I’ll throw someone new out there, Pedro Almodovar.
I’ll grant that I’ve only seen a few of his, but they’re supposedly his best, “tie me up. . .”, “women on the verge. . .”, “talk to her”, and one other. Talk about saying almost nothing in the most heavy-handed way possible. And, they’re not necessarily bad, but we’re talking “overrated” here and there are some who consider this dude to be an absolute genius,
I’ll throw Mel Gibson and Ron Howard in together. It’s hard to say they’re overrated because a lot of people think they’re hacks to begin with. But, they’ve both won Oscars, and that shouldn’t surprise anyone because they both make the most formulaic, Hollywood style pictures imaginable. Any Hollywood director could make the movies these two make if they were given the same script and the same budget.
They are both uncreative and have no skill except for repeating what they’ve seen before.
Do I have to write a dissertation to be believed. It’s a message board and I’m not up for tenure or a doctorate. How do I prove that I get a particular work of art or not? Is there an arbiter or judge where we can go and find out what the right answer is? Or are you to be the judge? Ilsa - I know. And I’m sorry if you got caught in the crossfire. But previously, you have been very vocal about your defense of Verhoeven, and IIRC, used the same tactic lissener does. I might be mistaken about that, and if so, I apologize.
For me, it established the movie for what it was intended to be - a homage to the speghetti westerns, kung fu films, revenge dramas and even Anime that Tarantino grew up with. Those movies WERE violently over the top. One pissed off chick COULD take on 88 ninja Yakuzas (although there weren’t that many…they just thought the name sounded cool) and blood did spray 15 feet into the air! Kill Bill is brillant (or at least entertaining) not because it is original in its ridiculousness but because of the masterful way it combines those exagerated styles.
In all seriousness, you can always find something about any director not to like.
I used the word “pretentious” (misspelled, as were other words in my post, I’m afraid). But I was referring to the Director (Kubrick) and to printed critiques of his work. I was not referring to anyone on the Cafe Society board. And yes, even tho I’m not wild about Kubrick,I am bright enough to analyze things, including books and movies.
I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Gus Van Sant yet. Well…maybe I can considering he IS the most over-rated director out there, who directed what I consider to be one of the most over-rated movie ever…Good Will Hunting. It’s not enough that he made the most pointless remake ever (Psycho), but he went on to make what I consider to be the worst movie ever made - Elephant…
and he’s been talked about to death, but I will never forgive Spielburg for ruining A.I. … pure ego there.
Real life commitments prevent me from writing a complete response to all the comments in the thread right now, I’ll get to this by tomorrow at the latest. I do want to address this immediately.
I know you don’t want to read the entire thread to asses who is at fault, and that’s fine, I don’t blame you, but at least describe the posts that you do read accurately.
lissner: Whatever dude. Your description of your understanding of his satire indicates pretty clearly that you don’t see it, but that’s cool with me. At least you have the safety of the pack.
Me: Yeah, that’s it. Anyone who disputes the greatness of your Brave Visionary Auteur is just a mindless sheep afraid of the bold, terrifying insights of Starship Troopers. Baa. Baa.
If he actually thought I was calling him a sheep, then I will apologize to him because that was not the intent of my comment. However, I think it’s fairly clear that I was not calling lissner a “mindless sheep”. I am accussing him of calling me and people who disagree with him mindless sheep, which is pretty much the gist of his statement.
I don’t see filmmakers like Spielberg, Cameron, Reiner, or Howard as overrated. They generally achieve what they set out to do; make entertaining popular movies. Not every film has to be a artistic masterpiece; sometimes you just want to watch a good movie.
I have nothing against Verhoeven as a director. Robocop and Total Recall were both excellent action films with interesting SF elements; Basic Instinct was a very well made and suspensful murder-mystery/sex thriller; Flesh+Blood was probably the best depiction of 15th century Europe I’ve ever seen on film. I haven’t seen his Dutch films but I understand that they’re held in high critical regard. Now, I can’t say I’m all that crazy about hs post-Instinct work, but I’m not going to condemn him for making two or three lesser films.
Robocop seemed pretty satirical to me. Basic Instinct didn’t. Of course, I saw it with five drunk fraternity brothers. I didn’t see any of his other movies.