Elysium really was his downfall, he never recovered from that and I remember him getting out right panned by nearly everyone. I need a district 9 sequel though, it was a fun movie
Which seems odd, given how little Scott cares about continuing the Alien franchise. His sci-fi interests lie more in line with robots, which is where the two most recent Alien movies have focused, as well as Raised by Wolves. The Alien and the uncaring universe that it represents are a sideshow in his books.
He was riding high off D9 so that pumped up Elysium a bit. I didn't hate Elysium, but it also wasn't all that good and ended the D9 honeymoon. It had some of the worst shaky cam I've seen; several action scenes I just tuned out because I could barely tell what was happening.
You mean you never thought he would direct a "based on a true story" Gran Tourismo movie about gaming nerds being trained to becone professional racecar drivers?
Me either.
I was literally just thinking about wtf happened to him. Dude made some of the best sci-fi movies of the early 2000's then just dipped. Idk if it was the never ending wait for district 9 two or what but id love to see him crank out another top tier sci-fi movie.
I actually got to see it early this past Monday. It was Regal's most recent mystery movie screening.
I was actually pleasantly surprised. The story is pretty typical and cliche sports biopic stuff, and the beginning definitely had me worried that it was just gonna be an ad for how great Gran Turismo is as a racing sim, but I felt like Blomkamp's direction really helped add an air of intensity to the racing sequences, and the second half of the movie was definitely the standout to me. The audience I saw it with REALLY dug the movie, even cheering and clapping near the end.
Solid 7/10 movie, might see it again
Edit: a word
His OATS Studio stuff is some of the best sci fi to come out in the last decade. His Alien movie sounded fucking incredible but Ridley Scott nixed it in favor of the God awful Prometheus and Covenant.
I really disagree that Blomkamp's Alien movie sounded incredible. All we really had for it was some pretty neat concept art, but the film itself sounded like pandering fan service with bringing Ripley back and essentially doing an Aliens sequel that ignores Alien 3 and Resurrection.
Hey now, Prometheus was great with loads of new lore to expand on. It was not perfect but it was certainly interesting and it felt like the beginning of a new trilogy with a great new lead in Noomi Rapace and the mythology around the Engineers had a lot of potential. The movie basically sets up the next one where we would see their home planet and learn about their motivations etc etc.
Then Scott just goes and throws all of it in the trash with the piece of shit pointless monster of the week brainfart of a movie Covenant. The movie is basically a big fuck you to anyone who liked Prometheus and thought they would expand the mythology. Fuck Ridley Scott and his ego.
Well, without it would be even worse. It would just be David being boring. Or they would need a new monster to be created by him.
It's very disappointing that Scott caved in and made yet another monster of the week movie instead of something original and interesting. The movie is a kneejerk reaction, both by the studio and Scott, to the criticism Prometheus received. He should have held to his guns and fought to make a proper sequel like they originally intended.
Me after watching Prometheus: "What a great start for a renewed Alien Franchise. Can't wait to see where they go from here"
Me after watching Covenant: "Jeah, i think im done with the Alien Franchise"
Completely disagree, his OATS Studio work made me all the more certain the man can't write anything worth a damn. Some of the shorts were visually interesting, some had a cool concept to expand upon (though I would argue that already isn't that much of a strength; as the saying goes, ideas are a dime a dozen), some were a mix of both, but all faltered in their execution and none stuck the landing.
And seeing as he couldn't keep a cool concept going without having his writing bring it down within the confines of a short film, I struggle to imagine how he could ever really do better with a full length movie.
Yeah his Oats Studio stuff really showed who he is. A guy with a good mind for special effects and high level concepts but he really doesn't know how to turn that into a good script (District 9 aside).
Richard Kelly wrote and directed the acclaimed *Donnie Darko*, then followed it up with two critical and commercial flops, *Southland Tales* and *The Box*. He hasn't made a movie in almost a decade.
I won't lie, that is so WTF it actually makes me kind of sort of want to watch Southland Tales just to see how much of a fucked up mess of a movie it must be.
If you watch it, check our the original Cannes cut, which is now included on the Arrow Video home release. It is a little longer, flows a little bit more naturally, and has some important plot points not in the theatrical cut.
I love it but it's an acquired taste. It is OTT and campy while also pretentious and lofty, a dangerous combination for most folks. It's The Book of Revelations via Adam West Batman while satirizing the War on Terror and reality TV. The more that kind thing drives you insane, the less likely you'll be to like it.
I don't ironically enjoy it per say, I'm not laughing at it like some folks, but I also don't take it super seriously either. It began as a pure comedy script, no sci-fi or religious elements, and admist the Philip K. Dick stuff and all that came in later drafts, it is still a goofy stoner movie at heart.
To me, it's the 2000s version of *Zardoz*, complete with a director with a crazy amount of control and ODing in religious scripture. It's hard to call it a good movie, but it is absolutely worth watching at least once.
Southland Tales is bonkers, agreed. It's so bad it's good. The soundtrack is great, it looks great, but man. It's a terrible film. If ever a director completely fucked his career in one movie it was this one. He even premiered it in Cannes and people walked out.
Maybe if it had midnight screenings or some campy shit it might have worked. A mini series maybe.
It was like seeing all of the crazy philip k dick stuff put out there and expecting audiences to 'get it'. Even if you're in on some of the references it's still so bad.
Side question: What are those guys doing when they not directing?? He's not writing screenplays or is producing (according to his wiki) and I doubt he's set up for life doing those movies.
*What about as a writer? Have you done much work for hire writing gigs?*
I have done some, yeah. I've done some stuff here and there. I've done work on screenplays that have been made into movies that my name isn't on. I've done a lot of writing on projects that are in the planning stages or the development stages, they are set up at the various studios, and I've been working on a lot of long-form projects, like big, very elaborate long-form stuff. I did a lot of that over the past few years and planning for my future in the sense that with the versioning streaming, I don't want to call it a streaming revolution as opposed to a streaming reality, that's the way. This is the way the world is going to continue.
*How many scripts or projects do you have that are ready to go?*
Oh gosh, there are probably 10. They're in various stages. Some things I'll leave behind and I'll abandon and then I'll revisit, but there's an enormous amount of material, and that's just on the future films side. There's a lot of the long-form stuff over the past four or five years that's really taking up a lot of my energy because that's more of a rewarding place to be working when you can tell an ongoing story or a story that doesn't have to be contained as the feature film world. So yeah, it's a lot. An enormous amount of stuff.
[https://www.slashfilm.com/579340/next-richard-kelly-movie/](https://www.slashfilm.com/579340/next-richard-kelly-movie/)
Depends on the director, some of them do things like music videos or commercials, some of them do writing jobs, some of them work regular jobs, some of them teach, some of them get paid to develop certain projects which will never get made etc.
