favorite director

Who's your favorite director and why? Are you an Eli Roth fan? John Carpenter?

Who do you think is a good up and coming director?

This is a very hard one to nail down….. there are some truly great Directors….. I couldn’t pick my absolute top so here some some of my favorites…..

John Carpenter
Martin Scorsese
James Cameron
Steven Spielberg
Wes Craven
Alfred Hitchcock
Stanley Kubrick
Quentin Tarantino
Christopher Nolan

Top today…
Zack Snyder
David Fincher
John Krasinski
Joseph Kosinski
Jordan Peele

Sticking strictly to horror, John Carpenter has to be my favorite for his versatility alone. When I think of some of this best work like Halloween, The Thing, or They Live... And even something like Escape from New York, they're all so uniquely differen't. It doesn't feel like he's trying to make the same film over and over again like some directors, nor does he have an obvious distinct style... Let's just use the obvious example of Tim Burton, who it taks all of five minutes to tell you're watching one of his films and you can see it from space. Wes Craven's a bit like Carpenter in that regard too, but I have a more mixed opinion on a lot of his films.

I also really enjoy James Wan's work. All the guy does is help create billion dollar horror franchises and you gotta respect that. I enjoy a good ghost story/haunted house movie, and Wan's one of the few directors who make that genre work and feel interesting without feeling like a retread of a hundred other movies you've seen before.

And since you brought him up... I don't care much for Eli Roth. Don't care for torture porn, so I'm not a fan of the Hostel movies... Then there's Cabin Fever and those are the only films he's really well known for... I just don't see what the big deal with him is. He's treated like this visionary director, whose all over every horror documentary or Halloween specials I see now, and I just don't get it... Or maybe he gets all those jobs because he's the only one available since every other director is busy actually making movies, lol.

John Carpenter
Sean Cunningham
James Cameron
Steven Spielberg
Wes Craven
John Carl Buechler
Quentin Tarantino
Zack Snyder
Jordan Peele
Adam Marcus
Adam Greene
William Butler

And thats pretty much it for me...

OCT 31 1978 wrote:This is a very hard one to nail down….. there are some truly great Directors….. I couldn’t pick my absolute top so here some some of my favorites…..

John Carpenter
Martin Scorsese
James Cameron
Steven Spielberg
Wes Craven
Alfred Hitchcock
Stanley Kubrick
Quentin Tarantino
Christopher Nolan

Top today…
Zack Snyder
David Fincher
John Krasinski
Joseph Kosinski
Jordan Peele

This IS a hard one to nail down. I like to put posts on here that make people think about answers that are more than " yes or no " answers. My current supervisor says he likes working with me because I make him think. I hope you enjoy my posts.

I'm Not a Goalie wrote:Sticking strictly to horror, John Carpenter has to be my favorite for his versatility alone. When I think of some of this best work like Halloween, The Thing, or They Live... And even something like Escape from New York, they're all so uniquely differen't. It doesn't feel like he's trying to make the same film over and over again like some directors, nor does he have an obvious distinct style... Let's just use the obvious example of Tim Burton, who it taks all of five minutes to tell you're watching one of his films and you can see it from space. Wes Craven's a bit like Carpenter in that regard too, but I have a more mixed opinion on a lot of his films.

I also really enjoy James Wan's work. All the guy does is help create billion dollar horror franchises and you gotta respect that. I enjoy a good ghost story/haunted house movie, and Wan's one of the few directors who make that genre work and feel interesting without feeling like a retread of a hundred other movies you've seen before.

And since you brought him up... I don't care much for Eli Roth. Don't care for torture porn, so I'm not a fan of the Hostel movies... Then there's Cabin Fever and those are the only films he's really well known for... I just don't see what the big deal with him is. He's treated like this visionary director, whose all over every horror documentary or Halloween specials I see now, and I just don't get it... Or maybe he gets all those jobs because he's the only one available since every other director is busy actually making movies, lol.

Eli Roth is a guy that seems to like making people physically sick when they go see his movies. I know people who get freaked out watching the Hostel movies, but what about something like The Green Inferno? This was a remake/homage to cannibal Holocaust of the 70s(?). This movie was so centered on barbarism it seemed like any kind of plot was incidental, but that's just my opinion. Eli Roth seems so bent on grossing people out, I can see where people don't like watching his movies.

I kinda forgot about Eli Roth now that @ThePunisher mentioned it lol!

