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Your Biggest Disappointments

post #1 of 38
5/26/07 at 6:50pm
Thread Starter 
Inspired by the great series on the main page and several other things -- what are some of your biggest disappointments in art, in either movies/tv/literature/music?

When it comes to movies, I have to say that by far, my biggest disappointment has been GANGS OF NEW YORK. Now, this is a movie that I've really come to like, maybe even love, but when I saw it in the theatre, I was enormously hyped for it. Reading the Asbury book as a crime-obsessed teen was just the first step -- along with the Star Wars films, this was one of the first movies I obsessively followed through production, thanks to the internet. I remember thinking at the time that this had the potential to be the next TITANIC, which had a similarly troubled production, and I was practically begging for this thing to come out and start tearing up the charts. Couple that with the fact I was living in New York City at the time the film finally came out, I wanted it to be The Greatest Film Ever...and it wasn't. There's so much to love about this movie, sure, but even watching it again recently, I wonder what could have been -- and whether maybe, just maybe, this will be the flick that gets Scorsese to finally release a "director's cut."

The burning off of "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip" is another big one, especially recently. The essay regarding the disappointments of THE PHANTOM MENACE made me think about "Studio 60" -- because what Star Wars was to movies for many people, Aaron Sorkin and "The West Wing" were to TV for me. So when "Studio 60" was announced, I immediately started calling it "The Most Anticipated Media Event of 2006," even over "Pirates 2." I was one of these nerds who was joining livejournal communities and dissecting every bit of information about the show that came out. I even printed a copy of the sides off to form my own "mini-script" when they got leaked. The upfront preview was awesome. The pilot was great. So how did we go from that to "STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF AFGHANISTAN" (a line that has come to represent everything wrong with the show)? I'm still trying to figure that out. I've written far too much about this here, and in other places, but boy, it still stings.
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post #2 of 38
5/26/07 at 7:25pm
1) The George W. Bush Presidency
2) Attack of the Clones (I spotted George TPM, which I didn't hate - it felt like he needed to get his bearings back after not directing for twenty some years but what works, works. Clones was where it became evident that the whole enterprise was going to be useless).
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post #3 of 38
5/26/07 at 7:31pm
Not nearly as big as some of the other disappointments that have been mentioned, but I remember being let down by the STRANGERS WITH CANDY movie. Where the tv show was black as night, the movie felt toothless and didn't push the R rating like you think they would've.
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post #4 of 38
5/26/07 at 7:42pm
Wild Wild West. Kenneth Brannagh as a villain and steampunk? Should have been gold. Decidedly wasn't.
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post #5 of 38
5/26/07 at 7:48pm
Napoleon Dynamite. I had so many people tell I would like this movie. It has things I've liked in other movies but this fell flat. Now John Heeder is making more crap movies but geting a bigger check.
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post #6 of 38
5/26/07 at 7:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ashxking2001
Napoleon Dynamite. I had so many people tell I would like this movie. It has things I've liked in other movies but this fell flat. Now John Heeder is making more crap movies but geting a bigger check.
Pretty much my feelings, as well. Film didn't work for me at all.

Also:

The Omen (original)
Awful, awful dialogue that a group of fine actors looked terribly embarrassed to be caught saying, and the mostly uninspired cinematography can't save it.
Decapitation is admittedly stylish, though.
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post #7 of 38
5/26/07 at 8:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andre Dellamorte
2) Attack of the Clones
I felt this way as well. When TPM came out, I was a freshman in high school, and the battle at the end was enough to make me believe it was great. Then I waited in line 11 hours for CLONES and I was unbelievably disappointed. For me, that was a bigger disappointment than TPM because that's where I lost all faith in the Turkey Neck to wrap this up in any coherent fashion.
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post #8 of 38
5/26/07 at 8:24pm
The first five years I've been in L.A.
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post #9 of 38
5/26/07 at 8:43pm
Sex.
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post #10 of 38
5/26/07 at 8:44pm
"The Dark Knight Strikes Again"; this was the book that made me question whether or not Frank Miller was as good a writer as I thought he was (and yeah, that's AFTER reading his entry in "Spawn vs. Batman"). Everything that Miller got right in "Dark Knight Returns," he manages to screw up in "Strikes Again." I even read it again a couple months back, just to see if maybe I was missing something. Nope...the book sucks. Total let down.
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post #11 of 38
5/26/07 at 8:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris O.
"The Dark Knight Strikes Again"; this was the book that made me question whether or not Frank Miller was as good a writer as I thought he was (and yeah, that's AFTER reading his entry in "Spawn vs. Batman"). Everything that Miller got right in "Dark Knight Returns," he manages to screw up in "Strikes Again." I even read it again a couple months back, just to see if maybe I was missing something. Nope...the book sucks. Total let down.
I'll see your "Dark Knight Strikes Again" and raise you an "All-Star Batman and Robin." Holy God, there can't possibly be a fan of that series.
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post #12 of 38
5/26/07 at 8:59pm
ASB&RTBW is the best comic out there. I love it.
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post #13 of 38
5/26/07 at 9:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by devincf
ASB&RTBW is the best comic out there. I love it.
Apparently, I was mistaken.
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post #14 of 38
5/26/07 at 9:26pm
1. The first Shannara trilogy by Terry Brooks. A friend said he liked it better than 'Lord of the Rings'. To me it was nothing but a HUGE ripoff of Lord of the Rings. It has been about eight years so if someone's a fan of the series and would maybe clue me in on something I'm missing about it. I do love Brooks's Word/Void stuff though.

