When thinking of these celluloid wastes I knew that it would be necessary to explain why king schlockmeister Edward D. Wood Jr. did not make the list. Fact is anyone who knows movies knows Ed Wood is THE worst movie director of all time, but because he is the "king" his movies are actually far more entertaining in their awfulness than those by the group of hackneyed talent vaccums I will be throwing under the bus. Actually,
Plan 9 From Outer Space is one of the funniest things I've ever watched, nevermind that to Ed Wood the story was supposed to be taken seriously. And
The Sinister Urge? Funniest episode of
Mystery Science Theater 3000 EVER! Anyway, here is my list of guys you should know to keep your money from at all costs.
5.
Brian DePalma- The self-proclaimed "king of the erotic thriller" or some such nonsense, DePalma is still popular and in my book overrated. Yes he directed
The Untouchables which I like a lot and
Carlito's Way which I also like, but then he also directed
Mission To Mars,
Body Double,
Femme Fatale, and probably the most overhyped film ever,
Scarface (no, not the one with Paul Muni from the 30s!) Pacino's "cuban" accent is so thick I could use it to spike my hair. The dialogue is so bad I can't believe Al stooped low enough to speak it. Another overrated film was
Blow Out with John Travolta. I had heard such glowing reviews I couldn't believe I was watching the right film. But compared to the rest on this list DePalma is
Orson Welles!
4.
Renny Harlin- Haven't heard much from Renny lately, and thank God for that. He's responsible for ultra violent and ultra stupid movies like
Cliffhanger and
Deep Blue Sea. That's right,
Deep Blue Sea, which had Renny all confused, because audiences thought it was supposed to be a comedy. So, I wasn't supposed to laugh when Sam Jackson became shark bait, Renny? See, Ed Wood isn't alone.
3.
Joel Schumacher- He started off with a bang-
D.C. Cab , cashing in on the Mr. T fever sweeping the country, then he turned to more serious work with
St. Elmo's Fire and
The Lost Boys. The road to Oscar was just beginning. Then
Flatliners (refueling our brat-pack addiction) and
Dying Young (great name for a Schumacher film, but a better name would have been
Dying Early, and Often) But he really showed us his eye for great filmmaking with
Batman Forever and especially
Batman and Robin. Nipples anyone?
2.
John Woo- Before he came to America to make his pistol pumping action formulas I had heard how good he was. I watched
Hard Boiled which was excessive to say the least and gave me a headache, but
The Killer was much better so I expected him to make cool movies here where he would have much more to work with. Boy, did he take advantage! First he did
Hard Target with the greatest action star this side of Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude VanDamme! Then he did
Broken Arrow and decided Christian Slater could do action too.....mmmmkay. Then he blew up the whole action genre with his masterpiece-
Face/Off or as a friend of mine called it
Far/Fetched. Forget the plot, just know that it is really cool to watch John Travolta pretend to be Nicolas Cage. I totally believed it could happen, totally. Woo didn't rest on his laurels though, nosirreee! He made
Mission Impossible 2 which actually WAS impossible this time and then recognized the mind-blowing talent of Ben Affleck and made
Paycheck. If only it had been the musical biography of Johnny Paycheck and his mega-hit "Take This Job and Shove It"! That I would pay to see.
And now the number one WORST movie director (drumroll, snare, hi-hat)
1.
Michael Bay- One word,
Armageddon. Need I say more? Really? OK then,
Con-Air. What? Want more? Alrighty,
The Rock,
Pearl Harbor, and
The Island. His camera style I like to call "shake and hurl" (because it causes nausea) has been used so much I suspect he gets some sort of huge kickback from Dramamine! Oh yeah, and they made a song about how bad he sucks in
Team America: World Police. It's pretty well established at this point: Stay away from Michael Bay! (nice rhyme, huh?)
