Eyes Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick
Jim Jarmusch is a brilliant writer and director. He’s a man of true vision who has done astonishing work.
But dear lord, above. The Dead Don’t Die was self-indulgent nonsense. Half-baked ideas, pointless noodling, characters that make no sense in context - regardless of how interesting they are - and scenes that are so self-referential they might as well be billboards with ‘Jarmusch thinks he’s funny’ on them.
Is that worse than the second, Temple of Doom? Because I just watched that, and ohmygod it was horrible.
agree
George Lucas–for movie he actually directed Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace; for movie he was executive producer on either Radioland Murders or Howard the Duck. Worst film he was involved in making–The Star Wars Holiday Special
Steven Spielberg—probably Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull; I don’t think he has actually directed a totally bad film though.
Have you seen Eraserhead? Barton Fink is an homage to it.
I think you missed the point there - Pyle earned respect *because *he went homicidal. Earmey’s abuse broke him, driving him insane, and as - according to the movie - there’s no real difference between a good Marine and an utter lunatic, he started functioning perfectly… until he didn’t.
Jamaica Inn was a contractual obligation project for Hitchcock. He had just signed a contract with David O. Selznick to make movies in Hollywood but his British producer reminded him he had one movie left in their agreement so he did Jamaica Inn to finish it off. If you and your wife got the impression Hitchcock was directing on autopilot with this movie, you’re probably correct.
On a related note, it’s often the case that a great director’s most lackluster films were done mainly to fulfill a contractual obligation.
Another big factors was that Charles Laughton was producing the film, making the actor Hitchcock’s boss. So when he rewrote the part to give himself more screen time and could overrule Hitchcock’s direction. Hitchcock finally gave up and let Laughton do what he wanted just to get the thing over with.
Hal Ashby - Eight Million Ways To Die
Pasolini - 120 Days of Sodom
Kubrick - Spartacus
Scorcese’s remake of Cape Fear
Polanski - Frantic
Lynch - Dune
Fellini’s Satyricon
John Frankenheimer - 
Prophecy
Coppola - tie between Godfather III and Finain’s Rainbow (should have been Gilligan’s Rainbow)
Welles - F Is For Fake
Paul Thomas Anderson - Punch Drunk Love - not so much his worst as much it’s his least strongest.
Altman - Popeye
With Terrence Malick, everything post-Tree of Life is getting too - wow - I gotta think about how to word this…um…
I lasted twenty minutes. It felt like SNL making fun of Jim Jarmusch on one of the weekends Adam Driver was hosting.
Staying with Hitchcock, Marnie would be considered garbage except that garbage has a purpose.
Altman’s Popeye was a perfectly fine adaptation of the comic strip. Trouble was people didn’t know the strip and compared it to the cartoon. For instance, Richard Libertini was a perfect Geezel, but no one knew who Geezel was,?
His worst was Ready to Wear, where he was trying to do * Nashville* again, but it never worked.
Terry Gilliam - Tideland
If you’ve never heard of it, good.
I’ve been a John Waters fan since I was 15 but I cannot stand his last two movies, Cecil B. Demented (2000) or A Dirty Shame (2004).
The comic strip I wasn’t too aware of (hence yeah - no idea who Geezel was) and the cartoon, itself, I barely watched. Heh - maybe it was Shelley Duvall doing almost too good a job as Olive Oil, slightly squicking me out.
Ready to Wear (and Gosford Park) I still haven’t seen.
Though one of his most acclaimed, I found Mike Leigh’s Naked problematic.
The amimal cruelty in Peter Greenaway’s Zed and Two Naughts was, like…just fuck that noise. Ruined entire film.
Of the earlier (let’s say O Brother Where Art Thou and earlier) films, I always thought The Hudsucker Proxy was the weakest. Actually, it’s the only Coen Brothers movie from that era that I couldn’t get through (I pick that era because my knowledge of Coen Brothers movies drops off precipitously not too long after that.)
Barton Fink I actually enjoyed, and it was worth it for the John Goodman fire scene, anyway.
I’m surprised by all the Lolita mentions. I love the book, and while the movie does make do with some changes, I still think it’s a solid movie and captures some of the black humor of the book in a way the remake with Jeremy Irons did not. Besides, isn’t “Fear and Desire” pretty much universally considered his worst work? I also quite hated “Eyes Wide Shut,” but I also know a Kubrick fan who has generally impeccable taste who considers it among his best films. So perhaps I need a rewatch to appreciate it. (Same thing happened to me with Big Lebowski. Absolutely hated it upon first viewing, then saw it several years later with friends at a party and loved it.)
“Lolita” is one of my favorite Kubrick movies…
Agreed. There are definite laughs here. The old lady steals this movie by her facial expressions.