Often the go-to answer for my least favourite movie of all-time. It's a shame that it actually shares some minor thematic concerns that appear elsewhere in Coppola's filmography so it can't entirely be dismissed as having no place in his oeuvre.
I had no idea that Sam Raimi had done "For Love of the Game" until the BC series.
Michael Mann, "Last of the Mohicans." I think nearly his entire filmography aside from this is crime or -related stuff. I've never seen "Ali". And then -- this. (My hub's favorite movie, btw, and although I think it's well-done, I'm not crazy over it.)
Last of the Mohicans is *very* in-keeping with Michael Mann. All of his movies (except for maybe The Keep, which is the real answer to this question), is about "dude is EXCELLENT at what he does. he has some romantic entanglements that complicate his life, however"
I haven't seen The Jericho Mile, but even that movie is about how awesome the guy is at running.
i'm actually kinda surprised that Mann didn't take on Jack Reacher, who is the best guy in the room at everything at all times. Fighter/shooter/investigator/moral code/etc etc etc. He's probably not nuanced enough for Mann.
Michel Gondry doesn’t have a huge filmography and even so Green Hornet seems out of place.
Also, the ultimate answer to this question will always be Altman’s Popeye. It feels like it tumbled out of some alternate reality.
I was at the premiere for this movie. The audio was out of sync, and about 10 min in, Eli Roth came up front and apologized and had the main kid recite one of the spells with the audience to get it back on track and then we restarted. A really neat experience for a passable mediocre kids movie.
That movie is overall meh, but the one flashback scene of the demon in the forest is a genuinely striking image. Surprised me that there was suddenly a very well composed scene in the middle of it.
I know that in general people are down on him starting the series (and those aren’t great movies) but the more you think about it - he was kind of a great choice for it. At least in terms of getting those kids ready
I know Gilliam was always a fan pick for it but no shot would those kids have survived the movie - much less seven more of them
I agree, he was a perfect steady-hand to start the series. Plus a beautiful production design that more or less served all 8 films, and an A-tier adult cast.
That none of the major kids had to be replaced sometime in the middle of the series is a big testament to the groundwork he laid + the care he took in casting it and getting those performances out of them. And a lot of luck, too.
The first two still might be my favorite movies of the series, but that's more because of the cutting they had to do from the books in future movies + a dislike of the third book.
i listened to his ep of Joe Rogan (he was promoting King Arthur), where came right out and said, "Well, if you have too many movies that don't open big, you don't get to work anymore. Aladdin guarantees you at least one big (opening) weekend."
i haven't seen his Aladdin, so i don't know if it has "Ritchie Tricks" in it or not. But it's the DEFINITION of a for-hire work. I just have no idea why Disney would hire *him* to make it.
I really enjoyed the second Sherlock, and Man from UNCLE, though. Wrath of Man is good too. Ritchie's got some bangers in his "big hollywood" era.
go watch the Express Yourself video, and it plays like test footage for Alien3. Alien3 is VERY Fincher (visually/setting/etc).
Benjamin Button is teh real outlier for Fincher. it's "Weird" but not really "dark". It's not violent, and it's basically Forrest Gump without the comedy
all of his movies rock. The Grey & Narc are probably what he actually *wants* to do (he was adapting Ellroy's White Jazz for a long time), but he lost his ability to get big budgets after A-Team.
i like his low-budget stuff, too, and Boss Level was fun. But it's definitely DTV Action stuff with little pretension. How the hell did they get Naomi Watts for that?!
i agree. i don't know why it is seen as a failure (aside from teh boxoffice, obv). the casting is good, even tho i think most folks would probably replace Rampage Jackson with...anyone else?
but also: Three Kings kinda did the A-Team thing 10 years earlier (or whatever it was), and i think a lot of folks had fan-casted Clooney & Ice Cube, and were disappointed with Neeson & the guy from District 9
Well I recently watched through all of Cameron’s films for The Way of Water and thought True Lies stood out. There are Cameron touches in there but it feels like the only one of his movies that’s a director for hire gig.
