My Top 5 Movie Directors List, In Order:
1. Martin Scorsese- Mainly because of one movie, Goodfellas. I have watched Goodfellas too many times, and still love every moment from “Am I clown?” to “Come on Karen!” I also loved: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Color of Money, Cape Fear, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Departed.
2. Stanley Kubrick- To me, the Patrick Ewing of directors. Yeah, he never scored that great movie for me, but I have liked everything that he has done: Full Metal Jacket, The Shinning, Dr. Strangelove, Clockwork Orange, Eye’s Wide Shut, etc… All solid movies with longevity to his movie making career with no duds.
3. Quentin Tarantino- Yes, primarily because Pulp Fiction is fucking a-mazing… “Royale with Cheese.” But I also loved Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown. I wasn’t a hue fan of the Kill Bill series (but I respect the try to do something new) Worth noting, Inglourious Basterds was good
4. Oliver Stone: I loved: The Doors, JFK, and Midnight Express. And, I don’t care if JFK was factually accurate; it was damn entertaining and was a movie not a documentary. Decent movies: Natural Born Killers, Born of the 4th of July, Any Given Sunday, Platoon, Wall Street. And yes, I agree with Chuck that Scarface is overrated which was written not directed by Stone.
5. Steven Spielberg- I think he’s overrated, generally speaking, but has still made some good movies. I don’t think I love any Spielberg movie the way I do Goodfellas or Pulp Fiction. But movies that I liked were: Jaws, Jurassic Park, All the Indiana Jones (cover your heart Indy!), Schindler’s List, E.T., and Munich. Movies that I thought were overrated, and if were not directed by Spielberg would have never been huge hits: Saving Private Ryan, A.I, Catch me if You Can, War of the Worlds. This guy knows how to make crowd pleasing hits but most of them are pretty cheesy.
9 comments:
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1) Can't argue with that. And anyone who doesn't put him in their top five is a moron and should never talk about movies again.
2) The weird thing to me about Kubrik is that his movies were all brilliant, but only in parts. Full Metal Jacket, for example -- if they'd only kept the boot camp part, it'd have been a masterpiece. The actual Vietnam parts were good, but not up to that level. Also, 2001: A Space Odyssey was awesome.
3) I love Tarantino when he's at the top of his game. But Death Proof was so stupid and self-indulgent that I just fast-forwarded to the chase scenes.
4) Not a huge Stone fan, but I do like the diversity of his work. I mean, could you have two movies more stylistically different than Wall Street and Natural Born Killers?
5) I don't agree with you on Saving Private Ryan -- the Omaha Beach scene alone (yes, I know it's played out by now) makes that a classic. And don't forget Goonies!
I need to do a revision. I can't believe I forgot Hitchcock. He goes right to #2 bumping everyone down one and Spielberg out of the top 5. Love: Psycho, Birds, North by Northwest, Rear Window, Dial M for Murder, Vertigo, just to name a few. Plus, if you’re the first to do it, you get bonus points. As an aside, I always thought that Janet Leigh (star of psycho) was hot as shit.
You left out David Ansbough...who directed the best film of all time...Hoosiers!
The two directors who I personally love are Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, Hard Eight aka Sydney (did anyone see that besides me?)) and also Wes Anderson (Rushmore, Royal Tanenbaums, Darjeeling Limited). They're both Andersons, so maybe there's something to that. PT Anderson especially I love.
I think the most underrated director of the past 30 years or so is Rob Reiner. Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride, and Stand By Me all from him.
Scorsese is dope. I did not, however, like Gangs of New York at all. Not even a little bit.
Kubrick is, amazingly, underrated. The cinematography alone is captivating. 2001 and Strangelove are 2 of the best ever. The Shining and Clockwork Orange are both inherently watchable. The first half of Full Metal Jacket might be the best hour of any movie ever (and even though it falls apart in the second half, that juxtaposition is obviously the point of the movie).
I liked Kill Bill a lot, actually. And it's better the second time, much like Pulp Fiction.
Oliver Stone is really hit and miss for me. No middle ground.
Spielberg is definitely overrated. Least common denominator shit there, save for Schindler and Munich probably. I know it's not a good movie, but there's something I really like about AI. Same with Minority Report, to a lesser extent probably.
Hitchcock is really good. Every movie has an experimental feel about it. And I mean that in the best possible way.
Rob Reiner also directed Misery, A Few Good Men, and, the best romantic comedy ever made, When Harry Met Sally. Also he's made some bad movies since then, but ignore those.
PS- Richard Donner directed the Goonies. Spielberg was the producer.
Oh, my bad with The Goonies, then.
And yes: PT Anderson is brilliant and Hard Eight was great stuff.
Never been a huge Wes Anderson fan.
Punch Drunk Love sucked monkey balls.
Anyway, no spot for the Coen Brothers?
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