Directors I Generally Despise
Submitted by Cosgrove on Thu, 08/05/2004 - 02:53
Tags:
- Pupi Avati
- Michael Bay
- Danny Boyle
- Larry Clark
- Rob Cohen
- Chris Columbus
- Michael Cooney
- Michael Davis
- Jan de Bont
- Roland Emmerich
- Nora Ephron
- Abel Ferrara
- Mike Figgis
- Robert Harmon
- Peter Hyams
- James Mangold
- Garry Marshall
- Paul McGuigan
- Stephen Norrington
- Gregory Poirier
- Rick Rosenthal
- Eric Schaeffer
- Joel Schumacher
- Shinya Tsukamoto
- Simon West
- Brian Yuzna
Author Comments:
You can be sure that I won't be first in line to catch any new films by the above persons.
I recognize most of these names...
I thought de Bont did a great job with SPEED, but admittedly it's all downhill--well, a cliff, really -- from there.
I kinda like Rob Cohen's work, actually.
Robert Harmon? Isn't that the name of John Cassavettes character in LOVE STREAMS? (That character would've been a shitty director as well, now that I think about it.) Checking IMDB... ah, I see who you're talking about.
I really loved Norrington's BLADE, but that's starting to look like a fluke.
I also enjoyed Yuzna's RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD 3, but I haven't seen anything else by him (but I've been curious about SOCIETY.)
What are your feelings about two other potentially good directors who've been Touched By The Dark Hand of Bruckheimer: Dominic Sena and Boaz Yakin?
Dominic Sena isn't exactly a favorite of mine either, but then I haven't seen "Kalifornia" so I'm unqualified to wholly dismiss him. Boaz Yakin, on the other hand... somehow, I don't think I've seen a single film he's ever made.
I'm lukewarm on Yuzna's "ROTLD3", which should tell you how I feel about everything else he does. He's a lot like Larry Cohen, in that he can take the greatest premise in the world and, through sheer lack of talent or imagination, totally bollocks it up.
Chris Columbus
Stephen Sommers
Joel Schumacher
Renny Harlin
Richard Rush
Richard Donner
...yecch
"Van Helsing" aside, I actually like Sommers -- hell, I'll even champion "Deep Rising" when given the chance. And let's not forget, Richard Rush may have made "Color of Night", but he also made "The Stunt Man".
Harlin and Donner are hit-and-miss with me -- when they're good, they're very good, but when they're bad, clear the damn room. As for Schumacher and Columbus... how could I have forgotten? I'll add 'em.
"Remember your humanity and forget the rest"
--Albert Einstein
I luuuved The Stunt Man. So I was thrilled to see that Richard Rush had directed another movie when Color of Night came out. And then I saw it. And then I saw some of his earlier films. And now I bear him a great deal of personal animus. I wouldn't even cross the street to watch The Sinister Saga of Making "The Stunt Man".
Every "good" Richard Donner picture makes me wonder what might have been if only someone else had directed the movie. I'm not saying that I haven't liked some of his movies, I most certainly have, just that they are Herculean efforts of underachievement. (Danny Glover on the toilet? This is not happening, this is not happening...)
Yeah, I do get all self-righteous about movies that have great special effects or stunts without a story to match. I try to convince myself that I'm not being pedantic. I'd prefer to think of it as *quirky.*
Come on, you know you want to take down some giants. Pull an m'da and diss Bergman! Take down Rohmer like Rosenbaum! Stomp Lynch's face in a la Ebert! Do you really want to have lunch with Hou Hsaio-Hsien? Be honest. :-)
Well, the problem is that I really like Bergman and Lynch. What can I say, I'm easily swayed. Hou, though... I've only seen "Millennium Mambo", but christ I hated that. So ya never know.
Rosenbaum's down on Rohmer? I didn't know that. Knew he was down on Woody Allen, the Coen Brothers, Lucas, Spielberg, etc...
Roseybaum liked "Lady and the Duke" (which I haven't seen yet), but in general is hard on the Sultan of Talk.
Also, forcing yourself to watch Hou's "Good Man, Good Woman" and "The Flowers of Shanghai" back to back is pretty punishing.
Yeah, I get the feeling that Hou ain't my cup o' tea. I've never been able to finish watching "L'Avventura", so maybe the Cinema of Ennui just isn't for me.
Wes Anderson seems like an odd (and also interesting) choice for this list. Could you elaborate?
Certainly. I like the man's artistry, but to put it simply I think his films are heartless. He's overly enamored of his own sense of whimsy to the point where it never seems like he's actually involved with his films. He could be a great director one day, but he has to convince me that he gives a damn.
The heartlessness ties in to a problem I also have with his movies (and he's still one of my favorite directors): his characters never seem to break free of the dollhouses he places them in. No one's actions seem to have lasting consequences, and so no one really changes. I enjoy Anderson's childlike view of the world, but I have to admit it can descend into childishness.
That's exactly it. I don't feel he trusts his characters as characters -- they're more like pawns to be pushed around within his fetishized world. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing... but when you try and make me care about these hollow vessels (most egregious offense: the suicide attempt in "Tenenbaums"), you're barking up the wrong tree.
"Pawns to be pushed around within his fetishized world"--well put! I did feel that the suicide attempt was a good scene, because of the great use of music and montage, and because the character of Richie Tenenbaum was more fully realized emotionally than most of the others in the movie. But everyone's reactions afterward were weirdly distant--which may be part of Anderson's point about how this family relates to each other, but it serves to distance us from the movie, too.
i know this is a bit late, but i would agree with you on what you say about ANY character OTHER than richie tenenbaum... there is the one wes character you can care about... it is the one time i really felt like a character of his wasn't just a "pawn to be pushed around within his fetishized world" as you say... although that happens to be something i like about wes andersons movies, but that is a matter of taste... but i think richie may be the one character in his movies that doesn't fit that description... he seems to be the most human and real of them all. we know what he wants, he suffers for it, and we secretly hope he gets it, i did anyway.
I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that, if only because I think that Luke Wilson's acting in "Tenenbaums" was, shall we say, deficient. Anderson's worldview is alienating enough, but when you can't get actors who can at least get into your characters' skins properly, your problems are only compounded.
i do see what your saying, but i do think wilson did a fine job with basically the main character of the movie, in fact i think wilson's performance was downright amazing, sure simple, odd and alienating maybe, but i think he pulled it off
How about Gondry and the direction of Eternal Sunshine? IMO there's a heartless directed example. The script is great, but those characters are "vesseling away" the whole movie.
wait what made Wes Anderson make it into the list:??? (watch it cosgrove you're stepping on thin ice my friend ;-)
Heh... refer to the discussion above with Penny -- I find his films cold and overly precious.
Just out of curiosity, what did you think of The Life Aquatic, Rushmore?
I Haven't Actually seen it yet. i'm from the UK and it has yet to be released here but its comming out Feb18th, i'm planning on seeing it as soon as i can. when i do you'll be the first too know. i'm abit nervous though because it has got very mixed reviews.
I actually have a special hate for Wes Craven, the so-called "Master of Terror". All the talk about Wes Anderson reminded me.
I rather like Craven's work, though I'll admit he can go wrong in a big way ("Cursed", anyone?).
I agree on those with whose names I'm familiar and by whom I have already seen at least one film.
The only exception would be Joel Schumacher. Granted, the two Batman-films are really bad, but Falling Down and Tigerland are IMO pretty good films.