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Bombs, Disasters and Flops: The Most Notable Examples Part 8 |
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Bombs, Disasters and Flops: The Most Notable Examples Part 8 |
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Note: The box-office figures for domestic grosses and non-USA grosses are fairly accurate, but must be taken as estimates only. |
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Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters and Flops of All-Time
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| Film Title, Director, Studio, Budget Information, Description | |
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Cutthroat Island (1995)
Director Renny Harlin's (known for Die Hard 2 (1990) and Cliffhanger (1993)) and MGM/Carolco's bloated action-comedy pirate film (before the hugely popular Pirates of the Caribbean series with Johnny Depp) was one of the biggest flops of the decade (with an eventual budget of almost $100 million and box-office of only $10 million). It was nominated for one Razzie award: Worst Director. The pirate movie was an adventure tale with horrible acting, a deficient and often incoherent script, continuity problems, spectacular but boring special effects and action-film sequences, and logistical issues due to being filmed on two continents (in Malta - serving as 1600s Jamaica, and Thailand). There were six writers credited for the dubious film's story and script, indicative of its major problems. Harlin's film starred B-list actor Matthew Modine (who was paid $4 million for the role, after it was turned down by A-listers Michael Douglas, Keanu Reeves, Tom Cruise, and Daniel Day Lewis, and B-listers Charlie Sheen and Michael Keaton) opposite Geena Davis (the director's real-life wife) who was cast in the unlikely main role of Captain Morgan Adams. She played the modern 'feminist' role of a swashbuckling pirate queen (along the lines of Errol Flynn's Captain Blood (1935) and The Sea Hawk (1940)) of the pirate ship "The Morning Star" - in search of treasure on Cutthroat Island with only part of a treasure map (tattooed on her dead father's scalp!). Modine played the secondary role of her Latin-reading slave/companion (and unappealing, incompatible love/hate interest) William Shaw. The independent production company Carolco (makers of the Rambo series, Terminator II: Judgment Day (1991), and Total Recall (1990)), didn't survive this film's failure (and the additional failure of Showgirls (1995)), and was forced to file for bankruptcy even before it opened, and sold most of its assets for $50 million to 20th Century Fox. |
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Judge Dredd (1995)
This film's title character was famed Judge Joseph Dredd (Sylvester Stallone), derived from a popular comic-strip character from the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD - and in the film, a futuristic, unemotional, notorious law enforcement officer in a violence and crime-ridden mega-city (formerly New York), located on a dystopic desert wasteland known as The Cursed Earth in the year 2139 AD. There were many obvious and derivative references to other films, such as The Hills Have Eyes (1977), Blade Runner (1982), Return of the Jedi (1983), The Terminator films, Robocop (1987), Total Recall (1990), and Stallone's own Demolition Man (1993). The action/adventure sci-fi film's tagline summarized the plot: "One man is Judge, Jury, AND Executioner." It was reported that besides the three credited story/screenwriters: William Wisher Jr. of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Steven E. de Souza of Commando (1985), The Running Man (1987) and Die Hard (1988), and former New Line Cinema producer Michael De Luca of In the Mouth of Madness (1995), other scripters were called in as well. The grunting, deadpan and inarticulate Sylvester Stallone received a Razzie Award nomination as Worst Actor for his role, in which he repetitively voiced the phrase: "I knew you'd say that." Going beyond the comic-strip, the film added a love interest for Stallone, Diane Lane as Judge Hershey. Stallone added to his already long list of film flops, including Oscar (1991), Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992) and The Specialist (1994). It was nominated for one Razzie award: Worst Actor (Stallone). The excessively violent, exhausting, hard-to-follow unpleasant film was given a rating of R, was universally panned by critics, and was considered a domestic box-office flop, although it did well outside of the US. Its director Danny Cannon was relegated to directing mostly TV episodes (including CSI) afterwards, although he also helmed the feature films Phoenix (1998) with Ray Liotta, and the sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998). |
