In response to the Coen Bros: Intolerable Cruelty and Ladykillers were made to quickly get out of their contract that they ended up having to make O Brother Where art Thou. I agree that Intolerable Cruelty is a decent date movie at best, but I actually find Ladykillers to be just as good as the original, plus refreshingly different in approach.
My choices:
8 1/2: Everything I’ve ever seen in other Fellini movies is in here, rendering them redundant.
The Birds: Hitchcock is a great filmmaker from a craftsman and narrative perspective. What interests me are more his experimental approaches than his direct ones. As such, even though I find his movies to be very good, I don’t tend to really care for or remember them in the long run. The Birds, however…. one of the greatest endings ever.
Taxi Driver: I just don’t know what to think about Scorsese. Everyone else loves him, but he just doesn’t do it for me. Taxi Driver, however? Great film. I also really appreciate The Last Testament of Christ, though I don’t find myself all that often interested in revisiting it.
Those are what I can think of at this point. Maybe more later.
—PolarisDiB
There Will Be Blood
Elephant Man
fellini and kubrick are usuallyquite overrated, and I think of anyone mentioning them as their favorite directors as very lazy cinephiles. they got away with many turkeys, and surely they made great movies, but not so good to make them landmarks. After all, as Pauline kael said 2001 was the most expensive student film ever made. and the worst is that no one ever tries to argue these things because is like your’e either dumb because allegedly you couldn’t “get it” or because it’s some kind of herecy to question their films. Spartacus was great but kubrick mostly disowned himself from it, and the shinig is a bit ridiculous and just not scary or thoughtfull as ppl claim. but hey, to each his own, I’d much rather see a bad De Sica than a good Peter Greenaway to put it one way. nice topic !
Trust me, Gonzalo, if you can consider 2001 a massively expensive student film for even a second, you have little experience in actually suffering through student films.
^^perhaps but if today’s students had the budget of 2001, adjusted for inflation, would they really be all that much worse? It’s been a while since I’ve 2001 so I can’t be certain, but I remember thinking to myself “meh”. I hardly think it’s the classic people talk it up as. I do think Kubrick has done great films, but they are usually lesser known. ie, “EWS”, Paths of Glory". “Strangelove” might be an exception. “Clockwork Orange”, and “Full Metal Jacket” are films I actively despise, for some reason.
“Fellini and Kubrick are overrated.”
Yep … ok … now I’ve heard it all.
Anyway …
I’ve never been a big fan of Ron Howard’s work as a director, but I will always give him credit for making Apollo 13 a very stirring film.
(Frost/Nixon is growing on me, but he had both wonderful source material and exceptional actors that more-or-less made it theirs)
I love This Is Spinal Tap but i hate Rob Reiner, i think he got more credit than he deserves for that film.
p.s. I hate Pauline Kael!
>>“Fellini and Kubrick are overrated.”
Yep … ok … now I’ve heard it all.<<
Except he left out Welles.
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN – I truly feel Steven Spielberg’s work is not very impressive; his films almost never hit the mark for me, and he tends to be heavy-handed on his direction most of the time. But I really thought this film was a departure for him and I enjoyed it very much.
Do the Right Thing
Lee seems to be more interested in creating controversy than making films (his recent fight with Clint Eastwood, for what, really?).
City of God – Mierelles
Pan’s Labyrinth – Del Torro
Lost in Translation – Sofia Coppola
In response to the Coen Bros: I actually have enjoyed much of their work, (No Country, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, The Ladykillers, The Hudsucker Proxy, etc.) even though none are “masterpieces.”
TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE from Joseph Sargent, a great tight brilliant thriller from Joseph Sargent whose later work hasn’t come near approaching this.
FALLING DOWN by the wretched Joel Schumacher was pretty good… although I hear the story behind this is that the original script was amazing and that the film doesn’t nearly match up.
“Talk to Her,” the only Almodóvar’s picture I really like.
Spielberg’s “JAWS”. In my opinion his only truly great film. I used to like his other movies a lot when I was younger, but if I watch them now they just feel so empty.
martin scorsese: taxi driver
wes anderson: rushmore
Ed Wood – I despise Tim Burton’s work, approach to his work, the “conceit” of his work, and so on; and consider him one of the greatest bimbos in the biz. Edward Scissorhands was like a vapid, treacly distillation of Spielberg’s lightest suburban fantasies; and Batman was a turgid mess, and a great case of a putative “auteur” leaning completely on his crew (Roger Pratt & especially Anton Furst); and Nightmare Before Christmas was Selick’s film…But Ed Wood has everything – it’s grim, and yet sweet, earnest & camp at the same time…I’d have to class it with something like Schroeder’s Barfly, or American Splendor, or Broadway Danny Rose (the TV-dinner-Thanksgiving): it takes the raw material of freakishness, silly ambition, and personal inadequacy, and makes something very warm and human…
First off I understand that movies apply to personal tastes – but there’s so many things to respond to in this thread (for me).
There Will Be Blood???
PTA is one of my favorite Writer/Directors. I think his entire body of work is phenomenal (aside from Hard Eight – which isn’t bad – just not my favorite of his work).
Elephant Man???
David Lynch is my favorite writer/director – though his films are not my favorite movies. But Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet are amazing. As far as television goes – Twin Peaks is my all time favorite.
Ron Howard???
He needs to invent a time machine so that some one can use it to stop him from ever starting a film career.
“I truly feel Steven Spielberg’s work is not very impressive”
What about Schindler’s List?
“fellini and kubrick are usually quite overrated … and surely they made great movies, but not so good to make them landmarks.”
I don’t even need to respond to this – its too obvious.
