These films shocked us - in a good way!
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00:00 Not to mince words, but film directing is a difficult line of work.
00:04 Whilst internet ghouls such as ourselves make bread and butter from dunking on disastrous
00:08 directors, the fact is that sometimes the talents of even the most dismal helmer yield
00:13 great results.
00:14 So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with WhatCulture, and here are 10 great films from bad directors.
00:20 10.
00:21 The Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan
00:24 Okay, fair enough, this one's a little tenuous.
00:27 M. Night Shyamalan can't be considered a truly bad director, hence the high placement on
00:32 this list, but measuring up the average quality of his filmography does not yield flattering
00:37 results.
00:38 Responsible for total turkeys like The Last Airbender, Shyamalan's cinematic output
00:42 has statistically been more negative than positive.
00:45 Whilst he has seen a slight return to form in recent years with the excellent Split,
00:49 the okay Glass, and the above average depending on who you ask Old, he is still a far cry
00:55 from his early genre efforts like Unbreakable and Signs.
00:58 With that in mind, we posit that The Sixth Sense still stands head and shoulders above
01:02 the rest of his work.
01:03 It's easy to forget the sheer impact this film had at the time of its release, netting
01:07 several coveted award nominations such as the Academy's Best Picture and Best Director
01:13 categories.
01:14 Not only did The Sixth Sense sport an excellent script, brilliant direction, and tense atmosphere,
01:18 but it also gave us one of the greatest plot twists in cinematic history, making Shyamalan
01:23 a household name practically overnight.
01:26 There were even some claiming him to be the next Steven Spielberg, this being long before
01:31 the director ran his plot twist trope deep into the ground.
01:33 Over 20 years later, it's still by far his best movie.
01:37 9.
01:38 Pretty Woman by Gary Marshall
01:40 Despite receiving mixed reviews at the time of its release, Pretty Woman has unquestionably
01:45 reached classic status over the years.
01:48 Telling the tale of charming sex worker Vivian and her corporate client Edward, the plot
01:52 follows their descent into mutual love.
01:54 Pretty Woman is a joyful tale of good chemistry, good humor, and learning to trust those close
01:59 to you.
02:00 As retold in Netflix's brilliant documentary series The Movies That Made Us, 3000, as it
02:05 was originally titled, was meant to have a much darker, more realistic tone.
02:10 Had it not been for the inexperience of director Gary Marshall, as well as his blatant disregard
02:14 for the script, this is a film we would have gotten.
02:17 Marshall opted to record several takes of each scene, with wildly different tones in
02:21 each, and also let lead actors Richard Gere and Julia Roberts simply improvise many of
02:25 their scenes.
02:27 This risky maneuver paid off in dividends, as letting the lead's natural chemistry
02:31 speak for itself is arguably what made the film so great.
02:34 Its romantic conclusion was all the more satisfying when the characters themselves were given
02:39 the breathing room to endear themselves to the audience, and for that, we have Marshall
02:43 to thank.
02:44 8.
02:45 Star Wars Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back by Irving Kirchner
02:50 Widely regarded as one of the best Star Wars films ever made, even the best by some, it's
02:55 easy to forget that our second foray into a galaxy far, far away wasn't actually helmed
03:00 by creator George Lucas.
03:03 Following on from the events of A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back continues the story of
03:07 the Rebel Alliance and their attempts to undermine the Galactic Empire.
03:10 Along the way, Luke trains with Master Yoda, discovers the truth about Daddy Vader, and
03:15 loses an entire limb in a lightsaber duel with said father.
03:18 Praised for its incredible action set pieces and overall darker tone, The Empire Strikes
03:23 Back remains a firm favorite among Star Wars aficionados and casual fans to this very day.
03:30 Director Irving Kirchner's other work?
03:32 Not so much.
03:33 The Barbra Streisand-starring stinker Up the Sandbox and the disappointing Robocop 2 both
03:38 spring to mind when examining Kirchner's very mixed filmography.
03:41 Whilst 007's spoof Never Say Never Again could be considered something of a cult classic,
03:47 this wasn't due to Kirchner's directing abilities, and The Empire Strikes Back remains
03:51 his greatest ever effort behind the camera.
03:54 Number 7.
03:55 Event Horizon by Paul W.S. Anderson
03:58 Perhaps best known these days for his mixed bag of a Resident Evil franchise, Paul W.S.
04:03 Anderson is a bad director who can at least be said to make some really fun movies.
04:08 The first Alien vs Predator is a campy action horror that deserves way more praise than
04:13 it gets, and 1994's Shopping was surprisingly slick for a directorial debut.
04:18 Far and away the director's best work was 1997's Event Horizon, a sci-fi horror that
04:24 went massively underappreciated upon release.
04:27 Event Horizon has grown beyond a cult film into a bona fide sci-fi horror classic.