2. Metroid Prime for the Gamecube. Often hailed as the GC's best game, I've never been able to get into it.
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post #15 of 38
5/26/07 at 9:37pm
I would also like to submit the Batman Begins video game. From what I read about it in different magazines leading up to its release was that it would really emphasize what made Batman kickass: scaring the shit out of criminals and skulking around solving crimes.

Talk about a horrible execution. I expect the first level of most games to set up the controls and basically act as a tutorial. Hell, the Spider-Man games even had a tutorial built into the game. But it never stopped being a tutorial. It never allowed any choice in how to handle a level. It was either throw a batarang at the glaringly obvious light, or drop down and get my ass kicked by thugs.

The only thing remotely exciting about the game was the Batmobile sequences, and that was directly ripped off from Burnout, including the slow-mo crash sequences. There has yet to be a decent Batman game since Batman:TAS on the Super Nintendo.
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post #16 of 38
5/26/07 at 10:30pm
For me, it has to be "Van Helsing".
Even with the warning sign that was "The mumy returns", I still had faith in Stephen Summers, the guy who made the first "Mummy" remake and "Deep Rising".
The artwork, premise and main cast looked fine, and who wouldnt trust a movie were hugh Jackman battles Universal's classic monsters?
Then I saw it...and months later, saw it again on cable, just trying to come to terms with the fact that someone had managed to ruin a premise as good as "one guy against Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman".
At least the Monster Squad hits dvd soon.
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post #17 of 38
5/26/07 at 10:43pm
I think the guys nailed it pretty hard with Phantom Menace. I was never a massive Star Wars geek, so it didn't exactly crush my dreams of a galaxy far, far away. What it did do was completely and totally disappoint me on a sheer filmmaking level. All the pre-release signs about the movie -- from the first trailer, to the advances in special effects over the years, to the knowledge that the filmmaker was bankrolling the entire thing himself and had no uncreative studio types to answer to -- pointed to it being an unfettered expression of imagination. When I walked into the theater, I was prepared to witness a great leap forward in cinema, if not possibly the greatest film ever made.

It wasn't.
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post #18 of 38
5/26/07 at 11:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ryoken
At least the Monster Squad hits dvd soon.
Sorry, but I found that movie embarassingly cheesy when I saw it as a kid, and can't fathom why someone would want to watch it today. I'll die a dorky fanboy but some of the eighties just needs to be let go.
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post #19 of 38
5/26/07 at 11:44pm
once upon a time in mexico tops my list, probably because the trailer is so damn good.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_p...wed_large.html
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post #20 of 38
5/26/07 at 11:44pm
Wow, someone else loves All-Star B&R besides me? I knew someone else was still buying copies...
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post #21 of 38
5/27/07 at 1:24am
Rob Schrab. Creator of Scud : The Disposable Assassin

After reading my first Scud comic (#6) and realising along with Oliver Stone that Rob Schrab should be cut and snorted I knew with a deep and profound certainty that one day I'd sit in a cinema and be horrified of how badly Hollywood fucked up the $100 million Scud movie.

That disappointment hasn't happened, my #1 disappointment. Possibly, Schrab's short film Robot Bastard is to blame.
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post #22 of 38
5/27/07 at 1:28am
"Separation Anxiety".

I was never a big gamer in my Sega Genesis youth, but my mind was blown by "Maximum Carnage". It was a superb fight game, lots of neat "easter eggs" and a chance to play as Venom! As a major web-slinging fiend, this was a huge thrill for me. The game had it all- neat cut-scenes, an awesome Green Jelly soundtrack, and the potential for super violent punchups and Marvel guest stars.

So why did the sequel, "Separation Anxiety" fail so badly? The graphics seemed to have gotten worse, the switch from Venom to Spidey was near-automatic, losing the element of playing as Venom as a "reward" and no Green Jelly in addition to the disappearance of the supoer guest stars. The disappointment level, the giant step back, easily turned me off video games forever. And I miss video games.
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post #23 of 38
5/27/07 at 1:50am
I wouldn't say it was a huge disappointment, but I was pretty bummed when I realized The Astronaut Farmer wasn't going to be a about a guy terraforming Mars.
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post #24 of 38
5/27/07 at 2:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by KABONG
"Separation Anxiety".
A shitty licensed game made you stop playing video games? Didn't anyone tell you that it was a shitty licensed game?
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post #25 of 38
5/27/07 at 2:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by TheCynic
once upon a time in mexico tops my list, probably because the trailer is so damn good.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_p...wed_large.html
God I love that trailer. While I don't agree with the Mexico hate, there's few things more disappointing than bad movies with deceptively great trailers. A Man Apart comes to mind.

