10 Exact Moments Awesome Movie Directors Stopped Trying
When you settle on Nazi sausages, you're out of good ideas.
Even the greatest filmmakers have their off-days, because it simply isn't reasonable for fans to expect directors to bring their A-game to the table every time - even if they absolutely do expect that.
A director making a single not-great movie is one thing, but what about those filmmakers who have clearly lost their passion for the art form and are now just coasting for a paycheck?
It's a depressing sight to see, especially if the artist in question is a venerated old-guard director with potentially decades of quality work behind them.
But whatever the reason, these 10 directors clearly got burned out by Hollywood, and it tragically showed in the tawdry quality of their subsequent work.
To be clear, George Lucas won't be anywhere on this list because, no matter how much you might hate the Star Wars prequels, the guy was clearly trying to do something unique and innovative, and similarly, the Wachowskis haven't ever stopped trying new things despite their high-profile failures.
Rather, these directors have all gotten complacent in the latter stages of their careers, and it can be pinpointed down to a single movie, or perhaps even a single scene from said movie...
10. Selling Out To Apple - Brian De Palma
From the mid '70s through to the mid '90s, Brian De Palma enjoyed a hot streak of quality pictures, including Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Blow Out, Scarface, The Untouchables, Carlito's Way, and Mission: Impossible.
And though he hasn't released a single critically acclaimed feature since 1996's Tom Cruise-starring actioner, there have at least been evident flecks of artistry in movies like Snake Eyes and The Black Dahlia, suggesting that with the right script he still had something to offer.
But then Passion happened.
Despite De Palma's esteem, this 2012 erotic thriller - starring Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace no less - was sent straight-to-video in most territories, and largely served as a soulless homage to the more red-blooded vehicles of the director's past.
But it's the movie's opening shot which confirms the legendary director's descent from auteur to hack-for-hire, with De Palma's name splashed on the screen in front of an hilariously blatant product placement for an Apple laptop.
It's as literal a visual representation of a director "selling out" as you're ever going to get, and sadly his single film since, the atrocious thriller Domino, only confirmed how thoroughly he's lost it.