Name a movie that SHOULD have been great, but wasn't.

[Richard Steele]

First on my list: "Wild, Wild West".

You had a GREAT classic TV show premise,
combined with modern special effects, and Will Smith
in a role he was just PERFECT for.

Kinda hard to turn those ingredients into TEDIUM,
but they did it!

[jobycom]

1. Lord of the Rings

Great cast, endless FX budget, boring directing and almost no discernable narrative thread.

Yeah, I know no one agrees. I hated Ferris Buehler, too. And I loved Titanic. So there! :rofl:

[everythingsxen]

2. I agree with you

LOTR just fell short of my hopes.

As for other movies, there are so many I have forgotten most of them.

[Richard Steele]

3. Actually, I do agree on LOTR.

"Boring directing" ? More like NO directing at all.

It looked like Jackson's entire contribution as "Director" was to
hand the camera crew a copy of the book.

And I say that as a huge fan of his earlier work. "Bad Taste" is simply
the most amazing low-budget indie film EVER made.

[jobycom]

7. I've never seen all of Bad Taste

I only saw a scene where people were getting their brains bashed out, if I understood it correctly. So I never wanted to see it again.

I liked King Kong, for the most part. I think Jackson can direct scenes but can't tell a story, so if the story is already told for him, he does okay. If the story is complex and difficult, he can't tell when he's lost the narrative. Just my observation, but it's only based on two movies. He also relies way too much on formulas and devices (I mean like camera tricks and angles, and cliche directing tricks), but he was better in King Kong at avoiding them than in LOTR, so maybe he's improving. Again, I haven't seen his indie work.

[Richard Steele]

19. I think that's a pretty INSIGHTFUL comment on Jackson.

He "can direct scenes but can't tell a story"...

Yeah, he can direct scenes that just blow yer mind
so bad that you don't notice the STORY could be
summed up in 4 paragraphs.

He EXCELS at all the million little details, and
that WORKS as long as the "big picture" is mostly blank canvas.

[everythingsxen]

8. Bad Taste was hilarious

I will never get that scene with the punchbowl and the party/meeting out of my head ever.

[Richard Steele]

12. "What's the matter? Did you have to drink some CHUCK?"

[Heidi]

5. Agreed. Major snoozefests.

Call Me Wesley likes the Lord of the Rings movies, but I've fallen asleep within the first 15 minutes of all of them. :boring:

[Broken_Hero]

6. LOTR

was great, IMO, but the Two Towers was a waste of time...the only saving grace was the last battle scene...of the three movies, this one deviates GREATLY from the book. As a matter of fact, after watching the Two Towers, I had to reread the whole trilogy, to just make sure my memory wasn't all forgone...and I realized, part II was way off the mark.

I thought Fellowship, and ROTK were great...but, to each their own...:)

[jobycom]

10. Funny, I liked TT best.

Couldn't explain why. I think he had more of a story going. I didn't really care if he stuck to the books. I loved the books and have read them a dozen times, probably, but I don't judge movies by books they are based on.

Funny thing: I watched the last one with my spouse. I wanted to like it, but it got worse and worse for me. Finally the darned ring gets destroyed, and Frodo is lying on a rock, and the eagle picks him up and they fade to black, and I think "Thank god that's finally done." Then they fade back in to a shot of Frodo's face as he's being carried. I groaned loud enough for people around me to start laughing. From that point on I got angrier and angrier at the film. Finally, as they are boarding the boat and the film is finally over, I turned to my spouse with a "Thank god, can we go home now?" look. She is completely dissolved in tears! So my opinion wasn't shared in my own house! :rofl:

[Broken_Hero]

14. I liked II

don't get me wrong...it just didn't jive with what I remembered, and thats why I reread the books...:) I just prefer ROTK, than Fellowship, than TT...:)

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

39. Lol, I have Ferris Beuller up in my top ten favorites! I love that movie

different strokes for different folks. . . I must say, I really liked the LOTR trilogy though

[jobycom]

48. Yeah, well, some people are fooled by Bush, too.

:rofl: I'm kidding, I'm just kidding. To me the movie was so formulaic and banal that I was literally reciting lines before they would say them. "I don't believe in "isms."" And actions. "Oh, let's have her kick the principal in the nuts. Yep, right on schedule." I could see a certain Rocky Horror style appeal of the film, I guess, but to me it was like watching a long commercial for teen flicks in Hollywood.

