Warning, there will be no arty-ass directors here.
These are in no particular order. They're all great.
1. Ridley Scott
Why: Alien, Blade Runner, Black Rain, GI Jane, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down.
2. James Cameron
Why: Terminator, Aliens, Titanic, Avatar.
3. Quentin Tarentino
Why: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds.
4. Woo-ping Yuen
Why: First, he's the single best action/stunt choreographer of all time. He has elevated something functional into an art all its own. When I watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon it's more for Woo-ping than Ang Lee.
And when I watch Charlie's Angels it sure as shit isn't for any contribution McG made.
And as cool as the Matrix is, without Woo-ping's fight choreography it wouldn't be half as awesome.
When he actually takes the entire reins on a movie, you get Drunken Master (Jackie Chan's finest movie) and Iron Monkey, one of the best movies anyone ever made period.
And when his Hands of Shang-Chi movie comes out, it will be the greatest movie ever made.
5. Oliver Stone
Why: Platoon, Wall Street, Talk Radio, JFK, Natural Born Killers, Any Given Sunday (yes, this movie is kind of dumb but god, is it awesome to watch- it's a movie not a fucking english paper).
4 comments:
It's probably a stretch to mention Woo-ping Yuen, who isn't a director, strictly speaking.
I'm comfortable with Ridley Scott. And I think Oliver Stone squeaks in for a lot of his earlier work.
I need to see one or two more hits from Quentin to add him to the list, really. I'd just about written him off until Basters. Kill Bill was one of the most overindulgent pieces of crap I've ever seen.
If pressed, I'd go:
Martin Scorsese, Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Michael Mann, The Coen Brothers.
Spielberg gets in for his work in the 1970's-1990's. Scorsese over all, the rest for just not directing anything I haven't enjoyed.
Woo-ping is most definitely a full director of movies, just not ones made for the American market.
Movies like Iron Monkey and Once Upon a Time in China are his babies and are amazing.
Spielberg is an excellent choice!
Scorsese got bumped because of my "no arty-ness" rule and he has trended in that direction lately, though I did think The Departed was pretty amazing.
OK. Maybe I'm not as familiar with Woo-ping as I should be. Sounds like I'll need to hunt down some of his Chinese directed stuff, for educational purposes.
I actually think Spielberg lost his fastball several years ago. While I'm a drooling Indiana Jones fanboy, I think that movie was evidence of it. I think just about everything he's done this decade with the exception of Munich has been pretty forgettable.
I am so not qualified to list the 5 greatest directors... but I have one favorite Anime director who does consistently amazing stuff--
Hayao Miyazaki. He did Spirited Away, Nausica, Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, and others. I loved each of these.
I think Peter Jackson made a good set of films... and we're practically neighbors so I'll toss in a vote for him.
I watched several movies by Stephen Chow and I really liked his style and humor. For me a good director is one that I will actually seek out movies he/she did regardless of what their subject may be. So he fits in that category.
Definitely James Cameron.. I mean jeez... Aliens, Terminator, Rambo, Titanic, The Abyss, Avatar and more?! What's not to love there?
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