Name a movie that was bad, but had potential to be good.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

This would be a movie that you honestly can't recommend, but if you could make a change it would be a better film. This could be a change in choice of directors, casting, editing, score, etc. Major plot points would stay the same.

I'll go first. "In the Mouth of Madness." Carpenter's direction is fine for 80's slasher flicks. But this Lovecraftian thriller was paced all wrong. Too fast, too cheesy, no suspense, no real horror.

[TZ]

1. hmm Stargate

The first half of the movie was excellent but after they went through the Stargate..it was all downhill. They whole humans transplanted by one mighty alien and his army didn't work

[Greyskye]

2. The Truman Show

If only Jim Carry hadn't been the lead. :puke:

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. "The Number 23".

[Fire Walk With Me]

25. Actually, "23" wasn't "bad", but it wasn't as great as it could have been.

[IndianaJones]

3. Jeepers Creepers. nt.

[DarkTirade]

20. ... are you sure that one could have been good?

:P

[Mike 03]

4. Wow, great question. I want to think about this, but one movie that

comes to mind is "Blood Diamond." It could have been a masterpiece, but was destroyed by a poor, naive screenplay and an awful peformance by Jennifer Connelly.

But I know there are better examples. I'll try to think of some.

What a great question, though.

[Shell Beau]

6. I am Legend

[bigwillq]

7. I agree.

And did you hear, they're making a sequel.

I thought it was interesting but it could've been so much better.

[charlie and algernon]

11. What's sad about that is that the alternative ending makes it WAY better

[bigwillq]

12. I never saw the alt. ending.

Is it on the DVD? :shrug:

I saw the movie on HBO.

[charlie and algernon]

16. it's on the special edition DVD

it's also on youtube as well.

[eauclaireliberal]

26. Haven't seen it, but from what I heard

Will Smith doesn't rap during the final credits. That in itself is an improvement.

[Throd]

8. Hollowman

[Mike 03]

10. Excellent choice. I couldn't agree more. Such potential, such

a fantastic premise, and yet such a childish execution.

[Mike 03]

9. About Carpenter. He's actually a great director to discuss because

he had the talent, for sure. Look at the remake of "The Thing" or the superb but shamelessly under-rated "They Live" and "Prince of Darkness."

But by the same token, it's impossible to deny that something went terribly wrong.

[Critters2]

13. Australia. Could've been two good movies, rather than one bad one. nt

[XemaSab]

32. Amen

I got through the cattle drive and I thought the movie might be over. I was WRONG... so WRONG. :cry:

[PVnRT]

35. +1

Had it been a screwball kind of comedy centered around the cattle drive, it would have been fantastic. Why they decided to keep going, I'll never know.

[LadyoftheRabbits]

14. The Other Boleyn Girl

could be an awesome movie, but somehow, both films (BBC and Portman one) have failed to capture much of the book's original magic. Which was disappointing. x(

[PassingFair]

15. "I Love You To Death"

Great cast, great story line, I was
GEEKED to see it.

It Stinked, Stanked, Stunk.

[blondeatlast]

22. I still enjoyed it, but yeah--it could have been a GREAT black comedy with that cast.

Instead it was just a touch past middlin' in my opinion.

[Danger Mouse]

17. "Event Horizon" ...starts out very scary and suspenseful...

but ruins it all in the closing act by going completely, ridiculously, and unbearably over the top.
Sam Neill croaking 'You won't need eyes where WE'RE going.' isn't scary. It's fucking hilarious.

[PVnRT]

36. I still liked that one

But, yeah, they should have kept with the creepy, unseen-terror vibe and made it like "The Haunting" on a spaceship.

[Iggo]

18. The Spirit.

Change directors.

[madeline_con]

19. Water World

[eauclaireliberal]

27. Total waste of kevin Costner's talent

...but Dances With Wolves redeems him.

[darkstar]

21. Falling Down (new Eastwood flick had me thinking about this movie's flaws)

[cemaphonic]

30. Good call.

I wouldn't call it bad exactly - It's the only Schumacher film that I think is any good at all, but it certainly could stand to be *better.*

Flatliners though - that was a great concept that wound up as a pretty crappy movie.

[blondeatlast]

23. Grease. Could have been loads of fun without the slick. nt

[eauclaireliberal]

24. Wonderwall

It would have been better with some more...intimate footage.

[Norwood]

28. Max Payne

Sure it was based on a video game and most video game movies don't work, but this had serious potential. The story in the game was excellent, but unfortunately was butchered on the big screen.

[kentauros]

29. Robot Monster

In spite of the bad acting, bad scripting, bad sets (they had sets?) and the idea of a robot that looked like a gorilla in a diving helmet, the concept of the destruction of all life on Earth other than a few that managed to protect themselves wasn't all that bad :D

So, throw out everything but the basic plot and you have a decent movie :P


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046248/

[cemaphonic]

31. Spike Lee has a couple

"Bamboozled" was a great idea, but the sort of idea that requires a great deal of subtlety, tact and nuance to pull off well. Since none of these are exactly Lee's strong points, it just really didn't work.

"Summer of Sam" - the core story of a working class Italian neighborhood during the dawn of punk rock, and in terror of a truly deranged serial killer is solid. The cast does a good job, especially Adrian Brody, and there are a couple of great Scorsesean montages to boot. But it needs some serious editing, Sam Berkowitz probably would have worked better as a completely offscreen boogeyman, and the scene that Lee appears in looks like he realized at the last minute that there wasn't really a spot in the film to do any of his trademark polemical rants (not to mention, the rant in question felt like he was spelling out the theme of the movie in ALL CAPS, despite the fact that the theme wasn't especially subtle to begin with) Plus, it's the summer of '77. How come nobody was watching Star Wars?

[Lethe]

33. thats exactly what i was going to say

the idea of In the Mouth of Madness is interesting, but the movie comes off a little silly and just full of fluff. The premise, done well, could be fantastic.

[PVnRT]

34. Another Carpenter Film: Prince of Darkness

It started out with a good (if pseudoscientific) premise, using science and reason to combat the coming of evil, then devolved into a kind of lame cross between an exorcism film and a zombie movie. I particularly liked the message being "broadcast" by tachyons backwards through time in an attempt to warn the protagonists.

[DS1]

37. let me know when Showgirls comes out on Blu-ray

/loves me some Berkeley