Movies that failed to live up to their potential

[Versatile]

Let's eliminate sequels off the bat because the thread could be flooded with them otherwise. We're talking movies you walked into the theater expecting to love that then couldn't meet that standard, so it's not necessarily bad movies, either.

"I Am Sam" was one for me. I thought that would be awesome, but then it just wasn't. It was boring. It was sappy. Sean Penn was great, but no one else was. And it all was too neat and tidy.

 

[93Devil]

Pineapple Express

 

[DanOregon]

One that stands out is "Mullholland Falls." I'd heard about it when they were making it, and even stuck with it when I learned it was a January release. Nick Nolte, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Chazz Palmenterri and Jennifer Connoly in kind of a Chinatown knock-off.
Script by Pete Dexter, Produced by the Zanucks. It sucked bad. Nolte seemed to be hungover for every scene, the script built up to something and just went nowhere.
LA Confidential helped get me over it.

And I'll throw in any post-Knocked Up Judd Apatow movie.

 

[Beef03]

Road to Perdition

 

[The Big Ragu]

Road to Perdition

Weird. I think it's a very good, but not great, movie.

For me, it's another Tom Hanks film -- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. The preview ads for it sold it well. The movie itself was meh.

 

[Beef03]

Road to Perdition

Weird. I think it's a very good, but not great, movie.

For me, it's another Tom Hanks film -- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. The preview ads for it sold it well. The movie itself was meh.

To me it was OK, but it fell way short of my expectations.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

Every Star Wars movie after Empire Strikes Back.

 

[Steak Snabler]

Casino.

Yeah it has some great scenes and inside info on how things used to go down in Vegas, but in the end it's a love triangle in which you hate all three participants.

 

[HC]

Godfather 3

 

[casty33]

I agree with HC completely. Godfather III was a waste.

 

[Dick Whitman]

A lot of movies that fall into this category, for me, are those that sell out the first 90-100 minutes with a focus group-approved ending: "Source Code" and "Ruby Sparks" come to mind, recently.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

Let's eliminate sequels off the bat because the thread could be flooded with them otherwise.

Well, you did your best. :)

 

[Dick Whitman]

Every year it seems that there are movies that are produced, basically, to win Oscars. And then they fall flat.

A non-comprehensive list of the kind of movies I'm talking about:

"J. Edgar"
"A Dangerous Method"
"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"
"The Iron Lady"
"Revolutionary Road"

 

[Evil Bastard (aka Chris_L)]

Killing Them Softly

Based on a good book (Cogan's Game) and a very good cast. Awful, awful movie.

 

[Gutter]

Burn After Reading

 

[Uncle.Ruckus]

Burn After Reading

See, I enjoyed that movie. I also liked The Ladykillers. I'm a sucker for all things Coen, I guess.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

I was really excited to see Mystery Men when it came out, but I thought the premise was going to be more that these people thought they were super heroes in a realistic world where there are no real super heroes. I think there would have been a lot more comedy to mine from that.

Kickass was a similar idea done much better.


Can we throw TV shows into the conversation, because Entourage fits the bill for me. It always started toward a compelling story line, then took the most shallow route to an easy resolution possible.

 

[Tarheel316]

I agree with HC completely. Godfather III was a waste.

Kind of hard to top the brilliance of Godfather II, so a letdown was inevitable.

 

[godshammgod]

The Road.

Great director (John Hillcoat who had previously done the great movie The Proposition), great cast, great source material.

All just came together was very blah. Maybe it was hard to translate the intensity of the book to the screen.

Regarding Road to Perdition: I loved it. I think it's one of the most beautiful shot movies I've ever seen. The bathroom scene is still one of my all-time favorite shots.

 

[KJIM]

Babel and Contagion

I wanted very much to like them. in both cases, I walked out thinking, "Was I supposed to care about how that ended?"