10 awful movies by iconic directors
Across the course of cinema history, countless filmmakers have staked their claim in the ground, with the likes of Akira Kurosawa, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Yasujirō Ozu, Agnès Varda, Alfred Hitchcock and Chantal Akerman all jostling for pole position at the top of the podium. Of course, such debates only really exist between fans online, with each aforementioned filmmaker offering something totally different.
Still, just because the greatest directors are known for bringing cinematic prowess to the silver screen, this doesn’t mean that they’re entirely faultless. Even the finest filmmakers of all time are capable of producing utter dross. There might be filmmakers who are yet to make a critical flop, but most of the industry’s finest names are guilty of throwing the kitchen sink at a project, only to end up with broken drywall and a fizzing leak.
For proof that even the greatest filmmakers of all time are fallible, just take a look at our list below, which includes ten awful movies from some of the best and most creative directors of all time. Sometimes to create cinematic art, you must experiment like a jazz musician trying to work out an innovative riff, with the following ten movies being screechy mistakes in otherwise glittering filmographies.
Take a look at our list below, which includes movies from the likes of Michael Man, David Lynch, Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone.
10 awful movies by iconic filmmakers:
James Cameron – Piranha II: The Spawning (1981)
Is it unfair of us to include James Cameron’s 1981 debut Piranha II: The Spawning on our list of awful movies by iconic filmmakers? Potentially, but we’re going to include it anyway. The director behind the likes of 1984’s The Terminator and 1994’s True Lies could do with some humbling after claiming two of the top three spots in the list of the highest-grossing movies of all time in 2023.
His first-ever movie, a sequel to 1978’s beloved Piranha, was an utter critical and commercial dud, with the director helming the project alongside Ovidio G. Assonitis and Miller Drake to no avail at all.
David Fincher – Alien 3 (1992)
After having created music videos for some of the greatest musicians of the late 20th century, including Madonna, George Michael, Iggy Pop, Sting and Billy Idol, David Fincher thought it was time to take the big leap to filmmaking in 1992. Following in the footsteps of Ridley Scott and James Cameron, his first assignment was the almost impossible challenge of bettering two iconic sci-fi movies, failing miserably with Alien 3.
The director might have been dealt a bad hand when he was brought on to try and fix the movie, but this doesn’t excuse just how bad the movie is. Fincher knows it, too, calling his own movie “just awful”.
Richard Linklater – Bad News Bears (2005)
Nominated for five Academy Awards throughout his career, Richard Linklater is an icon of independent cinema, having risen through the ranks in the early 1990s with such movies as Slacker, Dazed and Confused and Before Sunrise. His modern career has been a little more patchy, however, with his 2005 remake of the 1976 sports film The Bad News Bears being an utter cinematic travesty.
Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Greg Kinnear and Marcia Gay Harden, the movie follows a little league coach and his dogged efforts to turn a rag-tag group of kids into champions. Lacking any kind of charm, the Bad News Bears is just plain terrible.
David Lynch – Dune (1984)
At one point in cinema history, Frank Herbert’s iconic sci-fi novel Dune was thought to be ‘unadaptable’, but in 2021 Denis Villeneuve proved this to be entirely false, creating a movie that bulged with visual grandeur. The release of the beloved movie makes David Lynch’s 1984 efforts to adapt the novel look that much worse, with the Kyle MacLachlan-led flick being a half-arsed attempt at an adaptation.
Lynch is no fool either, he realises just how bad the movie is, stating: “I don’t even like talking about Dune really, but I’ve said before I knew when I was signing the contract that I was signing away final cut and from that moment I felt like, looking back, I started selling out”.
Michael Mann – Blackhat (2015)
When it comes to the greatest thrillers in cinema history, Michael Mann is often behind the very best. Helming 1981’s Thief, 1986’s Manhunter and 1995’s Heat, Mann has created an impressive legacy that has long been admired by his peers across the world. His modern attempts at cinematic greatness haven’t been all that well received, however, with 2015’s Blackhat doing very little for critics or audiences.
With Chris Hemsworth at the helm alongside Viola Davis, the film followed a convict and his partners who are hunting a global cybercrime network. Convoluted and lacking any kind of intensity, Blackhat was a massive disappointment.
Gaspar Noé – Love (2015)
The Argentinian filmmaker Gaspar Noé is well known for his audacious experimentation, releasing such movies as Irreversible in 2002 and Enter the Void in 2009. Whilst we respect this level of cinematic creativity, there’s no excuse for his 3D porn movie Love from 2015, which played out like a long, boring and dreadfully bad adult movie that purported to be something far more arty than it actually was.
Featuring a 3D money shot and much more unsimulated sex, Love was nothing more than a provocative filmmaking exercise for Noé. Sure, he might have pissed off the censors, but he also made a terrible movie.
Ridley Scott – Robin Hood (2010)
It gives us no pleasure whatsoever to admit that we could have picked several movies as Ridley Scott’s very worst, including 2013’s The Counsellor, 2014’s Exodus: Gods and Kings and 2021s House of Gucci. But for the director’s very worst, we’ve opted for the utterly boring 2010 adaptation of the classic tale of Robin Hood, which Scott approached with little-to-no creative spirit and ambition.
Illustrated by its dishwater colour palette, Robin Hood is a total washout, devoid of any kind of true cinematic achievement. Not even Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong and Max von Sydow can save this rubbish.
Steven Spielberg – 1941 (1979)
The American auteur Steven Spielberg has managed to master pretty much every genre in existence, mastering the action movie, war epic, and coming-of-age tale, but he’s never been able to nail a straight-up comedy. This truth became very clear in 1979 when he released the lame screwball comedy 1941 starring the likes of John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd and Ned Beatty as a group of Californian friends who are preparing to invade Japan during WWII.
Sandwiched in between the releases of Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 and Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, 1941 proved to audiences that Spielberg was fallible, with the movie being a largely unfunny and incredibly uncomfortable film.
Oliver Stone – Alexander (2004)
The American filmmaker and Vietnam war veteran Oliver Stone is responsible for some of the greatest war movies of all time, including 1986’s Platoon and 1989’s Born on the Fourth of July. Recently, however, the director hasn’t quite been so consistent, releasing several awful movies, including Savages in 2012, W. in 2008, and Alexander in 2004, starring Colin Farrell, Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie.
Though he can clearly capture modern conflicts, 2004’s Alexander proved that he wasn’t adept at pulling off a period piece. Looking more like a children’s party where the adults got a little too carried away with their own fancy dress, Alexander is a laughably bad drama.
Taika Waititi – Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Sure, the New Zealand director Taika Waititi might not even be a sure-fire movie-making icon yet, but he’s made enough great movies to be held accountable for the awful Marvel flick Thor: Love and Thunder. His first terrible movie after success with 2014’s What We Do in the Shadows, 2016’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople and 2019’s Oscar-winner Jojo Rabbit, his 2022 Marvel movie is one of the franchise’s very worst.
Filled with jokes that feel about a decade old, alongside CGI, which already looks dated, Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder was a total misfire that felt like a corporate slap across the face from Disney’s white-gloved palm.
