# Movies that had a lot of potential (but were dire anyway) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 24, 2004, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956 "2004-09-24T22:48:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/21 "2004-09-26T06:23:40Z")
**Escape from LA**. You have a choatic, terrorist filled USA bad enough that the US government essentinally turns Manhatten Island into a prison to hold the criminals around the time of **Escape from New York**. You have Snake Pliscan, an ex-special forces badass who can survive anything and kill anyone. You have a million things you could do with this setting and character. So what do we get? A lame re-make of Escape from New York with CGI. It’s technically a sequel but the plot is almost exaclty the same. Not only that, but it has some huge plot holes in it(Like the possibility of just blowing the island up). As a plus, it had an Evil Bruce Campbell, but that’s not nearly enough. ---
**Author:** ![START](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@START](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/START)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/22 "2004-09-26T06:31:26Z")
Definitely the Omega Code that was produced by TBN and Matt Crouch. You had great material to work with the end times as described in Revelation. It could have been a fast paced, action packed movie and in some ways it was but the acting and writing kind of killed it. Rather than being a movie that secular audiences would want to see simply because it was good it’s a movie barely suitable for Youth Night at a church. Now I should add that Megiddo the sequel to Omega Code actually was a great movie and Mike York who played the Devil was a good actor and by far the best actor in both movies. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/23 "2004-09-26T13:45:16Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Also – this may have been a rumor but I heard they initially wanted Winona Ryder, instead of Sofia Coppola, to play Mary Corleone. Would’ve made it a much better movie. Winona Ryder was signed to play Mary, but had to bail out due to illness or something. I think she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/24 "2004-09-26T14:32:25Z")
About 98% of every horror movie made in the past 30 years. ☹ I fear that _A Sound of Thunder_ is going to be a stinker; they couldn’t even get the dinosaur right, if the trailer is any indication. ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/25 "2004-09-26T22:51:28Z")
All right, I’ll step in where **Mapcase** left off and say that **The Matrix** left me disappointed and annoyed. The hardcore sci-fi fans will fill in the blanks I missed, but it looks like they took Philip K. Dick and William Gibson and hashed them in a Mixmaster with some CGI sequences that looked nifty. The funniest sequence was Morephus’ explanation of the Matrix’s purpose, which culminated in him holding up to the screen a Duracell battery. At that moment, i flashed on scene in “Monty Python and the Holy Screen” in which Arthur was told to cut down the largest tree in the forest with . . . . a HERRING! The shootout in the office building was ludricrious, with lots of gunplay and running in slow-motion that looked very silly. About as silly as Neo firing thousands of bullets into the office building where Morpheus was being [MST3K reference] TORTURED [/MST3K reference] and not hitting him once. There were a few sequences I liked about the film, and I can see it being a pleasing way to blow an afternoon, but given the public’s reaction and box-office take it got, I was expecting a lot more. ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/26 "2004-09-26T23:46:51Z")
Bonfire of the Vanities. Excellent source material, yet unable to do it justice. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Punkyova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@The\_Punkyova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Punkyova)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/27 "2004-09-27T00:19:25Z")
**Rosenkranz and Guildenstern Are Dead**. Hysterically funny play, good actors. Richard Dreyfus, trying his heart out. Something just wasn’t there. It’s the only time I’ve actually fallen asleep in the theater. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/28 "2004-09-27T02:24:18Z")
The recent _The Time Machine_. Excellent visuals, decent acting, and a plot which was consistent for most of the movie… But no attention to details at all. The math we see on the board is understandable, but meaningless, whereas it should have been the other way around. The first time the Machine is used, we see clocks moving extra-fast… In the wrong direction. When he goes to modern New York, we watch a skyscraper being built, and in the time it takes the building to go up, a jetliner moves a distance equal to its length. And in the end, when the hero gets the answer he was looking for, he doesn’t act on it, he just makes a new life with some random (but admittedly hot) chick he met days before. Had they cleaned up these problems, the movie could have kicked butt, but as it is, meh. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/29 "2004-09-27T03:21:13Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > _The Godfather: Part III._ What a fucking abortion! > > The first two were tragedies – each ended with a Michael Corleone, initially so disgusted with his family’s business and way of life, reluctantly ordering a murder for the sake of the family’s honor and safety. The ending of _GFIII_ – there’s no dramatic necessity at all, it just comes under the heading of “shit happens.” No, his daughter’s death was due almost entirely to his own machinations. He involved her and her cousin/lover in one of his intricate plots, and she died because of it. > [@](#): > > Also, they should have brought back Robert Duvall to reprise his role as Tom Hagen, the Corleones’ Irish consiglieri. Duvall wanted equal billing with Pacino, since he was getting top billing in all his other movies. Coppola wouldn’t go for it. > [@](#): > > And I would have liked to see something of Carlo and Connie’s son, who was baptized during the “Sicilian Vespers” massacre at the end of _GFI._ Connie is still on the scene, whispering in Michael’s ear as if she were the power behind the throne – so what ever happened to her son? Why is she pinning all her hopes and amibitions on Sonny’s bastard Vincent? Seems to me Connie wanted her son out of the family business–but I could be conflating that character with Michael’s son, the opera singer. ---