04:33 Concerning a rescue crew sent to investigate the reappearance of an experimental warp ship,
04:38 the situation aboard the Event Horizon quickly goes south as the crew succumb to terror,
04:42 madness, and perhaps the trappings of hell itself.
04:45 Also, out of character for Anderson, the film doesn't feature a single scene of Mila Jovovich
04:50 naked.
04:51 Very strange.
04:53 A somewhat typical ghost ship story, coloured with tinges of cosmic horror, Event Horizon
04:57 was rightfully reassessed as a flawed masterpiece in the years since its home video release.
05:03 Anderson supports this view, saying he was immensely proud of the work he and the crew
05:06 put in, and that the film didn't get a fair shake at its initial debut.
05:11 Number 6.
05:12 Mummy by Stephen Sommers
05:14 A childhood classic for many, and an awakening for bisexuals the world over, 1999's The
05:20 Mummy was a swashbuckling take on the classic universal monster property that managed to
05:25 reinvigorate the action-adventure genre at the time.
05:29 Following the world's greatest librarian, Evie, as she enlists the help of tomb-raiding
05:33 stallion Rick O'Connell to find the lost fortune of Hamunaptra, the group instead awaken
05:38 a cursed mummy by the name of Imhotep.
05:40 Now faced with a world-ending magical threat, the group teams up with a group of ancient
05:44 Egyptian warriors to slay the monster and end the curse once and for all.
05:49 The Mummy is high on the list of greatest films ever for 90s kids, and we have director
05:54 Stephen Sommers to thank for that.
05:56 Much like Paul W.S. Anderson, Sommers makes some really fun movies.
06:00 Deep Rising and Van Helsing are low-key cult classics in their own right, but none of his
06:05 work has ever reached the heights of this Brendan, literal angel, Frasier vehicle.
06:10 Sommers doesn't attempt anything too flashy with The Mummy, instead letting the fun script
06:14 and excellent cast do the heavy lifting.
06:16 This isn't to say his work was complacent, as oftentimes it's very difficult for directors
06:21 to step back and let their films breathe, as Sommers did here.
06:24 5.
06:25 Donnie Darko by Richard Kelly
06:28 Donnie Darko was a critical and cult hit for the ages, launching the career of star Jake
06:33 Gyllenhaal and convincing an entire generation of edgy teenage cinema-goers they were probably
06:38 like "so intellectual, dude".
06:40 Following troubled teen Donnie as he witnesses visions of his death, a cursed rabbit with
06:44 apocalyptic messages, and commitment to various crimes while sleepwalking, the film gives
06:49 little away, instead encouraging the viewer to seek out their own answers, as well as
06:53 rewarding repeat viewings.
06:55 On a first watch, this all seemed like it was guided by the careful hands of a true
06:59 film auteur.
07:00 Richard Kelly's intense and abstract directorial style appeared to be responsible for the arguable
07:05 masterpiece we all ended up watching, but to our disappointment, this was not the case.
07:11 We've discussed this here before, how it was actually studio interference that crafted
07:16 the original cut of Donnie Darko into the excellent film we all loved, but it was mainly
07:21 Kelly's follow-up efforts that exposed the director as a bit of a hack.
07:25 Saturn Tales was a confusing mess that seemed to be trying to one-up Darko as being weird
07:30 for weirdness' sake, and The Box was a tedious Twilight Zone adaptation that didn't set
07:34 any worlds on fire.
07:35 At least we'll always have Gary Jules' mad world.
07:39 4.
07:40 Speed by Jan de Bont
07:41 The most 90s thriller to ever thrill in the 90s, this Keanu Reeves action vehicle is a
07:47 much-beloved relic of late-century action cinema.
07:51 Speed follows maverick cop Jack Traven as he boards a speeding LA bus that will explode
07:56 if it goes below 50 miles per hour.
07:58 Featuring excellent performances from everyone involved, particularly Dennis Hopper as the
08:03 unhinged terrorist responsible, Speed blew up at the box office, grossing nearly 10 times
08:08 its original budget.
08:09 It did well critically, too, even netting a couple of Oscar nods for its trouble.
08:13 The film's impact has seen it lovingly parodied in everything from Robot Chicken to Father
08:18 Ted, which makes you think the director of the work must be a real talent, no?
08:22 This was actually Helmut Jan de Bont's directorial debut.
08:25 No small feat given the film's runaway success, and should have charted an excellent career
08:30 for the young Dutch director.
08:32 Alas, de Bont never helmed anything of note ever again, returning for the much-lampooned
08:36 Speed 2, Cruise Control, the limp 1999 remake of The Haunting, and the disappointing Tomb
08:42 Raider Cradle of Life sequel.
08:44 Sometimes, beginner's luck really counts for a lot, and this appears to be the case
08:48 here.
