This week’s Roundtable topic was suggested by Dick. As soon as I heard it, I knew we needed to do this one right way. So, here it is: If you had the power to make one director stop making movies, who would it be?
Since Dick suggested the topic, we’ll let him start things off. Be sure to tell us your choices in the comments.
Dick Ward
There is no one in the whole of Hollywood that I’d more like to stop than Tim Burton. He seems to be an accidental genius like George Lucas, making a few good films before falling into mediocrity, but with millions worshipping at his feet long after his creative candle has been snuffed. At least with Lucas, people know he’s awful.
If I’d had the ability, I would have stopped Burton just after ‘Mars Attacks!‘, which was his last worthwhile movie. That might be too late to undo the damage he did to the ‘Batman‘ franchise, but at least we wouldn’t have to deal with ‘Planet of the Apes,’ ‘Sleepy Hollow,’ and the glut of mindless remakes that so quickly followed.
I could go on for pages about the overuse of Johnny Depp and the copy-paste Danny Elfman scores, but I think College Humor sums it up pretty well.
Josh Zyber
Even with only one TV movie and two features to his name, I feel pretty confident in saying that Kurt Wimmer should never, never direct again.
I know that it has a cult following, but count me as one who was never fooled into believing that ‘Equilibrium’ was ever a good movie. Take away the (admittedly pretty cool) “gun-kata” sequences, and you’re left with one of the most agonizingly braindead pieces of sci-fi flotsam since Ed Wood’s heyday. This lazy mishmash has not one single original idea. It should have been called ‘Brave New Fahrenheit 1984 Matrix’. And of the ideas that it steals, it executes them with complete incompetence. If you give the plot even a moment’s worth of thought (something Wimmer clearly did not), it makes no sense at all. I hate this movie. And I hate it even more every time I hear some fanboy gush about how “wicked badass” it is.
But that’s nothing compared to Wimmer’s next cinematic atrocity, ‘UltraViolet‘. Have you seen this thing? Watching it was like having an ice pick repeatedly stabbed into my eyes for 87 minutes. I could go on a long-winded stream-of-consciousness diatribe about how awful this dreck is, but fortunately I don’t have to – because I’ve already done that when I reviewed the movie at DVDTalk back in the day. That was probably the most entertaining review I ever wrote, and I still hold it among my favorites, but I’ll warn you that the language used is not appropriate for children or those with delicate sensibilities.
Junie Ray
The fish in a barrel that I’ll shoot is Michael Bay. ‘Bad Boys,’ ‘The Rock,’ ‘Armageddon,’ ‘Pearl Harbor,’ ‘Bad Boys II,’ ‘The Island,’ ‘Transformers‘… I’m not saying that I couldn’t pick out a few good moments and some impressive action sequences, but I think this world would be a better place without these movies. I can’t entirely blame Michael Bay for the awfulness of ‘Armageddon.’ There’s only so much you can do with a plot about a deep core drilling team sent to blow up an asteroid headed for Earth. I do blame him for ‘Pearl Harbor,’ however.
I also never want to see him direct another music video again. In his early career, he made videos for a lot of heavy hitters like Donny Osmond, Richard Marx, the Divinyls, Tina Turner, Lionel Richie, Wilson Phillips, and Meat Loaf. The Donny Osmond “Soldier for your Love” video has an eerie George Michael vibe about it, and some “Addicted to Love”-style models thrown in for good measure. The Divinyls’ “I Touch Myself” video has the band playing in velvet on a black/white checkboard floor ala Tom Petty. Also featured are gold mirrors, a spiral staircase, a fainting couch, and shots of Christina Amphlett ironing clothes in a sexy manner. That’s right, ironing. Oh, and you need to see the Richard Marx “Angelia” video just for the hair. It is a thing to behold, and I’m sure it was a challenge for Michael Bay to direct. “Umm, Richard, I’m going to need you to tilt your head more to the side. Just a bit more. More. A bit more. Umm, scratch that. Let’s go for a wide shot.”