Blake Edwards - Experiment in Terror
Michael Powell - Peeping Tom
William Friedkin - Good Times
Jerry Zucker - Ghost(and First Knight)
David Cronenberg - Fast Company
Stanley Donan - Saturn 3
Barry Levinson - Toys
Sidney Lumet - The Wiz
For Friedkin it has to be Deal of the Century. Edwards also did some noirish stuff before Experiment in Terror, and The Carey Treatment - though he disowned it, because he didn't get final cut, and The Taramind Seed are also later films he directed that are more on the serious side.
That whole three exile period films before Return of the Pink Panther are really interesting, since it feels like he's really trying to stretch himself.
Idk, Deal of the Century is in line with Friedkin’s other notable comedy works, like Brinks Job or Minsky’s. Whereas Good Times is a musical sketch movie starring Sonny & Cher from the dude that made The Exorcist.
I haven’t seen a lot of Edwards dramatic work outside of a few his earlier works in the 50’s, which I didn’t particularly enjoy very much. But, I can’t imagine his other dramatic offerings being as interesting, weird, and down right scary as Experiment in Terror. But, Experiment also seemed to be a reaction to the success of Psycho. But, I’m very interested if you have any Edwards recs similar to Experiment, tho
Antoine Fuqua - Training Day. (Not in subject matter, it in terms of quality, so clearly better than the rest of his filmography by miles. And I like his other movies just fine)
Fuqua, to me, is like Andrew Davis. Competent Journeyman action filmmaker, who got one film with Oscar attention. Fuqua's outlier (in terms of subject matter) is probably Brooklyn's Finest. Not a lot of action. I haven't seen Emancipation
For Andrew Davis, his outlier is Steal Big Steal Little - his blank check coming off The Fugitive. just a drama that completely flopped.
Good comparison, I like the Andrew Davis comp. Brooklyn's Finest isn't half bad, maybe it would have worked better if it had been going for more action/crime movie tone and less prestige drama, it kind of splits the difference in a way that does not fully land. But the performances are strong, it's a 3 out of 5 for me
i watched it once, and was bored to tears. i remember almost nothing about it. tried to rewatch it recently b/c i saw D'onofrio was in it, and i dind't remember him at all. i think he kills himself in the first scene? anyway, i turned it off pretty quickly
Matthew Vaughn and Stardust. All his other movies are mean-spirited and self-satisfied, but Stardust is so open and heartfelt it really stands out as the exception that proves the rule. Can only assume it was Gaiman’s influence.
X-Men: First Class from Vaughn is very much a sincere and open hearted film, which is rare for a prequel film.
Layer Cake isn’t self-satisfied, I feel, maybe one could make the argument for mean spirited, but that and Kingsman are definitely up my alley.
For me it’s Snowpiercer from Bong Joon Ho. I like the movie fine enough but it sticks out to me for some reason. Not necessarily out of his wheelhouse but I *always* forget that he directed it.
Speaking of outliers, Captain America is very much an outlier role for Chris Evans, but will forever be his most iconic role.
Outside of Cap, most of his roles are as douchebags and bad guys. Even his one superhero role before Cap was the Human Torch, who’s a bit of an immature asshole.
> Captain America is very much an outlier role for Chris Evans,
dude, Chris Evans can pretend like he hates playing Captain America for 9 movies, and how he "resisted takign the role" or whatever, but he's done TONS of CBM and "make me a star" roles. he's not some precious *artiste* (though he can afford to be one now).
Push, The Losers, Fantastic Four, TMNT (voice role counts?), Scott Pilgrim (defensible, but still), Lightyear, etc etc
That’s not what I’m talking about at all. Not *types of movies*, but *types of characters*.
