10 Directors Who Knew Their Movies Were Ridiculous
6. Steven Soderbergh - The Underneath
Steven Soderberg made a splash on the independent film scene when he premiered Sex, Lies, and Videotape at the Cannes Film Festival in 1989. After the movie won the coveted Palme d'Or, Soderberg could have taken just about any big-budget studio film he wanted.
Unfortunately, he ended up taking on The Underneath, a film noir picture about a man who steals money from an armored car. The movie cost the studio $6.5 million to produce, which isn't much compared to other feature films, but it only made $536,023.
The Underneath was a dud, and while Soderberg eventually came back swinging with hits that include Erin Brockovich, Magic Mike, and the Ocean's trilogy, he stumbled with his first big studio picture. It's not often that a director discusses what they did wrong on a movie, but Soderberg did exactly that in an interview with Criterion.
"15 seconds in, I know we're in trouble because of how f****** long it takes to get through the credits." He called it "sleepy," and he felt that he was absent while filming it, and noted that his heart just wasn't in it. He even felt the movie was "dead on arrival" while still filming. He may not have called the movie ridiculous, but he said he couldn't recommend it to anyone.