- 1 day ago
These films shocked us - in a good way!
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Not to mince words, but film directing is a difficult line of work.
00:04Whilst internet ghouls such as ourselves make bread and butter from dunking on disastrous directors,
00:09the fact is that sometimes the talents of even the most dismal Helmer yield great results.
00:14So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, and here are 10 great films from bad directors.
00:2010. The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan
00:24Okay, fair enough, this one's a little tenuous.
00:27M. Night Shyamalan can't be considered a truly bad director, hence the high placement on this list.
00:32But measuring up the average quality of his filmography does not yield flattering results.
00:37Responsible for total turkeys like The Last Airbender, Shyamalan's cinematic output has statistically been more negative than positive.
00:45Whilst he has seen a slight return to form in recent years with the excellent split, the okay glass,
00:51and the above average depending on who you ask old,
00:53he is still a far cry from his early genre efforts like Unbreakable and Signs.
00:58With that in mind, we posit that The Sixth Sense still stands head and shoulders above the rest of his work.
01:03It's easy to forget the sheer impact this film had at the time of its release,
01:07netting several coveted award nominations such as the Academy's Best Picture and Best Director categories.
01:13Not only did The Sixth Sense sport an excellent script, brilliant direction, and tense atmosphere,
01:18but it also gave us one of the greatest pluff. Pretty Woman is a joyful tale of good chemistry,
01:24good humour, and learning to trust those close to you.
01:26As we told in Netflix's brilliant documentary series The Movies That Made Us,
01:313000, as it was originally titled, was meant to have a much darker, more realistic tone.
01:36Had it not been for the inexperience of director Gary Marshall, as well as his blatant disregard for the script,
01:42this is a film we would have gotten. Marshall opted to record several takes of each scene with wildly different tones in each,
01:48and also let lead actors Richard Gere and Julia Roberts simply improvise many of their scenes.
01:53This risky manoeuvre paid off in dividends, as letting the lead's natural chemistry speak for itself is arguably what made the film so great.
02:01Its romantic conclusion was all the more satisfying when the characters themselves were given the breathing room to endear themselves to the audience,
02:08and for that, we have Marshall to thank.
02:11Number 8. Star Wars Episode 5 The Empire Strikes Back by Irving Kirshner
02:17Widely regarded as one of the best Star Wars films ever made, even the best by some,
02:22it's easy to forget that our second foray into a galaxy far, far away wasn't actually helmed by creator George Lucas.
02:29Following on from the events of A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back continues the story of the Rebel Alliance
02:34and their attempts to undermine the Galactic Empire.
02:37Along the way, Luke trains with Master Yoda, discovers the truth about Daddy Vader,
02:41and loses an entire limb in a lightsaber duel with said father.
02:45Praised for its incredible action set pieces and overall darker tone,
02:49The Empire Strikes Back remains a firm favourite among Star Wars aficionados and casual fans to this very day.
02:56Director Irving Kirshner's other work? Not so much.
02:59The Barbra Streisand starring stinker Up the Sandbox and the disappointing Robocop 2
03:05both spring to mind when examining Kirshner's very mixed filmography.
03:09Whilst 007's spoof Never Say Never Again could be considered something of a cult classic,
03:14this wasn't due to Kirshner's directing abilities,
03:16and The Empire Strikes Back remains his greatest ever effort behind the camera.
03:20Number 7. Event Horizon by Paul W.S. Anderson
03:25Perhaps best known these days for his mixed bag of a Resident Evil franchise,
03:30Paul W.S. Anderson is a bad director who can at least be said to make some really fun movies.
03:35The first Alien vs. Predator is a campy action horror that deserves way more praise than it gets,
03:41and 1994's shopping was surprisingly slick for a directorial debut.
03:44Far and away, the director's best work was 1997's Event Horizon,
03:50a sci-fi horror that went massively underappreciated upon release.
03:54Event Horizon has grown beyond a cult film into a bona fide sci-fi horror classic.
04:00Concerning a rescue crew sent to investigate the reappearance of an experimental warp ship,
04:05the situation aboard the Event Horizon quickly goes south
04:08as the crew succumb to terror, madness, and perhaps the trappings of hell itself.
