Movie directors you hate

[Paragon]

My brother-in-law gave me the copy of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman he rented - God, Stephen Norrington is awful. His background is in special effects, which must be why he can't tell or shoot a story worth shit. How much better could the original Blade have been without him, too?

Michael Bay (Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys 2) is another example of this - a director who started in commercials - shoots every scene with an unrealistic gloss...and also can't tell a story worth shit.

[devilgrrl]

1. Spielberg...

Tony Scott

and

Ed Burns :puke:

[BurtWorm]

11. I love-hate Robert Altman.

He's a little too precious a little too often.

PS: Oops. Didn't mean to piggyback, devilgrrl. I'm not crazy about Spielberg either, come to think of it.

[skippysmom]

29. another vote for spielberg

overdone crap. and are there ever any women in his movies (other than the color purple)???

[sendero]

35. Yet another...

... vote for Spielberg. He has made some decent movies, but his work simply doesn't meet his stellar reputation IMHO.

ET, phone someone who gives a sh*t :)

[Emboldened Chimp]

41. Forget ET

What about Raiders of the Lost Ark, Schindler's List, Close Encounters, Jaws, Saving Private Ryan, The Color Purple, and Minority Report? All of these are much better than 'decent'.

[sendero]

59. Well...

.... I've only seen some of them. And Raiders and Close Encounters were pretty much yawners to me. Jaws was pretty good. And Minority Report was interesting.

I didn't say I 'hated' him, just that he is vastly overrated. And I still think so :)

[Emboldened Chimp]

38. Why Spielberg?

He's directed some truly great movies.

:wtf:

[UnAmericanJoe]

2. Bay is Awful

You got that straight brother!

[Emboldened Chimp]

42. I whole-heartedly second that choice

That luck SOB is a total hack.

[POed_Ex_Repub]

3. John Woo

Face Off, Broken Arrow... *Shivers*

[Forkboy]

4. yeah but

Hard Boiled makes up for those :)

[jobycom]

9. That was my pick

MI2.

All special effects, no plot worth following, and all cardboard characters. His stylisms drive me insane, too. I hate those frozen one-eighty turns and bottomless gun chambers, not to mention the fact that no one in his films can hit a target.

Hardboiled was decent, but not that great. It was good because of the actors.

[LeighAnn]

15. Yep.

[Forkboy]

5. Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich

How the fuck does one screw up a Godzilla movie?

[maggrwaggr]

6. Renny Harlin

has gotta take major cake here

[Emboldened Chimp]

43. That's mine!

Me and the coworkers were railing against him this morning. Hack does not begin to describe his talents...

[SlavesandBulldozers]

7. Bruckheimer/Bay

terrible. I also despise what's his face from the town of Mayberry - Ron Howard - blech.

[CanuckAmok]

8. Greg Araki.

Worst. Director. Ever.

One of my Gay friends claims that he's switching to women if Greg Arakis begins one more interview with "Well, growing up Gay is really tough..."

[devilgrrl]

13. Excellent choice!

'Generation of Doom' is easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen. :puke:

[CanuckAmok]

21. Yeah, and not "John Waters Bad", just bad...

And sooo pretentious.

Every one of his films is so thick with the following message:

"Hold on to your hats, bourgeois suburbanite viewer, because I, Greg Araki, am going to shock your sensibilities with a feat of cartoon violence and graphic homoeroticism! You'll never get home to Stepford once I'm through blowing your mind! Muah-ha-ha-hah!!"

[maggrwaggr]

10. Brett "Lawnmower Man" Leonard

truly an incompetent hack

[maggrwaggr]

12. Brett Ratner

there are so many!

[populistmom]

14. Guy Ritchie

a.k.a. Mr. Madonna.

He's seems a bit overstylized and full of himself, even with Snatch. I just saw Swept Away (it was on cable) and I have to say :puke: . It really was as bad as everyone said it was.

