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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 28, 2024 13:57:38 GMT
This is inspired by Bernard Rose (apparently, it hasn't happened yet - they could still NOT do it yanno) writing and directing a new King Lear with the GOAT actor and (very) arguably the American actress of her generation (?) Jessica Chastain......now this is Shakespeare so it's a different thing but Rose doesn't "seem" like THAT guy.....................but we'll see - apparently the script is the thing ............... so who are some others like this.....who pulled it off and who didn't in a similar way?* James Foley is one who definitely pulled it off - and I like 2 of his other fllms A LOT - At Close Range and After Dark My Sweet but Glengarry Glen Ross looked way above his head in 1992 with that cast and he nailed it and never matched it * In TV Lonesome Dove is a GOAT level piece of work from the otherwise not particularly distinguished Simon Wincer * Jon Avnet shouldn't have directed anything with DePac in it ffs * Antoine Fuqua always seems too small time for anything he's attached too .......he's a joke to some exent at least
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Post by stephen on Feb 28, 2024 14:12:36 GMT
Ronald F. Maxwell comes to mind. Gettysburg was a cockeyed miracle on a grand scale and it feels epic, despite them clearly working off a TV film budget (as it was intended to be originally, before they decided to make it a theatrical run). Plenty of seasoned film directors couldn't approach what Maxwell was able to accomplish.
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Feb 28, 2024 14:47:40 GMT
Does James Foley count? I think anyone's name would look small in the company of Mamet and those fellas...
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Feb 28, 2024 14:57:12 GMT
Ruben Fleischer, Gangster Squad Curtis Hanson, L.A. Confidential
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Post by pupdurcs on Feb 28, 2024 15:09:52 GMT
Curtis Hanson, L.A. ConfidentialI rebuke you, in the name of the Lord! LA Confidential is a great movie, very much due to the directing choices of Hanson. He didn't just cast well and get lucky. Wonder Boys is a great film. 8 Mile is really good, and he gets excellent performances out of non-actors. The Hand That Rocks The Cradle is wildly entertaining, as is The River Wild. Hanson was an excellent director, imho. Maybe not a fancy schmancy "auteur", but outstanding craftsmen like him are the lifeblood of the industry. Fuqua shouldn't be mentioned here for similar reasons as well. I won't defend Flesicher though. He's a hack.
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Feb 28, 2024 15:11:31 GMT
Curtis Hanson, L.A. ConfidentialI rebuke you, in the name of the Lord! LA Confidential is a great movie, very much due to the directing choices of Hanson. He didn't just cast well and get lucky. The wording of "worthy" makes this complicated... how are they none-worthy of their cast if the result is so memorable lol
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Feb 28, 2024 15:12:15 GMT
Curtis Hanson, L.A. ConfidentialI rebuke you, in the name of the Lord! LA Confidential is a great movie, very much due to the directing choices of Hanson. He didn't just cast well and get lucky. Wonder Boys is a great film. 8 Mile is really good. The Hand That Rocks The Cradle is wildly entertaining, as is The River Wild. Hanson was an excellent director, imho. Maybe not a fancy schmancy "auteur", but outstanding craftsmen like him are the lifeblood of the industry. I won't defend Flesicher though. He's a hack. I mean, Foley has already been mentioned and he was a good director who pulled off Glengarry Glen Ross so this isn't about directors who crumbled under the weight of their casts, but just seemed unworthy at the time. And Hanson definitely fits that bill.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 28, 2024 15:14:54 GMT
Ruben Fleischer, Gangster SquadCurtis Hanson, L.A. ConfidentialHanson in the sense that the book is very great and that it plays like a movie on the page..........I think when he made it there were like a hundred people you'd think would direct that besides him.........talented guy though - The Silent Partner is kind of great-ish and Wonder Boys of course.....another guy who kind of got the job I'm guessing because he distilled a very dense novel to something relatively lean and coherent as a screenplay
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Post by pupdurcs on Feb 28, 2024 15:26:57 GMT
I rebuke you, in the name of the Lord! LA Confidential is a great movie, very much due to the directing choices of Hanson. He didn't just cast well and get lucky. Wonder Boys is a great film. 8 Mile is really good. The Hand That Rocks The Cradle is wildly entertaining, as is The River Wild. Hanson was an excellent director, imho. Maybe not a fancy schmancy "auteur", but outstanding craftsmen like him are the lifeblood of the industry. I won't defend Flesicher though. He's a hack. I mean, Foley has already been mentioned and he was a good director who pulled off Glengarry Glen Ross so this isn't about directors who crumbled under the weight of their casts, but just seemed unworthy at the time. And Hanson definitely fits that bill. Why would Hanson be considered unworthy of that cast, even at the time? Russell Crowe was still mostly an unknown from Australia with a few Hollywood movies yet to showcase his true potential. Same for Guy Pearce. Same for Simon Baker. Kim Basinger was a big star, but hardly regarded as a great actress. Danny Devito and James Cromwell were respected character actors, but hardly above Hanson's paygrade...the man had already directed Meryl Streep.Kevin Spacey was probably the only "big deal A-list serious thespian" to be cast in the movie at the time. Hanson was taking a huge risk casting a bunch of Australian actors who weren't really well known to American audiences, and set them on the path to Hollywood stardom. And he cast an actress who wasn't massively respected for her acting chops, and won her an Oscar. That cast looks amazing now, because of the performances Hanson got out of them and what they went on to achieve, but back then it was Russell who? Guy who?