08:49 De Bont appears to have retired from Hollywood altogether, with his last credit as a cinematographer
08:53 being in 2012.
08:55 3.
08:56 Independence Day by Roland Emmerich
08:59 During the late '90s, two genres reigned supreme - the disaster movie and the sci-fi
09:04 action movie.
09:05 In 1996, Roland Emmerich blew the doors off both genres with Independence Day.
09:10 Set on present-day Earth as the world is devastated by a highly advanced and hostile alien race,
09:16 we follow humanity banding together to destroy the alien threat.
09:19 To say Independence Day was epic would be an understatement.
09:23 Never before had audiences ever seen action set pieces of this scale, with the World Monuments
09:28 destruction scene being both terrifying at the time and utterly iconic.
09:32 What's more, we had an excellent cast of human interest characters to keep the simple
09:37 plot moving forward, particularly Will Smith, Captain Hiller, Jeff Goldblum's quirky scientist,
09:42 and Bill Pullman as the greatest big-screen US President we've ever seen.
09:46 The Independence Day speech scene is simply chef's kiss.
09:51 What makes this classic bit of action cinema all the more intriguing is that director Roland
09:55 Emmerich never got close to repeating his success.
09:58 Despite his name becoming a byword for big-budget disaster movies, most of his filmography is
10:03 sadly lacking.
10:05 His Godzilla remake was universally panned, nobody on Earth saw Anonymous, and his most
10:10 recent effort Moonfall has been lampooned across the whole internet as an utterly silly
10:15 affair.
10:16 Even 2004's The Day After Tomorrow, which is widely accepted as an okay movie, failed
10:21 to create that perfect marriage of character, story, and spectacle he reached with Independence
10:26 Day.
10:27 The more he said about its sequel resurgence, the better.
10:30 2.
10:31 Darfur by Yuva Boll
10:32 Do not wash out your ears, do not consult a doctor, you did in fact hear me correctly.
10:38 Legendary turkey Yuva Boll actually has a decent film to his name.
10:42 The German director is infamous for his long line of terrible video game adaptations.
10:47 Not satisfied with ruthlessly butchering games that showed narrative promise, Boll also had
10:52 a tumultuous relationship with his critics, regularly calling them out on Twitter, blog
10:57 posts, and challenging them to literal boxing matches.
11:01 Despite being a far better boxer than he is a filmmaker, Boll has bravely forged on with
11:06 his chosen career, likely through the laws of averages rather than a sudden burgeoning
11:10 talent.
11:11 Boll managed to create Darfur in 2009.
11:14 When a talentless, exploitative filmmaker like Boll decides to helm a biographical piece
11:19 about real-life conflict, alarm bells start to ring.
11:22 Thankfully, Darfur is a decent movie that handles its sensitive subject matter pretty
11:26 well.
11:27 To say it's a masterpiece would be a huge stretch, but considering the bar is at the
11:31 Earth's core when it comes to Yuva Boll movies, this is actually quite impressive.
11:35 Both Billy Zane and Edward Furlong are also on point as the movie's leads, and Amnesty
11:40 International even reported being impressed by the film's quality and credibility.
11:44 Unfortunately, this film was released back in 2009, an interim in which Boll had managed
11:49 to helm a whopping 13 stinkers since then.
11:52 Truly obliterating any good faith this work gave his directorial abilities.
11:57 1.
11:58 The Room by Tommy Wiseau
12:00 Could it really have been anyone else?
12:02 Tommy Wiseau's unhinged melodrama is commonly cited as the Citizen Kane of bad movies.
12:08 So utterly detached from reality is Wiseau's vision, it regularly feels like a work cobbled
12:13 together from an AI forced to watch 10,000 hours of hallmark romance films.
12:18 Serving as the film's writer, director, producer, and lead actor, Tommy himself seems
12:22 to be a singularly gifted filmmaker in the area of bad movies.
12:26 Plot lines appear, then vanish into thin air, the camera work sometimes looks out of focus,
12:31 the script is littered with non-sequiturs, and everyone's line delivery feels like
12:34 it was beamed directly out of the actors' mouths by an alien force.
12:38 And yet, truly, The Room is a great film.
12:41 It's great for all the wrong reasons, but great nonetheless.
12:44 Enchanting viewers the world over, and often selling out cinemas re-screening the film,
12:49 The Room has captured hearts all over the world, based purely on its demented execution,
12:54 plastic spoons and all.
12:55 There is absolutely no doubt that no one but Tommy Wiseau could have made a film this entertaining,
13:02 intentionally or unintentionally.
13:04 And that concludes our list.
13:06 If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know in the comments below.
13:09 And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
13:13 Also head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
13:16 just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
13:18 I've been Ellie with What Culture, I hope you have a magical day, and I'll see you real