While we’re at it, could we also stop Michael Bay from producing movies? I’m referring to the many horror remakes he’s produced: ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ ‘Amityville Horror,‘ ‘Friday the 13th,’ etc. Please make him stop.
Finally, a tidbit. He was apparently challenged to a charity boxing match by Uwe Boll, another famed bad director, to “prove who’s the better director”. Wonder what the odds would be on that one.
Adam Tyner (DVDTalk)
I guess I look at myself as some kind of cinematic coroner; I have this compulsion to grab hold of the most unwatchable dreck I can dig up, poke around the putrefying remains, and try to figure out how they suffered such a grisly, stomach-upending fate. So, I don’t really want anyone to stop making movies, especially since schlocky stuff is so much fun to review. Besides, you never know when someone will have an eleventh-hour comeback after a steady string of misses. Okay, okay, so with all that out of the way, I’ll go with the obvious choice, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer: the minds behind ‘Meet the Spartans,’ ‘Epic Movie,’ ‘Disaster Movie,’ ‘Date Movie,’ and…I don’t know, lots of other lazy spoofs with “Movie” somewhere in the title.
You’re talking to a guy who watched ‘UHF’ to the point that the tape broke. So, I definitely don’t have anything against goofy spoofs. Friedberg and Seltzer don’t really parody anything, though. It’s just a never-ending parade of obvious references. I mean, Flava Flav leaps out under some bed sheets at the start of ‘Disaster Movie.’ There isn’t a joke there; you’re just supposed to point, think “It’s Flava Flav!”, and laugh. If you miss out on that, Friedberg and Seltzer are helpful enough to add in dialogue like, “Flava Flav! Yeah, booooooooy! I’m Flava Flav! Flava of Love. I’m Flava Flav!” to explain it all. Or Borat will show up in his mankini, say “Very nice!”, and walk away. They can’t even be bothered to put their own spin on it. I’m getting depressed just writing about this, so I’ll stop right here.
Drew Taylor
This may seem like a controversial choice. I can appreciate junky genre filmmakers for their technical wizardry even if their handling of narrative, pacing, and character are somewhat malnourished. Far more troubling, in my estimation, is the saccharine and talentless director who gets critical reverence as well as box office gold. James L. Brooks is one of those directors, and he looks like he’s going to do it again this year with the Oscar bait ‘How Do You Know.’ (A romantic comedy set in the world of semi-professional softball? How does he do it?)
Okay, so Brooks has shepherded a number of influential television series to the air, this is true. He also directed ‘Terms of Endearment,’ a serviceable melodrama based on the Larry McMurtry novel, as well as ‘Broadcast News,’ which is certifiably good (if not exactly timeless). But his output since then – the goopy, was-once-a-musical ‘I’ll Do Anything,’ the befuddling popular and Oscar-awarded ‘As Good As It Gets’ (which reinforced a number of ugly anti-gay and anti-woman stereotypes) and ‘Spanglish’ (which did the unthinkable – made the unstoppably sexy Paz Vega seem downright bland) – is enough for me to argue for his resignation.
It’s not only that his movies are flavorless and often feel baggy, out-of-touch and pretentious. He somehow tricks both the critical community and the movie-going public into thinking the films are something special. Really, they aren’t. Most of the movies that are based on his original ideas are as flimsy as a sitcom pilot, but stretched to an excruciating length. (‘As Good as It Gets’ ran 139 minutes long.) Hopefully, his mawkish reign of terror will come to an end soon. I don’t know how much more of Brooks I can handle.
Mike Attebery
‘The Sixth Sense‘ was great entertainment. Count me among the folks who never saw that twist coming. If only M. Night Shyamalan had stopped there! Unfortunately, none of us knew what we were in for.
When ‘Unbreakable‘ rolled around in the fall of 2000, I was eager to see what the writer/director would cook up next. Then, just before the movie hit theaters, I read an interview in which he claimed to have “the formula” for movie success, and boasted that the way he’d shot ‘Unbreakable’ would revolutionize the art of cinema. (I’m serious, and I believe he was too.) Shaking off apprehension, I gathered together a group of friends to head out to the movies with me. Later, as that endless film full of cringe-worthy dialogue (“I’m Mr. Glaaaaaaaaaasssssss!”) progressed, my friends started calling down to me that I owed them refunds for their tickets. (Ten years later, we still wrap up the original ticket stubs and exchange them as holiday gag gifts.) Plain and simple, that movie sucked. If stringing together endless, unbroken takes was revolutionary, well lets just be glad the revolution started and stopped with this dud.
