A list of movie directors who I respect.

Like I said in my first post here, I love making lists and since there is nothing better for me to do at work, but keep the appearance up that I’m actually working, I decided it’s time for me to make a list.

Kevin Smith.
What can I say about this man that I haven’t already said in the post below? The man is a genius. The dialog this man can write is of the highest level. Don’t expect to see an action movie from this guy, and I’m not even sure he can pull off that horror project he’s working on. It’s called Red State, it’s only been announced and Kevin is still working on a script. I’m not going to expect a scary horror, but instead I’m looking forward to something innovating, never shown before in a horror. Much like Scream, I guess. It was the first of it’s kind and not really scary but more humorous. It’s still a long way away. The movie’s probably not going to be finished before 2009 with the schedule of the Heroes Origin episode he’s planning to shoot and the Reaper series he’s working on. But I know it’s going to be good. Everything the man touches turns into gold.

Joss Whedon.
He made a movie. He counts. Ever seen Serenity? Ok… ok. I’m listing him here more for his work on his series, but I just loved Firefly, Buffy and Angel. I’ve seen them all…. twice.
The Jokes, the way people talk. The whedony words they use.
Whedon has the great talent to end an episode where the viewer is left with Goosebumps on his skin through the end credits. To name a few:
Season 5 of Buffy the vampire slayer episode ‘Two to Go’ great cliffhanger ending. It was an episode I saw on my pc and just had to fire up the last episode right after it. Even though I had to get up for work in a few hours.
Season 5 of Angel – Not Fade Away The last episode of a great series. And what a way to end it all. Get out with a bang and leave the imagination to the viewers. That ending was Epic the last words are memorable. I love the way angel says them. Check it out here

Robert Zemeckis.
He made the best trilogy to this date. (let’s hope he won’t make a fourth or it won’t count as a trilogy anymore) I can’t count the times I watched Back to the Future, as a kid. And even now I can still watch those movies, even though I’ve seen them this often, with a smile on my face. But BTTF is not the only thing this director has going for him. This man has made other classics like Who framed Roger Rabbit? and Forrest Gump.
1995 was a really though year for the Oscars, with Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption. And in any other year either one of those films would’ve won it, but you realy can’t argue Forrest Gump didn’t deserve to win.
Just one more movie I want to highlight is Cast Away. I can’t think of another combination than Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis who could’ve filled over an hour of film just by shooting one man alone on an island. I even had a lump in my throat when he lost his dearest friend Wilson.

Bryan Singer.
A lot of directors try to switch from thriller to action and fall short, and after making The Usual Suspects I’m sure most people frowned when hearing he was directing the X-men movie. He single handedly restored to comic book genre with that film. A genre destroyed by Joel Shumacher when he made the awful batman & robin. I’m just a bit sad he didn’t direct X-3. I can’t blame him for wanting to direct the new superman, but they should’ve waited for him to do them both. Bryan ended X-2 with a shadow figure rising up from the lake cutting away before it reached the surface and with Jean’s voice telling the intro of evolution. I was promised a huge phoenix-like bird in X-3 and they didn’t deliver. Instead they game mutants a powerlevel and reduced the powerful dark phoenix to a tool or weapon for Magneto.
But I was making a list on great directors and not one about crappy sequels. (though I’ll make this one on my to do list) There is a lot more to come from this director. The new superman is in the pipeline and next year we can anticipate the coming of Valkyrie. A movie starring the best female actress from this decade: Carice van Houten (I’m dutch, I’m biased, I know).

Danny Boyle
The best zombie movie ever made came from the hands of this man. It’s called 28 Days Later. Some people argue that they aren’t zombies since they aren’t dead yet, but I feel that when you’ve lost most of your motor functions and the thing you desire most is another persons brains, you can be qualified as a zombie.
The best movie I’ve seen made by this man is Trainspotting. It’s one of those wake up calls. With the message “Drugs are bad, m-kay?” Most drug related movies show you only the high or the low, but never both. The wouldn’t want you to make up your own mind about what’s good or bad in this world. This movie however does. And because of that it has suffered from some negative press, claiming that this movie is pro drugs. But if you just watched this movie, feeling the pain they go through and the decisions they have to make and where it leads them, the overall message is pretty clear. The acting in this movie is of the highest grade. It spawned careers for obi-wan Ewan McGregor, but the rest of the cast is as good as his performance. Robert Carlyle plays the psychopath Francis Begbie so convincingly, that I had a hard time believing he was a nice guy in other movies I’ve seen him in.

Of course there are way too many great directors to name them all here, so I’m not going to bother making an honorable mentions list. I’m a movie freak and you don’t have to tell me how great Tarantino, Rodriguez or Spielberg is. Just as much I don’t need to tell you that. They’ll probably come up in other lists I’ll be making along the way.
Till next time.
Till Die Hard!