Great Film Ideas Ruined by Piss Poor Decisions.

[Punchbowl]

A few months ago I sat through the movie Click, and it occurred to to that this film could have been so much more than the god awful experience it was. This is mainly due to the film being an Adam Sandler pic, a descision that's ruined any film since The Wedding Singer, and it being a puerile, infantile comedy aimed at wankers, or Sandler fans as they're known in the trade.
With a few story tweaks and a more sophisticated attempt at the humour and the nature of modern life, this could have been a cult flick up there with Super or the little seen, but worth a watch, Special.

Over to you...

[Firedragon76]

Kingdom of Heaven: casting an actual actor as the lead would have been a good idea. Cutting out a pivotal character in the theatrical cut also didn't help IMO.

Rock of Ages: marketed for the wrong target audience. The music targets one group of people, the choice to construct the story around two youngsters an entirely different one. Instead of getting both groups into the theatres, they just missed the mark for everyone.

Le Confessional: the 'big reveal' at the end wasn't one for everyone who knows even a little bit about diabetes. The hints weren't exactly subtle. Good movie but I knew what was up after 10min.

Elizabethtown: casting two actual actors as the leads might have been a good idea. As good as the casting was for Almost Famous, Crowe and his team dropped the ball completely on that one. Just to clarify: I don't have a personal grudge on Orlando Bloom, but he should stick to characters that just require him to tilt his head and say something about red suns or evil pirates. Or take some acting lessons, maybe there's hope for him yet.

[Kiba.]

I thought the film In Time - the idea of a society where you have to buy your extended life, was an intriguing idea which deserved to be thoroughly explored. The basic premise has a lot of potential. Instead it's a glossy, empty generic thriller not helped by an insipid lead: Timberlake. It wasted all that it could've been with a sketchy plot, cliched characters and muddy direction. Cillian Murphy was under-used, and he can be a great villain. Onscreen chemistry was absent and the romance was fake and forced. Andew Niccol directed Gattaca and wrote The Truman Show. He missed the mark entirely with this one.

Good thread, Punch.

[CitizenSnips]

Kick-Ass. Loads of people seem to love it, which has always baffled me. When I heard the idea, I thought it would work great as a down-to-earth black comedy, or maybe something modeled after the Cohen brothers style. But it's a total mess - first it's high-school farce, then it's Hollywood action thriller, then its gritty crime drama. It's hard to single out any one decision that ruins it, since it seems like every idea other than the core concept is misguided, but I'm gonna go with Cage's character, and the girl, whatever her name was. They raise a few laughs but they belong in a different film.

I'd also say The Fifth Element, even though the decision in question doesn't really ruin the film for me. But I think anyone who's seen the film knows what, or who, I'm talking about...

[morris]

Originally Posted by CitizenSnips

Kick-Ass. Loads of people seem to love it, which has always baffled me. It's hard to single out any one decision that ruins it, since it seems like every idea other than the core concept is misguided, but I'm gonna go with Cage's character, and the girl, whatever her name was.

Hit girl. At last - someone else who finds this film overrated!
I didn't get what the fuss was about, although Mrs Cat liked it well enough.
The Fifth Element, you need not say more. One of the most irritating characters ever.

[CaptainCrazy]

Superman Returns - there were quite a few which sort of ruined it but what really got me was the bad CGI choices. I didn't mind them using it on long shots but they actually used CGI during close-ups. Did Routh's acting leave Singer that desperate in the editing room?!? Just look at the plane sequence again and see those glaring binary-Routh shots on the screen.

Oh, and the kid pissed me off too.

[ebrown]

Looper. I've expected a totally different when I went to see it. It would have been a thousand times better if they focused of the dynamic between Levitt and Willis instead of focusing the plot on the kid and his mother. I loved the setting, the whole premise, the unusual vision of future but putting paranormal twist into the mix really put me off.