Movies regarded as classics that bombed or received initially bad reviews

[Doctor Cringelord]

Shit, most of Carpenter’s body of work. I know I mentioned him already but I can think of few directors who made so many films that were initially panned/ignored only to be re-evaluated as classics. Halloween did well but after that it was hit or miss, more often miss for him. Especially if you look at his post Starman body of work. Yet with a few exceptions like Ghosts of Mars and The Ward, the majority of those films are now loved

 

[Totenkindly]

eta: Would Mystery Men count? I seem to remember it not doing very well at the box office, and yet I didn't really know anyone (in my relative age group) who didn't love it. /eta

It's weird, but I wanted to like that movie a lot more than I did. It had decent casting and decent high concepts that I felt weren't really well-executed, so I only marginally liked it. (The Greg Kinnear moment was pretty awesome, if you don't know the plot.)

I tend to feel that way about a lot of Ben Stiller movies. I love him as a person, I think he's a super-funny actor... but I tend to be lukewarm to most of his films. (I didn't really like the "Fockers" films either, or Walter Mitty, or whatever else. Don't ask me. Dodgeball was more amusing.)

Yeah, it got a bad rap - even David Lynch himself pooh-poohs it now - but I've always loved it.

I remember trying to watch it in the 90's (?) without ever reading the book or before I was ready to handle Lynch films, and I barely remember anything except for the water drop motif. Maybe a rewatch would do more for me now. I'm looking forward to the Villeneuve version coming out soon.

Shit, most of Carpenter’s body of work. I know I mentioned him already but I can think of few directors who made so many films that were initially panned/ignored only to be re-evaluated as classics. Halloween did well but after that it was hit or miss, more often miss for him. Especially if you look at his post Starman body of work. Yet with a few exceptions like Ghosts of Mars and The Ward, the majority of those films are now loved

Loved by who? Just trying to get a sense. Critics? Horror lovers? A particular segment of horror lovers?

he's another guy who I find interesting because he did his own thing, but typically for me it's just been marginally okay, I just don't get into his approach and it feels barely a step above B sometimes. [I am fonder of Cronenberg.] Maybe I just expect more psychological depth or something. I even tried watching "Escape from New York" within the past year again and got bored by the midpoint. I think my favorite films of his (that I will rewatch) have been "The Thing" and "Prince of Darkness". I remember kind of enjoying Sam Neill's "In the Mouth of Madness" performance too.

(HAHAHA! Now I just wiki'ed it to spell Sam Neill's name correctly, and it says all three of these films are considered Carpenter's informal "Apocalypse Trilogy" -- I guess that's the connecting thread.)

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Loved by who? Just trying to get a sense. Critics? Horror lovers? A particular segment of horror lovers?

he's another guy who I find interesting because he did his own thing, but typically for me it's just been marginally okay, I just don't get into his approach and it feels barely a step above B sometimes. [I am fonder of Cronenberg.] Maybe I just expect more psychological depth or something. I even tried watching "Escape from New York" within the past year again and got bored by the midpoint. I think my favorite films of his (that I will rewatch) have been "The Thing" and "Prince of Darkness". I remember kind of enjoying Sam Neill's "In the Mouth of Madness" performance too.

(HAHAHA! Now I just wiki'ed it to spell Sam Neill's name correctly, and it says all three of these films are considered Carpenter's informal "Apocalypse Trilogy" -- I guess that's the connecting thread.)

Seems like horror movie buffs and a lot of blogger/writers/reviewers who grew up on his films.

I think what set carpenter apart from most other "b movie" directors wasn't necessarily any depth to his films but the attention to detail and quality he put into them. He is/was a master of making low budget productions look really good. Compare him to someone like Corman, who just churned out lots of movies on the cheap and wasn't too concerned with quality or making any lasting impression. I also think he was better at getting really good performances out of actors than he's really credited for (most of the acclaim seems to focus on his musical scores, tone of his films, and the detail-oriented approach he took to making his films), I mean look at the caliber of actors he worked with, many of whom would return to work with him on multiple films--Hal Holbrook, Donald Pleasence, Kurt Russell, Keith David, etc), not to mention some less skilled actors like Roddy Piper who he was able to get pretty good performances out of.

I always thought Carpenter fit more into the workman director category than he did into the auteur category, because there was never really a singular voice or style he went for (even the apocalypse trilogy is very loosely connected and each film shows a very distinct style from the others)

I don't know, his films are just highly memorable, if not especially deep or profound. I think they're technical masterpieces, and I wonder what he could've done with the type of budgets Spielberg and Kubrick had at their disposal. Although maybe it's because of the limitations he faced that he was able to create such great films.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Day of the Dead

Seems like people always used to treat this as the weakest entry in Romero's dead saga (if you don't include the ones he made in the 2000s), but lately I've noticed more people ranking it as one of his best. Some people now seem to hold it in higher esteem than Dawn and Night.

this is another b movie guy who was able to do a lot with small budgets and a lot of technical limitations.