Oh yeah, and for the record, propping that model Ferrari up on blocks and running it in reverse would have actually removed the mileage from the odometer, so the movie even get that wrong!

Oh well, the list of movies I like that no one else does is pretty long, so I got no room to judge! :rofl:

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

43. Your taste in movies is horrible.

:toast:

[jobycom]

45. Ain't it cool?

:rofl:

[swimboy]

76. "You're a poor scientist, Dr. Venkman,

and you have no place in this department or in this University."

:rofl:

[KansDem]

46. Finally, someone else who hated "Ferris Buehler!!"

I assume you mean the "Day Off" movie...?

I went to see that thing and nearly walked out. But just about everyone I ask about it thought it was great :shrug:

I also hated "Harold and Maude" and nearly walked out of that one too.

Now I see why they demand your money before you see the movie...

[jobycom]

49. OMG! I am so happy to meet you!!

Seems like you are the only other enlightened movie goer in the world! :rofl:

I've never seen Harold and Maude, and never wanted to. Now I suspect I made the right choice!

[KansDem]

50. You might like to see this thread, prompted by these posts...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x5342642

:hi:

[SlavesandBulldozers]

86. wrong place to post

[jpgray]

4. Dune

Lots of money spent, good casting, interesting director, nice source material... horrrrrrrible execution.

[everythingsxen]

11. I agree with a caveat...

For some reason, I love the movie. It's not the book, is only loosely based on the book, but yet, for me at least, it captured some of the feel of the Dune universe.

It was better than the Sci-Fi channel version, which was a snoozefest. Though Children of Dune by the same people was excellent.

[jpgray]

13. Uh, the yell-guns and conically shaped styrofoam rocks did it for me

And Sting's scenery chewing. And little pants.

[Richard Steele]

16. Odd- I greatly preferred the SciFi Channel version.

Of course, 'Dune' is one of the most notoriously difficult
novels to film.

I believe there were four seperate FAILED attempts by major studios
to turn that book into a movie over the years, each of which spent
million$ before abandoning the project as simply unworkable.

[jobycom]

20. Me, too.

I thought the SciFi version had more heart, and less ego on the part of the director and the actors. The movie, which I didn't think was too bad, still had too much exhibitionism and not enough engagement with the audience, to suit my tastes.

[Richard Steele]

22. And it actually stood on its own re: 'telling a story'.

The theater version? I would have had NO idea
what was going on in 50% of the scenes if I hadn't
read the book 3 times.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

58. Most famously Alejandro Jodorowsky was developing it in the mid 70s

HR Giger & Jean Giraud did design, Dan O'Bannon would do the FX, Salvador Dali was going to play the Emperor (for $100,000 an hour!) and Pink Floyd were going to provide original music. At various times David Lean & Ridley Scott (post Alien) have been lined up to direct adaptations as well.

http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/dune_jodorowsky_991019.html

[Vidar]

17. Loved both the book & movie. Hated the SciFi version.

[Bridget Burke]

38. When the movie was good, it was very good.

But, when it was bad, it sucked.

[Broken_Hero]

9. The Thin Red Line

for starters...

[wildhorses]

15. TROY~for one

[Richard Steele]

18. Oh yeah- what a disappointment!

They could have just filmed 90 minutes of the
'leading men' standing around shirtless and oiled up.

It would have sold just as many tickets, and avoided
PISSING ME OFF at the idiots who focused-grouped
the so-called 'script'.

[jobycom]

21. I liked Troy, but my expectations had been lowered by the time I saw it

so I went in expecting to dislike it. I guess in the general scheme it wasn't as good as it should have been. I loved the casting, though.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

52. I never saw that one, but when I heard the reviews, I was very sad.

They should have been able to do a better job, with such an endlessly fascinating story.