**Author:** ![drewbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drewbert/32/15890_2.png) [@drewbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewbert)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/30 "2004-09-27T03:41:43Z")
I remember seeing preproduction images from **Mars Attacks!** , and thinking how hilarious it was surely going to be. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/31 "2004-09-27T04:03:59Z")
> [@drewbert](#): > > I remember seeing preproduction images from **Mars Attacks!** , and thinking how hilarious it was surely going to be. > > Oh well. I think **Mars Attacks** was great. You have to see it for what it is: a campy movie that pays hommage to the old films of the 50’s. It’s meant to be silly, stupid, and fun. Not serious in any way, shape, or form. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/32 "2004-09-27T04:22:26Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > About 98% of every horror movie made in the past 30 years. ☹ > > I fear that _A Sound of Thunder_ is going to be a stinker; they couldn’t even get the dinosaur right, if the trailer is any indication. [I’m afraid it’s even worse than you think.](http://www.hollywood.com/movies/detail/movie/415866) Especially when compared to the [source material.](http://www.sba.muohio.edu/snavely/415/thunder.htm) ---
**Author:** ![gregongie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@gregongie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregongie)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/33 "2004-09-27T04:23:34Z")
I would have to say **Donnie Darko**. The tone the movie sets up is incredible, the dialog is smart, and the characters don’t fall into stereotypes, which tends to happen in movies starring teens. Having said that, I was severely disappointed with the ending. I was anticipating that all the threads of the story were going to be woven together, culminating in some big philosophical statement (a la **Dark City** ). However, what I got was a confused mess and a complete absence of closure. I have heard a lot of people defending the ending, saying that it leaves things open to interpretation, and let’s the viewer decide how it’s meaningful to them. Yeah, yeah, I’m all for that. But the problem is that it’s just about impossible to hold _any_ interpretation, because it seemed no matter how hard I tried to put the pieces together, I was left with something contradictory, and ultimately meaningless. It’s a damn shame, too. It could have ended up being one of the more memorable movies of this decade. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/34 "2004-09-27T04:42:13Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > [I’m afraid it’s even worse than you think.](http://www.hollywood.com/movies/detail/movie/415866) Especially when compared to the [source material.](http://www.sba.muohio.edu/snavely/415/thunder.htm) They can’t be serious. The trailor doesn’t even make any sense. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/35 "2004-09-27T04:47:04Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > They can’t be serious. The trailor doesn’t even make any sense. Sadly, they are. [Here’s a discussion](http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=264818) on how it actually could have turned out worse. ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/36 "2004-09-27T06:07:54Z")
Wasn’t A Sound of Thunder already adapted? I recall seeing it ages ago on TV. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/37 "2004-09-27T06:20:58Z")
> [@Gamaliel](#): > > Wasn’t A Sound of Thunder already adapted? I recall seeing it ages ago on TV. Yeah. As an episode of Ray Bradbury Theatre. 1/2 hour, so it was rather closer to the original. The movie looks to be ‘Only vaguely connected’ and ‘potentially bad’, but not **neccessarily** bad. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/38 "2004-09-27T06:30:53Z")
_Once Upon a Time in Mexico_ I mean, if there was ever a time for hot latina girl-on-girl action, a movie with Salma Hayek and Eva Mendes certainly qualifies, but the two never meet. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/39 "2004-09-27T07:10:51Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > [I’m afraid it’s even worse than you think.](http://www.hollywood.com/movies/detail/movie/415866) Especially when compared to the [source material.](http://www.sba.muohio.edu/snavely/415/thunder.htm) Ray Bradbury gets his knickers in a twist about the title of a Michael Moore mvoie, and then he lets _this_ happen??? Talk about not having your priorites in order. ---
**Author:** ![START](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@START](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/START)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/40 "2004-09-27T07:15:10Z")
> [@drewbert](#): > > I remember seeing preproduction images from **Mars Attacks!** , and thinking how hilarious it was surely going to be. > > Oh well. Why do so many people hate that movie?..I thought **MARS ATTACKS** was a fun movie to watch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956.md?page=3)