10 Bad Movies Oscar-Winning Directors Went On To Make

6. The Postman - Kevin Costner

Kevin Costner The Postman.jpg
Warner Bros.

Speaking of ridiculously long runtimes, here's yet another book-to-film adaptation that didn't know what the cut and what to keep.

The Postman's insanely long three-hour runtime bogs it down in every conceivable way; there are plenty of long, dull scenes that go nowhere, the action is sparse and uninteresting and when the film is over, you'll have felt every single butt-numbingly drawn-out minute.

Costner's own vanity does nothing but drag the movie down, too. Scenes that should have been shorter and smoother are instead prolonged, the director whacking you over the head with his not-so-subtle, cheesy message like it's a cricket bat.

It didn't help that The Postman came out around the same time as the superior Titanic and in close proximity to the atrocious Waterworld, but there's a great two-hour movie in here somewhere and Costner just didn't find it. His Oscar win for Dances With Wolves showed that he could direct an engaging, lengthy movie, so why couldn't he do the same here?!

In short, saying that The Postman failed to deliver is a gross, gross understatement.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!