 

[ceecee]

I consider Wet, Hot, American Summer one of the films that are actually pretty good. I can remember a few diehard fans of The State (comedy troupe) being enthralled when this movie came out (myself being one of them), but for the most part it seemed to get overlooked. At first anyway. Attention for it slowly snowballed over the years, to the point where Netflix produced a couple seasons addition to it.

It's where I fell in love with Paul Rudd.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Reminds me of Kentucky Fried Movie, which never got as much attention as Airplane but has developed a sizable cult following.

 

[Totenkindly]

Reminds me of Kentucky Fried Movie, which never got as much attention as Airplane but has developed a sizable cult following.

I've always liked both of those films. (But hey, I even liked Movie 43 -- mostly -- which was panned pretty hard by critics. The jokes definitely veered into the sexual, though.) Amazon Women on the Women is another comedy sketch compilation which deserves attention but the critics did not like it as much -- I still quote lines out of this film, there's so many memorable ones (esp from the Roast of Harvey Putnik, with Rip Taylor and a bunch of similarly styled comedians of that time period). Even the "advisory" b&w at the end starring Carrie Fisher is hilarious.

More Airplane-esque (i.e., an entire story is trying to be told) would be films like Top Secret, although that had passable reviews. Naked Gun series (more Zucker films) started well-acclaimed, although critics soured a bit on the follow ups. They are still enjoyable though. I didn't really track the Hot Shots films. Austin Powers seemed to worsen with passing time, the first was funny; the second had Fat Bastard and the "mini me -- you complete me" themes that were funny; but Goldmember (aside from the spoof intro, in terms of casting) felt like a letdown.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

It's where I fell in love with Paul Rudd.

Bobby Newport?

 

[ceecee]

I've always liked both of those films. (But hey, I even liked Movie 43 -- mostly -- which was panned pretty hard by critics. The jokes definitely veered into the sexual, though.) Amazon Women on the Women is another comedy sketch compilation which deserves attention but the critics did not like it as much -- I still quote lines out of this film, there's so many memorable ones (esp from the Roast of Harvey Putnik, with Rip Taylor and a bunch of similarly styled comedians of that time period). Even the "advisory" b&w at the end starring Carrie Fisher is hilarious.

More Airplane-esque (i.e., an entire story is trying to be told) would be films like Top Secret, although that had passable reviews. Naked Gun series (more Zucker films) started well-acclaimed, although critics soured a bit on the follow ups. They are still enjoyable though. I didn't really track the Hot Shots films. Austin Powers seemed to worsen with passing time, the first was funny; the second had Fat Bastard and the "mini me -- you complete me" themes that were funny; but Goldmember (aside from the spoof intro, in terms of casting) felt like a letdown.

I don't even want to admit it but the Cannonball Run movies entered my mind when I started thinking of Kentucky Fried Movie.

 

[yeghor]

What are some films now widely regarded as classics that initially bombed or were panned almost universally by critics upon their release?

A couple I can think of are Blade Runner, Brazil and John Carpenter's The Thing. Big Trouble in Little China is another one that bombed, was dismissed by critics, but is now ranked as one of Carpenter's best films. The 80s and 90s in particular seemed to produce a lot of box office duds that were allowed second lives via the burgeoning home video industry.

I think Shawshank Redemption is another good example. No one went to see it, yet now it's ranked right up there with it's contemporaries Pulp Fiction and Forrest Gump as a modern classic.


I was going to say Empire Strikes Back, but that one did still make a tanker load of money, and I'd say the reviews from 1980 are mixed rather than universally bad.

Some good movies that could have done better at theaters:

Existenz

Videodrome

Event Horizon

Donnie Darko

In the Mouth of Madness

Dark Cty

 

[Lark]

Some good movies that could have done better at theaters:

Existenz

Videodrome

Event Horizon

Donnie Darko

In the Mouth of Madness

Dark Cty

That is a great list.

My favourite movie that tanked was Dune. I can totally understand why it did though. In the age of Star Wars it was way, way too goth. I remember lots of merch, sticker books etc. associated with that film aimed at kids when the film itself was too weird for most adults to deal with.

I have a tendency to like a lot of the off beat stuff and give a lot of things which are slated a chance others dont, a lot of the cult status movies are ones that I thought were good to begin with.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Event Horizon had some solid production design. While it had a good cast, the writing and direction was a bit weak. Paul WS Anderson is one of those directors who knows the craft, but lacks vision. With the right script he could make a great film. I would consider Event Horizon a decent film. Far from terrible. It does go a bit off the rails in the third act.

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I thought Uwe Boll’s Rampage was surprisingly good. Lots of people wrote it off just because it was a Uwe Boll movie. Another director who I think is good when he has decent material and the right genre to work with

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I think The Fly II was a decent sequel. Even if it did somewhat dilute the themes and impact of the first and go more for gory horror porn than thought provoking body horror like the first