All Time Favorite Directors

[a-dev]

Well nobody's perfect

 

[jnmx2000]

After reading the discourse of this thread, I hate to admit Christopher Nolan is my favorite director and I don't care for James Cameron's body of work all that much

I actually think they are pretty close in talent level, and as far as action directing goes, they both let their characters drive the action, not the action drive the characters. Even in T2 and TDK, the final confrontation is more about the personal struggle the characters have to over come to move on and do what is right, the terminator killing himself with John Conner accepting that and batman taking the fall for Harvey's crimes. Pretty much all the action sequences in both films serve the story, which is what puts those guys on a different level from other film makers.

I can understand if someone doesn't like Camerons work as the action you can pull off today makes stuff from the 80s look like childs play, but man some of the scripts from those days make today's action writers look like grade schoolers. It's one of the things I put above everything else, good writing. It's one of the reasons I do love Nolan, for the most part, he puts the script first.

 

[a-dev]

I can understand if someone doesn't like Camerons work as the action you can pull off today makes stuff from the 80s look like childs play

I wouldn't even agree with that. Today's action is constant escalation to a point of downright absurdity that can only be achieved with CGI and at that point you're suddenly watching a cartoon. I'll take the action scenes from T1 and T2 over the action from Terminator Genisys or a Fast and the Furious any day of the week.

 

[Khev]

Yeah, superhero action is definitely better than what we saw in superhero movies in the 80's but the CG helicopter chase in Genisys just can't compare to the great vehicle chases of the 80's. Fury Road's action can compare but only because it was filmed the exact same way as The Road Warrior.

 

[K07]

I should have stated I don't hate Cameron and like some of his work. T1 is awesome. T1 is better than T2 in my opinion (way better) but I didn't think T2 was a poorly made movie. I get the love it gets. I have yet to see Aliens or the Abyss but they're on my to watch list. I don't know what True Lies is besides it stars Arnie. It's not on my radar so unless it randomly comes on my TV one day I probably won't ever see it. I don't care for Titanic. It's not the worst movie ever made but I don't like it. The only movie of Cameron's I've seen and hate is Avatar. I mentioned Nolan because he's the only director who has consistently made movies that I like. "Insomnia" is the only one of his movies I don't own and rewatch. The rest are movies I come back to again and again.

And I agree for the most part that old school action > modern action. The action scenes in T1 are laughable and pretty dumb but I don't hold those against T1. The action scenes in T2 are amazing to this day and I don't think they make T2 the better movie. Has less to do with action and more to do with the whole package.

 

[Snake Plissken]

I'll take the action scenes from T1 and T2 over the action from Terminator Genisys or a Fast and the Furious any day of the week.

 

[Snake Plissken]

I have yet to see Aliens

 

[K07]

I didn't like the original "Alien." I was in no rush to go on to the sequels. I would like to give Alien another go and follow it up with Aliens and Alien 3 (the good cut folks talk about).

 

[S. Griffin]

Ridley Scott
Martin Scorsese
Quentin Tarantino
Joel and Ethan Coen
Sam Raimi
David Fincher

 

[Gully Foyle]

It's one of the reasons I do love Nolan, for the most part, he puts the script first.

Sure he does . . . because all of his scripts have a central gimmick on which his entire film hangs.

Take away the gimmick, and there isn't much of a film. Memento, Prestige, Inception, Interstellar all revolve around flashy gimmicks or concepts (which under close scrutiny don't really hold up). His remake of Insomnia lacks a conceptual twist and (by its end) is your basic cop-chases-killer flick.
His films are well-made, but pull the gimmick tentpole out of his scripts and his entire tent deflates.

Fury Road's action can compare but only because it was filmed the exact same way as The Road Warrior.

Really?
I must've missed the digital compositing and CG imagery in the 1981 flick.

Today's action is constant escalation to a point of downright absurdity that can only be achieved with CGI and at that point you're suddenly watching a cartoon.

Except I would say "video game" instead of "cartoon."
Gaming graphics have become so photo-realistic that there now exists an entire generation who view video games and CGI-heavy movies as a seamless whole.
Jurassic World looks fake as hell, but to a kid raised on GTA, it looks perfectly acceptable.
Having ADHD doesn't hurt, either.

I didn't like the original "Alien."

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[a-dev]

Except I would say "video game" instead of "cartoon."
Gaming graphics have become so photo-realistic that there now exists an entire generation who view video games and CGI-heavy movies as a seamless whole.
Jurassic World looks fake as hell, but to a kid raised on GTA, it looks perfectly acceptable.
Having ADHD doesn't hurt, either.