ThePunisher wrote:

I'm Not a Goalie wrote:Sticking strictly to horror, John Carpenter has to be my favorite for his versatility alone. When I think of some of this best work like Halloween, The Thing, or They Live... And even something like Escape from New York, they're all so uniquely differen't. It doesn't feel like he's trying to make the same film over and over again like some directors, nor does he have an obvious distinct style... Let's just use the obvious example of Tim Burton, who it taks all of five minutes to tell you're watching one of his films and you can see it from space. Wes Craven's a bit like Carpenter in that regard too, but I have a more mixed opinion on a lot of his films.

I also really enjoy James Wan's work. All the guy does is help create billion dollar horror franchises and you gotta respect that. I enjoy a good ghost story/haunted house movie, and Wan's one of the few directors who make that genre work and feel interesting without feeling like a retread of a hundred other movies you've seen before.

And since you brought him up... I don't care much for Eli Roth. Don't care for torture porn, so I'm not a fan of the Hostel movies... Then there's Cabin Fever and those are the only films he's really well known for... I just don't see what the big deal with him is. He's treated like this visionary director, whose all over every horror documentary or Halloween specials I see now, and I just don't get it... Or maybe he gets all those jobs because he's the only one available since every other director is busy actually making movies, lol.

Eli Roth is a guy that seems to like making people physically sick when they go see his movies. I know people who get freaked out watching the Hostel movies, but what about something like The Green Inferno? This was a remake/homage to cannibal Holocaust of the 70s(?). This movie was so centered on barbarism it seemed like any kind of plot was incidental, but that's just my opinion. Eli Roth seems so bent on grossing people out, I can see where people don't like watching his movies.

I'm glad you brought up Green Inferno because it feeds into my point. I've never actually seen the movie, mainly because I was out on Roth at this point, so I had zero interest. I remember when the trailers for that movie came out, and Eli Roth being involved was basically the entire marketing strategy for the movie. From visionary director Eli Roth, from the director of Hostel, did we mention Eli Roth is involved? All that sandwich between a bunch of stuff happening in the jungle, but little else in context of what the move was actually about. They expected Roth's name to be enough to bring people to the theaters, and ironically, it was his name attached that turned me away... And considering that movie only made around 7 millions dollars at the US box office, I wasn't the only one who shrugged my shoulders and said no thank you.

Now, just to make sure I'm clear, I understand why fans like Eli and are fans of the Hostel movies. Hotel came out at a time when that type of horror was growing popular as horror fans were becoming more and more desensitized to what we were seeing on screen, especially with the younger generation of newer horror fans. What I don't get, is why Roth is put up on this pedestal and basically treated like the modern face of horror off the back of, essentially, one movie that's kind of meh... It's not like he directed TCM, Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Alien... He directed freakin' Hostel. I know it was popular, but was it really that popular for people to talk about Roth in the same breathe as the Masters of Horror? With a relatively small, and IMO, kind of middling body of work... I just don't get the way he's perceived.

Speaking of name recognition, what do you think of M.Night Shymalan? Once Sixth Sense came out, he was noticed big time it seems. then he had this string of lousy movies.

ThePunisher wrote:Speaking of name recognition, what do you think of M.Night Shymalan? Once Sixth Sense came out, he was noticed big time it seems. then he had this string of lousy movies.

Not my cup of tea, but I do think he gets more crap than he deserves. I do think he's a case study in peaking too early, and not really understanding what earned him that early success. The Sixth Sense was a damn good movie with a good story and strong acting performances from his two leads. I didn't even care that I figured out the eventual twist ten minutes into the movie, it didn't dampen my experience at all. In fact, I think it helped me enjoy it more witnessing all the slight of hand Shymalan used to hint at what was going on without directly telling you to your face. Making sure that not one character in that movie other than Haley Joel speaks too or even acknowledges Bruce Willis' presence was just brilliant. I think Night might've misread the room though and mistakenly felt it was the twist that had the movie popular rather than the strength of the overall presentation. Because of it, most of his subsequent films became more about the twist than the movie, and you could just tell by the quality of a lot of those movies that they were coming up with the twist first and trying to build a coherent plot around it.... Which is clearly not easy to do just judging by the results alone.

The only other movie of his I really enjoyed was Signs, and I don't think it's a coincidence that it was one of the few movies of his that didn't really have any kind of subversive twist or hook to work around or get in the way of the story being told. You pretty much got what was advertised. Then again, maybe Signs not being as well received was what got Night to start focusing more on the twist aspects of his films. Maybe audiences developed an unreasonable expectation for them.

I'm Not a Goalie wrote:

ThePunisher wrote:Speaking of name recognition, what do you think of M.Night Shymalan? Once Sixth Sense came out, he was noticed big time it seems. then he had this string of lousy movies.

