I'm surprised no one has already said
Sam Raimi
Consider this my nomination.
Whether it's bloody fun (Evil Dead II, Drag Me To Hell), big budget spectacles (Spiderman, Oz The Great & Powerful) or mature pieces (A Simple Plan, The Gift) Raimi isn't afraid to dip his talent in the genre pool.
When people think of Raimi they think of his two biggest achievements, The Evil Dead trilogy and the Spiderman trilogy. I was first introduced to Raimi's work through
Army of Darkness. The hilariously over the top stooges style caught my attention and I went looking for the films that came before it. So when I was sitting alone in my basement watching
The Evil Dead for the first time on VHS, I knew I wanted to become a filmmaker. Something about a bunch of friends, getting some money together and going out into the woods on their own, playing by their own rules and making a film spoke to me. To this day,
The Evil Dead remains to be one of the scariest films put to screen. The sequel is one of, if not THE, best horror-comedy. Many people prefer the sequel, but they are both on par with each other to me.
Spiderman is his most profitable film and the original BIG opening weekend blockbuster IMO. The first film to gross over 100 million opening weekend. We have come a far way since then. Seeing Spiderman swing through the skyline felt like a leap in technology and opened the doors for more comic book films. Sure Donner's Superman was the first big comic book film and Burton's Batman is a classic...but if you are to look at the superhero comic book film formula today. You can thank both Singer's X-Men and Raimi's Spiderman for that.
With
Spiderman 2 Raimi has one of the best superhero films of all time under his belt. Impressive visuals, a spectacular fight sequence on top of a train and a memorable villain paved the way for Spiderman 2 to be considered the best in the series and one of the best in the genre.
Raimi is close friends with the Coen brothers, he helped them get their first film off the ground. When they did
Fargo Raimi's decided to do a companion piece, so we got the cold character drama
A Simple Plane, where 3 friends find a bag of cash inside a crashed plane. The greed and suspicion is too much and they begin to turn on each other. A really underrated film in my opinion that EVERYONE should check out right now.
After the big budget spectacles, Raimi went back to his roots with
Drag Me To Hell. A HELL-ariously awesome cartoon fun ride through horror. No cheap scares, just pure hilariously comedy and horror. The film didn't do well at the box office, but it's just so much FUN to watch, that I don't care. It showed me that Raimi knows his roots and isn't afraid to go back and give the fans of his early works what they want. Which is why he produces so much horror and one of those films was
The Evil Dead remake.
The Quick & The Dead, again, another fun flick that is a Western. A freakin' Western people!!!! Leonardo DiCaprio, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Sharon Stone. What a cast!!!
For The Love of The Game...a sports movie!!! The man is able to go into unfamiliar territory and try new things.
He has his signature look and style. You'll always see a POV shot in one of his flicks and a cameo from his best friend Bruce Campbell and brother Ted Raimi.
Sam Riami Fan Club, UNITE!!!!
The Evil Dead
The Evil Dead II
Army of Darkness
Spiderman
Spiderman 2
Spiderman 3
For The Love of the Game
The Quick and the Dead
Oz the Great and Powerful
Darkman
Drag Me To Hell
A Simple Plan
The Gift