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Maybe this should be called the 'Michael Cimino Curse.' Who is he? Guy won the Oscar for doing 'The Deer Hunter.' Then he came up with the brilliant idea of re-doing the western... that nightmare became known as 'Heaven's Gate', and for years it had the horrible honor of being the BIGGEST box office bust of all time.(Nope, 'Waterworld' didn't get that. It actually broke even with international receipts.) He was never heard from again. Ever since, it seems like directors will do well... and then SOMETHING happens that derails their careers... and they seem to disappear, or just have runs of baaaaaaad luck. You go from being a genius... to directing direct-to-video movies. Oh the agony. Here are a few names who at one time were THE action-directors... and then... well...
1. John Woo. The one who made Chow-Yun Fat a biiiiiiiiiig name in Hong Kong and was ready to make a massive splash with 'Broken Arrow.' So what happened? Well, 'Face/Off' did VERY well... and then 'Mission; Impossible 2' happened. The trade-mark Woo shots (doves, the flowing capes) all were VERY out of place in a movies series that's really about out-thinking your opponent, not unloading 25 clips into the bad-guys. From there, 'Windtalkers' didn't go anywhere, and who knows what's going to happen with 'Paycheck.'
2. John McTiernan. He worked on 'Hunt for Red October', gave Ahnald a lot of great moments in 'Predator', and gave us one of THE great action movies with 'Die Hard.' Things seemed to slow down for a while, but 'The Thomas Crown Affair' was a great piece of work... and then 'Roller Ball' was released. Ouch.
3. John Carpenter. 'Halloween.' 'The Thing.' 'Escape from New York.' Great movies with subversive characters. 'Ghosts of Mars?' Um, after 'Red Planet' and 'Mission to Mars', I think we got Mars-ed out.
4. Paul Verhoeven. Ah, the king of gore and access. Ok, I'm over-simplifying. However, after 'Robocop', taking the blood and satire to new levels was biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig for this guy. Fortunately, he DID make it work most of the time. 'Robocop', 'Total Recall', and even the re-vamped 'Starship Troopers' were solid action movies with satire thrown in all over the place. And then... 'Show Girls?' With the chick from 'Saved by the Bell????!?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!' Doh!