# Worst Hollywood director
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 28, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402 "2005-12-28T03:48:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Floyd\_Remora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floyd_Remora)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/1 "2005-12-28T03:48:51Z")
Who do you think the worst or most overrated film director is? I nominate that hack Paul Verhoeven because of the stool like Showgirls he’s responsible for.
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### Author:  [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/2 "2005-12-28T04:01:51Z")
Michael Bay represents in one person everything that is wrong with modern blockbusters.
Paul WS Anderson represents in one person everything that is wrong with modern hollywood science fiction.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/3 "2005-12-28T04:13:21Z")
Joel Schumacher really sucks.
I want to NOT nominate Ed Wood. He transcended bad.
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### Author:  [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/4 "2005-12-28T04:48:58Z")
Ivan Reitman and Chris Columbus. Competent directors who bring absolutely nothing to a project. Their sole function is to bring the script in on time and under budget. They’re incapable of improving a weak script or making a great script better.
But probably the king of big bad directors is George Lucas. What kind of career would he have had if “Star Wars” didn’t hit the way it did, and no sequels followed?
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/5 "2005-12-28T05:00:36Z")
Vincent Gallo has to be on this list.
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### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/6 "2005-12-28T05:08:31Z")
> [@Floyd Remora](#):
>
> Who do you think the worst or most overrated film director is? I nominate that hack Paul Verhoeven because of the stool like Showgirls he’s responsible for.
Well, this thing is going to get heated really fast…
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### Author:  [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/7 "2005-12-28T05:11:58Z")
I remember asking the SDMB for the name of a director and got my answer in a minute (typical SDMB efficiency).
I only remembered **William “One Shot” Beaudine** for this great quote.
Someone in the “front office” came to the director to complain that a film was running behind schedule. Mr Beaudine replied “You mean someone is actually waiting to _see_ this?”
He may not have been a great director, but at least he had no exaggerated ego problems.
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### Author:  [@nameless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nameless)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/8 "2005-12-28T05:13:57Z")
[Uwe Boll.](http://www.somethingawful.com/articles.php?a=2649) What an asshole.
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### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/9 "2005-12-28T05:15:16Z")
> [@pesch](#):
>
> Ivan Reitman and Chris Columbus. Competent directors who bring absolutely nothing to a project. Their sole function is to bring the script in on time and under budget. They’re incapable of improving a weak script or making a great script better.
Well, let’s remember that Ivan Reitman is responsible for _Old School_ and _Animal House_. His best work has been as a relatively hands-on producer and has produced some classics. He doesn’t really identify himself as an uber-director and its probably unfair to label him as a bad director when that’s not really his forte.
> [@](#):
>
> But probably the king of big bad directors is George Lucas. What kind of career would he have had if “Star Wars” didn’t hit the way it did, and no sequels followed?
Well, _American Graffiti_ didn’t exactly suck. Maybe if Star Wars had flopped maybe he’d have not gotten so lazy and self-important. If he were forced to be a director with a studio and producer with authority over him perhaps he’d have been better than he was in the newer trilogy.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/10 "2005-12-28T05:34:53Z")
David Lynch. His close-ups on inanimate objects, the voiceovers, the “weird for the sake of being weird” shots and touches… just dreck. _The Elephant Man_ is about the only movie of his I’ve ever been able to sit through without fidgeting mercilessly, and then it was only because of the brilliant performances.
Another nomination for George Lucas. I didn’t realize just _how_ bad he was until I saw Hayden Christensen in other movies and realized “Hey, the kid’s not a bad actor!”, then watched the extras on the DVD when George was telling him to “Emote more! Emote!” in a scene that would have been much better understated than "Ming the Merciless"ly hammed up like Lucas was going for.
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### Author:  [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/11 "2005-12-28T05:46:22Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> I didn’t realize just _how_ bad he was until I saw Hayden Christensen in other movies and realized “Hey, the kid’s not a bad actor!”…
I had exactly the same realization watching Natalie Portman in **Garden State** : “Hey, she’s really good! Man, Lucas SUCKS.”