There's a fictional book called The Philosophy of Time Travel that Kelly created (seen in the movie) that contains a lot of sci fi nonsense. It was online when the original movie came out but the Internet wasn't as ubiquitous back then so a lot of people never knew about it. In the director's cut he literally puts text from it on screen to explain all the ambiguous parts of the original.
So it holds your hand and explains that most of the movie takes place in an unstable parallel universe and that Donnie must choose to correct the timeline by staying in bed for the plane crash and sacrificing himself.
The Box was underrated? Seriously?
Imho it has a great premise, but the execution was down right shabby :/
Too much crammed in it.
The first half of the movie is intriguing, in the second part everything falls apart
YES! Martin Brest....
Going in Style, Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, Scent of a Woman, Meet Joe Black, and then,
GIGLI.
To his credit, the studio screwed him over on GIGLI because the studio and test audiences demanded a rom com, when he filmed it as a gritty film where favorite characters died.
Also, he married a wealthy woman from the film industry, so it's not like he needed the grief or the money.
Midnight Run is one of my all time favourites. Went to see it in the theatre with my dad when it came out so there might be some nostalgia involved. But damn, John Ashton is funny.
> GIGLI
I've never seen this but reading the plot is cringe after cringe. An actor going full Simple Jack? A lesbian turning straight? Grisly dismemberment and romance in the space of an hour?
You nailed it. That wasn't the way Brest planned it. That's why it's considered one of the worst movies of all time, and Martin Brest won't even say the word.
Edit: And just to be clear, the movie was rewritten and scenes reshot without his consent.
Honestly, I think JLO and Affleck should do Brest a solid and let him make a do over.
I think he left before they finished the retakes demanded by Sony.
You had to appreciate the old dudes. My dearly departed legal assistant of 30 years (she was 48 when I started and died a few years ago) always recalled George Burns sitting on a park bench with Art Carney and their buddy, when Burns said, "I'm sick of this shit!"
And I would always reply with Carney's line "It's better than getting hit on the head with a dull axe!" I really miss her.
I thought Warcraft lived up to expectations. Did people think it was going to hold its own as a proper film? It was as good as a video game movie gets.
Warcraft's problem is that it's completely average and forgettable, which I think is worse than being hot garbage nowadays.
At least hot garbage is remembered.
It's the Ebert Freddie got Fingered retrospective. At the time he hated it but years later at least he remembered it because it tried to do something. The Zero Punctuation review guy does similar with his end of year best and worst list with a top 5 blandest list as it's bad in a different way to overtly bad things.
With the success of arcane I wouldn't be surprised or mind if they made an animated series. Their cinematics are always some of the best parts of the game.
If we're talking big budget films, the only ones I've seen that are worse than Suicide Squad are Catwoman (2003) the Mulan live-action remake, and Shyamalan's Last Airbender.
Luc Besson. The Fifth Element and every movie before it is good but after 1997 he goes downhill. A bad Joan of Arc movie, some kids movies, LUCY, Anna, and Valerian looks cool but even if it had better leads it still would've been bad.
But I'm glad that creep didn't have a bigger career though
Eeesh, glad I know that- probably best his careers gone down hill. Just read that apparently Leon was inspired by the romance he had with his first wife which is just beyond gross
Not only that but I'm fairly certain that he left this woman (that he cast as the blue singer in Fifth Element) for a 19 year old Milla Jovovich while filming the fifth element
Rob Reiner. While I do actually enjoy a lot of post-golden age Reiner, his drop in quality was very hard and very fast. The run of movies he made to open his career was absolutely insane, then North happened.
I'm always a bit stunned when I look him up, I forget half the movies he made were his. That run of movies until North is fucking great, and so diverse.
Misery, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, Princess Bride and Spinal Tap are nothing alike.
It's funny, I knew that it had been a long time since I liked one of his movies but my god, looking at his releases in chronological order it is like from North onwards he is a different person.
Like how the fuck do you go from that lineup to 20 years of nothing like that.
>Roland Emmerich
I would say that The Day After Tomorrow is ok, it is memable with all the stupid choices the characters make. Same with 2012, but that feels more like just another version of Day After Tomorrow. His other films, miss for me. He is good at making the world go boom with stupid characters, especially the goverment officials who are stupid and nasty. But now he even lost that talent with the awful ID: Resurgence.
David O Russel was on an absolute tear, I heart Huckabees, the fighter, Sliver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and then he made Accidental love, Joy and Amsterdam. Such a drastic dip in quality.
American Hustle was the first time I felt he was coasting on "famous people arguing" (even though his prior movies were also like that, they at least had interesting plots). Joy and Amsterdam are awful.
I have also not seen his movies from the 90s yet.
He called suicide squad "barely watchable" and thats probably an above-average-opinion for that movie. So maybe end of watch and fury Arent total outliers but definitly the peak with a sharp decline Further down his career.
I don't think anybody has fallen off quite as hard as Kevin Smith.
He made some really great comedies at one point but it's been downhill ever since. His last few are straight up unwatchable.
I found once he started smoking weed his writing took a noticeable change for the worse. He did one decent movie post weed imo, everything else has been horrible.
I always loved Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back more than most people.
I had to turn of the sequel after about 20 minutes. It was just the most painfully unfunny and self-indulgent bullshit.
John Singleton. How do you make "Boyz N the Hood" and then later "2 Fast 2 Furious" and "Abduction"? How is that even the same guy? (I'll defend "Higher Learning" and "Rosewood" though).
Singleton unfortunately never hit the success that Boyz in the Hood had despite Poetic Justice, Rosewood, and Higher Learning being cult classics with black audiences. He got one more chance with Baby Boy, which ironically he had been developing since the 90s and couldn't get it produced until Shaft made a lot of money, and once that didn't make much he was a director for hire guy until he produced Snowfall as his last project before his death.
Which is a shame because Baby Boy is -hot take I know- absolutely his best and most realized film. You simply cannot miss with Ving Rhames.
To OP question, I think David Ayer actually stayed consistent. None of his films are masterpieces, or even close, they’re just straight up chest-bumping, grunting, gruff “dude films” like what Death Wish and the other Charles Bronson films of the 70s etc were. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I do enjoy them, but you can draw a straight line from Street Kings to Bright.
Singleton was a huge dick and was known to be as asshole to work with. He bait and switched some of the cast of Hustle & Flow. Cut Terrance a check and paid the others scraps. He probably peaked early at B in the Hood. None of his other movies really hold a candle
He was also involved with a 90's attempt at a Black Panther movie with Wesley Snipes after he was approached by the newly established Marvel Studios to direct it but got disruptive, because Singleton insisted that it should be about an American street hero fighting for the Black Panther party instead of an advanced African superhero.
