A paycheck's a paycheck: 7 unapologetic hack directors: Raja Gosnell "Scooby Doo""Beverly Hills Chi"

In the old studio system, a few of the directors were good, but the majority of the directors were hacks. A definition:

hack 2 (hk)
n.
1. A horse used for riding or driving; a hackney.
2. A worn-out horse for hire; a jade.
3.
a. One who undertakes unpleasant or distasteful tasks for money or reward; a hireling.
b. A writer hired to produce routine or commercial writing.
4. A carriage or hackney for hire.
5. Informal
a. A taxicab.
b. See hackie.
v. hacked, hack·ing, hacks
v.tr.
1. To let out (a horse) for hire.
2. To make banal or hackneyed with indiscriminate use.
v.intr.
1. To drive a taxicab for a living.
2. To work for hire as a writer.
3. To ride on horseback at an ordinary pace.
adj.
1. By, characteristic of, or designating routine or commercial writing: hack prose.
2. Hackneyed; banal.
Phrasal Verb:
hack out Informal
To produce (written material, for example), especially hastily or routinely: hacked out a weekly column.

In other words, an untalented worker-for-hire. *Not* a journeyman, which is the designation I would use for a director who is honestly mediocre, but capable of good work with a decent script and some luck. For example: Robert Wise.

The studio system is long, long gone, but some directors are still hacks. Here's one blog's opinion:

Indie Eye
A paycheck's a paycheck: Seven unapologetic hack directors.
By Vadim Rizov on 01/14/2010

"Depending on your proclivities and where you live, here are the three most important directors with movies opening Friday: Andrea Arnold (whose "Fish Tank" opens in New York), the Hughes brothers (formerly of "Menace II Society" and long past their sell-by date, whose "The Book of Eli" opens wide) and Brian Levant.

It's Mr. Levant, director of "The Spy Next Door," who primarily concerns me, and I'm maybe using a different sense of the world "important" in his case. Aside from the remarkable fact that his movie involves Jackie Chan sharing co-star credit with George Lopez and Billy Ray Cyrus, and that it's currently rocking zero percent approval on Rotten Tomatoes -- this alleged comedy looks like one of the worst hack works to recently straggle into theaters.

You might look at a movie like "The Spy Next Door" (whose tagline -- "Part spy. Part babysitter" -- has been amended by some anonymous wag at my subway stop to "Fart spy. Fart babysitter.") as just another kids' movie by some anonymous hack. But anonymous hacks grow moss among us, garnering the careers owed to others through sheer persistence. Below, seven of the worst offenders.


Brian Levant ("Problem Child 2," "The Flintstones," "Snow Dogs")

After doing sitcom-writing time on "Mork & Mindy" and "Happy Days," among others, Levant took his skills to the big-screen, debuting with "Problem Child 2," a continuation of the series that combined divorce guilt with "Bad Seed" tendencies. For wrangling the massive technical challenges of "The Flintstones" (a movie with an oddly high effort:value ratio), Levant got a reprieve of sorts -- everyone loves a good sport -- only to make the legendarily leaden "Jingle All The Way," a time capsule of holiday shopping madness and not much else. Aside from the below, Levant's last credit was the direct-to-vid "Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins," picking up the franchise from arch-hack Raja Gosnell."

---

 

Indie Eye
A paycheck's a paycheck: Seven unapologetic hack directors.
By Vadim Rizov on 01/14/2010

Shawn Levy ("The Pink Panther," "Cheaper By The Dozen," "A Night At The Museum")

"Levy -- who graduated Yale at 20 after a decent career as a late-teenage actor -- is clearly not a dumb guy, which makes his highly profitable ventures into cynical film hackery all the more woeful. Whether mutually building his investments with Steve Martin in debased ventures or marshaling the children's FX to run on time, Levy seems to show a commitment to nothing more than paying the bills. It would take only a modicum of effort to make these products even a little less insulting, but I suppose that's asking too much. In revenge, here's Levy as child actor, in the apparently indelible "Zombie Nightmare."

 

I didn't see the sequel, but I thought the first Night at the Museum was way better than it had any right to be.

 

It was. I enjoyed it quite a lot. Charming and amusing. But the sequel was tremendously bad.

