Directors Downhill: Five Filmmakers the Should Have Quit Early
There are many filmmakers out there that have made some truly amazing flicks. Sometimes they continue to make great films for decades. Other times, they lose something along the way and their films end up turning to crap. When this happens, we have to wonder what went wrong. Were they just over-rated to begin with and managed to get lucky enough for someone to notice and continue giving them money to make more films? Or was there talent there that was drained by some evil mechanism of
George Lucas -
In 1971, George Lucas made a little indie film called THX 1138. This movie received enough recognition that he was allowed to join the big boy’s club. Next came American Graffiti, a good period piece with a lot of heart and substance to it. And, of course, he then moved on to direct the first Star Wars film. What some do not know is that Lucas dropped out of the directorial scene for more than two decades. And when he returned, with the new installment of his famed Star Wars franchise, it was a complete disaster. He has since directed only the three new trilogy movies, but each and every one showed signs that Lucas no longer had what it took. The creative inspiration that marked earlier works was gone and he was turning out mechanical entertainment that fit well within the boundaries of acceptable
James Cameron -
In the beginning, James Cameron brought us such brilliant cinematic efforts as The Terminator, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and, even though it wasn’t one of my favorites, True Lies. He then went on to make Titanic, which was put together with excellence, even if it was a bit shallow at its heart. This is where Cameron began to go bad. It would be twelve years before he finally released Avatar, but once this movie came out, old-school Cameron fans realized that the man’s integrity was gone. He was a
M. Night Shyalaman -
Here is where the talent of the director is called seriously into question from day one. M. Night Shyalaman began his notable career in 1999 with The Sixth Sense. This movie was tense and well-paced and brought a fun story to the screen. It was widely regarded as an amazing film and even today Rotten Tomatoes has it listed at 85/87%, which isn’t half bad. His follow-up films were Unbreakable and Signs. These two had mixed appeal, with critics preferring Signs and audiences liking Unbreakable more. Me, I hated Signs, but whatever. Shyalaman was still making okay films at this point. But once The Village showed up, it was all over. People began to realize that he was taking 45 minutes worth of material and using artificial means to stretch that time out to 2+ hours. His films stopped become tense and just became boring. And by the time he hit The Last Airbender, everyone began to wonder if this man had an ounce of talent left. Did he get lucky in the beginning? Was he young and inspired and has now become jaded? Whatever the cause, Mr. Shyalaman is now completely defunct (though they do still keep giving him money for some reason…).
The Farrelly Brothers -
Between the two of them, the Farrelly Brothers managed to turn out some seriously funny flicks back in their day. Dumb & Dumber, while I personally hate the film, is loved by many. Kingpin was hilarious and There’s Something About Mary equally entertaining. Me, Myself & Irene played off the same gimmicks that by that time were beginning to age, but it still held water amongst Farrelly fans. And then… the decline. Now they have a resume filled with movies like Stuck on You, Shallow Hal and
Photo Credits -
Lucas courtesy of collider.com
Cameron courtesy of sciencefiction.com
M. Night courtesy of fearnet.com
Farrelly Brothers courtesy of ign.com
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