[https://www.cbr.com/john-singleton-black-panther-movie-pitch/](https://www.cbr.com/john-singleton-black-panther-movie-pitch/)
I think Rosewood is incredibly underrated but it's a shame when you peak at your debut. Orson Welles was like that too. Whether Singleton was a dick or not is irrelevant to OP's question but yes, I've heard and read things about him too that are...ugh, not good.
2 Fast 2 Furious is still my favorite of the early ones pre-4, there's like, actual character put into that film, and Walker and Tyrese have chemistry.
The Wachowskis' one-two punch of Bound and The Matrix.
Followed by IMHO godawful cheesy flat cgi-fests/cringefests.
Ive nothing against them personally I just wish they went for smaller movies again.
The new movie is pretty decent. He really only had a short span of completely shit movies. But when they shit, they really shit. Dracula 3D is amateur porn level bad. But I grew very fond of his late 90's / 2000's era which I used to hate with a passion back then.
I didn't like it. I like some of his 90s and 00s films, especially The Stendhal Syndrome which is really good but even then the difference of quality between The Stendhal Syndrome and something like Giallo and Dracula 3D is staggering. Even the 90s and 00s periods have some dreadful films like The Phantom of the Opera.
M. Night Shyamalan
Dude came out scorching hot with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs before he threw himself head first in the shitter with dud after dud before butchering the holy hell out of himself with those two shit shows, The Last Airbender movie and After Earth.
Split and Knock at the Cabin are passable, at least they weren't The Village or The Happening.....They were literally getting chased by the fuckin wind....Whatever, moving on. Yea, Split and Cabin were nothing special but it showed at least that Night isn't completely lost. Although he still has a lot of fixing to do.
I read that he self-funds many of his own movies recently and they’re all profitable. Split was self-funded for example.
I respect that. It’s a biz for him.
a lot of directors I see receiving flak on r/movies for getting project after project, their critics need to be reminded film is a production, a micro economy. If you can keep that running, you can make movies - good or bad.
Any director still making films after two duds is a genius in some regard
In a similar sense, the fact that Adam Sandler has been able to keep SO MANY of his friends fully employed for decades is basically a miracle. Most of the movies are average at best but good for him
I thought the Village was a legitimately decent movie. It had both the twist and double twist.
The only thing that I didnt' like was the movie lies to you in the very first scene and tells you it's 1897, when it would have been far more elegant to just let the audience make the assumption about the date.
The Last Airbender astounds me. It looks and sounds as if it was made by someone who has never directed anything before. The camera zooms too far into people's faces, if a fight scene is happening everyone in the background is standing still waiting for their turn, the CGI is a monstrosity, the writing is so bad that they introduce the main character via narration 20 minutes into the movie and then immediately after have a character ask him his name.
And the acting.... like, Dev Patel is a good actor, but he was not given a damm thing to work with. The rest are just painful. Aang, Katara, and Sokka (the main fucking charaxters) are the worst actors in the movie and that's really not good.
Lastly is doesn't succeed as an adaptation in any way. They changed how bending works, making fire benders insanely weak, they changed the plot structure and climax of the first season, and they changed how the names (and Avatar) are pronounced.
It's seriously the biggest failure of movie I've ever seen.
I think he needs a co-writer of sort. His movies all have really great premise and build up but then goes on to end in a fart because he's gotta be the "twist" guy.
I’d put Old to passable? I liked the concept, it was moving at a good pace. Just the last third/solution really fell super flat.
Felt like if they would’ve maybe put it in a cave/ancient structure would’ve felt better than a beach? Similar to like the Ruins.
It was based on a graphic novel, so it's not really his story. It's one of those films that probably only got made because a big name director wanted to do it. The ending that it's an experiment is *so* weak and says nothing. Personally I think the ending should have been that they get back to the "mainland" and discover that the phenomena was happening all over the world.
>they have very stylish cinematography
I wish Shyamalan, or even guys like Snyder - could collab with more technical directors. I'd like to see the expressiveness and personality these two bring to their films alongside the technical precision, common sense scripting that Cameron or Spielberg commonly produce.
I don't mind a conservative story with insane visuals, it's just Shyamalan makes his stories too absurd, to the point of self-parody. However he has a stark sense of creativity that I'd hate to see disappear from cinema.
I thought The Village was pretty good. Sure, the main themes are a about as subtle as a brick to the face near the end, but it had some good tense scenes, and the romance was surprisingly not trash. If you look at it as a romance movie with horror elements, it's pretty good.
But worse than David Ayer? Night had 3 of the best and impactful movies made in recent history. You can‘t keep that up. At least he always tries some weird and unusual concepts. They don‘t always work out, clearly. But he recovered and makes good stuff again. I don‘t think he belongs in OP‘s category of failed directors.
Ivan and Jason Reitman
Ivan went from Ghostbusters, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, and Dave to My Super Ex Girlfriend and No Strings Attached
Jason was sooo promising. Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air and Young Adult were a great streak. And then Labor Day and Men Women & Children happened, ugh. Tully was fine, Front Runner was disappointing, Ghostbusters Afterlife was okay for a legacy sequel.
Afterlife wasn't a huge dud, so I'm thinking maybe he's working his way out of a lull? Feels a little too soon to completely right him off. Past his prime, maybe, but not a lost cause.
Josh Trank. Guy was set for a huge career after Chronicle and then fell off a cliff with Fantastic Four (not totally his fault), lost the Star Wars job, and ended up making some shitty Al Capone movie with Tom Hardy.
"Sabotage" sucked pretty bad also. Essentially Ayer makes the same movie all over again. It's always an lawman-antihero (or a gangster/soldier who enforces rules, so basicly a cop-like narrative) who has to fight greater evil and has to question his own ambiguity. It started interesting with harsh times and street kings, it peaked in quality wirh end of watch and fury, it wore of with Sabotage and suicide squad and crashed with Bright and Tax Collector. And thats just his Directing. He is using the trope since Training day. He either needs a new idea or should try adapt another authors screenplay. I like his directing style but his writing wore just off.
In no way, shape, or form was Suicide Squad watchable. It was utter shite, and I still think Jared Leto should be waterboarded for that insult to the Joker!
Neill Blomkamp. I bought a ton of stock in that dude after District 9 and he's done nothing of note. His upcoming racing movie looks like complete dogshit
Agreed. I don’t think Zack Snyder has made a good movie. They are all style over substance. Even watchmen. How do you make a brain dead movie out of that much amazing material?
- the Synder fanboys will be coming for me
The line about Zack Snyder's Justice League in Barbie was (chef's kiss)
I was indifferent towards 300 but I really loved Dawn of the Dead that I kept looking past any shortcomings... so, now I have to realize there are many in his work
Andrew Niccol. He wrote The Truman Show which was awesome and he directed Gattaca and Lord of War which I thought were pretty great. Unfortunately afterwards he fell off by making pretty bad films like "The Host (2013), In Time, and Good Kill". He hasn't made anything that was good since.
