It’s not always easy for directors to make the transition from one decade to the next. For every Steven Spielberg there are several Francis Ford Coppolas. Filmgoers’ expectations change, technology improves, and the industry moves in a new direction. If a director can’t keep up with the times or makes one or two bad movies, they can be forgotten or pushed aside for fresh new talent.

I’d like to talk about 10 talented directors from the ‘80s who didn’t make the cut in the ‘90s for one reason or another. That doesn’t diminish their early work. It just shows how hard it is to stay on top once you reach such a tall pinnacle.

1. John G. Avildsen

Remember him? The guy who brought us Rocky, The Karate Kid, and Lean on Me? After The Karate Kid Part III and Rocky V nearly killed off those respective series, John G. Avildsen slowed down his output and only made four films in the ‘90s despite doing nearly triple that number in the previous decade. None of them are particularly awful, but The Power of One, 8 Seconds, A Fine and Private Place, and Desert Heat weren’t exactly breakout hits, either. This director went the distance, but now it’s time to throw in the towel.

2. John Badham

John Badham might not be a household name, but he is responsible for some of the best movies from your childhood. Remember Saturday Night Fever, WarGames, Short Circuit, and Stakeout? He directed those classics. Unfortunately, they all got horrible sequels, one of which Badham directed himself. He struggled in the ‘90s, directing the mediocre Mel Gibson vehicle Bird on a Wire in 1990 and Michael J. Fox’s lackluster The Hard Way in 1991, followed by Another Stakeout and Nick of Time. He’s never been able to recapture the magic of his ‘70s and ‘80s hits.

3. Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks’ directing career arguably peaked in the 1970s, but there’s no denying he was still on top in the 1980s with hits like History of the World Part I and Spaceballs. But he was never the same after Spaceballs. 1991’s Life Stinks is a pretty horrible movie. Robin Hood: Men in Tights has some good laughs here and there, but it’s no masterpiece. And Dracula: Dead and Loving It was the final nail in the coffin for Brooks – a film so devoid of humor that even my stupid pun is funnier than 95 percent of the jokes in that movie. Thankfully, he stopped directing new films after that disaster, though he did turn a few of his more popular old films into musicals. No harm in that.

4. John Carpenter

Everything John Carpenter touched used to turn into gold. He transformed generic horror films into high art with Assault on Precinct 13, Halloween, and The Thing. He created a dystopian future world on a shoestring budget in Escape from New York. He turned a simple love story into something truly special in Starman. Then he finished the ‘80s by making a bunch of underrated/ahead-of-their-time movies, like Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, and They Live. But none of his movies in the ‘90s came close to greatness. Memoirs of an Invisible Man, In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, Escape from L.A., Vampires, and Ghosts of Mars have their moments, but they are all utterly forgettable compared to Carpenter’s earlier work.

5. Richard Donner

Richard Donner started directing TV show episodes in the ‘60s, but he made the jump to the big screen with 1976’s The Omen. He followed that up with a string of wonderful films, including Superman: The Movie, The Toy, Ladyhawke, The Goonies, Lethal Weapon, Scrooged, and Lethal Weapon 2. But after this extraordinary string of hits, he ran into a few snags. Radio Flyer was a disappointment and Lethal Weapon 3 couldn’t match the first two in the series. Maverick was the best Western spoof since Blazing Saddles, but things quickly disintegrated from there. Assassins, Conspiracy Theory, and Lethal Weapon 4 signaled the end of Donner’s peak and the beginning of a quick descent into mediocre material.

6. John Hughes

John Hughes wasn’t just a great screenwriter; he also directed some classic comedies, including Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, and Uncle Buck. 1991’s Curly Sue was the last film he ever directed. It’s not terrible, but it’s definitely not as good as his other work. Also, at that time his writing took a nosedive. He wrote the first Beethoven movie, followed by Dennis the Menace, Baby’s Day Out, the live-action version of 101 Dalmatians, and Flubber. None of those films are particularly funny. But when the man was on fire in the ‘80s, no one could top him.

7. Roland Joffé

You probably don’t even know this guy’s name, but Roland Joffé made three compelling films in the ‘80s: The Killing Fields, The Mission, and Fat Man and Little Boy. But in 1995 he threw away all that goodwill by making one of the worst ever film adaptations of a book: The Scarlet Letter, starring Demi Moore and Gary Oldman. It included an Indian attack and other things that had author Nathaniel Hawthorne doing somersaults in his grave. Joffé never recovered from that huge misstep.

8. Lawrence Kadsan

While he’s most famous for co-writing The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Return of the Jedi, Lawrence Kasdan was also a great director in his own right. He started the ‘80s strong with hits like Body Heat, The Big Chill, and Silverado, all of which launched young stars’ careers. But his follow-up work failed to connect with audiences. 1994’s Wyatt Earp was nowhere near as good as the previous year’s Tombstone, and French Kiss is one of Meg Ryan’s lesser romantic comedies. And I know it didn’t come out in the ‘90s, but Dreamcatcher is an atrocious movie that more or less killed Kasdan’s career for good. How can a movie that starts out so well end so horribly? That’s a good analogy for pretty much all of these directors’ careers.

9. John Landis

Many of the best comedies of the ‘80s came from John Landis: Blues Brothers, An American Werewolf in London, Trading Places, Spies Like Us, Three Amigos, and Coming to America. Oh, and he also directed a little music video called Michael Jackson’s Thriller – quite possibly the best music video ever made. Landis tried to recapture the old magic in the ‘90s by reteaming with Eddie Murphy for Beverly Hills Cop III and with Dan Aykroyd for Blues Brothers 2000. But both of those sequels were epic failures. He still directs TV show episodes here and there, but he’s done making classic comedies.

10. John McTiernan

Who doesn’t love Predator and Die Hard? John McTiernan wrote the book on how to make the perfect action movie in the late ‘80s. He started the ‘90s in superb fashion with The Hunt for Red October, which is still the best Jack Ryan movie to date. But then he made the ambitious but absurd Medicine Man and Last Action Hero. He tried to recover with Die Hard with a Vengeance, but then he dropped the ball again with letdowns like The 13^th Warrior and a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. In the early 2000s, a few lame films and an arrest prevented him from mounting a comeback.

Dying Hard

Did you notice that that’s a lot of Johns on this list? John G. Avildsen, John Badham, John Carpenter, John Hughes, John Landis, and John McTiernan. My goodness! I certainly didn’t plan that when I did my research for this article and picked these 10 directors. I could make a joke about all of their careers ending in the toilet… but I’ll try to keep it classy.

I have a special place in my heart for all of these filmmakers. They gave us many incredible movies, and I like to focus on those rather than the horrible ones that came later. Only the greatest filmmakers are capable of dying the hardest.

This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you farewell until we meet again.

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