I have written articles out of “New York Magazine” a couple times recently, but I haven’t been as baffled by any of them, but this one has me confused. The magazine has listed the “Ten Worst Movies Directed by Actors” and let me give you the list really quickly before I say anything:
9. Beyond the Sea (2004), Kevin Spacey
8. Romance & Cigarettes (2007), John Turturro
7. Sonny (2003), Nicolas Cage
6. The Cable Guy (1997), Ben Stiller
5. The Lost City (2005), Andy Garcia
4. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989), William Shatner
3. What Is It? (2006), Crispin Glover
2. Harlem Nights (1989), Eddie Murphy
1. Braveheart (1995), Mel Gibson
Out of those ten I have only seen 5 of them (Duplex, The Cable Guy, Star Trek V, Harlem Nights and Braveheart) so I can’t comment on the others, but are you really going to tell me that Braveheart is the worst movie ever made by an actor?
The piece was written by Dan Kois and Lane Brown and they say Braveheart earned the top spot because it is shallow, historically innacurate, includes over-the-top homophobia and has a running time of “two weeks”. The say the battle sequences are “repetitive” and “indecipherable” and that it is the “most-narcissistic self-directed performance in film history.”
From what I understand it is now cool to bash Braveheart (I didn’t realize this), but it just seems silly to say it is the #1 worst movie directed by an actor. I understand it is their opinion, but the fact that they put it at the #1 spot just screams “read me”, especially when comparing it to a film like Duplex, which is a film I have to assume the majority of society would rather never even have heard of let alone watch. Had they placed Braveheart somewhere else on the list it wouldn’t have the same scream for attention.
I say this only because I wouldn’t even have posted this article had they ordered it any other way.
A better and more interesting list would have been the Ten Best Films Directed By Actors with a side note of the worst considering Romance & Cigarettes only saw a tiny release in September 2007 and as for Glover’s What Is It? it was only released in New York in what I can only assume is one theater. Yeah, good movies to compare to a film that was released in 2,037 theaters made over $210 million at the worldwide box-office and went on to win 5 Oscars including… yup… Best Director. Now I am the last person to say that the Oscars are the end all, be all, but the placement of Braveheart at #1 pretty much ruins what could have been a list people could take seriously.
Oh, and check out Paramount’s Braveheart Special Collector’s Edition DVD on December 18th. Silly, just silly.
Do any of you agree or disagree? Do any of you actually think it deserves that top spot?