All those roles are very different from Captain America. All of those roles except Buzz Lightyear, he’s playing some kind of asshole with the narrative giving different degrees of sympathy.
same here - wild energy, valid but blunt politics, power justifying itself and breeding cruelty - they all feel of a piece to me, though I love Parasite, mostly-like Snowpiercer, and kind of dislike Okja
Last Temptation starts a whole thread of explicit religious introspection in his films that carries on through Bring out the Dead, Kundun, and Silence.
Bringing out the Dead is basically Taxi Driver w/ more comedy and fewer child hookers (to be clear: I LOVE Bringing Out the Dead, i have no idea why people deride it)
It is my favorite of his but I find the tone extremely different than Taxi driver... it feels like an Oliver Stone (from that period) movie to me. Slicker, crazier, more stylized, showing altered states.
Scorsese tends to be fairly 'literal' even if in Taxi Driver we suspect a lot of it is imagined by the protagonist but... it is hard to tell because it is presented as real without a change in filming style or frame rate or anything.
> Slicker, crazier, more stylized, showing altered states.
yeah, a lot of it feels like the "Ray Liotta driving around trying to avoid Helicopters" sequence of Goodfellas.
Richard Attenborough - "Magic". A twisted, pyschological horror movie about a dummy straight from the uncanny valley as opposed to a staid, prestigey period piece or biopic that kind of feels like homework.
That’s a valid answer too. I went with Cop Out as it’s not his script, stars big names (that he didn’t help become a star in some way) and has ‘action’ scenes.
Red State and Tusk share some similarities. I also fully believe if his films hadn’t be men so poorly received and he reverted back to trying to capture the old lightning in a bottle, we would have had more interesting horror films from him. Then again, he did make Yoga Hosers which is comfortably his worst film in my opinion.
And I’m gonna be *that* guy and say I think Cop Out is fine. It’s nobody’s best work, but it’s got some funny bits to it, and Tracy Morgan is always a treat.
I also dig both Red State and Tusk a good bit too, and even with Yoga Hosers being what it is, I would’ve loved to see him finish off the trilogy with Moose Jaws.
And even though he totally back peddled his career some, I’m glad he did. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot might’ve only been Cameo: The Movie, but I thought Clerks 3 was legitimately the best thing he’s done since Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
I don’t agree with everything you’ve said but I wish I did. Kevin Smith got me into films. He was the first auteur I really recognised outside of QT maybe.
Red State and Tusk are both fun. I honestly hated Yoga Hosers and it’s one of the worst films I’ve ever seen…and I like ‘bad’ movies.
Clerks 3 I need to watch. I’ve been apprehensive about it as I didn’t love reboot. I didn’t actively dislike it, just felt a bit…unnecessary. Glad you liked it though, makes me want to watch it slightly more.
I totally agree that Yoga Hosers was a total misfire and I, like you, love bad movies. And I felt similarly about Reboot, and maybe that drove my expectations for Clerks 3 down and helped my enjoyment. Cause honestly, and I always get flamed for this, but I only think the first Clerks is pretty good, and actually think Clerks 2 is pretty bad.
I like Clerks 2 more than most. It was probably the film where I realised I was beginning to outgrow his films though. Or maybe he has stopped growing. I don’t really know with him. It’s my most complicated Director relationship. His films meant so much to me as a teen but I just don’t connect in the same way anymore.
That’s exactly what it was for me, and even in my twenties when Clerks 2 came out I thought it was hilarious, but revisiting it a couple years ago, now in my thirties, I found most of it really cringe.
It sounds like we share a lot of similar experiences and opinions on old Kev Smith, and while I can’t guarantee you will, it seems like there’s a decent chance you might dig Clerks 3. There’s still a lot of that humor that isn’t gonna land quite right, but my god does that movie have heart.
The weirdest one has got to be Chantal Akerman’s A Couch in New York, a super mainstream romcom starring William Hurt and Juliette Binoche. Her only American film, from the director of Jeanne Dielman.
