Filmwad.com has posted a list of the worst films by the best directors. The list doesn’t intend to catalog the worst films ever made, but rather the weakest films made by some of the greatest film directors. Or, at least the purported greatest film directors such as DePalma, Kubrick, Spielberg, and Scorcese, among others. I don’t necessarily agree with everything in the list, but I have to credit them for at least taking some educated swipes at some of these vaunted directors. It’s common enough to take swipes at producers like Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay, but directors seldom come under fire.

Interestingly, the list includes Quentin Tarantino and Death Proof, his half of the recent, poorly performing Grind House; however, it doesn’t include his collaborator Robert Rodriguez. Now, to be fair, I haven’t seen Grind House and the reviews I’ve seen all seem to give credit to Rodriguez for his portion, going as far as saying that his Planet Terror half actually increases the letdown by Tarantino’s latter half. But Grind House aside, Rodriguez surely made a few stinkers with his Spy Kids series, particularly the awful Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. It’s never a good sign when a director decides he needs gimmicks like three dimensional viewing to attract an audience.  This one joins the ranks of fellow third generation, third dimension stinkers such as Jaws 3-D and Friday the 13th: Part III in 3-D.

Another director conspicuously missing is John Woo. Personally, I don’t rank Woo’s work of the same caliber as some of these other directors, but he’s often referred to as a genius and a master of his craft. Although Woo alone can’t be entirely blamed for corrupting the already ludicrous Mission Impossible series with his motorcyle infused vision, he certainly should be called to the mat for some of his other work. It is definitely hard to ignore the far fetched, outrageously acted Face/Off, but even still, I’d have to say that even worse was the entirely implausible Broken Arrow, or as it should have sub-titled Look Out For Those Spinning Helicopter Rotor Blades. It’s interesting that both movies starred John Travolta who manages to overact in both films. However, as bad as Travolta’s hammy, over-the-top portrayals are, they’re nothing compared to the ridiculously convoluted story, poorly fleshed out characters, and the action sequences just for the sake of action sequences. Whenever a helicopter makes its way into the camera’s view, watch out, because it’s going to crash and then Look Out For Those Spinning Helicopter Rotor Blades.

Another excellent director missing from the list is the venerable Clint Eastwood. Eastwood has been directing for 36 years with no end yet in sight. In fact, his work continues to improve with each film. His westerns like High Plains Drifter, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, and the more recent Unforgiven have all achieved classic status. These all he directed more than ten years before Oscar winners Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby. There’s no debating Eastwood’s status as a premier director. So, it came with much disappointment that Eastwood was also responsible for the simplistic, watered-down Blood Work. Blood Work isn’t horrible as much as it is patently obvious and painfully slow. It particularly suffers from a poor choice in casting.  From the second I recognized Jeff Daniels playing the small role of the poor, shlubby neighbor to Eastwood’s detective character, I had him pegged as the mysterious killer whose face we had not seen. It’s not that Daniels did a poor job, in fact, he seems to be the only one in the film with a heartbeat, but when the killer’s face is kept from view, it’s known that he’d be recognized as another character in the movie. Add to that the fact that Daniels is too good of an actor to have been solicited for such a seemingly minor role and the pieces just fall together. It’s like when you watch an episode of CSI and the murder victim’s pool boy who reported the crime is played by Jack Nicholson - you can be pretty sure that the pool boy is going to play an important role later in the episode.

http://www.filmwad.com/the-worst-movies-by-the-best-directors-2198-p.html