[jonnyblitz]

18. "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" by him sucked also.

eom.

[BigDaddyLove]

24. Holy cow..........

I can't believe you said (wrote) that....I LOVED that film.

[blackcat77]

16. Fellini

He's supposed to be deep, but to me, he's just obscure. And when he's not obscure, he's so over the top it's almost like self-satire.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

48. Early Fellini is Best

"La Strada" and "I Vitelloni". They were stories without all the magic BS. I don't like some of his later stuff.

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. RON HOWARD!

And that's my emphatic first choice of director to hate.

Hate 'em.

Sucks big ol' rubber donkey lungs.

[BigDaddyLove]

23. I read somewhere that Ronny.............

was tagged to direct The DaVinci Code's film adaptation. George Clooney is to (supposed) play the male lead.

[Catch22Dem]

31. Interesting since...

In the book Langdon says he's often described as Harrison Ford. I didn't like that line though. For the rest of the book I was picturing Harrison. It takes the fun out of giving characters your own image.

[Rabrrrrrr]

39. Cool, another good actor will manage to get a somewhat

lackluster performance sucked out of him, and another good story will go to waste.

Go Ron Howard!

[VOX]

26. Have to get in line for Ron Howard...

He never heard the phrase, "light touch."

[Deja Q]

47. A Beautiful Mind was the most fictitious bio-pic ever made

Howard should have been banned, not awarded for that pack of lies.

[Rabrrrrrr]

51. The fictitious part didn't bother me as much

as the LACK OF ARTISTRY in the directing! By God, I was offended by that movie. Friend and I watched it without any idea who directed it, we sat through the whole thing, I was fascinated becuase I love math and science stuff, and when it was all done, we looked at each other and said, "Who made that piece of shit?" Then I looked on the box, and lo and behold, my most hated director, and I said, "Yep -doesn't surprise me. It sucks in that Ron Howard way of sucking."

Pfagh.

[wickerwoman]

19. Joel Shumacher is pretty awful.

I never saw a movie that was better because he directed it (Tigerland and the Lost Boys were good because of the cast) and quite a few were blown on crap direction (Batman and Robin, 8MM, etc.)

Michael Bay's continuing employment is a source of wonder to me too.

[Enraged_Ape]

27. Joel Schumacher is about as bad as they get

The Batman franchise wasn't all that great to begin with, but Schumacher elevated it (or depressed it) to unthinkable heights (or lows) of badness. His Batman movies are, IMHO, among the worst films ever made--like Return to the Valley of the Dolls with capes.

Batman was one of my favorite superheroes as a kid. I only hope that the Memento director can rescue his legend and undo the damage that Schumacher has done.

[James T. Kirk]

58. I concur. Joel Shumacher is a menace.

I love the Batman movies, but partway through Batman and Robin, I decided that the torture was not worth it and I gave up on it.

[The Zanti Regent]

20. I vote for Tony Scott

Same shtick time and again.

I also have to vote for Schumacher who killed off the Batman franchise!

[fujiyama]

25. I was about to say the same thing...

I believe it wasw Schumacher (with the help of Chris O'Donnel) who was respnsible for the death of the Batman Franchise.

[democracyindanger]

22. Another vote for Bay

I've seen the guy work with my own eyes. James Cameron wannabe, and that's not aspiring to much IMO.

[terrya]

28. Quentin Tarantino

Horrible, dreary, ultra-gory, pseudo pretentious crap. Every single movie he's done.

[Catch22Dem]

32. HOW DARE YOU?

I'm kidding. I like Quentin, but I agree, he's an acquired taste. ;)

[Paragon]

33. Agreed.

I'll never understand the devotion to the guy - unless he's some kind of poster boy for script-writing video clerks everywhere.

[FloridaJudy]

49. Yup, Quentin Bites the Big One

Spoiled brat from Hades, Tarantino goes for the gag reflex every time. Pain and torture are NOT funny; I have to pick up the pieces of the victims.