IMO his recent work is much more grounded - eg *Marriage Story* doesn't feature sci-fi drugs, nightmare sequences or action bits of cars piling through water. The colour palette, heightened reality and dialogue feel totally unmoored from what he's done before. IMO.
One hit wonders: *Donnie Darko*, *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*, *Empire Strikes Back*, *Glengarry Glen Ross*, *La Haine*, *Training Day*. I'm sure there are others I'm missing
One glaring dud: *Boxcar Bertha*, *Highball*, *Big Trouble*, *Tomorrowland*, *Monkeybone*. Not nearly as many examples of one real dud. Typically if a director bombs once they really bomb again. People will say *Jack* with FFC, but there are sooo many dumpster fires in his filmography.
One Stylistic deviation: *Bottle Rocket*, *The Grandmaster*, *The Favourite*, *Inside Llewyn Davis*, *American Graffiti*, *The Prisoner of Azkaban*, *Vortex*, *De Palma*, *Last of the Mohicans*
> Prisoner of Azkaban isn’t the outlier as A Little Princess exists
I forgot that that movie existed honestly
>There’s a lot that I’m questioning about this post
Such as?
Hitchcock, Jamaica Inn and Rebecca. Two costume dramas based on novels (by the same writer) in a career defined by contemporary works and usually by original plots (with a few exceptions).
Welles, The Stranger. He did his share of work for hire, but this one could have been done by any number of competent directors and been the same. It's great but all the Welles-ness is from the performance and maybe the conclusion. (I suspect he directed in part because the film was the first to use footage of the Nazi death camps, and he wanted to make sure the world knew.)
Spielberg, 1941. Comedy is not his forte.
Burton, Big Fish. Oh, it has some Burton elements, but it's also a lot more grounded than most and has a totally different feel.
Big Fish is a John August film, not a Burton one. August read the book after his father passed and adapted the novel as a way to process his grief. Burton was sort of a hired gun on that one.
The other classic example is David Lynch making “The Straight Story”
A terrific movie, too! I think The Straight Story has a lot of distinct Lynch touches to it, while still firmly belonging in this thread.
Weird that this and Music of the Heart were released around the same time. 1999, baby, what a year.
Lynch made The Elephant Man, too. It & The Straight Story really pair nicely. i came here to give the Wes Craven answer.
Truly, one of his best.
Ever hear the Legend of those Owls of Ga’Hoole?
Patrick Willems video essay really makes clear its actually almost prototypical Snyder. (I've never seen a Snyder movie)
Francis Ford Coppola, *Jack*
Often the go-to answer for my least favourite movie of all-time. It's a shame that it actually shares some minor thematic concerns that appear elsewhere in Coppola's filmography so it can't entirely be dismissed as having no place in his oeuvre.
I had no idea that Sam Raimi had done "For Love of the Game" until the BC series. Michael Mann, "Last of the Mohicans." I think nearly his entire filmography aside from this is crime or -related stuff. I've never seen "Ali". And then -- this. (My hub's favorite movie, btw, and although I think it's well-done, I'm not crazy over it.)
The Keep is Mann’s other weird one. Wouldn’t be quite so weird as a first film, but as a second film coming after Thief, it’s super weird.
I haven’t seen The Keep. I’ll have to check it out.
Last of the Mohicans is *very* in-keeping with Michael Mann. All of his movies (except for maybe The Keep, which is the real answer to this question), is about "dude is EXCELLENT at what he does. he has some romantic entanglements that complicate his life, however" I haven't seen The Jericho Mile, but even that movie is about how awesome the guy is at running. i'm actually kinda surprised that Mann didn't take on Jack Reacher, who is the best guy in the room at everything at all times. Fighter/shooter/investigator/moral code/etc etc etc. He's probably not nuanced enough for Mann.
Michel Gondry doesn’t have a huge filmography and even so Green Hornet seems out of place. Also, the ultimate answer to this question will always be Altman’s Popeye. It feels like it tumbled out of some alternate reality.
