# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/41 "2004-09-27T12:32:22Z")
> [@START](#): > > Why do so many people hate that movie?..I thought **MARS ATTACKS** was a fun movie to watch. If Tim Burton had spent a little more time on the script and a little less time hiring EVERY actor in Hollywood, it probably would have turned out better. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/42 "2004-09-27T12:59:50Z")
> [@Odinoneeye](#): > > If Tim Burton had spent a little more time on the script and a little less time hiring EVERY actor in Hollywood, it probably would have turned out better. But it has Joe Don Baker! How could you _not_ like it? šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![gyt\_fx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@gyt\_fx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gyt_fx)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/43 "2004-09-27T14:29:45Z")
**The Butterfly Effect** - Although it wasnā€™t flawless without him, I blame this mainly on Ashton Kutcher. The editing and direction are done quite well, and all other acting is fairly good; but they could have cast a dying salmon as the lead role and it wouldnā€™t have made a difference except: :eek: Super hot Ashton isnā€™t in the movie?!?!! Why would anyone go and see it!? I second **Underworld** and **LXG**. As much as I _love_ Kill Bill, and it _isnā€™t_ in any way dire; Iā€™ll have to mention Volume 2. When I learned of the scene that was deleted (and not even shotā€¦ but it was in the original script) of Yukiā€™s revengeā€¦ I donā€™t see how QT could have cut that outā€¦ It would have added that Extra action and gore that everyone was missing from the film, and make some people (who love the firstā€¦ and hate the second because of the lack of action) enjoy it. **The Village** had a little more potential from the hype it gotā€¦ but I still enjoyed it. ---
**Author:** ![Chastain86](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Chastain86](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chastain86)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/44 "2004-09-27T14:53:19Z")
Well, as long as weā€™re tossing vitriol in Tim Burtonā€™s direction, letā€™s not let him get away with Planet of the Apes. Christ almighty, when I saw the previews, the setup looked really, really interesting. A completely different take on the humans-versus-apes conflict. The preview I originally saw led me to believe that Mark Wahlberg would end up being a William Wallace-like character, leading the armies of humans against the apes in repeated conflicts in an effort to establish their own country. Little did I know weā€™d have one big fight, it would suck, and the twist would be a complete ripoff of a Kevin Smith comic. To paraphrase Chappelle-as-Rick-James, I wish I had more hands, so I could give this piece-of-crap four thumbs down. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/45 "2004-09-27T15:09:01Z")
**Troy**. Get rid of Bradd Pitt AKA I canā€™t even be troubled to ACT the freakin part I was hired for. Oh, and letā€™s change the story so the olā€™ Pittster looks like a big hero. Nearly every sci-fi in the 80ā€™s, most in the 90ā€™s. No the robots donā€™t have to kill us. No techonology isnā€™t evil, people are evil. \*\*LXG \*\* is on my list. **AVP**. I was \*\*so \*\* looking forward to this: then I heard what Paul did. Those are only recent ones. If I went home and went through my collection, Iā€™m sure I could find a LOT more. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/46 "2004-09-27T16:26:20Z")
**[Day of the Triffids](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0055894/)** ā€“ the book was a blueprint for the perfect monster movie: great monster, great scenes of terror, and a solution that requires work to defeat them. The movie came up with a magic solution, and was just plain dull otherwise. **[Fletch](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0089155/)** ā€“ the book was written almost entirely in dialog. It was a taut thriller that drew you in and kept you there (the cover of the book had no picture, just the text of the first few paragraphs. You read it and you were hooked). So they turned it into a self-indulgent and unfunny comedy to show off just how much of a jerk Chevy Chase can be. **Alien** ā€“ could have been a decent film if the crew of the Nostromo hadnā€™t been dumber than a brace of Darwin Award winners. Iā€™ll also add **The Matrix** ā€“ most of which was just plain dull. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/47 "2004-09-27T16:41:16Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > **[Day of the Triffids](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0055894/)** ā€“ the book was a blueprint for the perfect monster movie: great monster, great scenes of terror, and a solution that requires work to defeat them. The movie came up with a magic solution, and was just plain dull otherwise. Day of the Triffids felt to me like two movies kind of bolted together: one a fairly routine monster movie set in a lighthouse, the other a vivid and scary fantasy about the end of civilization itself. The latter I found very effective, and watched the movie wondering how they were going to resolve it. Answer: show people going to church?! What the fuck? :smack: ---
**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, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/48 "2004-09-27T17:31:55Z")
> [@gyt\_fx](#): > > As much as I _love_ Kill Bill, and it _isnā€™t_ in any way dire; Iā€™ll have to mention Volume 2. When I learned of the scene that was deleted (and not even shotā€¦ but it was in the original script) of Yukiā€™s revengeā€¦ I donā€™t see how QT could have cut that outā€¦ > It would have added that Extra action and gore that everyone was missing from the film, and make some people (who love the firstā€¦ and hate the second because of the lack of action) enjoy it. > . It would have been interesting, but in my opinion, the movie was long enough already and the Yuki thing would have seemed pointless. Kewl, sure, but pointless. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/49 "2004-09-27T18:02:08Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > Day of the Triffids felt to me like two movies kind of bolted together: one a fairly routine monster movie set in a lighthouse, the other a vivid and scary fantasy about the end of civilization itself. The latter I found very effective, and watched the movie wondering how they were going to resolve it. Answer: show people going to church?! What the fuck? :smack: Read the book. ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/50 "2004-09-27T18:42:42Z")
Iā€™m surprised no one has mentioned [_Johnny Mnemonic_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113481/) . I was enormously excited to hear it was being made, and then equally disappointed to see the result. William Gibsonā€™s original was so cinematic and visual that, with no more than a little reformatting, the story itself could have been the screenplay. Instead, they made Johnny more or less a good guy instead of a criminal, almost ignored the War Whale, and left out the climactic fight on the Lo-Tekā€™s killing floor. Whatā€™s Johnny without a razorgirl? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/51 "2004-09-27T19:16:03Z")
> [@START](#): > > 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 itā€™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. Of course, itā€™s hard to get any kind of good movie out of a plot where everybody knows the ending and itā€™s a _Deus ex machina._šŸ˜‰ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/52 "2004-09-27T19:19:14Z")
> [@Purd Werfect](#): > > Bonfire of the Vanities. Excellent source material, yet unable to do it justice. I second that choice! God, what a waste of potential! Wonder if theyā€™ll ever make a movie out of Wolfeā€™s _A Man in Full?_ ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/53 "2004-09-27T19:36:13Z")
> [@Gamaliel](#): > > Wasnā€™t A Sound of Thunder already adapted? I recall seeing it ages ago on TV. I think it was done on one of _The Simpsons_ ā€œTreehouse of Terrorā€ Halloween specials. ---
**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, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/54 "2004-09-27T20:25:54Z")
> [@Gamaliel](#): > > Wasnā€™t A Sound of Thunder already adapted? I recall seeing it ages ago on TV. Tengu already named the _Ray Bradbury Theatre_ half-hour adaptation. Specifically, it was episode #3.6, broadcast 11 August 1989. Kiel Martin (formerly ā€œJ.D.ā€ from _Hill Street Blues_) played Eckles, the hapless butterfly-stomper. The cheezy effects stole some of the storyā€™s (heh) thunder but otherwise the adaptation was bang-on. I really donā€™t see how you could stretch this to a two-hour film, unless the last half was some lame attempt to ā€œfixā€ things. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/55 "2004-09-27T20:59:20Z")
_ **The Postman** _ How Costner make the Rockies scenes look unengaging and detached was such an egregarious mistakeā€“I will never know, and not hope to know, how he did it. ---