After that critical thumping, the auteur apparently took a couple years to regroup, before releasing a fantastic trailer that was then adapted into yet another crappy movie. I’m talking about ‘Signs,’ a film in which the lone scare comes from a classic cheat. As home video footage cuts to a shot of a man in green pajamas walking past in the background, a sound guy smashes two metal trashcan lids together, cranks the output to 11, and plunks the resulting cacophony down in the rear speakers in an attempt to make viewers crap themselves. This time, this viewer was not fooled. Oh, and yeah, the secret weapon was a glass of water. HUH?!
Next up was ‘The Village,’ which won Shyamalan some strong accusations of plagiarism for perceived similarities to the book ‘Running Out of Time‘ by Margaret Peterson Haddix, but little in the way of praise. Though the book’s publisher and author never publicly brought suit against Shymalan or the studio, it’s safe to say the controversy over the film’s inspiration got more ink than the film itself.
The cinema revolutionary’s next flick was largely documented in a book by Michael Bamberger that, in spite of the author’s slavish admiration, revealed an egomaniacal, delusional, insecure filmmaker who was dropped by Disney after executives expressed doubt over the script for ‘Lady in the Water‘ – the magical tale of a “Narf from the Blue World” who appears in the pool of an apartment complex in Philadelphia and befriends a janitor. In addition to soiling Paul Giamatti’s previously flawless filmography, Shyamalan cast himself in the role of an aspiring writer whose work is destined to change the world! (Any delusional warning signs there?) The less said about this turkey the better.
Next up was a movie in which the killers were trees! COME ON!
Finally, this past summer, apparently afraid to try his hand at yet another ridiculous product of his own imagination, the master of unfulfilled expectations released his adaptation of ‘The Last Airbender‘ and was promptly bitch-slapped with a well-deserved 6 percent Tomatometer score. Now I ask you, with a track record like this, how and why is this man still allowed to make movies? In a world where Woody Allen has to go overseas to get funding for his low-budget treasures, in a business that gave Orson Welles nothing but trouble time and time again, how, just HOW is this awful, inexcusably talentless, one-trick HACK still getting the funding to write, direct, and act in this garbage?! If granted the power, I wouldn’t have to think, I wouldn’t hesitate, I’d end this man’s career reign of cinematic terror right then and there, before more lives were irrevocably damaged by any more of his hapless clunkers!
besch64
I hate Steven Soderbergh.
Although he’s done plenty of good work in the past, it’s time for David Cronenberg to go away forever.
Shayne Blakeley
Agreed on all counts (though I think if Burton returned to original ideas and actually CAST his movies, there could still be hope.)
My addition is Rob Zombie, I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone can defend 1,000 Corpses or Devils Rejects, they are simply horrible, and his wife is even worse, at least Helena Bonham Carter can act when she HAS to. At least those were his movies to shit on though, he should have been deported for Halloween.
Dick Ward
Aww, I love House and Rejects. Those Haloween flicks just weren’t good though 🙁
Jared Matthew Thomson
How could you forget the worst director of all, Uwe Boll? And lets not forget Tommy Wiseau for his black comedy “The Room.”
Dick Ward
See, I like watching Uwe’s flicks. They’re so rotten that they’re funny, and that’s my thing 🙂
Nate Boss
Nuh. Uh. Thou shall not bash the Uwe.
Boll may finally have found his calling in cinema, away from fucking Video Game movies (I’ll admit, he’s not good at those), and into the exploitation/torture genre. Every time he takes a step backwards, it’s due to some shitty fucking game movie (Far Cry? FUCK YOU FAR CRY!). Yes, he’s an egomaniac, and yes, his commentaries are legendary for all the wrong reasons. He doesn’t quite get things, and is as slow a learner as a potato, but under the right circumstances, Boll can get the job done.