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The Scarlet Letter (1995)
Very loosely based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel about mid-17th century Puritanical Massachusetts, this reinterpreted, 'Hollywoodized' romantic drama about forbidden love was severely criticized upon its release, for the way in which the sexualized script freely deviated from its source. Limited ability actress/sexpot Demi Moore (who also appeared in numerous other clunkers in the 90s, including Striptease (1996) and G.I. Jane (1997)) was miscast in the role of the adulterous, independent-minded and free-spirited, heroically-silent Hester Prynne opposite co-star Gary Oldman as her sinful and anguished lover Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. In particular, the film added action sequences (Indian skirmishes), a witch hunt, a reappearing scarlet bird (a tempting devil symbol?), a sexy and voyeuristic slave girl named Mituba (Lisa Joliffe-Andoh), and a happy denouement including the rescue of Hester from the gallows and the condemned couple's ride off to a fulfilling life in the Carolinas - unlike the novel in which Hester was doomed by hanging (although saved), and the guilt-ridden Dimmesdale died of a heart attack on the scaffold after a public confession. The melodramatic, overlong, revisionist R-rated film (for violence and nudity by both of its main stars, especially Oldman's skinny-dip, Moore's luxuriant bath scene, and the passionate scene of their lusty, child-producing love-making in a barn) received seven Razzie Award nominations including Worst Actress (Demi Moore), Worst Director (Joffe), Worst Picture, Worst Screen Couple, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall as vengeful Roger Chillingworth/Prynne) and won the award for Worst Remake or Sequel. |
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Showgirls (1995)
This 'guilty-pleasure' popular cult film was the second pairing of director Paul Verhoeven (known for RoboCop (1987) and Basic Instinct (1992)) and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (also for Basic Instinct (1992)). It was a sleazy, big-budget 'adult-oriented' film that became a camp classic instead. The outlandish, over-the-top film marked a milestone in film history - it was the first NC-17 rated film with a wide mainstream release. Although it was the first big-budget, adults-only film in many years (after Caligula (1979)), it turned out to be both a critical and commercial failure, and grossed only $20 million (half of its budgeted cost). Feature film newcomer Elizabeth Berkley (of TV's Saved By the Bell) starred as 23 year-old Nomi Malone - a stripper turned Las Vegas showgirl-dancer in a soul-less, exploitative plot with mostly repugnant characters. However, the cynical film was nothing like Flashdance (1983), All About Eve (1950), or 42nd Street (1933), although it had aspirations. First working at the sleazy Cheetah Club where she performed pole and lap dances, Nomi graduated to the Stardust's "Goddess" topless dance show (where she contributed her characteristically-jerky dance moves) with scores of half-naked dancers. There, she developed a love-hate attraction for bi-sexual, trashy diva star Cristal Connors (Gina Gershon), who headlined and made her flashy entrance from an exploding volcano. The film was considered senseless, violent, and actually sexually boring or desensitizing, although it contained lots of gratuitous nudity. Along the way, the film included Nomi's slithering, intercourse-simulating lapdance for Cristal's boyfriend Zack Carey (Kyle MacLachlan), a naturally-degrading topless dancer audition scene, a seizure-like orgasmic nighttime sex scene (voted one of the least sexy scenes of all time) in an outdoor swimming pool decorated with neon palm trees, and an offensive gang-rape scene. To illustrate its campy nature and the dictum that it was "so bad it was good", the film received a record thirteen Razzie nominations and won seven of them, including Worst Actress and Worst New Star (Berkley), Worst Director, Worst Original Song, Worst Picture, Worst Screen Couple and Worst Screenplay. It also won the Razzie award for Worst Picture of the 1990s Decade. |
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Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.
Introduction to Greatest Box-Office Bombs, Disasters and Flops: Films have the potential to skyrocket the profits of a studio, or to send it into ruins and bankruptcy. Sometimes an actor’s or director's career suffers, sometimes not. Films that cost more to make than they take in revenue (both domestic and worldwide) are considered box-office catastrophes or bombs. Movie audiences often love to relish the fact that some films, such as Gigli (2003) or Heaven's Gate (1980), turn out to be monumental flops, and are fascinated by the details of why certain directors/actors and their films fail.