 

Indie Eye
A paycheck's a paycheck: Seven unapologetic hack directors.
By Vadim Rizov on 01/14/2010
Filed under: Sundry

Depending on your proclivities and where you live, here are the three most important directors with movies opening Friday: Andrea Arnold (whose "Fish Tank" opens in New York), the Hughes brothers (formerly of "Menace II Society" and long past their sell-by date, whose "The Book of Eli" opens wide) and Brian Levant.

It's Mr. Levant, director of "The Spy Next Door," who primarily concerns me, and I'm maybe using a different sense of the world "important" in his case. Aside from the remarkable fact that his movie involves Jackie Chan sharing co-star credit with George Lopez and Billy Ray Cyrus, and that it's currently rocking zero percent approval on Rotten Tomatoes -- this alleged comedy looks like one of the worst hack works to recently straggle into theaters.

You might look at a movie like "The Spy Next Door" (whose tagline -- "Part spy. Part babysitter" -- has been amended by some anonymous wag at my subway stop to "Fart spy. Fart babysitter.") as just another kids' movie by some anonymous hack. But anonymous hacks grow moss among us, garnering the careers owed to others through sheer persistence. Below, seven of the worst offenders.


Brian Levant ("Problem Child 2," "The Flintstones," "Snow Dogs")

After doing sitcom-writing time on "Mork & Mindy" and "Happy Days," among others, Levant took his skills to the big-screen, debuting with "Problem Child 2," a continuation of the series that combined divorce guilt with "Bad Seed" tendencies. For wrangling the massive technical challenges of "The Flintstones" (a movie with an oddly high effort:value ratio), Levant got a reprieve of sorts -- everyone loves a good sport -- only to make the legendarily leaden "Jingle All The Way," a time capsule of holiday shopping madness and not much else. Aside from the below, Levant's last credit was the direct-to-vid "Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins," picking up the franchise from arch-hack Raja Gosnell (see below). Some choice moments from "Snow Dogs":


Shawn Levy ("The Pink Panther," "Cheaper By The Dozen," "A Night At The Museum")

Levy -- who graduated Yale at 20 after a decent career as a late-teenage actor -- is clearly not a dumb guy, which makes his highly profitable ventures into cynical film hackery all the more woeful. Whether mutually building his investments with Steve Martin in debased ventures or marshaling the children's FX to run on time, Levy seems to show a commitment to nothing more than paying the bills. It would take only a modicum of effort to make these products even a little less insulting, but I suppose that's asking too much. In revenge, here's Levy as child actor, in the apparently indelible "Zombie Nightmare."


Dennis Dugan ("Problem Child," Adam Sandler's career)

"Hacks breed hacks: Levant inherited "Problem Child 2" from Dugan, who similarly broke into features with the first installment. But -- like Levy -- Dugan was also an actor. Before directing the Adam Sandler landmarks "Happy Gilmore," "Big Daddy," "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry" and "You Don't Mess With The Zohan" (not to mention "Beverly Hills Ninja") -- Dugan did his time in '70s and '80s bit parts, mostly on TV. A rare film part was in 1976's "Norman... Is That You?," in which Redd Foxx discovers his son is probably gay and definitely living with the ultimate fruitcake in San Francisco. Dugan is that fruitcake, entrusted -- in the words of Roger Ebert's contemporary review -- with little more than "[swishing] around whipping up Prune Flambe Surprise and packing his hostess gowns." No wonder "directing" Adam Sandler seemed like a better option."

 

Indie Eye
A paycheck's a paycheck: Seven unapologetic hack directors.
By Vadim Rizov on 01/14/2010

Peter Segal ("Tommy Boy," "Anger Management," "Get Smart")

"Peter Segal seems to have the unique ability to turning even the most promising casts into garbage -- Steve Carrell, Alan Arkin and Dwayne Johnson were recent casualties in "Get Smart," and somehow Jack Nicholson held his nose long enough for a paycheck on the uninspired "Anger Management." So many improvisers, so few results? It's awfully dispiriting. Here's Segal's opening sequence from "Naked 33 1/3: The Final Insult," which is kind of funny as a sloppy parody of "The Untouchables" (I wonder if Segal knows Brian De Palma was taking on "Battleship Potemkin" in his stairway shootout) and as a '90s compendium of hot topics: disgruntled postal workers, illegal Mexican gardeners and -- hot damn -- a clearly Islamic terrorist being shot just as a gag."

