10 Bad Movies Oscar-Winning Directors Went On To Make
3. Rock The Kasbah - Barry Levinson
Barry Levinson's first and only Oscar win came all the way back in 1989 for the Tom Cruise/Dustin Hoffman-starring Rain Man, and though he'd have an incredibly varied career that spanned comedy, horror and plenty of TV work, he was never able to replicate that prior awards success.
And Rock The Kasbah is his latest, most disappointing cinematic effort to date. The film follows music manager Richie Lanz (Bill Murray), who discovers a young teenage girl with a stunning singing voice, eventually becoming her manager as she competes in Afghanistan's version of American Idol.
You'd think that a director who's dabbled in drama and comedy many, many times before would be able to successfully meld the two, but Levinson provides neither a strong dramatic beat or a hearty laugh at any point during the movie. Everything just plods along, things just happen, and the movie just ends. It's the very definition of 'time-waster'.
Even worse, Rock The Kasbah is also mildly offensive, attempting to draw laughs with its stereotypical portrayal of ex-pats and trying to use the distressing reality of its setting for comedic effect, and it fails on both fronts.
It's anger-inducing when talented people make a bad movie, and besides Murray, Rock The Kasbah features Bruce Willis, Zooey Deschanel, Kate Hudson and Danny McBride, making its low quality all the more infuriating.