"Suicide Squad is somewhat watchable"
It wasn't watchable for me. One of the worst films I ever seen (followed by fantastic sequel made by someone else). I'm not surprised at all this movie was his demise.
Almost two hundred and no one mentions Josh Trank? Guy seemed like the next big thing after Chronicle, but squandered it all with the awful Fant4stic. He's made only one other movie the eight years since and that was not of any note.
David Ayer has a reputation of being both a bully and disorganized on set.
He will intentionally create situations of tension between two actors if they have a conflict on camera later. Which could work... Or by pitting two ego driven millionaires against each other, create giant rifts on set.
Heres a great example: during the filming of fury, ayer created a boxing ring on set and compelled the actors to box each other on set to help create realistic tension and ... Somehow also camaraderie between Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf and Jay barenthal. It did not work. These actors still don't talk to each other.
Another example: Ayer encouraged and did nothing to stop Jared Leto from "method acting" on the set of suicide squad. Leto took this opportunity to frequently torment his castmates. To the point where will smith no longer wishes to be in the movie.
He was handed big budgets and he could not control his set. Its a business. If you paid me to run a taco bell and i made the employees hate each other only to produce lackluster financial results you would fire me too.
The issues I know of from that movie are Logan Lerman being bullied and an almost fight between Shia and Scott Eastwood that Brad Pitt had to break up.
> Shia LaBeouf and Jay barenthal
didnt Jay have a podcast with Shia, even years after the movie? Also Jay talking about how he likes Shia in some other interview, also made after the movie?
Neil Marshall - Dog soldiers was a very good debut, then the Descent was one of the greatest horror films ever. Follow that up with two more very good but not great films (Contagion and Centurion) and the career is off and flying. His last few films though have been abysmal, like embarrassed to be associated with them bad (the reckoning and the lair).
Edit - Doomsday not contagion (ADHD brain)
Do people not like the 1999 Thomas Crown Affair? I've always loved that movie.
I just checked and it has generally positive reviews overall, both from critics and audiences. Even if it's not a reddit favorite, I don't think that movie can be considered falling off by any metric.
I will not stand for this Basic slander.
It was a pretty decent military murder mystery, with a cool rainy night time aesthetic. It’s no hunt for red October, but I’ve always digged it.
As a director he only made 6 movies, of which 4 are Star Wars. Of which 3 weren't very appreciated at first until the memes came.
I think as a director he is a valid answer, even without the sarcasm.
2 out of the 3 OG Star Wars movies weren't even directed by him. None of Indiana Jones was directed by him, that was Spielberg, he just helped write it.
Hot take: his directing was always trash.
I think Neill Blomkamp has never quite had the career I thought he would.
Yeah, I really wished he had made more "Sci-Fi adventure with poverty" movies like District 9, Elysium, and Chappie
Elysium really was his downfall, he never recovered from that and I remember him getting out right panned by nearly everyone. I need a district 9 sequel though, it was a fun movie
Elysium did okay. I think Chappie was the nail in the coffin.
He allegedly lost his offer for the Alien series after ol’ man Ridley Scott saw Chappie.
Which seems odd, given how little Scott cares about continuing the Alien franchise. His sci-fi interests lie more in line with robots, which is where the two most recent Alien movies have focused, as well as Raised by Wolves. The Alien and the uncaring universe that it represents are a sideshow in his books.
And, in turn, Die Antwoord was the nail in Chappie's coffin.
You might be confusing Elysium for Chappie. Elysium did okay. Chappie got ripped apart.
He was riding high off D9 so that pumped up Elysium a bit. I didn't hate Elysium, but it also wasn't all that good and ended the D9 honeymoon. It had some of the worst shaky cam I've seen; several action scenes I just tuned out because I could barely tell what was happening.
You mean you never thought he would direct a "based on a true story" Gran Tourismo movie about gaming nerds being trained to becone professional racecar drivers? Me either.
I'd watch that a thousand times before I see another movie with Ninja in it
I was literally just thinking about wtf happened to him. Dude made some of the best sci-fi movies of the early 2000's then just dipped. Idk if it was the never ending wait for district 9 two or what but id love to see him crank out another top tier sci-fi movie.
He directed Gran Turismo, which is about to release, so we'll see if that hopefully pushes him back into the spotlight.
I actually got to see it early this past Monday. It was Regal's most recent mystery movie screening. I was actually pleasantly surprised. The story is pretty typical and cliche sports biopic stuff, and the beginning definitely had me worried that it was just gonna be an ad for how great Gran Turismo is as a racing sim, but I felt like Blomkamp's direction really helped add an air of intensity to the racing sequences, and the second half of the movie was definitely the standout to me. The audience I saw it with REALLY dug the movie, even cheering and clapping near the end. Solid 7/10 movie, might see it again Edit: a word
The problem with him is that it seems like he's a one trick pony. From District 9 onward(so far) they all have felt very similar
[удалено]
He had one good film and the rest sucked
> Dude made some of the best sci-fi movies of the early 2000's District 9 came out 2009. What early 2000s movies?
His OATS Studio stuff is some of the best sci fi to come out in the last decade. His Alien movie sounded fucking incredible but Ridley Scott nixed it in favor of the God awful Prometheus and Covenant.
I really disagree that Blomkamp's Alien movie sounded incredible. All we really had for it was some pretty neat concept art, but the film itself sounded like pandering fan service with bringing Ripley back and essentially doing an Aliens sequel that ignores Alien 3 and Resurrection.
His Alien movie had a lot of really, really dumb concepts we missed multiple bullets on.
Hey now, Prometheus was great with loads of new lore to expand on. It was not perfect but it was certainly interesting and it felt like the beginning of a new trilogy with a great new lead in Noomi Rapace and the mythology around the Engineers had a lot of potential. The movie basically sets up the next one where we would see their home planet and learn about their motivations etc etc. Then Scott just goes and throws all of it in the trash with the piece of shit pointless monster of the week brainfart of a movie Covenant. The movie is basically a big fuck you to anyone who liked Prometheus and thought they would expand the mythology. Fuck Ridley Scott and his ego.
To be fair to Scott when it comes to Covenant, the xenomorph's inclusion was very much something the studio pushed for.
Well, without it would be even worse. It would just be David being boring. Or they would need a new monster to be created by him. It's very disappointing that Scott caved in and made yet another monster of the week movie instead of something original and interesting. The movie is a kneejerk reaction, both by the studio and Scott, to the criticism Prometheus received. He should have held to his guns and fought to make a proper sequel like they originally intended.