Pan’s Labyrinth – Del Torro
I can agree with this – though I only liked the creative half of Pan’s L.
Lost in Translation – Sofia Coppola
I loved the casting of James Woods and Kathleen Turner in The Virgin Suicides.
In response to the Coen Bros: I actually have enjoyed much of their work, (No Country, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, The Ladykillers, The Hudsucker Proxy, etc.) even though none are “masterpieces.”
What about The Man Who Wasn’t There? Raising Arizona? Miller’s Crossing?
martin scorsese: taxi driver
Really? Just Taxi Driver.
wes anderson: rushmore
I think his entire body of work is re-watchable/enjoyable. The Royal T. and Life Aquatic are classics.
I agree 100% with the Ed Wood comment on Tim Burton.
Though I do like Beetle Juice – it came out during my lady crush W.Ryder (though its not the reason I like it).
“Short Cuts.” I don’t care for Altman, however his friendship with, and love of, Carver and his works is apparent in this film.
Verhoeven – Robocop
Schumacher – A Time to Kill
Robbins – Hard Ball
Ratner – Family Man
Emmerich – Stargate
Sonnenfeld – Get Shorty
Harlin – Long Kiss Goodnight
Reynolds – Count of Monte Cristo
Winner – Death Wish
Kasdan – Body Heat
Soderbergh – The Limey
Figgis – Liebstraum
Craven – Serpent and the Rainbow
M. Night – Sixth Sense
Raimi – A Simple Plan
Smith – Dogma
rob reiner has become a hack, but the guy has at least a copule of wonderfull films, “stand by me” still seems to me a great film, so does “spinal tap”, “misery” and even “when harry met sally”, the rest of his work is mostly tripe, but 4 good movies is more than many other so called auteurs have made in their entire lives.
and I stand by my comment of fellini and kubrick, and trust me I have good reasons, I’m not one who gets bored in slow movies, I’ve seen every tarkovsky fil ever made, saw my share of bergman and antonioni as well, Hey!! I’ve even endured bella tars satantango, and came out alive. And one of my favorite directors is Bresson, not the easiest going of filmakers. So just so you know, it’s not that i only like hollywood movies or middlebrow stuff only. I get the feeling that criticizing these directors, inmediatley gives the right to some ppl, to consider you dumb, or not enough of a cinephile… Bollocks!
By the way, I like the killing and spartacus quite a lot, and found clockwork orange, failed but interesting, and I also like a couple of fellinis, but I feel many ppl,. see 3-4 movies of them and they inmediately jump in the wagon of snobbery (if you don’t agree with them they’ll be like: You don’t get it, you don’t understand art, or awfull, self serving criticism like that)
Just because It makes you look smart and artsy, but I still believe neither of them should be on a top 10 list of the greatest directors ever, as it mostly occurs. but hey that’s me! some ppl like P. greenaway’s movies and lars von trier’s and they’re happy!
liking good movies by the way doesn’t make you any better or smarter, so drop the intelligentsia comments, and argue like a man!! (just joking)
I’m not the biggest fan of I.Bergman. I feel that he is just not my director, but I really enjoyed “Cries and Whispers”.
The same story with J.Jarmush. After watching his movies I feel…nothing. However, “Ghost dog” and “Broken flowers” are great movies.
The answer for me is PEEWEE’S BIG ADVENTURE. (Admittedly, I’ve yet to see ED WOOD.)
I used to think I was a Wes Anderson fan. I am not. I’m a Royal Tenenbaums fan who keeps hoping he might reach that level again. Still waiting.
I feel nothing (but boredom) when I watch a Fred Zinnemann film, but I like The Search.
Peter Jackson: Meet the Feebles
Richard Linkletter: Slacker
PTA: Punch Drunk Love
“Peter Jackson: Meet the Feebles”
Same here, even though I also love Brain Dead.
The House of Yes by Mark Waters.
Sisters – Depalma
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance – Park Chan-wook
Ed Wood – Tim Burton
Justin Marble
As stated, do you have any films from a certain director that you love, but as a whole you’re not into their work? Three examples for me personally:
The Big Lebowski- The Coen Brothers. I tend to like the Coen Brothers a little bit less than everyone else. Fargo is OK but I thought No Country was overrated and I’m just sort of “meh” on their filmography. There are a lot of WTFs that nobody talks about- Intolerable Cruelty and The Ladykillers being two glaring flaws. But at the same time, The Big Lebowski is far and away my favorite comedy of all time and the movie I quote the most.
Big Fish- Tim Burton. I hate Burton’s Batman and his darker stuff is just real hack-work to me. I don’t gel with the whole Corpse Bride-Sweeney Todd kind of vibe. I do like Ed Wood but at the same time there could be some improvements and I don’t think of him as a great director. But again, Big Fish is fantastic- one of my favorite movies. Maybe I just like him doing lighter stuff but the final scene when Albert Finney is carried down to the river is just unbelievably good.
2001- Stanley Kubrick. I have trouble putting this on here because on the whole I very much like Stanley Kubrick. The Shining is probably my favorite horror film (though I don’t like the genre, and its probably my favorite because its so much more than a horror film) and I think 2001 is just a tremendous movie from a pure technical filmmaking perspective. At the same time I don’t care for Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, and several of his other flicks. Whenever I watch a movie of his, I feel like they are quite good but not good enough to put him in the very top tier of directors for me. Of course, except for 2001. I guess my opinion on the whole is that he’s a great filmmaker who obviously influenced all who came after, but my personal taste doesn’t align with his and I don’t consider him in the Top 10 greatest of all time like many do.
So what are your examples? I’m eager to find out and ready to have my movie buff card revoked for the Kubrick comments.