# Worst Hollywood director **URL:** \ **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:** 4
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/61 "2005-12-29T04:07:16Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Anyway, though I’ll agree on Bay and Schumacher (though Schumacher gets a near pass for writing _Car Wash)_, I think the most consistently bad director in mainstream hollywood has to be **Nora Ephron**. At least Nora Ephron doesn’t strap strobe lights onto Meg Ryan’s head every chance she gets. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/62 "2005-12-29T04:27:26Z")
For me, it’s a three way tie between Paul Verhoeven, Joel Shumaker and Roland Emmerich. As a tiebreaker, I will use personality/character…so Verhoeven “wins.” ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/63 "2005-12-29T05:06:27Z")
> [@uglybeech](#): > > OK let’s review his films: > > Ocean’s Twelve - sucked > Solaris - sucked > Full Frontal - sucked > Ocean’s Eleven - overrated fluff > Traffic - overrated fluff > Erin Brockovich - overrated fluff > The Limey - sucked _ass_ > Out of Sight - The half that I saw sucked. I’ll concede its possible the other half didn’t suck as much. > Gray’s Anatomy (1996) - Good - but only because he was filming Spalding Gray’s monologue > Sex, Lies, and Videotape - Sucked and overrated > > I never saw the following, but since I’ve already wasted too much of my life watching Soderbergh movies, I’ll have to assume they also suck or are overrated fluff: The Underneath, King of the Hill, Kafka, Schizopolis, Winston, Yes > > The OP said “or most overrated,” remember. I wouldn’t call Soderbergh the worst director in Hollywood. But he’s definitely the most overrated I can think of. He consistently gets outrageous accollades for his crap and/or fluff. Including Best Director for Traffic, which, aside from the filters, is a thoroughly pedestrian movie. You can expect about as much insight and creativity from your typical primetime drama. > > Bay and Schumacher are also pedestrian directors - but nobody’s putting them in for Best Director. I’m thinking this is pointless to argue with you since you’ve already made up your mind. First off, if you think Soderbergh sucks, what successful director do you think doesn’t? **Traffic** : If you think this sucked then you just don’t like movies. **Ocean’s Eleven** : This was a fun and well done movie, and shooting a film with that cast in a casino without it blowing up in your face is a real feat. **Oceans Twelve** : Not great, suffered from sequelitis, but it wasn’t a flaming turd. I agree that **Solaris** was bad, and **Erin Brockovich** was really overrated but at least in the case of the latter its al leats as much the fault of the script and story. **Sex, Lies and Videotape** was great in it’s time, but hasn’t aged well. **Out Of Sight** was a really fun movie, but I can accept that it’s not for everyone. Getting J-Lo to be hot and not annoying was a real feat though. I’m not calling the guy the greatest thing since sliced bread, but his creds are legit and \*\*Solaris[/b[ is the only turd in the list. Realy if you hated **Ocean’s Eleven** I don’t think there’s any chance we’d watch the same movies. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/64 "2005-12-29T05:24:58Z")
> [@priapus](#): > > Victor Salva is a director who molested an underage actor in one of his movies (Clownland,i think).he went on (after prison) to write and direct a Disney movie,Powder.If you know his history,then watch the movie,it is a definitely queasy experience I didn’t know any of that when I saw Powder, and it still made me queasy because it’s terrible. I think Roland Emmerich is a good choice. I’d be tempted to nominate McG and Brett Ratner. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/65 "2005-12-29T05:45:04Z")
> [@uglybeech](#): > > OK let’s review his [Steven Soderbergh] films: My opinions: Ocean’s Twelve - Fun romp, great cast Solaris - Excellent Ocean’s Eleven - Fun romp, great cast Traffic - Excellent, great cast Erin Brockovich - Good The Limey - Brilliant Out of Sight - Brilliant Sex, Lies, and Videotape - Interesting, great cast Gray’s Anatomy (1996) - Didn’t see Full Frontal - Didn’t see The Underneath - Didn’t see King of the Hill - Didn’t see Kafka - Didn’t see Schizopolis - Didn’t see Winston - Didn’t see Yes - Didn’t see So for me, he’d get a massive pass for Solaris, Traffic, The Limey and Out of Sight, four of the best movies of the last 10 years, IMO. I didn’t like Michael Bay’s Armegeddon, but I liked The Rock. I haven’t seen Pearl Harbor or Bad Boys. **The Island** could have been fantastic if he’d kept it a science fiction story instead of turning it into a dumb action adventure flick (2 highway chases??). The story was interesting and the actors were very good. Too bad. I can find movies I personally liked from most of the directors mentioned in this thread: Ken Russell: Altered States, Crimes of Passion; Nora Ephron: Sleepless In Seattle; Paul Verhoeven: Robocop, Starship Troopers, Showgirls-yes, I’m one of those people; David Lynch: I love everything he’s ever done; Joel Schumacher: The Lost Boys, Falling Down, The Client, Tigerland, Phone Booth; Jan de Bont: Speed; George Lucas: American Graffiti, Star Wars; Ivan Reitman: Meatballs, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Legal Eagles, Dave; Chris Columbus: Adventures In Babysitting, Home Alone, the Harry Potter films, though I’m glad he stepped aside for Azkaban. Alfred Hitchcock: The Birds, North By N…Oh hell, never mind. I really don’t belong in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/66 "2005-12-29T06:38:55Z")
[Alan Smithee](http://imdb.com/name/nm0000647/) ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/67 "2005-12-29T10:26:40Z")
> [@Hodge](#): > > On the other hand, I completely agree that Bay and Schumacher deserve to be on this list and I’d like to add one more: > > Jan De Bont. > > He’s actually had a long and distinguished career as a cinematographer but his output as director has uniformly sucked. From _Speed_ to _Twister_ to the execrable remake of the _Haunting_ he’s yet to direct anything that isn’t downright risible. All right, I can only take so much clog bashing. 😃 Actually, I mostly agree with you that De Bont’s directing attempts so far have been pretty unimpressive. But he gets a _massive_ pass because of **Speed** , IMHO. That was a 100% good action flick as far as I’m concerned. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/68 "2005-12-29T10:29:33Z")