Not my cup of tea, but I do think he gets more crap than he deserves. I do think he's a case study in peaking too early, and not really understanding what earned him that early success. The Sixth Sense was a damn good movie with a good story and strong acting performances from his two leads. I didn't even care that I figured out the eventual twist ten minutes into the movie, it didn't dampen my experience at all. In fact, I think it helped me enjoy it more witnessing all the slight of hand Shymalan used to hint at what was going on without directly telling you to your face. Making sure that not one character in that movie other than Haley Joel speaks too or even acknowledges Bruce Willis' presence was just brilliant. I think Night might've misread the room though and mistakenly felt it was the twist that had the movie popular rather than the strength of the overall presentation. Because of it, most of his subsequent films became more about the twist than the movie, and you could just tell by the quality of a lot of those movies that they were coming up with the twist first and trying to build a coherent plot around it.... Which is clearly not easy to do just judging by the results alone.

The only other movie of his I really enjoyed was Signs, and I don't think it's a coincidence that it was one of the few movies of his that didn't really have any kind of subversive twist or hook to work around or get in the way of the story being told. You pretty much got what was advertised. Then again, maybe Signs not being as well received was what got Night to start focusing more on the twist aspects of his films. Maybe audiences developed an unreasonable expectation for them.

I am a fan of M. Night and I like most of his films he is a strong director and I agree the twists became the most important part of his films and that’s why he peaked early and had a drop in success the twists became a punchline in spoof movies using his themes and stories and a running jokes much to his dismay…… to this day one of my favorite movies is Unbreakable….. I would even say it’s my favorite “Superhero” movie without really being a superhero movie…… I loved Split as well and enjoyed Glass just wish they didn’t do David Dunn as dirty as they did at the end.

ThePunisher wrote:Speaking of name recognition, what do you think of M.Night Shymalan?  Once Sixth Sense came out, he was noticed big time it seems.  then he had this string of lousy movies.  

Sixth Sense and the Trilogy of Super beings he made were amazing BUT after The Last Airbender? I just cant with him that movie adaptation HURTS.

Jason Voorhees wrote:

ThePunisher wrote:Speaking of name recognition, what do you think of M.Night Shymalan?  Once Sixth Sense came out, he was noticed big time it seems.  then he had this string of lousy movies.  

Sixth Sense and the Trilogy of Super beings he made were amazing BUT after The Last Airbender? I just cant with him that movie adaptation HURTS.

OMG- The Last Airbender!!!! You must have been one of the five people who saw that movie. There was a point I thought M. Night Shymalan was going be cut off from funding for directing with movies like The Last Airbender.

After the movie Dont Look At The Demon came out,im a HUGE Fan of Brando Lee as a director and his movie company outsider pictures.

Im also a big fan of the following favorite directors.

1.Glenn Danzig.

2.Rob Zombie.

3. James Wan.

ThePunisher wrote:

Jason Voorhees wrote:

ThePunisher wrote:Speaking of name recognition, what do you think of M.Night Shymalan?  Once Sixth Sense came out, he was noticed big time it seems.  then he had this string of lousy movies.  

Sixth Sense and the Trilogy of Super beings he made were amazing BUT after The Last Airbender? I just cant with him that movie adaptation HURTS.

OMG- The Last Airbender!!!!  You must have been one of the five people who saw that movie.  There was a point I thought M. Night Shymalan was going be cut off from funding for directing with movies like The Last Airbender.

From what I heard studios REALLY had to look at his resume before signing him up with contracts! I am happy he finished his own mini-universe trilogy about heroes and villians! It was both creative and actually new but yeeeah after the last airbender? He left a very sour taste in my opinion over him.

Jason Voorhees wrote:

ThePunisher wrote:

Jason Voorhees wrote:

ThePunisher wrote:Speaking of name recognition, what do you think of M.Night Shymalan?  Once Sixth Sense came out, he was noticed big time it seems.  then he had this string of lousy movies.  

Sixth Sense and the Trilogy of Super beings he made were amazing BUT after The Last Airbender? I just cant with him that movie adaptation HURTS.

OMG- The Last Airbender!!!!  You must have been one of the five people who saw that movie.  There was a point I thought M. Night Shymalan was going be cut off from funding for directing with movies like The Last Airbender.

From what I heard studios REALLY had to look at his resume before signing him up with contracts! I am happy he finished his own mini-universe trilogy about heroes and villians! It was both creative and actually new but yeeeah after the last airbender? He left a very sour taste in my opinion over him.

be glad you weren't the one with the checkbook being asked to fund a movie.