4. Nick Conklin - Black Rain
For this bungle Michael Douglas teamed up with famous household name director Ridley Scott, hot off the skillet from making visual masterpieces like Blade Runner, Alien, and the not as popular Legend. Taking a look at the style of Black Rain it is not hard to see Scott's direction at work; the film uses the same cinematography style as Blade Runner. Comparing Douglas' detective Conklin to Deckard is not all that hard either as he gets lost running around in a neon maze of over crowded, futuristic streets at night in a culture he can barely understand. Black Rain (a reference to one of the many horrific weather conditions that plagued parts of Japan in the aftermath of the nuclear fallout, see also: nuclear winter), not only looks fantastic, but also has a lot to offer. The movie takes place for the most part in Japan and Douglas rides motorcycles and fights the yakuza. Sounds pretty appealing all the way around, which is what makes it all the more disappointing. Here the motif of an American cop winding up in a foreign country where his personality is misunderstood already feels old and this was made way back in 1989 no less. The primary problem is Conklin's often forced rebel attitude with him consistently repeating the phrase, "the suits man" to describe all that is wrong in the world.