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### Author:  [@uglybeech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/uglybeech)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/12 "2005-12-28T05:50:14Z")
Too easy - **Steven Soderbergh**. I will never understand what deal this lightweight made with the devil to get the kind of acclaim he does (let alone Best Director Oscar). None of his movies have risen above the level of a competent Law and Order episode (with a bigger budget), and some of them are downright awful - I dare you to enjoy \*anything \* about “The Limey”. The exception being “Gray’s Anatomy” which is only remarkable because Spalding Gray is so amazing (even still it’s the worst of the three monologue movies).
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### Author:  [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/13 "2005-12-28T06:09:32Z")
Are we talking absolute worst director, or most overrated?
'cause for worst, there are all these straight-to-vid thing, plus _Conan the Waitress_.
For overrated, there’s Alfred Hitchcock.
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### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/14 "2005-12-28T06:13:29Z")
Vincent Gallo. I’ve not seen his “Brown Bunny,” but apparently it was so bad it gave Roger Ebert cancer.
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### Author:  [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/15 "2005-12-28T07:28:39Z")
> [@uglybeech](#):
>
> Too easy - **Steven Soderbergh**. I will never understand what deal this lightweight made with the devil to get the kind of acclaim he does (let alone Best Director Oscar). None of his movies have risen above the level of a competent Law and Order episode (with a bigger budget), and some of them are downright awful - I dare you to enjoy \*anything \* about “The Limey”. The exception being “Gray’s Anatomy” which is only remarkable because Spalding Gray is so amazing (even still it’s the worst of the three monologue movies).
Wow, just wow. I mean he’s not the second coming or anything but _Ocean’s Eleven_ alone gets him a free pass in this thread.
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### Author:  [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/16 "2005-12-28T07:55:04Z")
I’ll second **Joel Schumacher**. There are lots of bad directors out there, but Schumacher is particularly offensive to me because he’s a terrible director who is consistently given interesting source material that he wastes no time in mucking up. “Flatliners” had an interesting premise, and could have been a great movie – until Schumacher got his hands on it. Ditto “Falling Down.” And “Batman and Robin.” And “8 MM.” And “A Time to Kill.” And even “Phantom of the Opera.” All interesting source material utterly ruined by this terrible man.
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### Author:  [@some\_white\_dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/some_white_dude)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/17 "2005-12-28T10:18:37Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#):
>
> Vincent Gallo. I’ve not seen his “Brown Bunny,” but apparently it was so bad it gave Roger Ebert cancer.
I know I shouldn’t laugh at this, but ROFLcopter. It was funny.
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### Author:  [@Liz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liz)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/18 "2005-12-28T10:24:31Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#):
>
> Vincent Gallo has to be on this list.
Hey, that 20-minute blowjob scene was _art_, man! It was a metaphor for _life_ and _disillusionment_! You just don’t _get_ it!
In other words, I second that asshole Gallo.
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### Author:  [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/19 "2005-12-28T10:31:44Z")
> [@Team of Scientists](#):
>
> I know I shouldn’t laugh at this, but ROFLcopter. It was funny.
Not only funny but partially accurate as a description of the altercation between Gallo and Ebert after the movie was released. From the imdb:
In particular, Roger Ebert called the film “the worst in the history of Cannes” to which Vincent Gallo responded that Ebert was a “fat pig with the physique of a slave trader”. Ebert paraphrased a remark of Winston Churchill and responded that “although I am fat, one day I will be thin, but Mr. Gallo will still have been the director of ‘Brown Bunny’”. Gallo then put a “hex” on Ebert’s colon, to which Ebert responded that “even my colonoscopy was more entertaining than his film”.
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### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2005, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/20 "2005-12-28T10:34:01Z")
Verhoeven, right off the bat. Classic. 🙂
Verhoeven is sort of hit or miss for me. His films are either brilliant (Soldier of Orange, Starship Troopers, Robocop), or really bad (indeed, Showgirls).
It’s hard to name a director who consistently makes _bad_ movies, I think. I mean, yeah, Lucas is a lazy slob whose carreer rides on the initial succes of Star Wars - but SW _was_ brilliant in its genre. So he’s got that going for him.
I’m struggling to find a mainstream director that has made no decent movie to speak of. Maybe you don’t get tot hat level if _all_ you make is crap.
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