Even if he makes a shit film, it’s entertaining in the wrong way. That’s more than we can say about modern Tim Burton.
Adam
I’d go with Michael Bay and Friedberg/Seltzer. I have to disagree with Dick a bit. I love the “first” Batman – with Michael Keaton. Was by far the best until Batman Begins.
beowuff
George Lucas.
STEP AWAY FROM THE Star Wars stock footage!
Say NO to Star Wars 3D!
Seems like he lost his touch when he started filming the newest Star Wars movies. And I’d be fine if the last Indiana Jones movie never existed.
Thomas
I agree Mike Attebery that M. Night should stop making films now but I have to disagree with him on Unbreakable, I love that film and yes I think it’s better than The Sixth Sense. After Unbreakable though, Night’s films were all crap, I haven’t seen The Air Bender or whatever it’s called and I have no intention of seeing it. Please stop M. Night stop making films, you’re a one trick pony and you’re done.
Daniel O'Reilly
I second Rob Zombie (the man seriously thinks the only reason his Halloween remakes were trashed is because they were remakes) and Uwe Boll. If you haven’t signed the Stop Uwe Boll Petition, do so: http://www.petitiononline.com/RRH53888/petition.html
Also, Paul W.S. Anderson.
George Lucas lost his touch because he essentially quit film making after Episode 4 (he didn’t direct again for 22 years!). He was coming back into form with Episode 3 (sort of) and maybe if he made a few more films (non Star Wars), he could have a late career renaissance like Kurosawa or Bergman. But in all likelihood, he won’t.
Can’t agree with Tim Burton, though. The man has made some bad films, certainly, but Sweeney Todd and Sleepy Hollow were both a lot of gory fun and no other director (save for maybe Terry Gilliam) has the same level of visual invention. Yes, the Danny Elfman scores often seem interchangeable
Shymalan has made three good films ( Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs) and its on the strength of those he keeps getting work. Why have all his films since (and prior to) those been dreck? Perhaps only he knows. Rather than quitting all together, I’d suggest he take some time off, study some good filmmakers, and take the time to get it right with his next project, whatever that is.
Patrick A Crone
Steven Speilberg hands down. He seems to have fallen into the same pattern as George Lucas. E.T. Special Edition showed just how far he could go off the reservation. And then there was Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls. Considering that even in the making of portion of the DVD he thought adding Aliens to the Jones franchise was a bad idea and did it any shows that he really has lost all integraty.
Ben Jennings
Spielberg? You talk about the ET and Indiana Jones desecrations but no mention of Spielberg’s triumphs in the past decade. There weren’t many better American movies in the 00’s than Munich, War of the Worlds was the riskiest and easily the best big budget action/disaster movie of the decade, and Catch Me if You Can and Minority Report are both very solid. I’m not big on A.I. but it also has its fans.
The point being, on balance Spielberg is in fine form in recent years.
William Henley
But does Spielberg even direct anymore? I have seen several movies that I thought were Spielberg, but when you look closer, he is the producer and someone else directs.
Josh Zyber
AuthorDirector:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Munich (2005)
War of the Worlds (2005)
The Terminal (2004)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
Minority Report (2002)
Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000229/
Ben Jennings
I learned to spot over-emphasised Executive Producer credits when the name “Quentin Tarantino” caused me to rent quite a bit of abysmal direct-to-video trash in the mid 90s.
AKchris
Uwe Boll, Uwe Boll…..Uwe Boll. My top three picks.
