd argue its one of the better action movies of the 1990s and probably his best film to date.

I'd agree except for the fact that it marks the point when Nic Cage went from being a moderately interesting character actor into a waste of space action star with absolutely no quality control.

Everything that Verhoeven did after Total Recall has either been so-so or totally shit...

So, so wrong. I mean, there are a lot of shit Verhoeven films (as you probably know, Showgirls is my worst film of all time), but Starship Troopers is one of the best films of the 90s.

[Vulgarian Visigoth]

Best films by rubbish directors

Reed of the Valley People wrote:

Phone Booth was shockingly good for Schumacher.

Bah, we did it before:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_cabina

(spoiler alert)

[De Geas Clean Linen]

Best films by rubbish directors

I just didn't get the point of Starship Troopers.

Was it sci-fi? Was it satire? Or both?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Best films by rubbish directors

it was bollocks.

[Ginger Yellow]

Best films by rubbish directors

Was it sci-fi? Was it satire? Or both?

Both, obviously. I find it very hard to take seriously people who pretend not to "get" that it's satire. I mean, I could understand someone thinking it's not good satire, but for fuck's sake, any film featuring this,say, is so obviously satire it boggles the mind that anyone could not get it. And that's before we get to Dougie Howser in an SS uniform or the "Brain Bug".

[De Geas Clean Linen]

Best films by rubbish directors

Ginger Yellow wrote:

Was it sci-fi? Was it satire? Or both?

Both, obviously. I find it very hard to take seriously people who pretend not to "get" that it's satire. I mean, I could understand someone thinking it's not good satire, but for fuck's sake, any film featuring this,say, is so obviously satire it boggles the mind that anyone could not get it. And that's before we get to Dougie Howser in an SS uniform or the "Brain Bug".

At one point, I thought it was just a very bad parody of sci-fi action movies. Then theres the annoying cast. Denise Richards, Casper Van Dien and the rest try their hardest to make things as awful as possible. They should have basically called it Starship 90210.

Verhoeven has delivered smart, intelligently conceived satire before (Robocop) but he completely missed the boat with this one.

[Ginger Yellow]

Best films by rubbish directors

They should have basically called it Starship 90210.

That was the point, you know. Plus the fascism.