it would have been easy to make this list a totally Star Wars focused series of gripes, or to give the top spot to Indiana Jones 4, but too many people share the blame for that film and Howard The Duck was too bad to miss out. And in Radioland Murders, we have a film that was all Lucas, and which plays like a highlight reel for all of his greatest faults: A passion project born out of an obsession that takes precedent over telling a coherent story. Attention to all the wrong details. A ridiculous number of characters that are impossible to differentiate. A plot that is more about moving from set-piece to set-piece than developing believable moments. Trying to pitch the film to a generation that he knows nothing about, instead of honest storytelling. Radioland Murders was Lucas paying tribute to both classic radio dramas and Abbot and Costello films, but unfortunately, it languished in development hell for 20 years until Lucas was able to convince the studio that CG technology had developed to the point that they could digitally insert all of the backdrops. The studio agreed to develop it on the condition that Lucas rewrite the script for the MTV generation, which in the history of misconceptions, has to rank pretty highly. What we got was Lucas at his most tone deaf, with a film that looked like garbage, and, in the words of the late, great Roger Ebert, "It's all action and no character, all situation and no comedy." It is to all of our cultural shame that we ever allowed him to make a second set of Star Wars movies after this one. Which of these do you think are the worst ideas George Lucas ever put on screen? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread.
I am a writer and musician born and raised in Montana. I have done everything from fixing fences in Glacier National Park to curating the music library at KBGA Missoula. I am also a lazy jerk.