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 28, 2024 15:37:45 GMT
I rebuke you, in the name of the Lord! LA Confidential is a great movie, very much due to the directing choices of Hanson. He didn't just cast well and get lucky. The wording of "worthy" makes this complicated... how are they none-worthy of their cast if the result is so memorable lol Does it though or is it totally tempered by the word "Seemed" (Unworthy) immediately preceding it?.........hmmmmmm I'm always amused the board never understands my threads anyway......I think people are just goofing on the old dude tbh: "What does it MEAN when you say DDL's 3 BEST ACTOR wins will be hard to match pacinoyes what about Katherine Hepburn!? (um, vagina ffs) "I don't understand what Idris Elba "Big Time Window"? means? (It means he stars in a lot of flops!) "I didn't know Mark Ruffalo was divisive" (He is!)
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Post by stephen on Feb 28, 2024 15:57:15 GMT
Ruben Fleischer, Gangster SquadCurtis Hanson, L.A. ConfidentialWhoa, now -- Curtis Hanson better not be catching strays in this house.
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Post by countjohn on Feb 28, 2024 15:59:39 GMT
Brett Ratner's Red Dragon has one of the best casts of all time. Hopkins of course, Ed Norton, Ralph Fiennes, PSH, Emily Watson, Harvey Keitel, Mary Louise Parker.
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Post by pupdurcs on Feb 28, 2024 16:03:12 GMT
Fuqua is also a lazy target. Reminds me when IMDBers used to regulary shit on Tony Scott because he mostly made unpretentious actioners and thrillers. The man gets his flowers now he's dead though. Fuqua isn't the experimental visionary action auteur Scott was, but he is one of the best shooters in the industry.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 28, 2024 16:03:25 GMT
Stuart Burge is another one not untalented.......but mostly a TV director he was plucked by Olivier to direct the film of his RACIST BLACKFACE Othello - just kidding....not racist you fucking morons....... He directed all of them to Oscar nods......I mean controversy aside that was a triumph for him......and I think he lucked into the film job because he had directed Olivier and knew him well and Olivier didn't think he could act - AND - direct and he was strapped for cash to even make it actually........ It remains the only Shakespeare film in which all the principals (four of them) were nominated for Oscars. Olivier, Joyce Redman, Maggie Smith, Frank Finlay
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Post by stephen on Feb 28, 2024 16:04:38 GMT
Brett Ratner's Red Dragon has one of the best casts of all time. Hopkins of course, Ed Norton, Ralph Fiennes, PSH, Emily Watson, Harvey Keitel, Mary Louise Parker. I still maintain this is a good movie, and the only reason people deride it is Brett Ratner's reputation and the rest of his filmography.
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Post by pupdurcs on Feb 28, 2024 16:07:56 GMT
Brett Ratner's Red Dragon has one of the best casts of all time. Hopkins of course, Ed Norton, Ralph Fiennes, PSH, Emily Watson, Harvey Keitel, Mary Louise Parker. I still maintain this is a good movie, and the only reason people deride it is Brett Ratner's reputation and the rest of his filmography. I don't even think Ratner (his reputation anyway) comes to mind as the main reason the film isn't given much regard. I think it's because it's a direct remake of Manhunter, and people love that movie.
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Post by stephen on Feb 28, 2024 16:18:26 GMT
I still maintain this is a good movie, and the only reason people deride it is Brett Ratner's reputation and the rest of his filmography. I don't even think Ratner (his reputation anyway) comes to mind as the main reason the film isn't given much regard. I think it's because it's a direct remake of Manhunter, and people love that movie. I dunno, I'm sure there are some devout Mann stans out there that would shit on anything that would attempt to duplicate Manhunter, but I don't think that's the reason, especially as Hopkins's Lecter movies really made Manhunter a weird artifact out of time (not a diss). Ratner always seemed to get singled out in the scathing criticism the movie got, and a lot of it always felt overblown to me. For instance, if you told someone that Ridley Scott directed one of the two Hopkins-as-Lecter sequels but didn't tell them which one, and they had no idea going in, I'd imagine they would've said he did Red Dragon.
