Tarantino. Godard did Godard better.
Chen: I would agree about Ron Howard until I saw A Beuatiful Mind. I thought it a great film and Howard’s touch was just right. It lacked his usual sentimentality – unless you think of the ending, where the professors all greet the Rusell Crowe, but this time, it worked for me. Most every director we ditz here has at least one good or great film to their credit, nicht wahr? I changed my opinion of Russell Crowe for the better as a result of his performance in this film, too.
MARTIN SCORSESE
and STEVEN SPIELBERG,
I take back the Godard and replace it with a Tarantino.
Nick Roeg, Guy Maddon
Stephen Spielberg (I don’t like him at all or any of his films) and John Carpenter (he made the very good slasher film “Halloween”, and…that’s about it).
I’d say the most overrated one must be Wong Kar Wai. Despite the fact that I’m from Hong Kong, I have my reasons to despise Wong. His films always claim to reminisce the 1960s of Hong Kong, but he’s not. He’s just using different kinds of ‘tricks’ like beautiful music, art design and cinematography to attract people’s attention and gain appreciation.
Some even compare him to Godard and some say Godard is overrated. Okay, before I understood his most ‘accessible’ films Breathless, I doubt him too. But when I saw it for the 3rd time, I started to realize how good it is. You know, a genius cannot be easily understood by normal people like us. Before you judge the genius like Godard or Kubrick, make sure you understand their films first.
And the other is Spielberg. Yeah, he’s not a bad director. He’s able to stun the audience. But he’s fake. For instance Eagle Eye is a film that tries to make money, but he’s just playing the tricks of hand-held camera, strong sound effect, fierce stunts and fast editing. Everyone can make such a film using the tricks. It’s so weird that so many like him.
M. Night Shyamalan – if you can get away with overpriced (not to mention over-rated) Hitchcock rip-offs, more power to you. just don’t ask me to like it.
i think
Brian De Palma and Oliver Stone are my reviled top two
Sadly the person who rates M. Night Shyamalan the highest is MNS himself—man, is that guy self-fond.
Stanley Kubrick (excepting Spartacus, Lolita, and The Killing)
Clint Eastwood
Tim Burton (However, I do love Beetlejuice)
Quentin Tarantino
Some Frank Capra (Mr Smith, Mr Deeds, You Can’t Take It With You, Arsenic And Old Lace, Its A Wonderful Life). His earlier stuff is much better.
and (I know I am on dangerous ground here) John Ford.
It’s amazing that all the overrated directors that we have named so far are all american directors. DOes that say something about american films?
ANyway…I feel that Speilberg is a hack now. He has lost his sense of wow and every film that he does now feels like he is phoning it in.
Tarantino was good in the beginning but I feel that he has referenced one too many 70’s schlock movies. However I still am anxious for every new movie that he directs.
Brian De Palma is just too gimmicky with his camera work. Yes the Camera tilts…make me feel for your characters and the tilting camera is icing on the cake.
Ron Howard is Talentless. Yes he made a Beautiful mind and Splash and Parenthood but he also made A Beautiful Mind, Splash, and Parenthood. Are these really the new classics or are they just oscar fodder and product to get the studios into the black instead of the red?
But I can’t think of one director that has not been named on this forum yet that I feel as being overrated.
If you define being overrated as not living up to original promise, Francois Truffaut might be considered a little overrated but “The 400 Blows,” “Jules And Jim” and “Shoot The Piano Player” are pretty remarkable achievements. “The Wild Child” and “The Story Of Adele H” are impressive too. However, much of his other stuff is not so hot (“Mississippi Mermaid,” “The Man Who Loved Women,” “The Last Metro,” “A Gorgeous Kid LIke Me,” “The Bride Wore Black,” “The Green Room.”)
If you look back into film history there are directors who flower for a period and then lose their inspiration. Rene Clair had a great start and created masterpieces in France. Then, at least in the United States, became less of an original. Admittedly he had to contend with the studio bosses. Later on, back in France, his films also lacked his early touch. Is he overrated? As far as I am concerned, the man who created “Le Million” can never be overrated.
I see a lot of people saying spielberg. I don’t like the guy too much and he may be overrated (in the sense that he’s considered the best director ever by a lot). But I definitely like a good amount of his films. I am however surprised how nobody mentioned minority report. I was a HUGE fan of it, and thought it was one of the best sci-fi movies I had seen in like.. five years. What are you guys’ thoughts?
I felt Minority Report was too much like a video game. Didm’t open my mind at all which is what I would like in a sci-fi film.
TIM BURTON
I’d have to say Spielberg…
W. Anderson did get some over-hype about the Royal Tenebaums, what with the huge cast involved…
and I can’t say that Tarantino is “over-rated” because he never fails in what he does, or in making his vision…
Whatever Tarantino / W. Anderson set out to do, happens. And not everybody knows who Tarantino and Wes Anderson are…
So, I can’t rightfully say they are over-rated.
