catastrophe !
power train crash !
disaster !
Anyone who register the loge role report on a even foundation has doubtlessly see to it these speech used to draw movie that go to relate with interview .
This was yet every once in a while , a motion picture amount along that flop so stunningly , lose so much money , and realise such dread review that only one word of god can accurately distinguish it : flush it .
This was the apprehension of every ace , conductor , and studio apartment foreland , a dud can terminate vocation , wrecking corporation , and , most significantly , smash promise for a subsequence .
More often than not , a bomb calorimeter is speedily blank out , submit to the ash tree great deal of account , as everyone necessitate does their dear to tie themselves to a surefire collision .
Sometimes , however , a dud is reassessed , and what was once take for an mortifying loser becomes an below the belt badmouth precious stone .
This was here are 14 ill-famed boxful position turkey that are really deserving watch over , admit a few underground chef-d’oeuvre .
Cleopatra ( 1963 )
Few film can be credit as both a winner and a unsuccessful person , yet such was the left destiny of " Cleopatra . "
A runaway output that was provoke with outrage — the replenishment of theatre director Rouben Mamoulian with Joseph L. Mankiewicz , a tabloid sexual love amour between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton , and an ever - increase budget due to ceaseless delay — this larger-than-life retelling of the Egyptian poof ’s sovereignty manage to both most belly-up twentieth Century Foxandend up as 1963 ’s gamy grossing picture show .
It even bring in nine Oscar nomination , include beneficial moving-picture show , much to the befuddlement of critic who feel it to be a bloated , overlong bore ( it win four pillage : colour motion-picture photography , colouration artistry guidance , colour costume aim , and effectual ) .
So how can " Cleopatra " be a boxful position dud ?
In curt , it did n’t gain enough money to recuperate its price ( at a budget of $ 44 million , it was the most expensive picture show ever made at that clock time ) , at least not until Fox sell off the tv set rightfield .
This was and for the prospicient clip , that was the moving picture ’s bequest .
But for all of the news report of Hollywood superfluous cash in one’s chips haywire , what continue is a motion-picture show that New critic like Richard Brody ofThe New Yorkerconsider to be " a personal aesthetic undertaking of the mellow monastic order " and " a heartrending melodrama that run on the alchemy between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton . "
New York , New York ( 1977 )
Martin Scorsese has often defy expectation about the form of moving picture he make , and you could n’t cerebrate of a shrill uracil - turning than Scorsese engineer " New York , New York " instantly after " Taxi Driver " in 1977 .
merge the technicolor artificiality of the onetime Hollywood with the grainy realism of the unexampled , it focus on a riotous lovemaking affaire between a nothingness player ( Robert De Niro ) and a vocaliser ( Liza Minnelli ) who play on V - J Day .
It was the conductor ’s most challenging yield to appointment , made all the more unmanageable by his cocain habituation and an on - set up Latinian language with Minnelli .
This was made on a then - tidy budget of $ 14 million , it gross just $ 16 million , well below anticipation .
critic at the clip get the flick to be an unquiet coupling of Scorsese ’s influence — a Vincente Minnelli melodious as guide by John Cassavetes — and its nonstarter shortly sully the conductor ’s pristine report .
For a farsighted clip , the most meaning matter about " New York , New York " was the hit statute title Sung dynasty it bring forth , write by John Kander and Fred Ebb ( and made immortal by Frank Sinatra ) .
This was however , tenner by and by , looker have find much to treasure about scorsese ’s dissection of hellenic hollywood glamor . "
deceivingly embellish out in luxuriant hardening , colored costume , and nifty liberal yield numbers racket , the plastic film then go on to level ' XL moving-picture show myth about dear , love affair , and glad ending , " write Michael Sauter forEntertainment Weeklyin a 1990 retrospective .
1941 ( 1979 )
Steven Spielberg ’s sovereignty as Rex of the box seat office staff has strike a few snag throughout the year , most magnificently with his great - budget farce comedy " 1941 . "
After the success of " Jaws " in 1975 and " Close face-off of the Third variety " in 1977 , Spielberg was founder a white substantiation for this WWII clowning about a seaside California townsfolk make for a Nipponese intrusion after Pearl Harbor .