I accept that amendment.

 

[YankeesFanboy]

Ridley Scott
Martin Scorsese
Quentin Tarantino
Joel and Ethan Coen
Sam Raimi
David Fincher

That looks a lot like mine but I'd replace the Coens and Raimi with Kubrick and Hitchcock. Throw in Zemeckis and Michael Mann.

 

[jnmx2000]

I wouldn't even agree with that. Today's action is constant escalation to a point of downright absurdity that can only be achieved with CGI and at that point you're suddenly watching a cartoon. I'll take the action scenes from T1 and T2 over the action from Terminator Genisys or a Fast and the Furious any day of the week.

I agree, but for the general public that's what they come to expect, people jumping out of airplanes into 90MPH cars driving off to safety, I really don't think that stuffs any better, I'll take the subway chase in T2 over anything today but I'm sure there's alot of people that would say the chopper flying under the bridge looks bad and they would rather have some CGI helicopter banking under the freeway as the camera flys 360 degrees around chopper.

Sure he does . . . because all of his scripts have a central gimmick on which his entire film hangs.__

I get some of his films have a gimmick, like Memento, The Prestige, and Inception, but I don't see one with Batman Begins or TDK. And I personally consider Inception a great action movie, it's one of the few that's not a comic book movie from the last 10 years that I actually own and rewatch.

 

[jnmx2000]

I didn't like the original "Alien." I was in no rush to go on to the sequels. I would like to give Alien another go and follow it up with Aliens and Alien 3 (the good cut folks talk about).

I like Alien 3, it's got Fincher written all over it. I like both cuts of the film, besides the switch with the dog and the Ox I actually can't remember what's different between them, but I know one is longer, which I think is Finchers cut, the assembly cut is what it's called I believe.

And I can see why people don't like Alien, it's a slow burn film but a movie can draw me in on it's production design and atmosphere alone, and Alien probably has the best of both of those that I have ever seen.

Aliens, for my money is the best action movie ever made, but I grew up with it, I watched it when I was probably 7, had all the Kenner toys (and I do mean ALL of them), the comic books, and I watched the film probably weekly until I got into highschool. BUT considering the first bit of action doesn't come in until 50 mins into the movie, I can see why someone wouldn't like it, but it's for that reason that I think it's great. The fact that an action movie can hold my attention and keep me invested in the story without a action set piece and I don't get bored? I don't know, there's just something special about that to me.


Thinking about my other favorite directors I have to add Clint Eastwood to my list, Unforgiven is one of my favorite films, it easily has one of the best endings you could ask for.

 

[rushmore223]

Raiders of the Lost Ark is the Action movie pinnacle, a true example of the action scenes serving the story.

 

[jamesn50mm]

Raiders of the Lost Ark is the Action movie pinnacle, a true example of the action scenes serving the story.

I'll give you that one, raiders is my second favorite movie, one which I also consider perfect.

Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk

 

[Gully Foyle]

I get some of his films have a gimmick, like Memento, The Prestige, and Inception, but I don't see one with Batman Begins or TDK.

Well, the gimmick there is "its got Batman." Without the superhero/supervillian angle, you've got Heat or City On Fire.

(One could argue the trilogy has its feet more firmly in the crime rather than superhero genre. Nolan never got Batman's characterization completely right.)

Throw in Zemeckis and Michael Mann.

Their track records are way too spotty for me to consider "all time greats."

Forrest Gump makes me want to murder kittens. A truly insipid, wretched film.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is the Action movie pinnacle

Few would disagree. But this thread is about "All Time Favorite Directors" not "All Time Greatest Action Movie."


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[rushmore223]

Few would disagree. But this thread is about "All Time Favorite Directors" not "All Time Greatest Action Movie."


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Just part of the conversation, surprised you singled out my comment from the others in the discussion.

 

[jnmx2000]

Just part of the conversation, surprised you singled out my comment from the others in the discussion.

lol I wouldn't take anyone's comments like that to seriously. Raiders is one of the greatest action adventure films ever made, and it was made by one of the best directors in Steven Speilberg. I personally didn't find anything wrong with your comment, as it was in response to mine about action serving story.

 

[ishothimsixtimes]

About 15 years ago I probably would've just said Martin Scorsese and left it at that but my tastes seem to have changed considerably over recent years (I think i'm slowly just turning into my old man)

Sergio Leone
Alfred Hitchcock
John Ford
Clint Eastwood
Martin Scorsese
(Early) John Carpenter
(Early) Francis Ford Coppola
David Cronenberg
Paul Thomas Anderson
Dario Argento


...and most underated: Richard Donner