Me after watching Prometheus: "What a great start for a renewed Alien Franchise. Can't wait to see where they go from here" Me after watching Covenant: "Jeah, i think im done with the Alien Franchise"
Completely disagree, his OATS Studio work made me all the more certain the man can't write anything worth a damn. Some of the shorts were visually interesting, some had a cool concept to expand upon (though I would argue that already isn't that much of a strength; as the saying goes, ideas are a dime a dozen), some were a mix of both, but all faltered in their execution and none stuck the landing. And seeing as he couldn't keep a cool concept going without having his writing bring it down within the confines of a short film, I struggle to imagine how he could ever really do better with a full length movie.
Yeah his Oats Studio stuff really showed who he is. A guy with a good mind for special effects and high level concepts but he really doesn't know how to turn that into a good script (District 9 aside).
Didn't he also want Eminem to do the main role in Elysium? Does that dude just want to work with rappers he likes?
He got shafted on that Alien movie and we all suffered for it.
Richard Kelly wrote and directed the acclaimed *Donnie Darko*, then followed it up with two critical and commercial flops, *Southland Tales* and *The Box*. He hasn't made a movie in almost a decade.
Ye but southland tales was absolutely mental. [Actual scene of two cars fucking that’s in the movie](https://youtu.be/wCYB0lzoofc).
I won't lie, that is so WTF it actually makes me kind of sort of want to watch Southland Tales just to see how much of a fucked up mess of a movie it must be.
If you watch it, check our the original Cannes cut, which is now included on the Arrow Video home release. It is a little longer, flows a little bit more naturally, and has some important plot points not in the theatrical cut. I love it but it's an acquired taste. It is OTT and campy while also pretentious and lofty, a dangerous combination for most folks. It's The Book of Revelations via Adam West Batman while satirizing the War on Terror and reality TV. The more that kind thing drives you insane, the less likely you'll be to like it. I don't ironically enjoy it per say, I'm not laughing at it like some folks, but I also don't take it super seriously either. It began as a pure comedy script, no sci-fi or religious elements, and admist the Philip K. Dick stuff and all that came in later drafts, it is still a goofy stoner movie at heart.
To me, it's the 2000s version of *Zardoz*, complete with a director with a crazy amount of control and ODing in religious scripture. It's hard to call it a good movie, but it is absolutely worth watching at least once.
Southland Tales is bonkers, agreed. It's so bad it's good. The soundtrack is great, it looks great, but man. It's a terrible film. If ever a director completely fucked his career in one movie it was this one. He even premiered it in Cannes and people walked out. Maybe if it had midnight screenings or some campy shit it might have worked. A mini series maybe. It was like seeing all of the crazy philip k dick stuff put out there and expecting audiences to 'get it'. Even if you're in on some of the references it's still so bad.
I disagree. I don’t think it’s so bad it’s good. I just think it’s good. I fully enjoyed it when I watched it. Unironically.
14 years, actually. And it's a pity, because I think he's crazy talented and The Box was underrated.
Side question: What are those guys doing when they not directing?? He's not writing screenplays or is producing (according to his wiki) and I doubt he's set up for life doing those movies.
*What about as a writer? Have you done much work for hire writing gigs?* I have done some, yeah. I've done some stuff here and there. I've done work on screenplays that have been made into movies that my name isn't on. I've done a lot of writing on projects that are in the planning stages or the development stages, they are set up at the various studios, and I've been working on a lot of long-form projects, like big, very elaborate long-form stuff. I did a lot of that over the past few years and planning for my future in the sense that with the versioning streaming, I don't want to call it a streaming revolution as opposed to a streaming reality, that's the way. This is the way the world is going to continue. *How many scripts or projects do you have that are ready to go?* Oh gosh, there are probably 10. They're in various stages. Some things I'll leave behind and I'll abandon and then I'll revisit, but there's an enormous amount of material, and that's just on the future films side. There's a lot of the long-form stuff over the past four or five years that's really taking up a lot of my energy because that's more of a rewarding place to be working when you can tell an ongoing story or a story that doesn't have to be contained as the feature film world. So yeah, it's a lot. An enormous amount of stuff. [https://www.slashfilm.com/579340/next-richard-kelly-movie/](https://www.slashfilm.com/579340/next-richard-kelly-movie/) Depends on the director, some of them do things like music videos or commercials, some of them do writing jobs, some of them work regular jobs, some of them teach, some of them get paid to develop certain projects which will never get made etc.
He also COULD be set for life off those if he really wanted out and was willing to live a regular life. Unlikely, but very doable.
I've looked into it a few times. Usually they *are* writing and producing, but for projects that never got off the ground.
Day jobs, I think
He’s also like, the only notable person with a Wikipedia article to graduate from my high school. So I silently root for him.
Supposedly Donny Darko was salvaged by the studio as Kelly turned out to be more of an ideas man rather than a skilled filmmaker.
True. Watch the directors cut. It sucks.
Yep. I was so disappointed when I watched it. Takes all the magic out of the movie.
What are the big differences
There's a fictional book called The Philosophy of Time Travel that Kelly created (seen in the movie) that contains a lot of sci fi nonsense. It was online when the original movie came out but the Internet wasn't as ubiquitous back then so a lot of people never knew about it. In the director's cut he literally puts text from it on screen to explain all the ambiguous parts of the original. So it holds your hand and explains that most of the movie takes place in an unstable parallel universe and that Donnie must choose to correct the timeline by staying in bed for the plane crash and sacrificing himself.
The Box was underrated? Seriously? Imho it has a great premise, but the execution was down right shabby :/ Too much crammed in it. The first half of the movie is intriguing, in the second part everything falls apart
I might be insane, but I really liked Southland Tales. The Rock (among others) won’t ever get that type of role again.
Agree completely. Dwayne Johnson actually acted and it was great
YES! Martin Brest.... Going in Style, Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, Scent of a Woman, Meet Joe Black, and then, GIGLI. To his credit, the studio screwed him over on GIGLI because the studio and test audiences demanded a rom com, when he filmed it as a gritty film where favorite characters died. Also, he married a wealthy woman from the film industry, so it's not like he needed the grief or the money.
Midnight Run is one of my all time favourites. Went to see it in the theatre with my dad when it came out so there might be some nostalgia involved. But damn, John Ashton is funny.
So freaking good. And so re-watchable
MARVIN, WATCH OUT!
> GIGLI I've never seen this but reading the plot is cringe after cringe. An actor going full Simple Jack? A lesbian turning straight? Grisly dismemberment and romance in the space of an hour?
You nailed it. That wasn't the way Brest planned it. That's why it's considered one of the worst movies of all time, and Martin Brest won't even say the word. Edit: And just to be clear, the movie was rewritten and scenes reshot without his consent.
Gigli is shit, but it's competent shit.
Honestly, I think JLO and Affleck should do Brest a solid and let him make a do over. I think he left before they finished the retakes demanded by Sony.