I'm probably NOT a nice person when I fantasize Tarantino as the victim of his "heroes".

What goes around comes around.

[TheZoo]

62. Definitely QT

I don't know why he's considered "hot" - almost all his movies are ultra-gory, with some sort of "hidden meaning" involved. If I wanted hidden meaning, I'd read more. Come to think of it, I am reading more. :-)

[shanti]

63. QT, you either hate him or you love him

and i love him! ;-)

[Richardo]

30. Oliver Stone

He and his cartoonish, over-the-top protagonists and antagonists, and his sledgehammer moralizing. x(

[Emboldened Chimp]

44. Woah, hold on there...

Stone, imho, is one of our BEST directors. Born on the Fourth, Platoon and JFK are seminal moments in filmmaking.

[Character Assassin]

45. I would hardly call Platoon 'seminal'.

It was derivative, had annoying and utterly unnecessary voice-over, and was outclassed by Full Metal Jacket.

[Emboldened Chimp]

53. No way

Don't get me wrong, I love FMJ, but it doesn't compare to Platoon--which is perhaps as real as a war movie will ever get. Stone told a deeply personal story with great passion and skill, which is why it won a few Oscars...

[Paragon]

46. Yes...

...god forbid a director should have a point-of-view. Oliver's a pretty brave soul.

[DrWeird]

52. And there is Scarface.

Arguably the best gangster film ever made.

[DrWeird]

34. Isn't it obvious?

George fucking Lucas.

[Cat Atomic]

36. Bruckheimer. He shoots everything like it's a frigging commercial.

He can't just let something sink in or speak for itself. Everything is an overblown, archetypal *sell*.

[Paragon]

37. Bruckheimer's a producer.

But you're partially right. The guys he prefers - Michael Bay, Tony Scott, Simon West, etc. all shoot their movies and tell stories the same piss-poor way.

[Cat Atomic]

54. There you go- I should've said Michael Bay.

That's the second time I did that this week, believe it or not. :P

[msu2ba]

40. Richard Lester

He managed to screw up two of my favorite things:

1. A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum by taking most of the songs out of a friggin' *musical*!

2. The Superman Franchise by open, expressed contempt for the character. It was far too low-brow for an artiste like him. One reason Richard Donner succeeded with Superman was that he treated the character with respect and affection.

[IronLionZion]

50. whoever did Basic

is an all-around asshole and an idiot. I saw an interview of him and just about lost my lunch. That movie was terrible!

[Hell Hath No Fury]

55. Jan Dubont n/t

[DS1]

56. Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Keep your damn anti-abortion messages out of my horror flicks, prick!

/rant

[-..__...]

57. Spike Lee

Or maybe it's just the person. Critics loved one or two of his earlier movies, then he turned out just to be a flash-in-the-pan.

I'm also not that big a fan of Hitchcock or Orsen Welles. I don't hate them, I just don't get the attraction.

[baldguy]

60. DAVID LYNCH!

Every screenplay he comes in contact with ends up being an incomprehensible god-awful mess!

[thebigidea]

64. just for that, I'm taking you out of my will

the director of Eraserhead can do NO WRONG, no wrong.

[ktranz]

61. Michael Bay

Bad Boys
Bad Boys 2
Armageddon
Pearl Harbor (the man has no shame!!!)
The Rock

Jerry Bruckheimer is another guy that I hate

[MediumBrownDog]

65. Woody Allen

Remember before you flame me -- this is about Directors you Hate, not whether they are good or bad. I know a lot of people worship Woody Allen, but I don't get him. I have never been able to sit through one of his movies. He thinks soooooooooooo much of himself and considers himself soooooooo deep and sooooooooooo funny. Pretentious self-aggrandizement is oppressive, especially when it lasts for 90 minutes and the offending individual is not only directing, but starring as well. Blech.