Chaz Dumbaugh
Hmmm, I’m honestly having trouble thinking of some director SO bad that he should stop making movies, even Uwe Boll is a fun time at my house, some of the worst Schlock out there, but I own House of the Dead, Bloodrayne, Dungeon Siege and his latest Rampage (which I loved, well filmed, acted and one of his best movies), so I cant even say much about him to quit…
Definitely cant agree about Burton, a few have been wishy washy, but Batman, Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow, Sweeny Todd and even Alice have been great, oh and cant forget Big Fish, amazing stuff right there….he’s a visual master and one of the most unique minds in the business, easily up there in his own right with people like Gilliam who just stand out from the crowd
I’m a big supporter of Bay and Anderson as well, I just love their movies, I have a blast with just about every one of them (forget Armageddon and Pearl Harbor though), Event Horizon from Anderson is Scifi/Horror at its best and he is another one that has amazing visuals that I just love so much, plots and writing arent the greatest but I’m easily pleased. Bay just films some of the best action sequences of all time and I dont care what anyone says about him, I highly enjoy his films, except for the two I mentioned.
I guess if I had to pick I would go with those two idiots that make the spoof movies as well, my friends and I could write funnier material than that, EVERY movie has been absolutely god awful and unfunny except for a few genius moments here and there (well at least to me), like I laughed my ass off at the demon Chipmunks in Disaster Movie, dont know why but I found that extremely funny, and I cant wait to check out Vampires Suck on DVD as I’m a huge hater of Twilight and I think even this coming from them could be funny 😉
Chaz Dumbaugh
Oh and Equilibrium is “wicked badass”, just to stir the pot, I LOVE that film, extremely underrated with amazing visuals and action sequences, all my friends love that flick too, shame Sony had to fuck with Wimmer so much making Ultraviolet, edited down and rumored to be slapped together by Sony themselves and put out (hence all the unfinished FX work) so I cant put much blame on Wimmer here as I see where he was headed but he was shut down so much by studio interference
Dick Ward
Yeah, I’m gonna agree with you on that one. Equilibrium is one of my favorites!
Josh Zyber
AuthorUltraViolet wasn’t ruined due to studio interference. Everything about that movie was a total disaster from its initial conception. There is absolutely no way that adding MORE footage could make it better. It needs less footage. 87 minutes less footage.
that1guypictures
There are plenty of bad directors out there. It seems this list is devoted to bad high-profile directors. I think the list is missing Uwe Boll…but I completely disagree about Tim Burton. I LOVE Sweeney Todd, (one of my top 10 favorite films) Big Fish, and though it is extremely flawed, I loved Alice in Wonderland. Though I do tire of the Depp/Burton/Carter trifecta, I never tire of the Burton/Elfman score collaborations. I personally also dislike Robert Zemeckis’ foray into motion capture films, his past lve action films were amazing….then Polar Express, Monster House, Beowolf, and Christmas Carol? Please go back to live action…you are so great at it!!!
And yes, Bay is terrible. His action scenes are great, but the movies are terrible…even for popcorn films.
Brandon Erwin
I’m surprised none of you guys have added Zack Snyder for his overuse of slo-motion and CGI(both of which i personally love.) I think Andy Tennant needs to stop for a while. “The Bounty Hunter,” “Hitch,” and “Fool’s Gold” have all been pretty big disappointments.
Chaz Dumbaugh
I wouldnt put Zack Snyder anywhere in that list, another one of the most unique visual directors around, Watchmen was amazing as was 300, script and story for 300 werent all there but nothing like has ever been done before and it was really unique and visionary and I look forward to anything he is going to do, also cant forget the amazing action/horror remake that was Dawn of the Dead, easily the best remake done IMO, took something and really just made it his own, amazing gore FX, great camera work, stunning visuals, it was all there in spades 🙂
Brandon Erwin
I personally LOVE Zack Snyder! What I was saying is I’m kinda shocked no one else included him. It seems like (MOST) fans of the “Watchmen” and “300” graphic novels absolutely despise his work. Then all the critics new to the stories feel his movies stretch on too long.
Dick Ward
I just realized that Snyder’s doing ‘Superman’ and I think I’m going to have to ask him to stop now. I love Zack Snyder but hate, hate, hate Superman.
Alright, maybe Zack can do something great with it, but we’ll see.
Mike
Motion-capture Zemeckis is a GOOD call.
Nate St. Germain
Shyamalan, Uwe Boll, and James Cameron. Yes. James Cameron. I hated Avatar that much.