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Feb 28, 2024 16:22:32 GMT
I don't even think Ratner (his reputation anyway) comes to mind as the main reason the film isn't given much regard. I think it's because it's a direct remake of Manhunter, and people love that movie. I dunno, I'm sure there are some devout Mann stans out there that would shit on anything that would attempt to duplicate Manhunter, but I don't think that's the reason, especially as Hopkins's Lecter movies really made Manhunter a weird artifact out of time (not a diss). Ratner always seemed to get singled out in the scathing criticism the movie got, and a lot of it always felt overblown to me. For instance, if you told someone that Ridley Scott directed one of the two Hopkins-as-Lecter sequels but didn't tell them which one, and they had no idea going in, I'd imagine they would've said he did Red Dragon. I think the knock on Ratner with Red Dragon is that it feels so indebted to Demme's direction on The Silence of the Lambs. Just about every scene between Norton and Hopkins feels like a pastiche of the great scenes between Foster and Hopkins in the earlier film to diminishing returns. It's all solid, but familiar and not executed to the same standard. Plus the brand of Hannibal Lecter had already been damaged by Scott's film which was hated ( Red Dragon by comparison was at least seen as alright).
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Post by stephen on Feb 28, 2024 16:25:16 GMT
I dunno, I'm sure there are some devout Mann stans out there that would shit on anything that would attempt to duplicate Manhunter, but I don't think that's the reason, especially as Hopkins's Lecter movies really made Manhunter a weird artifact out of time (not a diss). Ratner always seemed to get singled out in the scathing criticism the movie got, and a lot of it always felt overblown to me. For instance, if you told someone that Ridley Scott directed one of the two Hopkins-as-Lecter sequels but didn't tell them which one, and they had no idea going in, I'd imagine they would've said he did Red Dragon. I think the knock on Ratner with Red Dragon is that it feels so indebted to Demme's direction on The Silence of the Lambs. Just about every scene between Norton and Hopkins feels like a pastiche of the great scenes between Foster and Hopkins in the earlier film to diminishing returns. It's all solid, but familiar and not executed to the same standard. Plus the brand of Hannibal Lecter had already been damaged by Scott's film which was hated ( Red Dragon by comparison was at least seen as alright). Oh, I'm not saying Ratner was giving us something wholly original and inspired. He had a blueprint from a previous successful film to work from. I'm just saying that the level of vitriol that the movie gets feels like it's more because it was Brett Ratner that made it, whereas if it had been any other journeyman filmmaker, I don't believe it cops the same amount of flak.
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Feb 28, 2024 16:28:24 GMT
Red Dragon is an embarassment..as a follow-up-to a great movie (if not counting Scott's stinker), a remake, an adaptation - you name it.
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Post by JangoB on Feb 28, 2024 16:45:19 GMT
Fuqua is one of the best shooters in the industry. Well, he did make Shooter (2007).
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Post by pupdurcs on Feb 28, 2024 16:46:09 GMT
Fuqua is one of the best shooters in the industry. Well, he did make Shooter (2007). I walked right into that one
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Post by pupdurcs on Feb 28, 2024 17:07:12 GMT
Does James Foley count? I think anyone's name would look small in the company of Mamet and those fellas... Foley wasn't out of his depth when he did Glenngary Glenn Ross.
At Close Range was a very well reviewed film that starred Oscar winner Christopher Walken and Sean Penn, who at that point was being touted as the best actor of his generation (obviously that was proven to be completely wrong, but people can only go on the information they have at the time). It also had some of the most exciting young actors of the time in Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Stuart Masterson.But I'd say having directed Walken/Penn to strong performances in a film critics liked only a few years earlier, didn't make him an odd choice at all for Glenngary in 1992.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 28, 2024 17:31:01 GMT
One of the things that makes Foley so odd is Mamet sold the rights to all his best plays for dirt cheap that allowed productions of his best plays with iffy directors - and like I said I love Foley's 2 pre-GGR films but he also directed a lot of non-descript work around that .......and remember Paul Newman was supposed to play the Lemmon role and Lemmon came on board VERY late.......Speed The Plow still hasn't been made (wtf).....and American Buffalo got botched when nobody Michael Corrente directed it...and he was so much a nobody that Pacino walked on his greatest stage achievement back when he gave a shit about such things.......I love Mamet but he is exhibit A in how not to treat your work.......he's the exact opposite of his sort of successor in that way.....Martin McDonagh.......
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SZilla
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Post by SZilla on Feb 28, 2024 17:33:58 GMT
I’ll bite.
Based on “seemed unworthy at the time” I’ll go with Quentin Tarantino with Reservoir Dogs. Sure, it makes sense now but that cast is stacked - Keitel, Tierney, Penn, even “nobodies” like Buscemi, Roth, and Madsen already had reputations. Especially for someone who’s only other directing credit was My Best Friend’s Birthday.
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