Very few of the greatest and most important directors of all time have had completely flawless filmographies. After all, as much as master directors have established themselves in the industry with critically acclaimed features, nobody is perfect, and some questionable works have come to us along the way. Every director has a bad day (or movie), even the greats, as evidenced by this list of disappointing movies from wonderful directors.
9 Hook
Steven Spielberg is one of the most prestigious directors of all time, but success wasn’t always his rule. The mind behind classics like Jaws, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and the Indiana Jones franchise also has its share of bad productions, with Hook being a strong representative of the category. With Robin Williams as an adult Peter Pan and Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, the film follows the famous boy who didn’t want to grow up (but did in the film) as he tries to rescue his children, with the help of the fairy Tinkerbell (Julia Roberts), from the claws of the fearsome villain.
Hook wasn’t a hit with film critics at all during the period of its release, despite having been a relative success among the public. Even so, this must be the kind of film that Spielberg prefers to leave at the back of his drawer when he thinks about his filmography.
8 Boxcar Bertha
It may seem like a joke, but Martin Scorsese also has a not-so-pleasant movie to call his own, with a surprisingly low Rotten Tomatoes score of 54%. The name behind myriad cinema classics, such as Goodfellas and Taxi Driver, received lukewarm reviews with Boxcar Bertha, one of the initial features of Scorsese’s directing career.
The film chronicles the journey of three men and a woman who commit various crimes to earn a living during the Great Depression. To critics, Boxcar Bertha seemed more like a kind of Scorsese experimentation for works that would mark his name in the history of cinema in the future.
7 Alien 3
The Alien film franchise was a huge success when the first film, which was directed by Ridley Scott, hit theaters, and the success continued with James Cameron’s phenomenal sequel. It all came to a screeching halt with Alien 3, which was too dark, dank, and different for fans of the franchise.
The feature is considered the lowest point in David Fincher’s filmography, which includes such modern classics as Fight Club, Gone Girl, The Game, and Se7en. The third film in the franchise starring Sigourney Weaver was far from having the same prestige as the previous two. In Alien 3, we continue to follow Ripley, who this time ends up on an inhospitable planet inhabited by ex-convicts from a maximum security prison. But an Alien aboard the ship causes people to start dying.
6 Oz: The Great and Powerful
Known for his work on Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man trilogy and the Evil Dead horror franchise, director Sam Raimi is another lauded industry name who has also faced some mishaps when it comes to generally bad movies, and the worst may be Oz: The Great and Powerful.
With James Franco, Mila Kunis, Michelle Williams, and Rachel Weisz in the cast, the feature tells the origin story of the powerful Wizard of Oz, or Oscar Diggs, a man who made his living with a circus until he ended up in the enchanted Land of Oz. There, three witches try to convince him that he is a great magician, while Oscar gets involved with the locals’ problems. Although it has striking visuals, Oz: The Great and Powerful was not a critical or public success, causing it to practically fall into oblivion over the years. When a movie lover thinks of Sam Raimi, Oz: The Great and Powerful never comes to mind.
5 She Hate Me
Director Spike Lee is one of the most beloved and established names in the history of cinema, being known for films such as Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and BlacKkKlansman. However, there is a feature film in his filmography that received the complete opposite of his usual acclaim, with a 19% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and that is She Hate Me, released in 2004.
Starring Anthony Mackie, the film tells the story of an executive who is fired after he denounces illicit business practices at the company where he works. Unemployed, he sees an opportunity to earn easy money when his ex-girlfriend hires him to be the father of the baby she intends to have with her partner.
In addition to presenting a confusing narrative, She Hate Me addresses many subjects at the same time without getting anywhere. The next 14 years would be a strange period for Lee, including a couple of great films (Inside Man, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus) but a couple of very underwhelming and strange choices (Oldboy, Red Hook Summer). Great directors also have bad days, right?
4 Dune
The infamous adaptation of Dune, made by director David Lynch in the 1980s, is another film that did not win over audiences at all. Known for his surrealist films, Lynch is the name behind productions such as Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive, but bringing the renowned work of writer Frank Herbert to the big screen was not one of his greatest successes.
As much as the filmmaker’s style is present in Dune, that was not enough for the adaptation to become a classic. The attempt to condense Herbert’s book, which in itself is already something grand and complex (and which has been adapted into a full miniseries and Denis Villeneuve’s two-part, five-hour spectacle), ended up not working out very well, and is considered Lynch’s only “bad” film, though it has its supporters.
3 Jupiter Ascending
The Wachowski sisters became a huge phenomenon in Hollywood when The Matrix first hit theaters. A great science fiction classic, the film starring Keanu Reeves influenced a generation and also ensured that the Wachowskis gained enormous prestige in the industry.
However, success was not repeated in the movie Jupiter Ascending, which is considered by most critics and the public as one of the worst films in the sisters’ filmography. With Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, and Eddie Redmayne in the cast, the plot follows Jupiter Jones, the descendant of a lineage that will make her queen of the universe, even if she doesn’t know it. Until one day Jupiter is visited by a genetically altered ex-military man whose mission is to protect her, whatever the cost, so that she takes her rightful place in the face of a threat.
The film suffered harsh criticism, especially from the audience, who watched it with the feeling that they were consuming recycled material, since the plot was very similar to the first hit by the Wachowski sisters, The Matrix. The film’s insistence on ‘The Chosen One’ type of character, questionable performances, and confusing logic justifies the negative audience reaction and places the film on this list.
2 Jack
Yeah, even the consecrated Francis Ford Coppola can also make a bad movie. This is because the name that brought The Godfather trilogy and the epic Apocalypse Now did not achieve the same feat with Jack. Although it has the charisma of actor Robin Williams, the feature was practically forgotten in Coppola’s filmography because of its schmaltzy, manipulative sentimentality. As Roger Ebert wrote, “Jack doesn’t want to be a great movie. It only wants to pluck the usual heartstrings and provide the anticipated payoff.”
In the plot, we follow the journey of Jack, a boy who was born with a rare syndrome that makes him age much faster than normal. Thus, with the body of a man and the mind of a child, he experiences several unusual situations at school.
1 Ghosts of Mars
John Carpenter is one of the most acclaimed names in horror cinema, being remembered for classics such as Halloween, Escape from New York, and The Thing. His is the kind of name that needs no further introduction for having established a renowned career in the film industry, but even he has made bad movies along the way.
The most notorious is Ghosts of Mars, which essentially killed his career. In the plot, the red planet is colonized by humans after the Earth becomes overpopulated. There, the human species explores the natural reserves of the place but, after finding the ruins of an ancient civilization, awaken beings that dominate human bodies to expel them from Mars. Although it looks promising, Ghosts of Mars was deeply disliked by audiences and critics, with its weak effects, confusing scenes, poor acting, and less-than-spectacular execution to put it nicely, considering Carpenter’s other works.
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