 

Maybe I am out of touch but I loved Get Smart. And Tommy Boy despite itself is an old fave. Hack or not I can't say I hate Segal's films.

 

Tommy Boy is one of my favorite movies. I don't really think that I've seen any of Segal's other movies, so no complaints there.

 

I can agree with the rest but Anger Management is really funny because of Nicholson

 

I'm not sure this guy writing this list fully understands what a hack is based on his listing of Peter Segal. Anger Management is not the work of a hack. It's a very well made comedy by someone who knows exactly what they're doing.

Case in point: Nicholson and Sandler on the bridge singing "I Feel Pretty." That scene is shot, paced and staged brilliantly.

 

Indie Eye
A paycheck's a paycheck: Seven unapologetic hack directors.
By Vadim Rizov on 01/14/2010
Donald Petrie ("Mystic Pizza," "Miss Congeniality," "Welcome To Mooseport")

"Another workaday actor turned director, Petrie never got the kind of name-billing Dugan did. As for his directorial skills -- let's turn to Scott Foundas' appraisal of the recently failed Nia Vardalos comeback vehicle "My Life In Ruins," which he described as directed "in a manner of speaking." Subsequent failures include Gene Hackman's last-ever thespian turn in "Welcome To Mooseport," the Christopher Lloyd-starring reboot of "My Favorite Martian" and the uber-drecky "Miss Congeniality." Fortunately, his reputation lies safe in the hall of chick flicks with "Mystic Pizza." To counterbalance that, here's a trailer for a particularly disreputable-looking movie he had a small role in: "H.O.T.S.," aka "T&A Academy."

 

Welcome to Mooseport WAS awful.

But Miss Congeniality? I busted a gut laughing at that movie. It's incredibly funny, though admittedly it has more to do with the smart script and the good acting from all concerned than the directing. But in no way is it dreck; it's sharp and hilarious.

 

You weren't warned by a title like "Welcome to Mooseport"? It sounds like a locally made amateur commercial for a town, you know the type.

 

I actually spent several days on the set of Miss Congeniality and was able to observe Mr. Petrie at work. He worked his butt off and he seemed to be liked and respected by both the cast and the crew, and that's a comment based not just on observation but from talking to people. My point is he certainly didn't seem like a person who was "phoning it in", the attitude I saw in him was total focus and creative enthusiasm, not a guy occupying space to grab a paycheck. And like Rogue, I thought the movie was quite funny, so the results were good and it was a hit.

I would particularly note that Petrie and Michael Caine seemed to work really well together. Caine is known as a world class professional who doesn't suffer fools gladly, and isn't afraid to mix it up with directors who are idiots. The two were laughing and joking when I saw them, not a bit of tension in the air. That's a vote of confidence from someone whose vote counts and has credibility.

 

I don't know that I'd say Welcome to Mooseport was the director's fault really. I'm just not really a fan of Romano's schtick; he can occasionally be funny in half hour doses of his old television show, but a whole movie of him being a wishy washy, spineless idiot? I was about to gnaw my leg off to try to escape.

Also, don't tell me about the title; I saw it with a girl I was dating at the time. My pick was Tim Burton's Big Fish. She probably still tells people how horrible my pick was; we've since broken up as you can probably tell.

 

Indie Eye
A paycheck's a paycheck: Seven unapologetic hack directors.
By Vadim Rizov on 01/14/2010


Raja Gosnell ("Scooby Doo," "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," "Big Momma's House")

"Gosnell came up the hard way, editing his way from "Teen Wolf Too" to the relative heights of the worst parts of the John Hughes factory -- "Only The Lonely," "Home Alone 2," 'Mrs. Doubtfire" -- before getting to forge his own bold path starting with "Home Alone 3." I remember seeing the trailer for "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" and thinking "Huh, CGI talking dogs. Must be a Raja Gosnell movie." And, no joke, the director of the first two live-action "Scooby Doo" movies (see how it all comes back around?) turned out to be the director of "Chihuahua" indeed."