Nate Boss
I’m with you on James Cameron. I preferred Avatar back when it was in Japan and starred Tom Cruise, when it had 100% less fucking ridiculous scenes chasing down dragons that doesn’t advance the plot. But you guys are killin’ me with all this anti-Uwe Boll stuff.
Seriously? ULLI LOMMEL is far, far, far, far, FAR FAR FAR FAAARRRR worse than Boll. Watch one of his films sometime. I dare you.
Jane Morgan
I would stop Ron Howard before he destroys The Dark Tower.
And I would stop Robert Zemeckis from making any more of his CGI crap.
motorheadache
Yeah, Ron Howard doesn’t seem the right fit to make Dark Tower. Here’s hoping he surprises everyone and measures up to the task. I doubt Peter Jackson seemed like a good pick for Lord of the Rings at the time either.
Stewart Cook
Paul W Anderson. That dude should be shot.
motorheadache
I’m with getting rid of those two idiots that make all those bad spoof movies. Michael Bay would be in second place.
While I don’t agree with Dick’s attitude toward Tim Burton in general, I agree that he really needs to get out of his predictable formula and try something new. In other words, he needs to stop “Burtonizing” older movies and do something original. That college humor video was hilarious though.
Ben Jennings
Christopher Nolan
Not because he’s terrible, but because he’s overrated and has an army of insufferable fanboys, which is much worse than just being terrible.
Dick Ward
I’ll agree with you there. Terrible I can deal with – above average films hailed as brilliant I cannot.
Tom Howard
1) Uwe Boll
2) George Lucas (including being allowed to tamper with previous works).
3) Roland Emmerich (at least as far as disaster movies go…)
William Henley
I’ll admit I am the weirdo. I LIKE Burton, for one. Not all of his stuff – Coraline was a mess and Alice In Wonderland, while I liked it, felt like it was Burton trying to make a stereotypical Burton movie. But I LOVE Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and just watched Nightmare Before Christmas last week.
Fox and Lucasfilm need to team up, and renegotiate their contract or something with Lucas, saying he is not allowed to touch Star Wars ever again. I MIGHT be okay if Lucas were to DIRECT something that someone ELSE wrote that was NOT Star Wars related.
The two directors I can’t stand are really going to oust me as the weirdo – Quentin Tarantino and Stanley Kubrick. I haven’t seen a SINGLE Tarantino film I have liked, with Pulp Fiction being the epitimy of trash movies (yes, feel free to tear me apart, I am used to it over my dislike for Pulp Fiction), and as far as Kubrick is concerned, the only half-way decent movie he ever made was 2001. Of course, Kubrick is deceased, so I think I got my wish there.
Chris Columbus needs to step away from the camera. Keep him on as a collaborator. Example – Harry Potter. He did a brilliant job creating the look and feel, but seems to not have a clue how to direct children, or when to say “Maybe we should reshoot that scene”. Shoot, even the established adult-actors in the two Columbus-directed films were painful to watch! However, when they brought in Alfonso Cuarón and Columbus went into an advisory role, they struck gold!
Josh Zyber
AuthorTim Burton had nothing to do with Coraline, FYI. The director Henry Selick also directed Nightmare Before Christmas for Burton, but Coraline was a solo project.
This is a common mistake.
William Henley
Ah, your right. I stand corrected. Found this:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327597/faq#.2.1.1
Makes sense, Burton is usually credited with Nightmare, and Coraline was advertised as “from the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas”
Bryan
For some bizarre reason, I just love “Ultraviolet” … it’s a total ripoff of about 10 other movies, and has no redeeming qualities, but for some unknown reason, I just really enjoy watching it (yes – multiple times ….)
Bilbo Baggins
Although Ultraviolet was extremely lousy, filled with climactic fight scenes that occur off screen and missing the music from the trailer that made audiences want to see the film in the first place, Equilibrium was a smart, modernized, version of Fahrenheit 451 that explores what would happen if society outlawed as contraband anything that conjures up human feeling. The scenes in which Christian Bale’s grammaton cleric attempts to rescue a Burmese Mountain Dog puppy alone should prevent Equilibrium from being mentioned on this list. The only thing Equilibrium has in common with The Matrix other than martial arts is the trenchcoats that the enforcers of the contraband laws (the grammaton clerics) are wearing. It did not do well at the box office precisely because critics called it a Matrix ripoff without merit and did not give the film a chance on its own merit. The fact that Equilibrium has achieved a cult following post box office and not for The Room-like reasons indicates that it is a film with some merit.
