Richard Brooks “Looking For Mr. Goodbar” - it was so dark and dirty (and didn’t like it)
If I hadn’t seen the credits, I would have never though it was him, the man who did “Elmer Gantry”, “The Professionals”, “The Happy-Ending”, etc…
“A Christmas Story,” by Bob (“Porky’s”) Clark.
“The Straight Story”. It’s almost surreal to see a title card that says
“Walt Disney Pictures Presents”
followed by
“A Film By David Lynch”
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, a screwball comedy with no suspense, twists, horror, murder, etc. by Alfred Hitchcock. And one of the least funny ones I’ve seen. Not bad, mind you, but wow, it was not good.
Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery.
I think Hitch had a blonde thing for Lombard, and this happened to be the next film she was slated for.
John Huston doing Annie. He’d never done a musical, nor a comedy (Beat the Devil was not intended to be one).
Stanley Kramer and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. He directed it because someone told him he couldn’t do comedy. He proved that person right.
Great movie, though… I’d add “The Elephant Man” (both are my favorite Lynch movies). I fell out of love with surrealism very quickly.
I wonder if Huston just did it for the money. I saw this movie in school, don’t remember it, and probably wouldn’t watch it, anyway. He seemed to make a great movie every decade. I like “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” the most, but “Fat City” is one of my favorite movies, and is probably one of the most underrated movies out there by a famous director.
George Miller. Two Babe movies, two Happy Feet movies…
And the Mad Max series.
Music of the Heart, the story of a schoolteacher’s struggle to teach violin to inner-city Harlem kids.
Directed by Wes Craven and came out in 1999, between Screams 2 and 3. Meryl Streep stars.
Lorenzo’s Oil seems to be an anomaly for Gorge Miller, who did the Mad Max films.
Of course, Miller is a doctor, so maybe not.
I was about to reply to Wolf333 that he’s confused two different directors, both of whom are Australian, both of whom are named George Miller. Unfortunately, I was wrong. All the movies that Wolf333 mentions are by the same George Miller.
Lorenzo’s oil is, for me, a bit of an anomaly in that a middle school / high school friend appeared in a minor role (look for Omouri in the list of characters). He’s pretty much the only person from my high school to appear in any kind of major movie. (Looking him up in IMDB looks like he plays the odd role here and there.)
Popeye - Robert Altman
More about George Miller: Although George Miller (the Mad Max, Happy Feet, Lorenzo’s Oil, The Witches of Eastwick one) directed Babe in the City, he did not direct Babe, although he produced it. If there’s anything truly interesting about him, it’s how few complete feature-length theatrical movies he’s directed over a movie career lasting 49 years so far. He’s only directed nine complete feature-length theatrical movies in that time, and the ones mentioned so far are all of them. He also directed some shorts, a piece of an anthology movie, and some episodes of a TV series. He’s produced some other movies too. And then there was that all those years he spent training to become a doctor. Miller has been very selective about what movies he does.
Once again, I tried to rephrase what I was writing and ended up completely messing up a sentence.
I wrote:
And then there was that all those years he spent training to become a doctor.
I meant:
And then there were all those years he spent training to become a doctor.
John Cassavetes - Big Trouble
Sam Raimi - For The Love Of The Game (sports movie; not a deadite in sight)
Billy Wilder, “Witness For The Prosecution”, the best Hitchcock movie Hitch never made, from the master of comedies.
A superhero film like Hulk stands out a bit in Ang Lee’s filmography.
Takashi Shimizu, who primarily does horror (Ju-On/The Grudge being the biggest) also did the (poorly received) 2014 live-action adaptation of Kiki’s Delivery Service. (He’s only done horror since, so I guess the reception of his Kiki told him to stick with his strengths.)