:cry:

[ThomCat]

56. The idea of removing all the gods, magic and mysticism

is intriguing, but they just didn't execute it well. They removed too many compelling parts of the story.

The eye candy was nice through. I'm definitely an Eric Bana fan. :9

[swimboy]

77. I haven't seen it, but I'll take you at your word--

is it worth renting for the eye candy? I think you know what I like! :P

[ThomCat]

81. Yes, it is worth it for the eye candy.

Eric Bana is friggin gorgeous.
Brad Pitt is beautiful, but he can't act worth a damn. You get to see his naked butt though. :9
Orlando Bloom is nice. They don't really showcase him as much, but he's definitely there to look at.

Bana definitely steals your attention though. :blush:

[LouisianaLiberal]

66. I was looking forward to seeing Troy

It was as if the screenwriter had never heard of Homer. The sets, direction and sound were good, but why ignore Homer when your writing about Troy?

I think Bonfire of the Vanities, though, still holds the title for best book destroyed by a director.

[Jean Louise Finch]

23. Once Upon a Time in Mexico

I loved El Mariachi, and i am one of a select few who loved loved Desperado. When I heard Once Upon a Time in Mexico was coming out, with Johnny Depp no less, I was bursting with excitement. And then I saw it. Oh, dear me.

[Richard Steele]

25. I actually 'loved loved' Desperado as well.

It never PRETENDED to be more than it was:
a cinematic exercise in PURE STYLE.

And, as that, it was wildly successful.

It promised NOTHING, I EXPECTED less,
and then it delivered SO MUCH!

Desperado did more with camera angles and lighting
than most modern movies do with 10 million
dollars worth of CGI special-effects.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

88. Depp was great in it though, you must admit

I loved the CIA shirt too, classic.

[Mojambo]

24. Stargate

That movie just didn't work for me. It's even more glaring when you look at the good stuff that has come later.

[Richard Steele]

26. Another fine example; and it really IS more glaring now!

A big-budget Hollywood "Special-Effects Blockbuster" that pales in comparison
to the basic-cable TV series which followed it.

[Dr Fate]

27. I'm the only person in the world who likes that movie.

I love the villian, all the great victorian sci-fi gadgets- and the comedy too. I think the direction & story telling was pretty good in several scenes too...

I know, I know...

:)

My vote would be V For Vendetta or Superman Returns- both good, neither great.

[Hissyspit]

28. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

It wasn't horrible, but Jim Carrey hams it up too much doing his schtick, and the story was too much condensed from several books.

[wildhorses]

30. yes...his overacting really overshadowed what could have

been finely crafted nuances....

[wildhorses]

29. Tristan and Isolde

:puke:

I was soooo disappointed

[SoCalDem]

31. Hawaii..n/t

[displacedtexan]

32. War Of The Worlds

Both of them.

Especially the Tom Cruise one, though.

Yuck!

Dakota Fanning must've been so frustrated, having to carry
that film all by herself until the Tim Robbins scenes.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

47. I wholeheartedly agree.

Fantastic book. I can't believe they STILL haven't gotten it right in the movies. Munich aside, Spielberg is way overrated.

[smokey nj]

92. War of the Worlds pissed me off..........

Although it was cool watching the Bayonne Bridge get destroyed and the garage was a model of my mechanic's garage.

[cobalt1999]

33. The Perfect Storm

Could have been great. The book and the characters in it accurately represented the fishing community. The film was a bunch of over dramatic clap trap.

[skygazer]

80. Agreed

And why'd they have to turn the relationship between Clooney's character and the female captain into a romance, which it never was? It always irritates me that movie-makers seem to think no one will enjoy a movie if there's not a romance in it somewhere. :eyes:

[terrya]

34. "Alexander"

Olvier Stone directed, Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie starred, a biography of Alexander the Great SHOULD have made for a great movie. But man, halfway through it, it turned into a snoozefest. Considering this lends itself to the kind of sweeping, exciting epic movies which lends themselves to potential greatness, to end up with a sort of boring movie is quite an achivement.

