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Author Topic: 1SO vs. All the Directors  (Read 85502 times)

philip918

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #190 on: December 31, 2017, 02:53:31 PM »
Re: Zemeckis

Allied is supposed to be good. I've been meaning to check it out. It's on Hulu. I've also heard The Walk was a great theatrical experience. Not sure it would hold up in the living room.

Junior

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #191 on: December 31, 2017, 03:14:34 PM »
Allied is solid stuff. It is "the kind of movie that doesn't get made anymore".
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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #192 on: December 31, 2017, 05:11:07 PM »
Most directors change as they get older. The Spielberg who made The Post isn't the same one who made Schindler's List. With Zemeckis, there's pre-Animation and post-Animation and his run of films in the 80s and 90s is one of the best filmographies ever. There is perhaps a direct line from Cast Away to Flight, but it goes through the animated features and he seemed to return to live-action with less assured instincts.

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1SO vs. All the Directors - John Landis
« Reply #193 on: January 01, 2018, 01:25:54 AM »
#46. John Landis Ranked List

Amazing to see the thread for John Landis is so short. There was a brief period (1978 - 1983) where he was the comedy king, and now he's one of the great cinema storytellers, a great guest for any podcast. Of the titles I haven't seen...

Schlock: His film debut, which he talks about a lot on podcasts. Might be hard to find and probably terrible, but I'll look for it.
Innocent Blood: The one I will definitely watch, especially with it being re-appraised among the horror community as a hidden gem.
Susan's Plan: Kind of curious how this film happened. Easily the most obscure film in Landis' catalogue and with an IMDB rating of 5.3 I won't be checking it out.
Blues Brothers 2000: As a fan of the original, I'm kind of curious to see what that film looks like if everything goes wrong, but I'm not that curious.
« Last Edit: February 04, 2018, 09:58:59 PM by 1SO »

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #194 on: January 01, 2018, 08:12:35 AM »
I've yet to like a Landis film (see Blues Brothers, Three Amigos, America Werewolf in London). I legitimately do not understand what people think is great about Blues Brothers.

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Re: 1SO vs. All the Directors
« Reply #195 on: January 02, 2018, 12:40:46 AM »
I legitimately do not understand what people think is great about Blues Brothers.
Great music, wonderful cameos, epic car chase slapstick and deadpan comedy reactions to all the insanity. It's very similar to The General in terms of scale, humor and the reaction of the lead(s), but the music is something that put Blues Brothers way above.

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Arthur Penn
« Reply #196 on: January 02, 2018, 01:10:30 AM »
#47. Arthur Penn Ranked List.

Penn has made a Masterpiece, a Messterpiece, a piece of crap and plenty in between. He has titles I've been curious about forever, but never sat down to watch. A perfect candidate for this Marathon. I will try to get to...
The Left Handed Gun
The Chase
Alice's Restaurant



That leaves Four Friends, but I'd rather re-watch Dead of Winter, which I saw 30 years ago.

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Richard Donner
« Reply #197 on: January 06, 2018, 12:50:05 AM »
#48. Richard Donner Ranked List.

This time it's personal. While I never thought of Donner as one of the Greats - a distinct lack of style and a sense of humor that's only slightly better than Brian DePalma - he could put together a great story at times. He gave the world Superman and Superman II. His filmography has so much variety, with action, horror, fantasy and a western. But I said it was personal.

In 1989 he directed one of the great half-hours of television, an episode of Tales from the Crypt called "Dig That Cat... He's Real Gone", starring Joe Pantoliano and Robert Wuhl. It's shot and edited in a frenetic, almost experimental state. A really good story told with an aggressive style not associated with Donner. He filmed it in between Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2, which cut together to form a nearly 4-hour Godfather of the action genre.

Also between the two LWs he made Scrooged. Scrooged and The Goonies (1985) are two comedies with a strong cult following and I despise them both. Scrooged is way over-produced and seriously unfunny, while Goonies is kiddie trash.

The other personal film for me is 1992's Radio Flyer, one of the best, most difficult films ever made about child abuse. Donner made some big, risky decisions, giving the drama a heavy dose of fantasy that some thought undercut the abuse, but I thought it enhanced it while also making it easier to sit through. The way the film ends is one of the most clever bits of direction I've come across, but the film was a major flop and afterwards Donner stopped trying. His output after Radio Flyer is indifferent at best.

I haven't seen his three features before The Omen, but I love the concept of a buddy action comedy called Salt and Pepper.

Quote
After discovering the body of a murdered female agent in their trendy Soho, London nightclub, groovy owners Charles Salt (Sammy Davis Jr.) and Christopher Pepper (Peter Lawford) partake in a fumbling investigation and uncover an evil plot to overthrow the government.

I haven't seen Timeline. I have no reason to see Timeline. I won't see Timeline.

That leaves Inside Moves (1980), which looks interesting enough. I'll be watching that.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2018, 01:06:29 AM by 1SO »

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1SO vs. All the Directors - Preston Sturges
« Reply #198 on: January 06, 2018, 11:14:27 PM »
#49. Preston Sturges Ranked List

I like him as a writer even more than I like him as a director, where his best quality is knowing best how to direct one of his scripts. I also like his ensemble of regulars, especially the great William Demarest, who appeared in 8 of Sturges' films and two additional scripts by Sturges. Where I'm out of step with popular opinion is I think The Palm Beach Story is very overrated and Sullivan's Travels slightly overrated, while there isn't enough love for Hail the Conquering Hero.


I haven't seen The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend, which comes up a lot as a recommendation even though it's not supposed to be a good movie. That's on youtube, so I'll be watching it. There's also The Great Moment, which has been completely under my radar until now even though it stars Joel McCrea, Betty Field, Harry Carey and William Demarest. That just leaves The French, They Are a Funny Race, which I have no interest in at this time.

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1SO vs. All the Directors - John Frankenheimer
« Reply #199 on: January 07, 2018, 11:09:05 PM »
#50. John Frankenheimer Ranked List

I like his good stuff and really don't like the rest. There isn't any in between. What I don't understand is how his good films - pulpy as they often are - appear to come from a place of intelligence, but the bad ones range from numb to braindead. 


With 30 feature films and a half-dozen more acclaimed TV Movies, I have a lot to choose from. Black Sunday and Grand Prix have been deep on my Watchlist forever and I've been interested in The Iceman Cometh, avoiding it because it's almost 4 hours long. So, I'll plan to make time for that. There's also a Playhouse 90 on Criterion called The Comedian starring Mickey Rooney, Kim Hunter and Edmond O'Brien and written by Rod Serling. Seems like something that might appeal to me.