Other disappointments: Manhattan (it just didn't click for me unlike the more accessible Annie Hall, which makes me more disappointed in myself than Woody Allen), the book Paddy's Lament, Quarant.
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post #26 of 38
5/27/07 at 3:39am
The Matrix Reloaded, easily. I like parts of it a lot, and overall it's not bad, but that was the film where I realized hype was evil. I'd never been so psyched for a film in my entire life. Thoughts of the millions of ways they could go with the story of Neo as a god practically consumed me. Then I see it, and Neo is still punching and kicking people.
It was an important lesson in not getting caught up in the hype(moreso than Phantom Menace even), and hopefully I'll never let it happen again.
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post #27 of 38
5/27/07 at 4:03am
Star Wars TPM is a given, it only took me one viewing to go meh.

Minority Report was a huge let down for me, because I read an interview with Spielberg talking about how much fun he was having with all the stunts. He felt like he was making another Indiana Jones movie. Well I took that and built up in my head that it was going to be like Indy in the future, especially after the cool trailer with Tom Cruise leaping onto the guy with the jet pack. Not even close.

Biggest of them all for me was Last Action Hero. It opened right around my fifteenth birthday and I took all my friends. Huge anticipation on my part as it had been two years since he gave us the best action movie of all time T2. I fucking hated at the time and haven't been able to really look at it since.

I'll second Patrick's vote of sex, I remeber thinking "wow that's warm" and "this is a lot of work"
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post #28 of 38
5/27/07 at 4:13am
I actually think Minority Report would have been a better movie without all the Indy-type action moments, especially that scene in the factory.
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post #29 of 38
5/27/07 at 4:16am
I like the movie now, I had just built it up in my head as something completely different. The clash was too great, and I was severely choked that almost all the action was shown in the trailer. I agree the factory scene was not spectacular.
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post #30 of 38
5/27/07 at 4:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by McIrish
I like the movie now, I had just built it up in my head as something completely different. The clash was too great, and I was severely choked that almost all the action was shown in the trailer. I agree the factory scene was not spectacular.
I totally understand. I have a few friends who hated Smokin' Aces and Children of Men simply because they felt they were going to be action films from the trailers.
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post #31 of 38
5/27/07 at 6:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nexus-7
I totally understand. I have a few friends who hated Smokin' Aces and Children of Men simply because they felt they were going to be action films from the trailers.
Smokin' Aces was an action film, that's what it was always intended to be. It just didn't deliver, either due to budgetary constraints or because fight scenes were chopped for running time (something that sound stupid to me, but it seems as though the Tremor Brothers' fight with the security guards was shot but then mostly removed).
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post #32 of 38
5/27/07 at 11:06am
Spiderman 3. Seriously.
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post #33 of 38
5/27/07 at 11:11am
'Shrek'

All the hype for nothing. I really thought I was going to like this movie and it ended up being thoroughly tedious. My wife loved it, though, and at her request I took her to see 'Shrek 2', which I found to be equally excrutiating. So far, I've dodged the bullet on 'Shrek the Third', but that day is coming...

I'll also agree with Patrick on SEX. The hype could never live up to the reality of it. Now that I know what I'm doing, it's a much better experience.
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post #34 of 38
5/27/07 at 12:57pm
Classics: The French Connection II. Semi-recent ones: The Lost World. Jurassic Park. Memo to self: do not watch film series of well-known decreasing quality back to back.

And Sex you say? Don't tell me it's not every time like that Elizabeth Berkley/ Kyle McLachlan pool scene in Showgirls...
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post #35 of 38
5/27/07 at 2:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Odd Creature
1. The first Shannara trilogy by Terry Brooks. A friend said he liked it better than 'Lord of the Rings'. To me it was nothing but a HUGE ripoff of Lord of the Rings. It has been about eight years so if someone's a fan of the series and would maybe clue me in on something I'm missing about it. I do love Brooks's Word/Void stuff though.
Well, to put it simply, Brooks was 18 when he wrote Sword of Shannara.


The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy isn't half bad, though- and nor indeed is the Running with the Demon lot.
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post #36 of 38
5/27/07 at 5:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xagarath Ankor
Well, to put it simply, Brooks was 18 when he wrote Sword of Shannara.


The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara trilogy isn't half bad, though- and nor indeed is the Running with the Demon lot.
Nope, a bit older. In fact, he was a practicing lawyer at the time.
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post #37 of 38
5/27/07 at 5:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by erik myers
Nope, a bit older. In fact, he was a practicing lawyer at the time.
It seems my memory has failed me badly.

In that case, Sword of Shannara is simply very poor.
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post #38 of 38
5/27/07 at 6:32pm
Terminator 3. I knew Cameron wasn't involved, but I still expected something at least as good as the previous film. Instead, I sat shocked as the previous film was sabotaged by Mostow, and not even in an entertaining way. I think the saddest part was what they did to Sarah.
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