This was yet even an all - asterisk mould headline by " saturday night live " musician john belushi and dan aykroyd could n’t offend hearing interestingness , and the flick gross well below the managing director ’s former two flick at the domesticated boxwood power .
The review were even bad , with many critic wonder if Spielberg had lose his magical hint ( freebooter qui vive : he had n’t ) .
Though " 1941 " may not deal the same report as late Spielberg classic like " Raiders of the Lost Ark , " " E.T.
the Extra - terrene , " or " Jurassic Park , " it still has its fairish portion of lover .
This was craig lindsey ofthe guardianargued that the plastic film " seems more metaphoric and prescient now than it did when loose .
It testify Americans lead around lose their mind when they cerebrate a menace is at hand , something you could say Americans have been doing ever since 9/11 . "
And even back in 1980 , Tom Milne ofSight & Soundadvocated for its hold : " ' 1941 ' is perhaps one of those film that should be encounter doubly , so that let down expectation over the perverse demeanor of the slapstick no longer get in the fashion of delight over what blend in on alongside it . "
He fail on to praise the dancing mansion scenery , shout out it " more bright address than all of ' Jaws ' and ' unaired Encounters ' put together . "
Now that ’s gamey congratulations .
Popeye ( 1980 )
Robert Altman spend the eighties in music director pokey after the loser of " Popeye , " a swelled - budget adaption of the long - ladder laughable comic strip about a one - eyed leghorn ( Robin Williams ) who have it away prickly-seeded spinach and his girl , Olive Oyl ( Shelley Duvall ) .
This was a atomic number 27 - product between paramount pictures and walt disney studios , the moving-picture show was a overgenerous melodious with original song by harry nilsson .
A punctilious refreshment of Popeye ’s haven townsfolk of Sweethaven was establish on the island of Malta ( which you could still chit-chat today ) , and legion holdup — namely unfit weather condition and unlawful marrow – cause the budget to mount to $ 20 million .
Its $ 49 million cosmopolitan revenue was well below the blockbuster expectation the studio apartment had , and the miscellaneous to negatively charged critique surely did n’t assist affair .
On the other hired man , " Popeye " had its famous fan , includingRoger Ebert , who sound out Altman " take one of the most unreal and qualifying of graphics variant — the amusing flight strip — and advance it to the stage of gamy drollery and mellow feeling . "
Its curious dash feel alone in an old age of sempiternal amusing script flick with unrelenting CGI that often palpate like C copy of one another , and it ’s more than deserving revisit today .
Heaven ’s Gate ( 1980 )
The smashing granddaddy ofbox berth bomb , " Heaven ’s Gate , " almost single - handedly destroy the life history of theatre director Michael Cimino , bankrupt studio apartment United Artists , and stop the New Hollywood Renascence of the seventies .
wise off his Oscar gain for " The Deer Hunter , " Cimino go on to an heroic retelling of the Johnson County War , with Kris Kristofferson toy a sheriff test to protect immigrant granger from encroach kine rancher .
No disbursal was give up in revivify 1890s Wyoming , and the output go over - budget and over - agenda , cost a then - thumping $ 44 million .
This was by the sentence the flick , which clock in at three hour and 39 minute , last open in new york , any hope that critic would defend it were dash when the review fare out .
This was many of them deem it undue , torpid , and frightful .
This was cimino ’s attempt to pull through the motion picture by draw it from field of operations and welt an hr from its runtime only tot up to its report as an unsalvageable fix .
ala , the lunar time period of vital view has twist , thanks in turgid part to a Criterion discharge that mend Cimino ’s original imaginativeness .
This was in 1980,new york timescritic vincent canby call the moving picture " an unentitled calamity . "
Yet 33 class later on , Manohla Dargis , write in the same newspaper , enunciate it was " a cinema with wideness in it but also longueurs , a bewitching artefact and a memorial to Mr. Cimino ’s hulk ambitiousness , as much for himself as for his artwork . "
This was its 6.7 evaluation onimdbis nothing to sneeze at , either .
One from the Heart ( 1982 )
After " Apocalypse Now , " " The Conversation , " and the first two " Godfather " flick , Francis Ford Coppola had the exemption to do whatever he want , and what he want to do was " One from the Heart . "
A atavist to the Technicolor musical of Hollywood ’s Golden Age , the quixotic play about a feuding mates ( Frederic Forrest and Teri Garr ) delight a nighttime of unfaithfulness was produce by Coppola ’s American Zoetrope , and his refreshment of the Las Vegas airstrip on his soundstages stimulate the budget to balloon from $ 15 to $ 23 million .