Josh Zyber
AuthorThe scenes with the dog were some of the most (unintentionally) laughable in the whole thing.
Ben Jennings
I can’t even enjoy the supposedly awesome gun-kata sequences in Equilibrium because I can’t stop wondering why the enemies don’t just shoot Christian Bale instead of standing around yelling “Shoot him! Shoot him!” and then getting shot.
The normal action movie standard of the bad guys having terrible aim is one thing. A guy standing inside a tight circle of six people who want to kill him and not getting shot is something else.
Dick Ward
It’s because he’s the hero. C’mon now, haven’t you seen an action movie before? :p
Shannon Nutt
The “answer” everyone has been searching for is the duo of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. Now if we could stop THOSE guys from ever directing again, the cinema would be a better place.
Shannon Nutt
And I just now noticed this was Adam’s pick. Good call, buddy.
thulsadoom
James Cameron, definitely. Last good film he made was True Lies, and even that was just ‘good fun’.
A lot of people mentioned Paul Anderson, but I kinda like him (Don’t hit me!!!). He keeps getting back up and trying, and occasionally comes out with at the very least, good popcorn movies on lower budgets that are more enjoyable than the flops from the big boys. His worst problems occur from his idolisation of James Cameron. If he can get past that and make more Event Horizons and Soldiers (I loved it, so there!), then I think he could raise himself above just “video game conversion man!” 😉
Oh, and the Cohen brothers should stop… I enjoy sleep, but not THAT much… 😛
Bilbo Baggins
Part of the reason why I like Equilibrium a lot is because it has internal consistency (sure, you have to suspend your disbelief; but it is not Die Hard 2). Within the film it is clear that the officers who are not grammaton clerics are both resentful of the prestige and rewards that are bestowed upon grammaton clerics and terrified of them. As for the notion of gunkata as it is defined in the film, it is defined as reducing the probability to the maximum degree that opponents’ gunfire will hit you. That is the premise of gunkata. If you want to label the premise as ridiculous, that’s fine; you never wanted to give the film a chance anyway. Otherwise, you have to agree that Equilibrium possesses internal consistency with regards to suspension of disbelief.
Josh Zyber
AuthorIn talking about the film’s internal consistency, you’ve just demonstrated exactly how it lacks consistency. If everyone’s emotions in the future have been suppressed, why do the bad guys feel anger, pride, jealousy, and fear? It seems that Wimmer didn’t realize that those are emotions too.
Dick Ward
Their emotions are suppressed, but not eliminated. Plus, at least one of the two main bad guys wasn’t actually on Librium, so his feelings are completely valid within the context of the movie’s logic.
If we’re going to be complaining about consistency though, I can think of far worse examples, like every ‘Superman’ cartoon, movie and comic ever. 🙂
I’m surprised how much hate ‘Equilibrium’ gets considering that my friends and I walked into the movie not having seen any previews for it. I’m almost as amazed at how many people have seen it as how many people hate it.
Bilbo Baggins
Wimmer did realize it…that is part of what Wimmer was trying to communicate in Equilibrium. One of the ironies of the film is that the human behind the visage of “Father,” who sought out a grammaton cleric that was feeling to get close to and expose the resistance, was in fact experiencing just as much emotion as Preston. That Wimmer realizes the irony can be seen in the villain trying to use that very rationale as a reason why Preston should not kill him at the end of the movie…
Josh Zyber
AuthorMeh. Still don’t buy it, sorry. “Irony” does not strike me as a concept that Wimmer has much of a grasp on.
Dail Whiteley
sorry if i’m late on this one . had surgery on friday and getting online now. i would never want a director to stop making films. sure there are directors i dont care for like m. night. or zack snyder , but theres always a chance that the next film might be a classic so i want them to make more movies.