When good directors go Bad

[bluearth]

George Lucas of course is probably the biggest example,

but what causes this and who are a few examples?

In Lucas' case and perhaps with M Night it seems they let their success get to their head, to the point where they think every idea they come up with is golden, and that no matter how many times people tell them Jar Jar or The Happening is a bad idea their gigantic ego wont allow them to accept that criticism

[BladeRunner2007]

Most people would say John Carpenter, George A. Romero, Dario Argento. I do enjoy their latest films though.

[mastadge]

Roland Joffé . . . went from The Killing Fields and The Mission to 1995's infamous The Scarlet Letter to Captivity. Wow.

And Ron Underwood, started with two extremely winning genre comedies, Tremors and City Slickers, took a bad turn, ended up doing The Adventures of Pluto Nash and In the Mix before moving into a successful TV career.

It also often happens when foreign/indie directors come to Hollywood, where the more producer-centric process drowns whatever talent those investors had originally seen in them. Lee Tamahori, for instance, started off with a fine flick (Once Were Warriors) and then ended up doing 007 and xXx crap. Or more recently . . . José Padilha has to have been hired for the RoboCop remake because his someone thought his Brazilian urban violence trilogy would be a good match for the property following Verhoeven's satire, but then almost every bit of insight he could have brought to the film was almost certainly squashed the moment it made a suit or a test audience uncomfortable.

[Number 6]

Alfred Hitchcock's Under Capricorn.

[BluBonnet]

I wouldn't put Lucas in this category, from a technical viewpoint, the prequels are far more sophisticated than the earlier movies he directed. While many fanboys like to pick on him, younger viewers who came to the prequels with an open mind really liked the newer movies. An honestly, Jar Jar is no worse than the Ewoks were - and in fact many children are enormously fond of them.

Even Francis Coppola is a better candidate than Lucas, he can never surpass the movies he made in the early part of his career, though he's made some quirkly indie films more lately.

[bluearth]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

I wouldn't put Lucas in this category, from a technical viewpoint, the prequels are far more sophisticated than the earlier movies he directed. While many fanboys like to pick on him, younger viewers who came to the prequels with an open mind really liked the newer movies. An honestly, Jar Jar is no worse than the Ewoks were - and in fact many children are enormously fond of them.

Even Francis Coppola is a better candidate than Lucas, he can never surpass the movies he made in the early part of his career, though he's made some quirkly indie films more lately.

R2D2 = good character for children that fits into an adult themed film

Ewoks = tolerable characters for children that somewhat fit into an adult themed film

Jar Jar = bad character no matter what the movie or theme

Its no coincidence that once Lucas started to take the prequels seriously with Episode III we got by far the best Star Wars film of the three.

Steven Spielberg has fallen off steeply lately as well. War Horse and Lincoln are 'best worst' movies and hes fallen in love with over the top ridiculous action sequences seen in TinTin and Indiana Jones 4.

[aiman04]

John McTiernan.

[Buscemi]

Atom Egoyan. From perhaps the top Canadian director of his time to a career hack.

[Visco.]

Spielberg definitely ain't the man he started out to be.

In almost every situation, directors start out more passionate about their work in the beginning of their career.

[chad_1138]

M. Night. Now, if we could get Unbreakable 2, he may be able to redeem himself.

[Moviefan2k4]

Michael Bay did a tolerable job with "Armageddon" and the first "Bad Boys". After that, his directing career went completely down the drain. I skipped all the "Transformers" sequels after seeing the first, and Bay proved he could screw up "Ninja Turtles" without even directing it.

[Thomas Irwin]

Fred Dekker:

Night of the Creeps (1986)
The Monster Squad (1987)

...

Robocop 3 (1993)

[manunited1]

Oliver Stone. Savages was just awful.

I love Star Wars and all but Lucas can go on there mainly for Red Tails.

Michael Mann has certainly floundered lately.

Dario Argento

The obvious main choice is M. night Shamatwist. I loved his work until Lady in the water rocked the boat, then all after sunk it.

[toddly6666]

Richard Lester. How awesome if he got to direct another superhero film in his 80s!