Stephen King Hates Tarantino’s Biggest Hit, But Still Thinks Two Other Films Are Worse
Despite harsh criticism, Tarantino still did better here.
Summary:
- Having had a pile of his books later on turned into movies, Stephen King seems to be a pretty much sophisticated cinephile, though sometimes his anti-mainstream views may appear to be harsher than they should be.
- Back in the day, King heavily criticized one of Tarantino’s best films, though later specified that there are two other movies that are actually worse.
- Though one of those films is in fact the worst, it’s still not clear why King compared them to Tarantino’s movies in the first place.
One of the most adapted authors in history, Stephen King yet has a significant experience with movies proving that he has developed his critical eye over the years of dealing with filmmakers.
Though he’s mostly known as a cinephile who doesn’t follow the mainstream preferring to crash the movies that everyone adores, King still left everyone bewildered when admitted he hadn’t enjoyed Quentin Tarantino ’s Kill Bill, but nonetheless gave it a credit saying there are some worse movies out there.
Several years ago King revealed that he’s not into “narcissistic stuff like Kill Bill” calling the film’s opening part a “blah movie”, but then proceeded with some kind of weird compliment for Tarantino’s hit saying that “isn’t a benchmark of awfulness” comparing it to Mars Attacks! or Mommie Dearest.
While it’s still unclear what common features the proclaimed author found in Kill Bill and the other two movies, there’s absolutely no doubt that Mars Attacks! and Mommie Dearest are in fact not even comparable to Tarantino’s flicks in any production aspect, let alone their performance with critics and viewers.
Released back in 1996, Mars Attacks! is a Tim Burton-directed black comedy sci-fi movie that featured a then unprecedented star-studded cast that included Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michael J. Fox, Natalie Portman and many others.
Despite all the high expectations from the starry ensemble, the film got average ratings from the critics and demonstrated quite a poor performance in the box office garnering only $100 million against the initial budget of $80 million.
Still, Mars Attacks! was a total success compared to Stephen King’s other non-favorite Mommie Dearest. A psychological biopic based on Christina Crawford’s autobiography of the same name, the movie released in 1981 got all the heat from critics, viewers and even Crawford’s family members who pointed out the movie’s overstatement regarding all the abuse featured in the original book.
Considered one of the worst films ever made, Mommie Dearest eventually broke a whole new anti-record by getting five Golden Raspberry Awards wins, including for Worst Picture and Worst Actress.
Despite being mentioned alongside these two flops, Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill still got away from being placed on the same level of awfulness, though the whole possibility of it indeed happening is still close to zero.
Source: Entertainment Weekly