What movies have you seen that had potential but fell flat? Some movies have a cool premise but just don’t quite make it. My picks are:
The Cell - With how pretty it was to look at if they could have ditched everyone but Donofrio and given it a large rewrite I think it really could have been something.
Thirteen Ghosts - New cast with the exception of Tony Shaloub and a new script that focused mostly on each ghosts’ backstory rather than turn it into the family oriented tale it ended up being.
Sphere - A great cast, a great premise, an awful movie
Last Action Hero - Actually was pretty good, but could have been absolutely fantastic. I was thinking of this because I had come up with a really neat premise in which a bad guy is pursuing a good guy through various different movie genres, and in each genre the conventions of the genre need to be respected, and the good guys finally win by ending up in a kid’s movie, because everyone knows that in kid’s movies, the good guys always win, and then I realized that that movie had sort of already been made
If only they could have made this a good movie. It would have been a great thread, if only it had been posted in Cafe Society where it belonged.
We’ll try it there.
That is what is wrong with many movies. My opinion is that it happens more with comedies, but maybe not. The problem is that having a good premise is only the beginning, after that someone has to put some meat on its bones and then somehow come up with a good ending. A really, really good ending can save a not so great movie, but a good premise without a good ending is doomed. :smack:
:eek: [sup]This may be my first post in the Cafe. Where’s the coffee?[/sup]
Day of the Triffids. The novel is a blueprint for a great SF film. One day, they may decide to make it again and do it right.
Stay Tuned with John Ritter and Pam Dawber. It was kind of dumb, but the idea of a 666 channel cable system as hell was amusing.
You know, the whole concept of how young Anakin Skywalker rose through the Jedi ranks and became Darth Vader would make a pretty good movie, wouldn’t it?
It’s too bad George Lucas never went and did any prequels. sticks fingers in ears and hums ‘la-la-la-la’ 
I, Robot and Starship Troopers – if only they had actually made an attempt to film the book, with the money and special effects it coulda been something. (I still think they shoulda gone weith Harlan Ellison’s script)
The Puppet Masters – I understand there was a titanic battle to get it close to the book, and for what they did manage I’m grateful. But they should have more respect for audience intelligence and filmed it more faithfully. It’s not my slavish devotion to the book – it’s the fact that the compromised script doesn’t work.
the Phantom Menace and ** Attack of the Clones** – need I say more?
Son of Kong – Don’t demand a sequel in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the budget of a classic original.
This Island Earth – Don’t throw out the bulk of the book and substitute an idiotic script based on SF magazine covers because you think the audience is too dumb or too sensitive to “get it”. And at least have the decency to explain the title!
Diamonds are Forever – It’s part of a big budget, money-making series. When you cut corners and the plot doesn’t make sense, people do get confused.
Man of la Mancha – I don’t care if they’re not Big Names. Get actors who can actually sing for a big-budget musical!
That’s how I feel about Jurassic Park. Sure, the book wasn’t exactly a masterpiece itself, but it was a good deal more interesting than the kiddie-fied movie that Spielberg created.
Daredevil. If they had adapted Frank Miller’s Daredevil: The Man Without Fear 5-issue miniseries, a retelling/updating of Daredevil’s origin story (which included Elektra, Stick, and the Kingpin), it could have been one of the best superhero movies ever. I also would have cast Ben Affleck’s buddy Matt Damon in the lead role, and given Bullseye some kind of mask, rather than his stupid look of being bald with the target tattoo on his forehead.
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Not as horrible a movie as many made it seem, but it should have been one of the greatest things ever, a steampunk action-adventure movie starring the greatest heroes of Victorian literature. Again, stricter adherence to the miniseries by Alan Moore would have helped, and shoehorning in new characters and plot points only hurt this movie.
There was a plot? All I can remember is Jill St John’s ass cleavage.
I debated myself for a good five minutes over this and still lost! Well at least the first moved topic is out of the way.
2010
The first one (2001: A Space Odyssey) was good, but the books (all four of them) were amazing. There was always something about 2010 that left me unsatisfied.
Agreed. The only scene in the movie that I actually enjoyed was him taking the pain pills.
Maybe, I’m no fan of the comic books. But casting Colin Farrell and putting a mask on him would be a crime against nature. I’m just sayin’.
Agreed that the source material could’ve made a great movie, but disagree that it’s not horrible. It was loathesome. I think an even better could be made of the second volume, though – War of the Worlds and the first League make that pretty much impossible now, but the potential is awesome.
My picks:
Constantine: Surprisingly, the movie wasn’t the most horrible thing I’d ever seen; it was just extremely mediocre. But it wasn’t a good movie version of the comic book, and the source material from the comic could’ve been awesome.
The Avengers: One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, not just because it was so bad, but because it was such a waste of source material. No one involved quite understood the original show and what made it so cool, and everybody worked from their own interpretations.
You could tell that Uma Thurman was trying to make it sexy and campy, but she’s just not good enough an actress without super-strong direction, so she just went over the top. Ralph Fiennes thought it was a real spy movie, apparently, and he was just boring and stupid. And I don’t think Sean Connery knew what was going on. Plus, the script had moments where you could tell that bits of what made the show cool came up in writing meetings, but it never gelled into an Avengers movie.
Lost in Space—It should have been cheesy high camp, which is what made the TV series so charming. Paul “Pee Wee” Reubens, for example, would have been the perfect Dr. Smith.
Far from Heaven—Not a bad movie at all, but Sharon Stone should have played the lead. She has the brittle glamour that Julianne Moore couldn’t quite pull off.
Recently, The Brothers Grimm.
From the distant past, Rasie the Titanic.
I thought **Se7en ** was an extraordinarily good concept that gave way to shock value and cheap thrills.
And while I haven’t seen it, I heard Van Helsing fell prey to the same thing.
Absafreakinglutely. If they’d stuck to the plot of the book, which was very cinematic with the in media res and such, and given them power armor? Movie would’ve kicked ass.
For me, the movie that failed the most was Underworld. Vampires, werewolves, and high tech weaponry, what’s not to like? Well, the entire movie, for one.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - I was practically salivating for this film, a slick and stylish - almost steampunkish flick that was going to give us robots and air battles over a noirish Dick Tracy-looking city. Instead, that was about 10 mins of the film, with the rest of it being a boring jungle adventure on foot. WHY?