I was going to add a wiseass remark how Jan de Bont at least wasn’t responsible for the horrible sequal, Speed 2, but a quick [glance at IMDB](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120179/) proved me wrong. Holy moly, he really directed that as well?? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/69 "2005-12-29T14:30:14Z")
And don’t forget the completely unnecessary _Tomb Raider 2_ (which I actually didn’t see but severely doubt was any good). But don’t worry, though, I may detest De Bont, but I’m also one of THOSE people who think Verhoeven is a misunderstood genius and visionary. Unfortuantely, his reach sometimes exceeds his grasp so he’s had a few spectacular failures, but the quality and quantity of his good stuff far outweighs the bad. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/70 "2005-12-29T15:21:04Z")
He’s still an asshole, though. 😃 The funny thing about him is that whenever he’s on Dutch TV, he speaks with an unbelievably exagerated American accent in his Dutch. So I figured, “OK, seems a little fake, but what the hell, he’s been living in LA so long, perhaps his English is fluent and his Dutch had to suffer”. Imagine my surprise when I caught him on US television. His English/American accent is dreadful! So he’s a hack both ways, in that regard. Pompous ass. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/71 "2005-12-29T16:18:49Z")
That’s what appeals to me about his movies. He clearly loves to fuck around with people which makes him an asshole in real life but also makes his movies audacious with deceptive outward appearances. There’s often a lot going on beneath the surface of his seemingly campy movies. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/72 "2005-12-29T16:33:25Z")
> [@New York Times Magazine](#): > > Michael Bay, the film’s director, has enormous dogs. “He needs them,” she [Scarlett Johansson] said. “He has a lot of enemies.” From the _New York Times Magazine_, December 2, 2005. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/73 "2005-12-29T22:24:24Z")
> [@Zebra](#): > > [Alan Smithee](http://imdb.com/name/nm0000647/) Does Mr Smithee have any defenders here? I haven’t seen many of his movies, but nothing there sticks out as something I should have seen. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/74 "2005-12-29T22:32:27Z")
> [@Hodge](#): > > And don’t forget the completely unnecessary _Tomb Raider 2_ (which I actually didn’t see but severely doubt was any good). It wasn’t bad, actually: much better than the turgid first instalment, and it actually went a long way to capturing the feel of the games. I’d even go out on a limb and say that it was the most successful game to movie transition so far - not that the competition is stiff, admittedly, but it was a good James Bond/Indiana Jones style popcorn action flick that did what it said on the tin. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/75 "2005-12-29T22:42:44Z")
> [@saoirse](#): > > Does Mr Smithee have any defenders here? I haven’t seen many of his movies, but nothing there sticks out as something I should have seen. Psst, it was kind of a joke; there’s no such [person](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Smithee). ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/76 "2005-12-29T23:56:25Z")
wow, 2 pages and not one mention of **Gus Van Sant**? His movies are PAINFULLY bad. I mean, he throws in shots of absolutely nothing that go on and on and on like a bad joke. His Kurt Cobain movie had the shot of a grassy side of a hill that was still going even after I got up to go to the bathroom and make a sandwich. oh, and need I even mention the Psycho remake? ---
**Author:** ![Tio\_Gringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@Tio\_Gringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tio_Gringo)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/77 "2005-12-30T00:16:06Z")
[**McG**](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0629334/). _Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle_ was one of the worst (if not _the_ worst) movie I have ever seen. I see he is filming the _Hot Wheels_ movie. He seems to be a good choice. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/78 "2005-12-30T00:27:57Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Psst, it was kind of a joke; there’s no such [person](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Smithee). Well I guess I got the whoosh award for '05 all sewn up now. I’d like to thank the Academy… ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/79 "2005-12-30T00:41:35Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > > [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > > > There’s at least one die hard Verhoeven on the board. > > There are several. Yes, but most of the others are easy to kill. You, on the other hand, keep coming back like the villain from an '80s teen slasher flick. (I kid! I kid! Some of my best friends are villains from '80s teen slasher flicks!) I’ve also got to disagree with **Case Sensitive** about the second Tomb Raider movie. This is a film where Angelina Jolie is standing on a fire escape, and protects herself from machinegun fire by ducking behind the wrough-iron hand railing of the escape! One of the stupidest movies I’ve ever seen. Although, to be fair, I’ve never seen the original. (You could also argue that making a really stupid Tomb Raider movie is just being faithful to the source material, but that’s an entirely different discussion.) ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402/80 "2005-12-30T00:59:51Z")
I’d nominate **M. Night Shyamalan** and **Tim Burton** for the “most overrated” category, since I see them both as essentially one-trick ponies (_Ed Wood_ was the one exception). As far as Soderbergh, I thought _Traffic_ sucked (and I _do_ like movies, **omniscient** ) - too preachy by half; it would have been about a million times better without the hackneyed Michael Douglas and his daughter storyline; the rest of his big Hollywood movies I can take or leave, but _Schizopolis_ is one of my absolute favorite films, and completely sui generis. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-hollywood-director/337402.md?page=5)