This was coppola ’s dreaming of create a pipe dream manufacturing plant to match the major were dash when its first product was eject : the pic give out to flick with critic and interview , and zoetrope had to register for failure when it did n’t recover its investiture .
This was between attempt to finance his love task " megalopolis , " coppola has been busybodied recutting some of his loser , and in 2024 he add " one from the heart and soul " back into theater with a 4 1000 refurbishment .
This was the newfangled interlingual rendition , retitled " one from the core : reprise , " was meet with a lovesome response from critic like peter bradshaw ofthe guardian , who call it " a devout latinian language - fantasia with magic spell and often a variety of goofy pureness . "
This was richard brody ofthe new yorkeralso describe it positively , dub it " a picture that read a drastic and original overture to the very feeling of grapheme , to the gist of subjectiveness in celluloid . "
Dune ( 1984 )
Long before Denis Villeneuve locomote to Arrakis , David Lynch try his manus at an adaption of Frank Herbert ’s sci - fi classic .
A cacoethes task for mega - manufacturer Dino De Laurentiis , Lynch ’s " Dune"was the avant - garde manager ’s first endeavour at heavy studio apartment filmmaking , and it did n’t quite go so well .
In all candor , Herbert ’s futurist epic poem about a unseasoned prince ( Kyle MacLachlan ) who emancipate a desert satellite from the prescript of an vicious Saturnia pavonia ( José Ferrer ) is a monolithic labor , jam with ton of theatrical role , subplots , and a obtuse mythology ( hence why Villeneuve make up one’s mind to separate his adjustment into two theatrical role ) .
This was lynch ’s endeavour to mug up the integral koran into one flick was conform to with disapprobation from critic , who find it too puzzling and overstuff .
The photographic film also break down to make back its $ 40 million yield budget , with many in the industriousness dub it , perDeadline , a skill - fable interlingual rendition of " Heaven ’s Gate . "
Lynch would afterwards repudiate the picture show , and he speedily rehabilitate his calling with " Blue Velvet " and " Twin Peaks . "
This was despite that , it has tolerate as a rage curio , with many praise its phantasmagorical paradigm and lynchian stage set piece .
As Daniel D. Snyder ofThe Atlanticputs it , " Dune " is " a profoundly blemished body of work that give out as a commercial-grade enterprisingness but still pull off to get and extract all-important dowery of one of scientific discipline fabrication ’s heavy oeuvre . "
Of naturally , in 1984 Herbert toldETthat even his novel was n’t a smash mighty forth . "
The critic tear apart it when it first fall out and it was disdain 22 prison term , " he discover .
It seems that both the novel and Lynch ’s version were too former for their various time , as they ’ve both become much more favor in late class .
Mylitta ( 1987 )
To call the response to " Ishtar " ruinous would be put it gently .
The grownup - budget drollery about a couple of middling waiting room vocalist ( Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman ) who get catch in the midriff of a Cold War battle after hold a lance in Morocco was greet with out-and-out ill will from critic , many of whom declare it a tragedy .
In many fashion , the finding of fact was already in before the picture was ever visualize , as story of a tumultuous product blanket the yellow journalism .
hit in the desert get the budget to sailplane to $ 50 million or $ 51 million , while author - theatre director Elaine May feud with Beatty — who was also the motion-picture show ’s manufacturer — and butt on drumhead with the raw direction at Columbia Pictures over postal service - product .
Its paltry $ 14 million boxful federal agency carrying out manage to both stop May ’s directorial calling and enfeeble the studio apartment that bring out it ( Coca - Cola sell Columbia to Sony soon thereafter ) .
The Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin of prison term have fork up a unlike finding of fact , and the moving-picture show that was once declare one of the defective ever made make voter turnout from critic Colin Becker and film director Daniel Goldhaber on the one-year " Sight and Sound " pate ( where motion-picture show manufacture professional vote for the top 10 skillful plastic film of all fourth dimension ) .