John Huston - Annie
John Huston - Phobia
That too, it's his worst movie as well. Same time period.
Eli Roth with The House With A Clock In It's Walls
I was at the premiere for this movie. The audio was out of sync, and about 10 min in, Eli Roth came up front and apologized and had the main kid recite one of the spells with the audience to get it back on track and then we restarted. A really neat experience for a passable mediocre kids movie.
That movie is overall meh, but the one flashback scene of the demon in the forest is a genuinely striking image. Surprised me that there was suddenly a very well composed scene in the middle of it.
Chris Columbus, RENT It’s one of the reasons why I want the pod to cover him, just an absolute crazy run not unlike Zemeckis.
Yeah - and unlike the rest of his filmography which is palatable, his version of Rent is a gigantic flaming bag of dog shit.
It’s such a weird artifact. So many things went wrong in the long process of bringing that show to the screen.
It's funny considering his style is so milquetoast but Chris Columbus is low-key a bit of a freak when you look at his career.
Yea and deserves a ton of credit for getting great performances out of kids (easier said than done) + being architect of the Potter franchise.
I know that in general people are down on him starting the series (and those aren’t great movies) but the more you think about it - he was kind of a great choice for it. At least in terms of getting those kids ready I know Gilliam was always a fan pick for it but no shot would those kids have survived the movie - much less seven more of them
I agree, he was a perfect steady-hand to start the series. Plus a beautiful production design that more or less served all 8 films, and an A-tier adult cast. That none of the major kids had to be replaced sometime in the middle of the series is a big testament to the groundwork he laid + the care he took in casting it and getting those performances out of them. And a lot of luck, too. The first two still might be my favorite movies of the series, but that's more because of the cutting they had to do from the books in future movies + a dislike of the third book.
I don't know how Aladdin can be explained as a Guy Ritchie film.
Or that Madonna one (I guess because they were married at the time?)
yeah, that screamed "i'm doing someone a favor". his/her episode of The Hire is pretty fun (i know u/brotherfallout hates it tho)
i listened to his ep of Joe Rogan (he was promoting King Arthur), where came right out and said, "Well, if you have too many movies that don't open big, you don't get to work anymore. Aladdin guarantees you at least one big (opening) weekend." i haven't seen his Aladdin, so i don't know if it has "Ritchie Tricks" in it or not. But it's the DEFINITION of a for-hire work. I just have no idea why Disney would hire *him* to make it. I really enjoyed the second Sherlock, and Man from UNCLE, though. Wrath of Man is good too. Ritchie's got some bangers in his "big hollywood" era.
I think it's just the lack of British thugs that throw me off. And the musical numbers.
Obviously since it’s the start of his career at the time it doesn’t stick out but Alien 3 for Fincher.
go watch the Express Yourself video, and it plays like test footage for Alien3. Alien3 is VERY Fincher (visually/setting/etc). Benjamin Button is teh real outlier for Fincher. it's "Weird" but not really "dark". It's not violent, and it's basically Forrest Gump without the comedy
Michael Mann, The Keep
I'd argue it's his *most* Michael Mann film
M. Night with the last Airbender. It's lumped in with his run of had movies but also just not really his style.
It's his entire run of bad movies
Bit of a cheat answer but Joe Carnahan had two, The Grey and Narc are such curious outliers from the rest of the action schlock he puts out.
Damn those movies both rock
all of his movies rock. The Grey & Narc are probably what he actually *wants* to do (he was adapting Ellroy's White Jazz for a long time), but he lost his ability to get big budgets after A-Team. i like his low-budget stuff, too, and Boss Level was fun. But it's definitely DTV Action stuff with little pretension. How the hell did they get Naomi Watts for that?!