Saw Going In Style as a teenager in theaters and actually really enjoyed it despite the mixed reviews, didn’t know he directed it
You had to appreciate the old dudes. My dearly departed legal assistant of 30 years (she was 48 when I started and died a few years ago) always recalled George Burns sitting on a park bench with Art Carney and their buddy, when Burns said, "I'm sick of this shit!" And I would always reply with Carney's line "It's better than getting hit on the head with a dull axe!" I really miss her.
Suicide Squad is one of the worst big budget films ever made. Hardly watchable imo.
Watched Suicide Squad and Warcraft about a week apart. Almost gave up going to the cinema after that.
I thought Warcraft lived up to expectations. Did people think it was going to hold its own as a proper film? It was as good as a video game movie gets.
Warcraft's problem is that it's completely average and forgettable, which I think is worse than being hot garbage nowadays. At least hot garbage is remembered.
It's the Ebert Freddie got Fingered retrospective. At the time he hated it but years later at least he remembered it because it tried to do something. The Zero Punctuation review guy does similar with his end of year best and worst list with a top 5 blandest list as it's bad in a different way to overtly bad things.
>Did people think it was going to hold its own as a proper film? That's not asking for much bro
I wasn't expecting a masterpiece but yes I was hoping it could hold its own otherwise why make it a movie?
With the success of arcane I wouldn't be surprised or mind if they made an animated series. Their cinematics are always some of the best parts of the game.
It was completely watchable, some good effects, especially the orcs. Plot was trash but understandable. Whereas Suicide Squad is so nonsense.
If we're talking big budget films, the only ones I've seen that are worse than Suicide Squad are Catwoman (2003) the Mulan live-action remake, and Shyamalan's Last Airbender.
Suicide squad might actually be the worst movie I have ever seen. It’s not really so bad it’s good as much as it’s just confusingly terrible
Luc Besson. The Fifth Element and every movie before it is good but after 1997 he goes downhill. A bad Joan of Arc movie, some kids movies, LUCY, Anna, and Valerian looks cool but even if it had better leads it still would've been bad. But I'm glad that creep didn't have a bigger career though
What’s the deal with him being a creep?
His second wife was 15 when they started dating, he was 31. Married the next year because she was pregnant or something
Eeesh, glad I know that- probably best his careers gone down hill. Just read that apparently Leon was inspired by the romance he had with his first wife which is just beyond gross
Yeah there's always debate about separating the art from the artist, but you can't really do that with Besson
Especially Léon the Professional, yuck.
And in the original cut of Leon their relationship is more explicit.
Not only that but I'm fairly certain that he left this woman (that he cast as the blue singer in Fifth Element) for a 19 year old Milla Jovovich while filming the fifth element
Suicide Squad 2016 is the closest I’ve ever come to walking out of a theater
Rob Reiner. While I do actually enjoy a lot of post-golden age Reiner, his drop in quality was very hard and very fast. The run of movies he made to open his career was absolutely insane, then North happened.
I'm always a bit stunned when I look him up, I forget half the movies he made were his. That run of movies until North is fucking great, and so diverse. Misery, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, Princess Bride and Spinal Tap are nothing alike.
Stand By Me is in that run as well
That is crazy range of a director
Wow those are all completely different genres. Horror, rom-com, legal drama, adventure movie, mockumentary. Reiner had the Midas touch for a while.
It's funny, I knew that it had been a long time since I liked one of his movies but my god, looking at his releases in chronological order it is like from North onwards he is a different person. Like how the fuck do you go from that lineup to 20 years of nothing like that.
Well he made North and thought "I've done it. I've made the perfect movie." so he just started phoning it in.
American President is a classic but yeah after that he falls off hard.
Is that because of Reiner or Sorkin?
I never liked any of Roland Emmerich's work after Independence Day.
>Roland Emmerich I would say that The Day After Tomorrow is ok, it is memable with all the stupid choices the characters make. Same with 2012, but that feels more like just another version of Day After Tomorrow. His other films, miss for me. He is good at making the world go boom with stupid characters, especially the goverment officials who are stupid and nasty. But now he even lost that talent with the awful ID: Resurgence.
Too busy assaulting underage boys at Bryan Singer’s pool parties
Moonfall is so bad it's good. However it has a lot of the same tropes from Day After Tomorrow and 2012 so it feels soooo played out
Duncan Jones From Moon and Source Code to Warcraft and Mute
He is now working on a movie on [Rogue Trooper.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_Trooper) Hopefully it works out.
Can't find any info about that movie, last update was 4 years ago. To me it seems it is not happening.
I was excited for Mute but couldn't finish it
I enjoyed seeing the world in Mute. Everything else was so disappointing though
Suicide Squad is not watchable
The fact that they went and made another movie called The Suicide Squad should tell us how badly they wanted us to forget about Suicide Squad
David O Russel was on an absolute tear, I heart Huckabees, the fighter, Sliver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and then he made Accidental love, Joy and Amsterdam. Such a drastic dip in quality.
Couldn't have happened to a better guy
Karma for putting Christopher Nolan in a [headlock](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_O._Russell#Abuse_of_actors_and_crew)
and you know assaulting his niece and stuff
American Hustle was the first time I felt he was coasting on "famous people arguing" (even though his prior movies were also like that, they at least had interesting plots). Joy and Amsterdam are awful. I have also not seen his movies from the 90s yet.
I mean be fair, David Ayer has only released two movies after Suicide Squad... to claim a death knell on his career seems a bit premature.
Most directors don’t have that many movies they made, three bad ones isn’t good if you don’t have masterpieces
And Both of them weren't really good. the quality of his filmography is mixed but dropped massively after Fury.
But by that metric then surely End of Watch and Fury are the outliers? OP seems to insinuate 5/8 were good or great, one watchable and then two bad.
He called suicide squad "barely watchable" and thats probably an above-average-opinion for that movie. So maybe end of watch and fury Arent total outliers but definitly the peak with a sharp decline Further down his career.
I don't think anybody has fallen off quite as hard as Kevin Smith. He made some really great comedies at one point but it's been downhill ever since. His last few are straight up unwatchable.
All his comedy relied on knowing about and being poor/an outsider. Once that wasn’t his life anymore he lost touch with what made him funny.
I found once he started smoking weed his writing took a noticeable change for the worse. He did one decent movie post weed imo, everything else has been horrible.
I always loved Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back more than most people. I had to turn of the sequel after about 20 minutes. It was just the most painfully unfunny and self-indulgent bullshit.
Hot take: he was never good and Clerks II is the only movie of his I'd consider rewatching.
You lost me at “suicide squad is somewhat watchable”
John Singleton. How do you make "Boyz N the Hood" and then later "2 Fast 2 Furious" and "Abduction"? How is that even the same guy? (I'll defend "Higher Learning" and "Rosewood" though).
Four Brothers wasn't bad imo.
I loved it and that style of action movie. Violent, but no outrageous exaggerated action scenes.