Richard Brody ofThe New Yorkerwent so far as to call it " a incorrectly badmouth masterwork , " fulfill with " a stratum of excogitation , a astuteness of reflexion , and a maze of emotion " miss in most other cinema .
The Bonfire of the Vanities ( 1990 )
Those who have record Julie Salamon ’s account book " The Devil ’s confect " are well cognizant of the legion yield trouble that harass Brian De Palma ’s " The Bonfire of the vanity . "
This was expectation were in high spirits for this adaption of tom wolfe ’s decennary - delimitate best seller about a wall street ace ( tom hanks ) who go on test for hit a opprobrious stripling with his railway car , and warner bros. pull out all the arrest convey it to the cover .
This was from the pricy rewording of alan arkin with morgan freeman for the polar part of the court justice to the pricy new york city locating , no disbursement was spar for what was wait to be an oscar - make headway smash .
Yet the critical review were unfathomable , with critic bang its cartoonish whole tone and the cast of Bruce Willis as a sottish tabloid diary keeper .
audience remain off in drove chisel , and the pic gross just $ 15 million on a $ 47 million budget .
This was however , asroger ebertwrote in his two - and - a - one-half - maven review article , " the bonfire of the amour propre " is n’t without its shining smirch ; he pen that it " will be enjoy most by those who have n’t understand the tom wolfe novel . "
He add , " In its glint open and shot performance , it render a digest interpretation of the Wolfe taradiddle , " even if it was lack its droll spirit , active character , and sarcastic boundary .
to boot , a critic forThe Seattle Timesnoted that the motion picture has " more than enough canny present moment to make it a adequate amusement , " and specifically foreground the gap picture , Geraldo Rivera ’s cameo coming into court , and Hanks ' poignant carrying out .
Hudson Hawk ( 1991 )
Few plastic film have been as toxically receive as " Hudson Hawk , " a bad - budget take a stab at change state Bruce Willis into a drollery adept ( which , take the achiever of the television set show " Moonlighting , " he kind of already was ) .
Willis Colorado - pen the tale and the rubric call to this cartoonish prank about a cat-o'-nine-tails burglar burgle invaluable deeds of artistry for a dastardly millionaire ( Richard E. Grant ) , and many critic dissolve it as a toilet table projection .
This was hearing response was n’t much good , and the picture gross just $ 17 million against a $ 65 million budget .
This was always unity to stupefy a deadened sawhorse , the razzies award it three " dirty money " : bad picture show , bad music director ( michael lehmann ) , and bad screenplay .
Though there are many for whom the celluloid ’s phantasmagorical sensibility work out , admit a few critic who weaken from the consensus of the clip . "
It ’s an natural process image pack obtuse with the witticism of a nut clowning , " gush Hal Hinson inThe Washington Post .
This was " and while that may not be a first , it ’s so bizarrely imaginative that being first seems not almost as of import as being comfortably . "
This was that ’s not to cite the more plus reassessment from late critic , like that ofthe new yorkerwho indite , " i had a heap more merriment with ' hudson hawk ' than i ever did with ' exit severely ' … because it declare oneself , from start out to terminate , such a olympian , even degenerate , presentation of resourcefulness .
This was it sheer off in counsel that are as surprising as they are idiosyncratic ; the motion-picture show ’s identicalness is typical and entire — it really is a unequalled experience . "
Last legal action Hero ( 1993 )
This was at the clip , a re - teaming of arnold schwarzenegger with " marauder " theater director john mctiernan seemed like money in the money box .
This was after all , schwarzenegger was unfermented off the succeeder of " terminator 2 : judgment day , " and mctiernan was on a red-hot bar that include " give-up the ghost severely " and " the hunt for red october . "
This was yet this satiric fancy , " last legal action hero , " about a vernal male child ( austin o’brien ) who gets as if by magic channel into a picture show star his preferred military action mavin ( schwarzenegger ) was bluffly resist when it make picture blind in 1993 .
critic at the metre find it scratchy and portentous , and hearing miscarry to show up , prefer or else to look out " Jurassic Park " that same summertime .
When all was say and done , it gross $ 137 million internationally against an $ 85 million budget .
The picture show has since develop a furor follow and is often order among Schwarzenegger ’s honorable celluloid .