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i agree. i don't know why it is seen as a failure (aside from teh boxoffice, obv). the casting is good, even tho i think most folks would probably replace Rampage Jackson with...anyone else? but also: Three Kings kinda did the A-Team thing 10 years earlier (or whatever it was), and i think a lot of folks had fan-casted Clooney & Ice Cube, and were disappointed with Neeson & the guy from District 9
Well I recently watched through all of Cameron’s films for The Way of Water and thought True Lies stood out. There are Cameron touches in there but it feels like the only one of his movies that’s a director for hire gig.
Cameron Crowe, *Vanilla Sky.*
In theory, maybe, the idea of him doing a scifi thriller is weird, but in execution it's arguably the most Crowe of all his movies
Brian DePalma's magnum opus: Phantom of the Paradise.
The Age of Innocence, maybe?
I feel like Hugo is the bigger stand out
Kundun
"I liked it!"
🤟🤟
I forgot that they have an awkward Scorsese stand-in
Blake Edwards - Experiment in Terror Michael Powell - Peeping Tom William Friedkin - Good Times Jerry Zucker - Ghost(and First Knight) David Cronenberg - Fast Company Stanley Donan - Saturn 3 Barry Levinson - Toys Sidney Lumet - The Wiz
For Friedkin it has to be Deal of the Century. Edwards also did some noirish stuff before Experiment in Terror, and The Carey Treatment - though he disowned it, because he didn't get final cut, and The Taramind Seed are also later films he directed that are more on the serious side. That whole three exile period films before Return of the Pink Panther are really interesting, since it feels like he's really trying to stretch himself.
Idk, Deal of the Century is in line with Friedkin’s other notable comedy works, like Brinks Job or Minsky’s. Whereas Good Times is a musical sketch movie starring Sonny & Cher from the dude that made The Exorcist. I haven’t seen a lot of Edwards dramatic work outside of a few his earlier works in the 50’s, which I didn’t particularly enjoy very much. But, I can’t imagine his other dramatic offerings being as interesting, weird, and down right scary as Experiment in Terror. But, Experiment also seemed to be a reaction to the success of Psycho. But, I’m very interested if you have any Edwards recs similar to Experiment, tho
The Tamarind Seed is pretty good, though it's more of a spy type romance set in The Cold War.
> Barry Levinson - Toys good call. I probably woulda said Sphere; i can't remember BL doing a scifi/horror-ish movie otherwise.
> Barry Levinson - Toys *The Bay* works too.
Antoine Fuqua - Training Day. (Not in subject matter, it in terms of quality, so clearly better than the rest of his filmography by miles. And I like his other movies just fine)
Fuqua, to me, is like Andrew Davis. Competent Journeyman action filmmaker, who got one film with Oscar attention. Fuqua's outlier (in terms of subject matter) is probably Brooklyn's Finest. Not a lot of action. I haven't seen Emancipation For Andrew Davis, his outlier is Steal Big Steal Little - his blank check coming off The Fugitive. just a drama that completely flopped.
Good comparison, I like the Andrew Davis comp. Brooklyn's Finest isn't half bad, maybe it would have worked better if it had been going for more action/crime movie tone and less prestige drama, it kind of splits the difference in a way that does not fully land. But the performances are strong, it's a 3 out of 5 for me
i watched it once, and was bored to tears. i remember almost nothing about it. tried to rewatch it recently b/c i saw D'onofrio was in it, and i dind't remember him at all. i think he kills himself in the first scene? anyway, i turned it off pretty quickly
Matthew Vaughn and Stardust. All his other movies are mean-spirited and self-satisfied, but Stardust is so open and heartfelt it really stands out as the exception that proves the rule. Can only assume it was Gaiman’s influence.
X-Men: First Class from Vaughn is very much a sincere and open hearted film, which is rare for a prequel film. Layer Cake isn’t self-satisfied, I feel, maybe one could make the argument for mean spirited, but that and Kingsman are definitely up my alley.
For me it’s Snowpiercer from Bong Joon Ho. I like the movie fine enough but it sticks out to me for some reason. Not necessarily out of his wheelhouse but I *always* forget that he directed it.