04:12Also, out of character for Anderson, the film doesn't feature a single scene of Mila Jovovich
04:17naked. Very strange. A somewhat typical ghost ship story coloured with tinges of cosmic horror,
04:24Event Horizon was rightfully reassessed as a flawed masterpiece in the years since its home video
04:29release. Anderson supports this view, saying he was immensely proud of the work he and the crew put
04:34in, and that the film didn't get a fair shake at its initial debut.
04:38Number 6. The Mummy by Stephen Summers
04:41A childhood classic for many, and an awakening for bisexuals the world over,
04:461999's The Mummy was a swashbuckling take on the classic universal monster property that managed
04:52to reinvigorate the action-adventure genre at the time. Following the world's greatest librarian,
04:57Evie, as she enlists the help of tomb-raiding stallion Rick O'Connell to find the lost fortune of
05:03Hamanatra, the group instead awaken a cursed mummy by the name of Imhotep.
05:07Now faced with a world-ending magical threat, the group teams up with a group of ancient Egyptian
05:12warriors to slay the monster and end the curse once and for all. The Mummy is high on the list
05:17of greatest films ever for 90s kids, and we have director Stephen Summers to thank for that.
05:22Much like Paul W.S. Anderson, Summers makes some really fun movies. Deep Rising and Van Helsing
05:28are low-key cult classics in their own right, but none of his work has ever reached the heights
05:33of this Brendan, literal Angel Frazier vehicle. Summers doesn't attempt anything too flashy
05:39with The Mummy, instead letting the fun script and excellent cast do the heavy lifting. This isn't to
05:44say his work was complacent, as oftentimes it's very difficult for directors to step back and let
05:49their films breathe, as Summers did here.
05:515. Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly Donnie Darko was a critical and cult hit for the
05:57ages. Launched in the career of star Jake Gyllenhaal and convincing an entire generation
06:02of edgy teenage cinema-goers, they were properly, like, so intellectual, dude. Following troubled
06:08teen Donnie as he witnesses visions of his death, a cursed rabbit with apocalyptic messages,
06:13and commitment to various crimes while sleepwalking, the film gives little away, instead encouraging
06:18the viewer to seek out their own answers, as well as rewarding repeat viewings.
06:22On a first watch, this all seemed like it was guided by the careful hands of a true film
06:27auteur. Richard Kelly's intense and abstract directorial style appeared to be responsible
06:31for the arguable masterpiece we all ended up watching, but, to our disappointment, this
06:36was not the case. We've discussed this here before, how it was actually studio interference
06:42that crafted the original cut of Donnie Darko into the excellent film we all loved. But it
06:47was mainly Kelly's follow-up efforts that exposed the director as a bit of a hack.
06:52Southern Tales was a confusing mess that seemed to be trying to one-up Darko as being weird
06:57for weirdness' sake, and The Box was a tedious Twilight Zone adaptation that didn't set any
07:02worlds on fire. At least we'll always have Gary Jules' mad world.
07:054. Speed by Jan de Bont The most 90s thriller to ever thrill in the
07:1190s, this Keanu Reeves action vehicle is a much-beloved relic of late-century action cinema.
07:18Speed follows maverick cop Jack Traven as he boards a speeding LA bus that will explode if
07:23it goes below 50 miles per hour. Featuring excellent performances from everyone involved,
07:28particularly Dennis Hopper as the unhinged terrorist responsible, Speed blew up at the box office,
07:33grossing nearly 10 times its original budget. It did well critically too, even netting a couple
07:39of Oscar nods for its trouble. The film's impact has seen it lovingly parodied in everything from
07:44Robot Chicken to Father Ted, which makes you think the director of the work must be a real talent,
07:49no? This was actually helmer Jan de Bont's directorial debut. No small feat given the film's
07:54runaway success and should have charted an excellent career for the young Dutch director.
07:59Alas, de Bont never helmed anything of note ever again, returning for the much
08:03lampoon Speed 2 Cruise Control, the limp 1999 remake of The Haunting, and the disappointing
08:09Tomb Raider Cradle of Life sequel. Sometimes beginner's luck really counts for a lot,
08:14and this appears to be the case here. De Bont appears to have retired from Hollywood altogether,
08:18with his last credit as a cinematographer being in 2012.