[NJ Democrats]

83. I agree

I liked it, but it wasn't great. It lost my attention after the Persains lost.

[taterguy]

35. The Ice Storm

Too much plot, too depressing. All we really wanted to see was Allison Janney having fun during the key party :)

[YankeyMCC]

36. "Enemy Mine"

I actually like the movie as made but years later I "discovered" the trilogy by Barry Longyear on which it was based and realized how much greater the movie (or series of movies) could've been.

[LostinVA]

37. Mists of Avalon (TNT)

Turned the premise on its head -- sucked.

[noonwitch]

63. They took the plot too far away from the original book

Some books don't make for good movies, and that is one of them. Too many characters, too long of a time period covered, and, putting it on a channel that is going to censor things out is just not a good idea.


I shudder everytime I consider that NBC owns the rights to Anne Rice's "The Witching Hour". That is so not a story to be told on broadcast television-it should be an HBO series-a good writer could make it a whole season long. I don't know how a network could show the romantic side of incest that AR presents in the book, nor do I think a network should show that.

[Strawman]

40. National Treasure

Interesting premise and plot, poor writing.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

53. Definitely.

My friend loves that movie; I don't get it. The writing sucked.

[RedStateShame]

41. "Constantine"

Don't get me wrong, it had its moments. I was thrilled that a Vertigo comic was being made into a movie, but Keanu Reeves? OK, for one, John Constantine is British. What, there were no chain-smoking British actors that could have given the role of John Constantine the world-weariness that the character had in the books? I once was delighted to hear rumors of a "Preacher" movie, but if this is how they handle the Vertigo line....

[Richard Steele]

42. Yup. Constantine was a real "almost was" in my book.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

44. I agree, but Reeves wasn't a terrible choice either.

He suited the tone of the character fairly well. Still, it could've easily been better.

[NewJeffCT]

51. Return of the Jedi & the 3 Star Wars prequels

Han Solo was basically neutered in RotJ... no more remarks like "I know" when Leia says she loves him. He was no longer the roguish bad boy.

And, his panache was missing from the 3 prequels.

[Richard Steele]

54. Remember the rumor, years back, that Lucas had STOLEN those scripts?

I paid it no heed at the time, but the last 3 movies
have REALLY had me wondering if it wasn't true.

Lucas has totally convinced me that he has
absolutely NO CLUE as to why the first one was good.

[NewJeffCT]

59. The original movie - A New Hope

The original movie (Episode 4, A New Hope) was supposedly based on a Japanese movie called "The Hidden Fortress" or something like that.

And, to be honest, if you go back, the scripts for A New Hope & Empire were nothing special. The cast just had a great chemistry and everything worked well on screen... Lucas got in trouble in trying to expand to Han/Leia romance in RotJ, as it neutered Han. Then, the sappy dialogue in the prequels with Anakin, etc.

[LouisianaLiberal]

67. "Hidden Fortress" is a great film

Not Kurosawa's finest, but one of my favorites. I can see how the characters and some of the plot may have influenced Star Wars - they're pretty universal archetypes.

[NewJeffCT]

70. Star Wars

The archetypes are not too different than "Lord of the Rings"

1) young innocent (Luke vs Frodo)
2) goes on seemingly impossible quest to save everybody from the Ultimate Evil (destroy the Death Star vs the One Ring)
3) aided by a wise old man who is more than he first seems (Ben Kenobi vs Gandalf)
4) and some unusual companions (Chewie, C3PO & R2D2 vs Merry & Pippin and Gimli)
5) and a few co-stars (Leia & Han vs Aragorn)

And, the later "Lord" ripoff (though enjoyable, esp. when I was young) book "Sword of Shannara" by Terry Brooks seems taken from both.

[MorningGlow]

68. Second that

Return of the Jedi--WTF, blow up ANOTHER Death Star? Get a new plot.

And oh the prequels. Sigh. Nothing to say there...

[deucemagnet]

71. "My friend here is trying to convince me...

...that any independent contractors who were working on the uncompleted Death Star, were innocent victims when they were destroyed by the Rebels."