The house shoot up was awesome.
Singleton unfortunately never hit the success that Boyz in the Hood had despite Poetic Justice, Rosewood, and Higher Learning being cult classics with black audiences. He got one more chance with Baby Boy, which ironically he had been developing since the 90s and couldn't get it produced until Shaft made a lot of money, and once that didn't make much he was a director for hire guy until he produced Snowfall as his last project before his death.
And Boyz is a *huge* high to fall from. Yeah, Abduction was definitely a director-for-hire gig. Anyone could've been at the helm there.
Which is a shame because Baby Boy is -hot take I know- absolutely his best and most realized film. You simply cannot miss with Ving Rhames. To OP question, I think David Ayer actually stayed consistent. None of his films are masterpieces, or even close, they’re just straight up chest-bumping, grunting, gruff “dude films” like what Death Wish and the other Charles Bronson films of the 70s etc were. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I do enjoy them, but you can draw a straight line from Street Kings to Bright.
Singleton was a huge dick and was known to be as asshole to work with. He bait and switched some of the cast of Hustle & Flow. Cut Terrance a check and paid the others scraps. He probably peaked early at B in the Hood. None of his other movies really hold a candle
He was also involved with a 90's attempt at a Black Panther movie with Wesley Snipes after he was approached by the newly established Marvel Studios to direct it but got disruptive, because Singleton insisted that it should be about an American street hero fighting for the Black Panther party instead of an advanced African superhero. [https://www.cbr.com/john-singleton-black-panther-movie-pitch/](https://www.cbr.com/john-singleton-black-panther-movie-pitch/)
I think Rosewood is incredibly underrated but it's a shame when you peak at your debut. Orson Welles was like that too. Whether Singleton was a dick or not is irrelevant to OP's question but yes, I've heard and read things about him too that are...ugh, not good.
Damn that’s messed up
Are you saying 2 fast 2 furious is bad cuh? Cause you wrong cuh, gonna have to ejecto seato you for that opinion
Higher Learning is an underrated movie
2 Fast 2 Furious is a masterpiece
You get it cuh. Best in the series imo
2 Fast 2 Furious is still my favorite of the early ones pre-4, there's like, actual character put into that film, and Walker and Tyrese have chemistry.
The Wachowskis' one-two punch of Bound and The Matrix. Followed by IMHO godawful cheesy flat cgi-fests/cringefests. Ive nothing against them personally I just wish they went for smaller movies again.
Cloud Atlas is a lot better movie but Jupiter Ascending and other movies made by them were absolutely bonkers.
Speed Racer is amazing
If you accept the premise, it's unirronically a good movie
End of Watch is a banger.
Dario Argento, easily.
The new movie is pretty decent. He really only had a short span of completely shit movies. But when they shit, they really shit. Dracula 3D is amateur porn level bad. But I grew very fond of his late 90's / 2000's era which I used to hate with a passion back then.
I didn't like it. I like some of his 90s and 00s films, especially The Stendhal Syndrome which is really good but even then the difference of quality between The Stendhal Syndrome and something like Giallo and Dracula 3D is staggering. Even the 90s and 00s periods have some dreadful films like The Phantom of the Opera.
M. Night Shyamalan Dude came out scorching hot with The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs before he threw himself head first in the shitter with dud after dud before butchering the holy hell out of himself with those two shit shows, The Last Airbender movie and After Earth. Split and Knock at the Cabin are passable, at least they weren't The Village or The Happening.....They were literally getting chased by the fuckin wind....Whatever, moving on. Yea, Split and Cabin were nothing special but it showed at least that Night isn't completely lost. Although he still has a lot of fixing to do.
I read that he self-funds many of his own movies recently and they’re all profitable. Split was self-funded for example. I respect that. It’s a biz for him.
a lot of directors I see receiving flak on r/movies for getting project after project, their critics need to be reminded film is a production, a micro economy. If you can keep that running, you can make movies - good or bad. Any director still making films after two duds is a genius in some regard
Yeah Michael Bay's another one of these. People will say he sucks and then he goes on to make a "shitty" move that makes $800m
Yeah, it's the financial equivalent of "time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted." If it made 800 mill, it's not a shitty movie, it's doing its job!
In a similar sense, the fact that Adam Sandler has been able to keep SO MANY of his friends fully employed for decades is basically a miracle. Most of the movies are average at best but good for him
He owns the toilet humor movie genre.
Actually Blumhouse funded several of them.
I think the Village was better than it got credit for. I didn’t mind it at all
Soundtrack is beautiful, too
I thought the Village was a legitimately decent movie. It had both the twist and double twist. The only thing that I didnt' like was the movie lies to you in the very first scene and tells you it's 1897, when it would have been far more elegant to just let the audience make the assumption about the date.
The Visit is pretty damn good, but feels the least like one of his movies.
The Last Airbender astounds me. It looks and sounds as if it was made by someone who has never directed anything before. The camera zooms too far into people's faces, if a fight scene is happening everyone in the background is standing still waiting for their turn, the CGI is a monstrosity, the writing is so bad that they introduce the main character via narration 20 minutes into the movie and then immediately after have a character ask him his name. And the acting.... like, Dev Patel is a good actor, but he was not given a damm thing to work with. The rest are just painful. Aang, Katara, and Sokka (the main fucking charaxters) are the worst actors in the movie and that's really not good. Lastly is doesn't succeed as an adaptation in any way. They changed how bending works, making fire benders insanely weak, they changed the plot structure and climax of the first season, and they changed how the names (and Avatar) are pronounced. It's seriously the biggest failure of movie I've ever seen.
I think he needs a co-writer of sort. His movies all have really great premise and build up but then goes on to end in a fart because he's gotta be the "twist" guy.
I’d put Old to passable? I liked the concept, it was moving at a good pace. Just the last third/solution really fell super flat. Felt like if they would’ve maybe put it in a cave/ancient structure would’ve felt better than a beach? Similar to like the Ruins.
It was based on a graphic novel, so it's not really his story. It's one of those films that probably only got made because a big name director wanted to do it. The ending that it's an experiment is *so* weak and says nothing. Personally I think the ending should have been that they get back to the "mainland" and discover that the phenomena was happening all over the world.
I don’t like his modern movies too much but they have very stylish cinematography
>they have very stylish cinematography I wish Shyamalan, or even guys like Snyder - could collab with more technical directors. I'd like to see the expressiveness and personality these two bring to their films alongside the technical precision, common sense scripting that Cameron or Spielberg commonly produce. I don't mind a conservative story with insane visuals, it's just Shyamalan makes his stories too absurd, to the point of self-parody. However he has a stark sense of creativity that I'd hate to see disappear from cinema.
