Comments on: When Great Directors Lose The Plot: 30 Interesting Left-Turns, Failures & Fiascos

By: Vincenzo

Vincenzo — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

I wonder how many people realised that "Tideland" is the story of a bi-polar, schizophrenic girl seen through her eyes. You only need to understand this to decodify thew movie. And JoDelle Ferland\’s performance is Oscar worthy. Thanks to God the writer didn\’t stumble on Lars von Trier\’s "Antichrist" – a movie that, like "Tideland" is in dire need of Stanley Kubrick\’s maxim "Before you jump to a conclusion, you need to understand *what* an author put in his work, and *why*".

By: Gregg

Gregg — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

I\’m no lover of Zabriskie Point but the opening student demonstration scene at the beginning is amazing and worth the sitting through the rest of the movie for. It does not deserve to be on a list with The Island of Dr. Moreau. In fact, this list does a disservice to interesting auteur misfire by grouping them with auteurs selling out and embarking on disasters. Sure, New York, New York is not a good movie but it\’s no Popeye.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

So, Star Trek The Motion Picture is a fiasco and JJ Abram\’s Star Trek is a masterpiece?

Ok then.

By: JJ

JJ — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

I stopped reading at \’the terribly uneven Macbeth\’.

By: david

david — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

Too true, what a sad list of truely awful films.

By: Todd

Todd — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

I liked "Dune", "Zabriskie Point", "Ladykillers" and "New York, New York".

And this whole list could have been Tim Burton films.

By: Nathan Duke

Nathan Duke — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

For the most part, I agree with these – however, I think you\’re nuts for adding "Zabriskie Point" to the list. At the time, it was ill received, but its stature has grown since then. And there\’s really little else like it. It\’s pretty amazing in its own rite. Not one of Antonioni\’s very best, but pretty solid nevertheless. Also, "New York New York" and "The Ladykillers" aren\’t bad so much as light weight compared to the rest of their respective director\’s output. Other possible entries of meh films by great directors for the list: Terry Gilliam\’s "Tideland" or "Zero Theorem," Nicolas Winding Refn\’s "Only God Forgives," Michael Haneke\’s "Funny Games" remake; Wim Wender\’s "The Million Dollar Hotel."

By: fry

fry — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

To those complaining about the article must know that Indiewire, and therefore The Playlist, are mainstream-oriented, award-mongering journalists -working strictly in function of popular american product, using entertainment value, star power and group approval as their criteria- than disciplined film critics. Every time I visit this blog (and the website in general) I see Kael and Ebert\’s legacy soaring high while everybody else lies on the trash can. Not that is anything wrong with that, but I thought necessary to set the record straight here.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

Ishtar jab uncalled for. Like a number of the sideline hits in this list, labeling things "unfunny" the most common, I fear that the list bunches in the agree-to-disagree with the truly terrible. So much is taste, nostalgia, and group-think when making these lists, perhaps a touch more modesty in the labeling is called for. Don\’t mistake a take-down for comedy.

By: lol at fry

lol at fry — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

lol at fry

By: Pedro

Pedro — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

One from the Heart has been hailed as a great film outside of the US. It\’s interesting that some of the films listed here have firm advocates.

By: Kate H

Kate H — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

I regard as one of the glories of Robert Altman\’s career the fact that you could never tell what his next film was going to be, either in terms of subject matter or quality, and that he was capable of following up a cast-iron classic with a string of duds (or vice versa), as if he\’d taken Rudyard Kipling\’s aphorism about trumphy and disaster to his pot-addled, genius heart.

Also \’Krull\’ is mostly harmless, even if its pleasures nowadays are mostly spotting all the unlikely faces in the cast (Bernard Bresslaw is particularly noteworty, and a few years earlier had been in the similar but iconically awful \’Hawk the Slayer\’, which probably deserves an article of its own.)

By: LA2000

LA2000 — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

James L. Brooks followed up 2 for 2 Oscar box office powerhouses "Terms of Endearment" and "Broadcast News" with a musical called "I\’ll Do Anything" starring Nick Nolte. The picture was the source of many trade stories about bad test screenings and it was repeatedly delayed until the studio convinced Brooks to dump the musical numbers and ponied up the money for reshoots in an attempt to salvage the investment. The film bombed.

By: droop

droop — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

"just about on a par with other minor Coens like \’Burn After Reading\’" anyone who doesnt like bar has no sense of humor and has no business writing about comedies at all

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

1492: Conquest Of Paradise, I always liked this film. It\’s better seen in the theater to. I know many people think it\’s mediocre but the worst Ridley Scott film is "A Good Year", that bored the living hell out of me.

By: manuel

manuel — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

are you serious "death becomes her" and dune in this list?? I had to stop reading I guess your critics aren\’t as sharp as I thought. hate to read pseudo intelectual BS. sorry.

By: Deb

Deb — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

I don\’t care, I still like "Wolf".

By: immature

immature — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

Macbeth is good.

By: John Denver

John Denver — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

+1 for **** whoever the retard who said Macbeth was uneven is.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

I think Finding Forrester is a further left turn for Gus van Sant than his Psycho remake…

By: Samjuro

Samjuro — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

The Dreamers.

By: JT

JT — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

I find it amusing that a good number of the films on this list are films I can watch over and over again while other films that win Oscars and make a lot of money are (to me) unwatchable. One From the Heart, New York, New York, Popeye, Zardoz, Dune, Ishtar, Death Becomes Her, and so on, are incredibly watchable, sometimes in spite of (or because of)flaws and, more often, because they are truly wonderful films. Thankfully, my tastes are very different from most film writers. I count myself lucky!

By: j

Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

Good article, thanks. When I was a kid I had Saturn 3 on video and watched it over and over again. I thought it was great. Although it might have had more to do with Fawcett than the story though.

By: Rudi

Rudi — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

Seriously guys? Dune by Lynch is complex and mature.

By: Goon Gertz

Goon Gertz — Mon, 23 May 2016 04:16:41 +0000

Bliffy sporg flurkers.