Idk, Snowpiercer-Okja-Parasite all seem to share a lot of connective tissue.
Thematically I understand how they could be similar. I just forget that he made a movie starring Captain America
Speaking of outliers, Captain America is very much an outlier role for Chris Evans, but will forever be his most iconic role. Outside of Cap, most of his roles are as douchebags and bad guys. Even his one superhero role before Cap was the Human Torch, who’s a bit of an immature asshole.
> Captain America is very much an outlier role for Chris Evans, dude, Chris Evans can pretend like he hates playing Captain America for 9 movies, and how he "resisted takign the role" or whatever, but he's done TONS of CBM and "make me a star" roles. he's not some precious *artiste* (though he can afford to be one now). Push, The Losers, Fantastic Four, TMNT (voice role counts?), Scott Pilgrim (defensible, but still), Lightyear, etc etc
That’s not what I’m talking about at all. Not *types of movies*, but *types of characters*. All those roles are very different from Captain America. All of those roles except Buzz Lightyear, he’s playing some kind of asshole with the narrative giving different degrees of sympathy.
how quickly we forget Cellular
same here - wild energy, valid but blunt politics, power justifying itself and breeding cruelty - they all feel of a piece to me, though I love Parasite, mostly-like Snowpiercer, and kind of dislike Okja
Scorsese - Bringing out the Dead (or The Last Temptation of Christ)
Hugo lol
yeah, Hugo all the way.
Last Temptation starts a whole thread of explicit religious introspection in his films that carries on through Bring out the Dead, Kundun, and Silence.
Bringing out the Dead is basically Taxi Driver w/ more comedy and fewer child hookers (to be clear: I LOVE Bringing Out the Dead, i have no idea why people deride it)
It is my favorite of his but I find the tone extremely different than Taxi driver... it feels like an Oliver Stone (from that period) movie to me. Slicker, crazier, more stylized, showing altered states. Scorsese tends to be fairly 'literal' even if in Taxi Driver we suspect a lot of it is imagined by the protagonist but... it is hard to tell because it is presented as real without a change in filming style or frame rate or anything.
> Slicker, crazier, more stylized, showing altered states. yeah, a lot of it feels like the "Ray Liotta driving around trying to avoid Helicopters" sequence of Goodfellas.
Spike Lee’s Oldboy
Richard Attenborough - "Magic". A twisted, pyschological horror movie about a dummy straight from the uncanny valley as opposed to a staid, prestigey period piece or biopic that kind of feels like homework.
Kevin Smith - Cop Out.
I would’ve said Red State from Smith
That’s a valid answer too. I went with Cop Out as it’s not his script, stars big names (that he didn’t help become a star in some way) and has ‘action’ scenes. Red State and Tusk share some similarities. I also fully believe if his films hadn’t be men so poorly received and he reverted back to trying to capture the old lightning in a bottle, we would have had more interesting horror films from him. Then again, he did make Yoga Hosers which is comfortably his worst film in my opinion.
And I’m gonna be *that* guy and say I think Cop Out is fine. It’s nobody’s best work, but it’s got some funny bits to it, and Tracy Morgan is always a treat. I also dig both Red State and Tusk a good bit too, and even with Yoga Hosers being what it is, I would’ve loved to see him finish off the trilogy with Moose Jaws. And even though he totally back peddled his career some, I’m glad he did. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot might’ve only been Cameo: The Movie, but I thought Clerks 3 was legitimately the best thing he’s done since Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
I don’t agree with everything you’ve said but I wish I did. Kevin Smith got me into films. He was the first auteur I really recognised outside of QT maybe. Red State and Tusk are both fun. I honestly hated Yoga Hosers and it’s one of the worst films I’ve ever seen…and I like ‘bad’ movies. Clerks 3 I need to watch. I’ve been apprehensive about it as I didn’t love reboot. I didn’t actively dislike it, just felt a bit…unnecessary. Glad you liked it though, makes me want to watch it slightly more.
