Who is the most overrated director?

This is a common (and silly) notion: that if you find a movie overrated, or overly hyped, you need to exaggerate in the other direction to balance things out. Conceding that all judgements of art are subjective, this is still ridiculous hyperbole (with virtually no reasoning provided other than a vague reference to child actors), and I suspect you know it.

Everyone has the right to their own views, but this reeks of flaming more than honest opinion.

Wow, I've never been to a forum before where people knew words like 'hyperbole'.

It's been a long time since I've seen any of his films so I can't put in complaints about specific aspects, but it's the children he casts that I remember as being particularly bad, the one in Unbreakable is a wonderfully dire example; the scene where he appears with the gun threatening to shoot Bruce Willis almost gave me a stroke (ridiculous hyperbole right there, I apologise). Perhaps my hatred of his films is indeed partly due to the hype they received and whilst it was not as bad as, say, the sequels to The Matrix, my honest opinion of Unbreakable is that it was awful.

The scene in question was a bit silly, but it was incredibly tense. The audience I saw it with on opening weekend laughed once or twice, though clearly out of a desperate need for levity. Remove one funny line about "no shooting friends" and it's played pretty straight the whole way through.

That said, there are just too many things right with Unbreakable to care much about what's wrong. Spencer Treat Clark, whether you think he's passable or not (I think he gets the job done, though not spectacularly), is surrounded by a very accomplished cast. Jackson and Willis play off each other perfectly, and Robin Wright Penn steals the show as a wife who feels like a widow, and is struggling to understand why.

We also have the score. James Newton Howard outdoes himself with an elegant (yet somewhat epic) tune that reflects not only the protagonist's heroism, but his melancholy nature, as well. If that weren't enough, the main theme is distinctive enough that you can recognize it after just a few notes. You can download a clip that covers all of these aspects here (MP3, 2.29 MB)

On top of that, we have Eduardo Serra's cinematography, which has was nominated for an Oscar before his work on Unbreakable (for The Wings of the Dove) and after (for Girl with a Pearl Earring).



The entire thing is constructed like a comic book from the very beginning; not just the narrative, but the shots themselves. Say what you will about the film's story (personally, I find it believable and superbly paced), but the film is too objectively good from a technical standpoint alone to be as terrible as you say. And, while popular opinion doesn't prove anything, it's certainly on the film's side, with critical reviews mostly positive and IMDB users rating it at 7.1.

Again, you're entitled to your opinion. But here's mine: it's an incredibly well-made film that has the patience and foresight to build to a reasonable resolution that, though surprising to some, does not overpower the rest of the film as some of Shyamalan's other conclusions have.

I suspect I would find any film with Unbreakable's level of patience refreshing, but couple it with an obvious level of technical expertise and the brilliant simplicity of bringing a superhero into the "real" world, and it's among my favorite films of all-time.

Having seen it once, and that was 6 years ago, or whenever it came out, I'm not in a position to attack its flaws in as much detail as you can defend it, suffice to say it just didn't work for me. I guess we'll have to agree to differ on this one. Although my opinion is right, and yours isn't (I'm probably too new to get away with saying that, so I await an ass-kickering).

Let us not forget the genius of Samuel L. Jackson (Elijah Price).

"Do you see any Teletubbies in here? Do you see a slender plastic tag clipped to my shirt with my name printed on it? Do you see a little Asian child with a blank expression on his face sitting outside on a mechanical helicopter that shakes when you put quarters in it? No? Well, that's what you see at a toy store. And you must think you're in a toy store, because you're here shopping for an infant named Jeb."

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can i just say that i'm a little annoyed that he makes the same sort of movies? ( i mean with the surprise ending ). i didn't like unbreakable because i thought the built up was far too boring and long. but then again i like drama...maybe i just expected something different....in theory it's a brilliant idea...but something went wrong...