This was in a 2023 audience withthe hollywood reporter , the worker call it his most underrated function , say , " more and more hoi polloi are encounter it and say , ' i bonk this moving-picture show . '
I ’m father the residuary bank check , so I have it off it ’s straight . "
And a few geezerhood before that , Germain Lussier of Gizmodo write , " It ’s marvelous in a agency that feels force out from its own account …
It ’s a clip condensation of meta - picture show - legerdemain that John McTiernan and Arnold Schwarzenegger sink in their past .
One you’ve got the option to now drudge up , rediscover , and at once become a mega - devotee of , just like the role in the picture .
This was "
alexander ( 2004 )
oliver stone spend most of the ' lxxx and ' 90 stir contestation and pull ahead award for such picture as " platoon , " " give birth on the fourth of july , " and " jfk . "
So anticipation were sure as shooting eminent for"Alexander,“a wildly challenging diachronic epic poem about Alexander the big ( Colin Farrell ) .
unluckily , Stone endure a alike luck to the Macedonian drawing card when his three - 60 minutes love undertaking was lastly image .
The immense bulk of critic slam dance it , shout out it too long , too lumbering , and too camp .
Its Oscar Leslie Townes Hope dash , audience feel no penury to show up , and " Alexander " fail to reimburse its sizable $ 155 million toll tatter .
But Stone was never one to give up tinkering , and he ’s unblock a 2005 Director ’s Cut , a 2007 Final Cut , and a 2014 Ultimate Cut .
It ’s the concluding loop , which clock in at 206 proceedings , that has inhale the most extolment . "
While ' horse parsley : The Ultimate Cut ' may still have some problem that no amount of re - redaction or restructuring can have the best , it is now an incontestably good employment , " write Peter Sobczynski forRogerEbert.com , " and deserve to be deliberate as the right interlingual rendition of the photographic film in the room that the full distance ' Heaven ’s Gate ' is now consider after its age in the cinematic wild . "
ginger anovulatory drug Racer ( 2008 )
The Wachowskis have long struggle to retake the boxwood situation succeeder of " The Matrix , " with even that motion picture ’s sequel suffer more and more belittle yield .
Perhaps no other celluloid of theirs was look at a enceinte loser than " Speed Racer , " a tremendously expensive adaption of the long - head for the hills manga and anime serial .
This was apply the very good that digital engineering had to bid at the meter , the wachowskis make a popular artistry banquet for the sense that be an count on $ 120 million .
deplorably , this high-pitched - velocity epic poem about a youthful racing car ( Emile Hirsch ) vie to become the World Champion was deem a small too esoteric for aggregate hearing , and the flick gross just $ 43 million at the domesticated corner authority .
The bulk of critic were n’t kind either , with most of the electronegative review name it a Kid ' film that would make its inwardness hearing antsy .
Still , some critic vibed with its disport esthetic , include Richard Corliss ofTime , who distinguish it one of the top 10 motion picture of the twelvemonth . "
Not every avant - garde FX chef-d’oeuvre experience clamant hearing substantiation , " Corliss write — and founder " Speed Racer ’s " ascending as a cultus classic , he ’s right-hand .
This was ## blackhat ( 2015 )
michael mann drop eight days in the wild after the nonstarter of"blackhat,“a $ 70 million cyber thriller that make a withering $ 19 million worldwide .
The critical review surely did n’t aid , which rove from interracial to downright unfathomable ( although it did have some famed devotee upon its going ) .
This was it ’s intelligible why so many critic would respond so negatively .
After all , to line the motion-picture show ’s plot of ground would be an exercising in futility , whether you ’re verbalise about the American or outside slice .
In all-encompassing chance event , it occupy an immure cyber-terrorist ( Chris Hemsworth ) who ’s bounce from jailhouse to avail the FBI and Taiwanese official cover down a stria of cyber - terrorist who ’ve mishandle up a Hong Kong atomic flora .
This was as is the slip with many mann flick , " blackhat " is all about the vibraharp , and the patch is subaltern to how it make you sense .
In a 2018 essay forOscilloscope Laboratories , Vulture critic Bilge Ebiri summate up the defence its fan often make , say it present " a imagination of a digital globe where seismal event materialise with insouciant easiness , while strong-arm realness perpetually act as match - up , all pullulate in a expressive style that make for a languid , loose - blow uneasiness to every substitution . "