08:223. Independence Day by Roland Emmerich
08:26During the late 90s, two genres reigned supreme, the disaster movie and the sci-fi action movie.
08:32In 1996, Roland Emmerich blew the doors off both genres with Independence Day.
08:37Set on present-day Earth, as the world is devastated by a highly advanced and hostile alien race,
08:43we follow humanity banding together to destroy the alien threat.
08:46To say Independence Day was epic would be an understatement.
08:50Never before had audiences ever seen action set pieces of this scale, with the world monument's
08:56destruction scene being both terrifying at the time and utterly iconic. What's more,
09:00we had an excellent cast of human interest characters to keep the simple plot moving forward,
09:05particularly Will Smith, Captain Hiller, Jeff Goldblum's quirky scientist, and Bill Pullman
09:10as the greatest big-screen US president we've ever seen. The Independence Day speech scene is simply
09:16chef's kiss. What makes this classic bit of action cinema all the more intriguing is that
09:21director Roland Emmerich never got close to repeating his success. Despite his name becoming a
09:27buyword for big-budget disaster movies, most of his filmography is sadly lacking. His Godzilla remake
09:33was universally panned, nobody on Earth saw Anonymous, and his most recent effort, Moonfall,
09:38has been lampooned across the whole internet as an utterly silly affair. Even 2004's The Day After
09:44Tomorrow, which is widely accepted as an okay movie, failed to create that perfect marriage of character,
09:50story, and spectacle he reached with Independence Day. And the less said about its sequel resurgence,
09:55the better. 2. Darfur by Yuva Boll
09:59Do not wash out your ears, do not consult a doctor, you did in fact hear me correctly.
10:04Legendary turkey Yuva Boll actually has a decent film to his name. The German director is infamous for
10:11his long line of terrible video game adaptations. Not satisfied with ruthlessly butchering games that
10:17showed narrative promise, Boll also had a tumultuous relationship with his critics, regularly calling
10:23them out on Twitter, blog posts, and challenging them to literal boxing matches. Despite being a far
10:28better boxer than he is a filmmaker, Boll has bravely forged on with his chosen career. Likely through the
10:35laws of averages, rather than a sudden burgeoning talent, Boll managed to create Dafur in 2009.
10:41When a talentless, exploitative filmmaker like Boll decides to helm a biographical piece about real-life
10:47conflict, alarm bells start to ring. Thankfully, Dafur is a decent movie that handles its sensitive
10:52subject matter pretty well. To say it's a masterpiece would be a huge stretch, but considering the bar
10:57is at the Earth's core when it comes to Yuva Boll movies, this is actually quite impressive. Both
11:02Billy Zane and Edward Furlong are also on point as the movie's leads, and Amnesty International even
11:08reported being impressed by the film's quality and credibility. Unfortunately, this film was released
11:13back in 2009, an interim in which Boll had managed to helm a whopping 13 stinkers since then,
11:19truly obliterating any good faith this work gave his directorial abilities.
11:241. The Room by Tommy Wiseau
11:27Could it really have been anyone else? Tommy Wiseau's unhinged melodrama is commonly
11:32cited as the Citizen Kane of bad movies. So utterly detached from reality is Wiseau's vision,
11:38it regularly feels like a work cobbled together from an AI forced to watch 10,000 hours of hallmark
11:44romance films. Serving as the film's writer, director, producer, and lead actor, Tommy himself
11:49seems to be a singularly gifted filmmaker in the area of bad movies. Plotlines appear then vanish into
11:55thin air, the camera work sometimes looks out of focus, the script is littered with non-sequiturs,
12:00and everyone's line delivery feels like it was beamed directly out of the actor's mouths by an alien
12:04force. And yet, truly, The Room is a great film. It's great for all the wrong reasons,
12:10but great nonetheless, enchanting viewers the world over and often selling out cinemas re-screening
12:15the film. The Room has captured hearts all over the world based purely on its demented execution,
12:21plastic spoons, and all. There is absolutely no doubt that no one but Tommy Wiseau could have made
12:27a film this entertaining, intentionally or unintentionally.
12:31And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know
12:35in the comments below, and while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that
12:39notification bell. Also, head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across
12:42various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with WhatCulture,
12:47I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real soon.
Be the first to comment