Movies Films where the Director was the problem

[moreorless87]

I only like The Untouchables...I don't consider it De Palma firing 100% on all cylinders. I thought the Connery stuff was all great but the movie wouldn't be so memorable without him.

To me Scarface was about as close to an 80s Michael Mann movie that you would get from somebody who wasn't Michael Mann. And I think it's better than Thief and Manhunter which I both liked. To Live and Die in LA might be another candidate from other directors but I think Scarface is better there too. Cobra kind of halfway tried to capture the same thing and do some kind of fusion of Dirty Harry and Miami Vice.

I think Scarface also wasn't really De Palma's signature style at the time it was made. I would even say it was a bit of a departure. When I think De Palma I usually think of his going out of his way to use different lenses at the same time to get different parts of the frame in focus for unusual shots like he did in Carrie and there was one of them in Casualties of War that kind of stood out from the rest of the movie. Otherwise I would think of elaborate stuff like the nightclub shot in Carlito's Way that goes all around the club in one take or the spinning dancing shot in Carrie.

With Scarface he kind of did something different (maybe not entirely different from Blow Out) and made the best Miami Vice type of thing ever produced.

Its definitely not as full on De Palma as say Body Double but I do think it retains a lot of the same kind of ascetic to it which obviously suits its setting/story very well. Things like the look of Tony's mansion for example I don't think are out of place at all, there larger than life and very of the era but so is the film as a whole.

 

[TheRash]

I don't know about that. Tarantino is the one who threw a shit fit, and it really only got legs after he was established and his opinion meant something. The script was sold before he had even directed "Reservoir Dogs". I doubt Stone knew him from any other script writer at the time he purchased it, and wouldn't have much of reason to be in a creative feud with him, as Tarantino was a nobody at the time. I don't think it was the first time Stone put his personal touch on a script.

Tarantino also has admittedly not even seen the whole movie, and the main thing he complains about(it lacking the "love story" element), is still there, so I don't even know what he's complaining about, other than that it just wasn't his complete and unfiltered vision.

Admittedly I was only 11 years old when NBK was released, but I remember something about how Oliver Stone said “I’ve been directing movies for 30 years, and I dont need to worry about what a 26 year old wrote.”

I’ll fact check myself later.

Then you have “The Doors”, which every band member said was simply a 3 hour music video and had little semblance to the actual career of The Doors or Jim Morrison.

This just added to the sentiment that Oliver Stone won’t let someone else ideas, or even history, get in the way of ego.

But sometimes that works, look at “JFK”, can’t hit a home run unless you swing I guess.

 

[PeterGriffin]

I know Ryan Reynolds and Martin Campbell did not get along at all during filming Green Lantern, enough to make Reynolds pray the movie bombed so he wouldn't have to make a sequel with him.

Already posted by someone else, but Josh Trank's version of Fantastic 4 was awful.

 

[ShadowRun]

Blair Witch project

 

[Streeter]

This is a really good one, because I believe that entire fiasco where Christian Bale blew up and yelled at the cinematographer for 10 minutes straight was all McG's fault.

A director is the boss on the set. He needs to take charge of what's happening. So if the cinematographer was messing with the lights during Bale's emotional scene, then McG needs to pull him aside and tell him to stop.

But McG ignores it over and over until Bale is so fed up that he explodes.

Then after yelling at the guy, Bale asks McG what he thinks and McG says, "I didn't see it." And walks away. Like he didn't want to get in the middle of it.

Motherfucker it's your JOB to get in the middle of it. Smooth things over, apologize for letting it get to that point in the first place, and lay down some ground rules to prevent tempers from flaring up again. Directing takes some leadership skills and that fucker was so cowardly in that situation it makes me sick.

The least he could've done after everyone was judging Bale would be to come out publicly and tell people it was his fault, not Bale's. But instead he let's Christian Bale take all the heat and negative publicity. What a fucking pussy.

Yeah having Bale and the Terminator folks wanted then doing everything stupid. Is like Having Hammil back as Luke and they totally doing everything the worst way . Salvation an TLJ are like mirror images dumbassery.

Honestly did Mcg just direct or also write it as the writing and entire story was pretty awful as well.