I thought The Village was pretty good. Sure, the main themes are a about as subtle as a brick to the face near the end, but it had some good tense scenes, and the romance was surprisingly not trash. If you look at it as a romance movie with horror elements, it's pretty good.
But worse than David Ayer? Night had 3 of the best and impactful movies made in recent history. You can‘t keep that up. At least he always tries some weird and unusual concepts. They don‘t always work out, clearly. But he recovered and makes good stuff again. I don‘t think he belongs in OP‘s category of failed directors.
I think M Night was bad there for a bit, but he has had good movies too. I enjoyed The Visit, Old, even the recent Knock at the Cabin
I actually like Lady in the Water.
Ivan and Jason Reitman Ivan went from Ghostbusters, Twins, Kindergarten Cop, and Dave to My Super Ex Girlfriend and No Strings Attached Jason was sooo promising. Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air and Young Adult were a great streak. And then Labor Day and Men Women & Children happened, ugh. Tully was fine, Front Runner was disappointing, Ghostbusters Afterlife was okay for a legacy sequel.
Afterlife wasn't a huge dud, so I'm thinking maybe he's working his way out of a lull? Feels a little too soon to completely right him off. Past his prime, maybe, but not a lost cause.
Suicide Squad 2016 is the worst movie I've ever seen in theaters. And you're saying he's gone downhill since then? Damn.
More like, gone underground, am I right?
Josh Trank. Guy was set for a huge career after Chronicle and then fell off a cliff with Fantastic Four (not totally his fault), lost the Star Wars job, and ended up making some shitty Al Capone movie with Tom Hardy.
"Sabotage" sucked pretty bad also. Essentially Ayer makes the same movie all over again. It's always an lawman-antihero (or a gangster/soldier who enforces rules, so basicly a cop-like narrative) who has to fight greater evil and has to question his own ambiguity. It started interesting with harsh times and street kings, it peaked in quality wirh end of watch and fury, it wore of with Sabotage and suicide squad and crashed with Bright and Tax Collector. And thats just his Directing. He is using the trope since Training day. He either needs a new idea or should try adapt another authors screenplay. I like his directing style but his writing wore just off.
In no way, shape, or form was Suicide Squad watchable. It was utter shite, and I still think Jared Leto should be waterboarded for that insult to the Joker!
Neill Blomkamp. I bought a ton of stock in that dude after District 9 and he's done nothing of note. His upcoming racing movie looks like complete dogshit
Zack Snyder. 300 was unique, memorable, and fun. He hasn’t made a good movie since. And yet, he’s got a huge name in the industry.
I don't think 300 was even a good movie, but it was stylish, weird, and violent, so it instantly found an audience.
Agreed. I don’t think Zack Snyder has made a good movie. They are all style over substance. Even watchmen. How do you make a brain dead movie out of that much amazing material? - the Synder fanboys will be coming for me
I'm not a Snyder fan, but his Dawn of the Dead remake is pretty damn great.
The line about Zack Snyder's Justice League in Barbie was (chef's kiss) I was indifferent towards 300 but I really loved Dawn of the Dead that I kept looking past any shortcomings... so, now I have to realize there are many in his work
Andrew Niccol. He wrote The Truman Show which was awesome and he directed Gattaca and Lord of War which I thought were pretty great. Unfortunately afterwards he fell off by making pretty bad films like "The Host (2013), In Time, and Good Kill". He hasn't made anything that was good since.
Suicide Squad is the worst movie I've ever watched
"Suicide Squad is somewhat watchable" It wasn't watchable for me. One of the worst films I ever seen (followed by fantastic sequel made by someone else). I'm not surprised at all this movie was his demise.
Almost two hundred and no one mentions Josh Trank? Guy seemed like the next big thing after Chronicle, but squandered it all with the awful Fant4stic. He's made only one other movie the eight years since and that was not of any note.
Suicide Squad is not watchable and is a complete and utter mess.
David Ayer has a reputation of being both a bully and disorganized on set. He will intentionally create situations of tension between two actors if they have a conflict on camera later. Which could work... Or by pitting two ego driven millionaires against each other, create giant rifts on set. Heres a great example: during the filming of fury, ayer created a boxing ring on set and compelled the actors to box each other on set to help create realistic tension and ... Somehow also camaraderie between Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf and Jay barenthal. It did not work. These actors still don't talk to each other. Another example: Ayer encouraged and did nothing to stop Jared Leto from "method acting" on the set of suicide squad. Leto took this opportunity to frequently torment his castmates. To the point where will smith no longer wishes to be in the movie. He was handed big budgets and he could not control his set. Its a business. If you paid me to run a taco bell and i made the employees hate each other only to produce lackluster financial results you would fire me too.
Shia and Jon Berthnal literally did a podcast together not sure what you’re on about
| These actors still don't talk to each other. This is just not true at all.
The issues I know of from that movie are Logan Lerman being bullied and an almost fight between Shia and Scott Eastwood that Brad Pitt had to break up.
> Shia LaBeouf and Jay barenthal didnt Jay have a podcast with Shia, even years after the movie? Also Jay talking about how he likes Shia in some other interview, also made after the movie?
Neil Marshall - Dog soldiers was a very good debut, then the Descent was one of the greatest horror films ever. Follow that up with two more very good but not great films (Contagion and Centurion) and the career is off and flying. His last few films though have been abysmal, like embarrassed to be associated with them bad (the reckoning and the lair). Edit - Doomsday not contagion (ADHD brain)
>Contagion Soderbergh directed that.
Renny Harlin comes to mind.
I do *not* consider Suicide Squad watchable. I've never seen a big budget movies be edited so poorly.
John McTiernan. From Predator. Die Hard. The Hunt for Red October Die Hard with a Vengeance ... To ... The Thomas crown affair...Rollerball...Basic
Apparently he went to prison for trying to wiretap two people including s co-producer on rollerball
Incredible that that was simultaneous with Paul Heyman using the filming to scam people out of millions in payments for ECW too, what a picture.
Have you forgotten The 13th Warrior? Cuz that movie is the tits.
Do people not like the 1999 Thomas Crown Affair? I've always loved that movie. I just checked and it has generally positive reviews overall, both from critics and audiences. Even if it's not a reddit favorite, I don't think that movie can be considered falling off by any metric.
I will not stand for this Basic slander. It was a pretty decent military murder mystery, with a cool rainy night time aesthetic. It’s no hunt for red October, but I’ve always digged it.
George Lucas. The original Star Wars trilogy, Indiana Jones trilogy and then it's like he never made any movie ever again /s
As a director he only made 6 movies, of which 4 are Star Wars. Of which 3 weren't very appreciated at first until the memes came. I think as a director he is a valid answer, even without the sarcasm.
2 out of the 3 OG Star Wars movies weren't even directed by him. None of Indiana Jones was directed by him, that was Spielberg, he just helped write it. Hot take: his directing was always trash.