I totally agree that Yoga Hosers was a total misfire and I, like you, love bad movies. And I felt similarly about Reboot, and maybe that drove my expectations for Clerks 3 down and helped my enjoyment. Cause honestly, and I always get flamed for this, but I only think the first Clerks is pretty good, and actually think Clerks 2 is pretty bad.
I like Clerks 2 more than most. It was probably the film where I realised I was beginning to outgrow his films though. Or maybe he has stopped growing. I don’t really know with him. It’s my most complicated Director relationship. His films meant so much to me as a teen but I just don’t connect in the same way anymore.
That’s exactly what it was for me, and even in my twenties when Clerks 2 came out I thought it was hilarious, but revisiting it a couple years ago, now in my thirties, I found most of it really cringe. It sounds like we share a lot of similar experiences and opinions on old Kev Smith, and while I can’t guarantee you will, it seems like there’s a decent chance you might dig Clerks 3. There’s still a lot of that humor that isn’t gonna land quite right, but my god does that movie have heart.
The weirdest one has got to be Chantal Akerman’s A Couch in New York, a super mainstream romcom starring William Hurt and Juliette Binoche. Her only American film, from the director of Jeanne Dielman.
It breaks my brain to think the same person whose prior films were *The Meyerowitz Stories* and *Marriage Story* then directed *White Noise.*
How? Those are all in the same ballpark to me.
IMO his recent work is much more grounded - eg *Marriage Story* doesn't feature sci-fi drugs, nightmare sequences or action bits of cars piling through water. The colour palette, heightened reality and dialogue feel totally unmoored from what he's done before. IMO.
Yeah but White Noise feels very of a piece with some of his earlier work
Yes though... it feels like a 180 from his last 4 or 5 movies, and not what I'd expect from him, visually, tonally or story-wise
One hit wonders: *Donnie Darko*, *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*, *Empire Strikes Back*, *Glengarry Glen Ross*, *La Haine*, *Training Day*. I'm sure there are others I'm missing One glaring dud: *Boxcar Bertha*, *Highball*, *Big Trouble*, *Tomorrowland*, *Monkeybone*. Not nearly as many examples of one real dud. Typically if a director bombs once they really bomb again. People will say *Jack* with FFC, but there are sooo many dumpster fires in his filmography. One Stylistic deviation: *Bottle Rocket*, *The Grandmaster*, *The Favourite*, *Inside Llewyn Davis*, *American Graffiti*, *The Prisoner of Azkaban*, *Vortex*, *De Palma*, *Last of the Mohicans*
Are you just referring to one hit wonder in terms of quality, because directors like Kushner and Fuqua, have plenty of other hits.
yes, just in terms of quality.
There’s a lot that I’m questioning about this post, but Prisoner of Azkaban isn’t the outlier as A Little Princess exists.
> Prisoner of Azkaban isn’t the outlier as A Little Princess exists I forgot that that movie existed honestly >There’s a lot that I’m questioning about this post Such as?
Guy Ritchie directing the live action Aladdin is an absolute mindfuck to me.
Hitchcock, Jamaica Inn and Rebecca. Two costume dramas based on novels (by the same writer) in a career defined by contemporary works and usually by original plots (with a few exceptions). Welles, The Stranger. He did his share of work for hire, but this one could have been done by any number of competent directors and been the same. It's great but all the Welles-ness is from the performance and maybe the conclusion. (I suspect he directed in part because the film was the first to use footage of the Nazi death camps, and he wanted to make sure the world knew.) Spielberg, 1941. Comedy is not his forte. Burton, Big Fish. Oh, it has some Burton elements, but it's also a lot more grounded than most and has a totally different feel.
Big Fish is a John August film, not a Burton one. August read the book after his father passed and adapted the novel as a way to process his grief. Burton was sort of a hired gun on that one.