**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, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/56 "2004-09-27T21:56:54Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > Tengu already named the _Ray Bradbury Theatre_ half-hour adaptation. Specifically, it was episode #3.6, broadcast 11 August 1989. Kiel Martin (formerly ā€œJ.D.ā€ from _Hill Street Blues_) played Eckles, the hapless butterfly-stomper. The cheezy effects stole some of the storyā€™s (heh) thunder but otherwise the adaptation was bang-on. I really donā€™t see how you could stretch this to a two-hour film, unless the last half was some lame attempt to ā€œfixā€ things. Which, apparently, they _are_ doing. For some inexplicable reason, thereā€™s giant bats in the world after the butterfly gets smashed. (Hmmm, where have I seen a movie with giant bats before? Oh yeah, Graveyard Shift, what festering piece of dreck that was.) ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/57 "2004-09-27T23:36:23Z")
> [@Elenia28](#): > > **Troy**. Get rid of Bradd Pitt AKA I canā€™t even be troubled to ACT the freakin part I was hired for. Oh, and letā€™s change the story so the olā€™ Pittster looks like a big hero. Achilles _is_ a hero and as far as I can remember, his characterization in \*Troy \*was pretty close to source material although the plot and some of the other characters were not. Granted, I was a bit dissapointed by the movie but it wasnā€™t an unmitigated disaster like most of the other films listed in this thread. The biggest problem I had with it was the loss of the gods although I thought the way they handled their absence was nice. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/58 "2004-09-28T00:30:31Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Achilles _is_ a hero and as far as I can remember, his characterization in \*Troy \*was pretty close to source material although the plot and some of the other characters were not. > > Granted, I was a bit dissapointed by the movie but it wasnā€™t an unmitigated disaster like most of the other films listed in this thread. The biggest problem I had with it was the loss of the gods although I thought the way they handled their absence was nice. After reading the Illiad this summer, I was somewhat glad they took the gods out. They would have been more distracting then anything else, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/59 "2004-09-28T09:46:07Z")
> [@The Punkyova](#): > > **Rosenkranz and Guildenstern Are Dead**. Hysterically funny play, good actors. Richard Dreyfus, trying his heart out. Something just wasnā€™t there. Itā€™s the only time Iā€™ve actually fallen asleep in the theater. I remember seeing that play years ago, and almost drifting off to sleep during it. Then there were suddenly scenes which perked my interest, and made me think this wasnā€™t so bad after all. Then I realized those were scenes where the lines were pulled from Shakespeare! ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956/60 "2004-09-28T11:16:32Z")
**Judge Dredd**. Take Britainā€™s most popular comic book antihero, who comes prepackaged with not only some of the coolest adventure and crime-based stories set in a uniquely fascist future, but has a cavalcade of characters that are just aching to be utilised almost exactly as portrayed alreadyā€¦ and then fuck it up royally by changing everything that made it fundamentally what it was. [ul] [li]Do not have an origin story that has no real motivation for character development.[/li][li]Do not include Judge Hershey and not utilise her.[/li][li]Do not have a backdrop of Mega-City One, then have most of the story take place outside the city boundaries in a rather dull featureless wasteland.[/li][li]Do not take Dreddā€™s helmet off.[/li][li]Do not take a character like Fergee and turn him into whiny Rob Schneider.[/li][li]Do not introduce the classic, and wonderfully realised, Angel Gang and then kill them off twenty minutes later.[/li][li]Do not have stupidity like a fireball chasing the lead characters, but then have it flowing in the complete opposite direction you have already established it travels.[/li][li]Do not pretend that Armand Assante is Sylvester Stalloneā€™s cloned twin brother.[/li][li]Do not include a character in the story that is from a completely different 2000AD series (i.e. Hammerstein, from ABC Warriors).[/li][li]Just donā€™t.[/li][li]Please.[/li][/ul] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-a-lot-of-potential-but-were-dire-anyway/265956.md?page=2)