10 Bad Movies Oscar-Winning Directors Went On To Make

8. Hereafter - Clint Eastwood

Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Warner Bros.

The poster for Hereafter - an expressionless, blue-tinted Matt Damon gazing at the camera - makes it look like an ethereal, thought-provoking supernatural drama, but it's also a fitting representation of what the film actually is.

Cold and emotionless.

Eastwood's second collaboration with Damon presents three separate stories and intertwines them as the film progresses, leading to an incredibly cheesy, forced conclusion that feels wildly at odds with the director's usually-grounded style.

The worst thing about Hereafter is how esoteric it feels. It tries to say something meaningful about death but in doing so, comes across as pretentious and unrelatable.

The decision to switch between three individual tales doesn't help things, either; ironically enough, by attempting to focus-in on multiple people, the movie isn't really focused on anything at all - it just bounces back and forth between a couple of unengaging subplots.

Hereafter was an unusual film for Eastwood to undertake (and his career includes a movie called 'Space Cowboys') given the director is known for his hard-hitting drama - and sure enough, that's exactly what he returned to after this supernatural dud failed to land.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.