I'm looking forward to the new Clerks movie. :)

[MorningGlow]

73. Yeah!

You KNOW they're still going to be arguing the nuances of the Star Wars series. Oh dear, what will they say about the prequels? I shudder to think!

[SnohoDem]

55. Pearl Harbor

A fantastic, important historic event made into an abysmally awful movie. It even beats out Titanic imho.

[NJ Democrats]

84. OMG, Pearl Harbor SUCKED!

The movie was a freaking love story! Plus they got so many facts wrong

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

57. Alien3

So much dicking and tinkering and idiotic studio bullshit left us with something that's a mess.

You can blame Wild Wild West on arch twat Jon Peters.

[Richard Steele]

62. Oh yeah- after the first 2, what an utter PILE that was!

Which reminds me: "Terminator 3: rise of my lunch". :puke:

[dropkickpa]

60. Thunderstruck

An Australian film about 5 guys who love AC/DC and one dies and the remaining friends attempt to fulfill a pact they made to barely made it halfway through. Painstakingly slow to start.

[underpants]

61. "From Justin to Kelly"

all that starpower and it just went no where

[swimboy]

74. Hey

:spank:

Ya were axin' fer it!

[samsingh]

64. there are so many.

Matrix 2 and 3 - did well at the Box Office, but were terrible movies.

Most of the Star Trek movies

The new batch of Star Wars movies

House of Wax

the list is endless

[Richard Steele]

65. Yes, I'm regretting starting this thread now.

I really just hadn't realized how CRAPPY the entire
movie industry seems to have become.

It's kinda depressing.

[Rabrrrrrr]

69. Pitch Black - had the potential to be one of the best movies ever,

but only made it to "better than mediocre". It was forever dancing on the edge of genius and greatness, but the director and writers just couldn't get it over...

I really think they had a chance to achieve eternal glory in the realms of moviedom such as Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia, 2001: A Space Odyssey, North by Northwest, The Wild Bunch, etc.

But noooooot quite. I was very sad when I left the theater after seeing it - not because it wasn't good: it's still a heck of a good movie, but because I saw what it could have been and wasn't.

[mvd]

72. King Kong (2005) first comes to mind

It set the story up nicely in the beginning, but in the middle and end, the action had a bit of a cliched blockbuster feel. Still a good movie, but not great.

[swimboy]

75. Bewitched

No, it wouldn't have been "important" but it should have been great fun and a great time for anyone who loved the series. But it was a huge mess.


Endora would NOT approve.

[derby378]

78. A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

If the movie had just stopped at the underwater sequence at Coney Island, the movie would have been heartbreaking and unforgettable. But Spielberg just had to dump in a huge dose of saccharine at the end that made the entire project rather clunky and mediocre.

Granted, the novel theory of the universe presented at the end seems to borrow equally from John Archibald Wheeler's "It From Bit" take on ultraquantum physics as well as homeopathic notions of the "memory" of water, but the execution was just way too sappy.

[sakabatou]

79. Godzilla '98

They screwed it up by not listening to the heads at Toho.

[gkdmaths]

82. Never Cry Wolf.

Actually, Im glad it never became a super blockbuster - now my favorite movie can remain my little secret.

but, it is the best book and the best movie to ever have been produced. EVER!

[liontamer]

85. Mission to Mars

great cast, great director,interesting premise and yet the movie was painful to endure

[SlavesandBulldozers]

87. Dungeons and Dragons

i mean cmon this concept should be a gimme. You don't even need a good plot. You have the cgi capabilities of modern computing & D&D obsessed programming and special-effects base, a loyal fanbase (nerds) AND Jeremy Irons. How do you go and fuck that up? But they did.

Plus, why try to make a funny D&D movie with a PG rating. I want blood, axes, dragons etc. Cmon now, what a wasted opportunity.

[NewJeffCT]

91. With the D&D movie

if it just didn't suck, I would have been ecstatic. Alas, it sucked.

[OhioBlue]

89. Mystery Alaska

It is one of my favorites!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0134618/

[Cannikin]

90. The Thin Red Line