But the over-use of special effects and weak sub-plots in War of the Worlds proved that Spielberg is a bit over-rated.
AND George Lucas…
Don’t get me wrong…I am just as much a Star Wars buff as the next sci-fi nerd…but he hasn’t done a single movie aside from “the saga” since Howard the Duck (which I personally enjoy from time to time)…
Lucas is visionary…but he is not what I consider to be a great filmmaker of our time…
I was wondering if anyone would mention George Lucas due to his lack of good filmmaking in the past decades. But then again he really shouldn’t be considered over-rated since it’s generally accepted that the Star Wars trilogy are awesome and the prequels leave little to be desired.
I agree with Spielberg being overrated, he makes movies for the mass blockbuster crowds who just wants quickie entertainment. Criterion Collection would probably be slammed for picking up any of his titles like the Bay selections have.
The Axis of Overratedness: Soderbergh, Bertolucci, Fellini.
Clint Eastwood is not a director I derive any pleasure from — nor is his acting a balancing factor. Both leave me colder than cold.
I would have to say Scorcese. I feel like I’m the only one who feels this way, but I don’t get angry about it. Taxi Driver is a great film and so is Mean Streets. My favorite, though, is actually The King of Comedy. That’s the only one I’ve truly loved of his. I don’t know what it is, but Goodfellas just seems like a bloated Hollywood flick to me. Lots of holes and while I love his taste in music, he is terrible at playing it in films! Departed (which I also did like, but not love) would have been 10x better without the awful music. He is also prone to incredibly cheesy, oscar bait moves (perhaps just in the last 20 years which I believe his only goal was to get an Oscar) such as the rat at the end of the Departed. Blegh. I don’t know what it is, but he is probably the only “it” director that I just can’t buy into fully.
Also, I love Tarantino and I understand why everyone is dropping his name, but I don’t think he’s overrated at all. If anything Grindhouse showed that his name alone is not enough to draw an audience and that movie was amazing! (Sure, half the credit goes to Rodriguez). I think becuase he’s a vocal guy (unlike other contemp directors) he’s more controversial in news unrelated to his films. I mean, the dude’s pretty whacked.
And one last thing, the PT Anderson fanboy in me has speak out to Matt Miller – are you crazy! PT is a sick director. I do agree that he has taken things from past directors and dont agree at all with Boogie Nights and Goodfellas. There are plenty of films that are purely “character” driven like those are. I think Boogie Nights is a far superior film to Goodfellas. The acting, the story, the photography is all way better. PT is a student of film, anyone who’s a director today is bound to take from his own idols. Hell, even The Beatles stole riffs from Chuck Berry. Everyone does it, but it’s how you use it that counts and PT is able to make it his own. He is able to assimilate what he takes and twist in in an odd way that makes it his. I think PT is one of the finest directors of all time and, while, even in his words Magnolia is his best film, I think we’ve only seen the beginning of what he’s gonna do.
Kevin Smith and Tim Burton. I just watched Clerks and Batman again and they both sucked.
Godard. I would rather watch the worst Spielberg film than have to suffer through Weekendn or Tout Va Bien again. Well maybe not 1941.
The fact that Ron Howard beat out both Robert Altman and David Lynch a half decade ago for the coveted (???) Best Picture Oscar, for me, demonstrates just how middlebrow a director he is and the sensibility to which his work far too commonly appeals. He isn’t over- or under-rated. He’s just bland. He’s like Rob Reiner (in more ways than one, I suppose) – so much potential to be more than he is, but so preoccupied with commercial viability.
A BEAUTIFUL MIND is no different, and certainly no better than any conventional Hollywood biopic. The aging make up at the end is the worst I’ve seen, at least for a big budget movie.
Moan, groan.
You who pan A Beautiful Mind are completely wrong and missing the point of this film. It is NOT a conventional Hollywood biopic. We are taken inside the mind of a disturbed but brilliant individual , very well played by Crowe, and can see the world from his perspective. I thought Howard did an excellent job of handling the subject and never pandered to popular taste or sentimentality. It is an original work, as worthy a biopic as Shine – which I am sure the same people will pan. But you are all totally out of the loop if you can’t see how sensitive Howard’s handling of the subject matter is. This is snobbism in the extreme and just plain wrong!
Don’t judge this film on the basis of a bias against Howard or Crowe – judge it on its own merits. In any case, I am now leaving this site because I am afraid it is being filled with too many ‘superior’ snobs and not enough people passionate about film – who can judge a film by an objective standard – not by ingrained prejudices.
Paul….Thomas….Anderson.
Chen
Ron Howard