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http://www.last.fm/user/diezelpower/

Agreed. If you want a rubbish film that's redeemed by it's surprise ending (which you might, one day) there's no better example than Dead Or Alive. I'm a little confused as to how they managed to give it a sequel though...

oliver stone

Tarantino, i feel, he's more a marketting device than a director, i love his films but as a director he's incredibly over rated for the little he has done. And Alvin, never diss a Miike film

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i disagree wholeheartedly...pulp fiction and kill bill are both extraordinary films....

So you don't care for his style of directing or the way he comes off as a director?

I'd say Peter Jackson if he had more films, but I'd be hard set not to say Oliver Stone.

Nothing he has ever done has impressed me at all.

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"Groovy."
- Ash (Bruce Campbell), Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn

I like Tarantino's films. I said he's over rated in the marketting department, everyone thinks he's hot **** when there are far more competent directors who don't rely on the same format for the 5 films they make in 10+ years. And Kill Bill 1 was very average

Please tell me you are joking. Have you seen the movie Platoon?

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"All the confusion of my life... has been a reflection of myself! Myself as I am, not as I'd like to be." - Guido, 8 1/2

I agree broadly with that. I think QT is quite a talented director but his scripts annoy me, especially the Kill Bills. I'm not even gonna go down the 'magpie' road as he's always been open in that regard.

If Inglorious Bastards shows the maturity I thought he was developing with Jackie Brown then it could persuade me otherwise...but I'm not holding my breath.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Among the general public:

Steven Spielberg - As a director of entertainment schlock, he probably has no peer, probably because his sense of dramatic pacing is sufficiently childlike as to be nearly universal. He's an excellent technician who understands how to make shots look real, but there's no poetry in anything he does. And when he does take a stab at serious art (Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan), he relies so heavily on infantile moralism and sentiment that he blows right through the border seperating "art" and "propaganda".

Among the faux-cinephiles:

Quentin Tarantino - Tarantino the screenwriter has made a career out of making Tarantino the director look like he has talent. Sure, his films are filled with witty dialogue, but otherwise, they're jumbled, styleless patische, pretentious like PoMo (in that smirking, in on its own joke sort of way), but without the subversiveness.

Among actual cinephiles:

Jen Luc Godard - Irony is not in and of itself sufficient reasons to be. There's a smarmy art schoolish self-importance here, a perverse delight taken in making unwatchable garbage, knowing that effete reviewers will fall over themselves in the rush to enshrine your work as Important chiefly because you act like it is. Inscrutably ugly, insufferably pretentious, the worst of a bad, bad lot. The French New Wave can blow me.

i really dont think we should start argueing about tarantino. i personally love his films and directing, but i think its all a matter of opinion, and hes respected enough,whether you like him or not..

i definately think oliver stone is overrated. platoon is a really good film but nothing else hes done has impressed me at all. natural born killers and any given sunday were 2 of the worst films ive ever seen

Huh?

Oh, right. Is that more respected than any of the other directors in this thread that folks have offered their opinions on?

But i think its all a matter of opinion, and hes respected enough,whether you like him or not..

Pots? Kettles?

sigh, all im saying is that argueing about tarantino is never gonna get anywhere, ive seen it a few times before on forums. saying things like 'kill bill 1 was a bad movie' or whatever is just a stupid way of arguing which is gonna get alot of reactions like 'are you stupid? kill bill 1 was amazing,tarantinos the best' blah blah. and its gonna turn into an immature name calling argument.tarantino is a really highly respected director, whether you like him or not, like i said before.

oliver stone is a director that gets plenty of mixed criticism and he's done way more films than tarantino so its EASIER to argue about oliver stones directing...

i didn't say that no one should talk about tarantino,i meant that i THINK we should stop arguing immaturely about it,i didnt say stop arguing.

at least ive got constructive opinions, and i was just being honest when i said i think oliver stone is really overrated because he doesnt impress me at all, i didnt say he is overrated. i respect others constructive opinions, i dont respect childish arguing

There doesn't seem to be any immature name calling going on, even my attack on Yoda's favourite film wasn't met with the hostility that could be expected at most forums. And if you really want to have a leg to stand on when it comes to lecturing people on immaturity, consider occasional use of the shift key; once you've mastered that you could even have a shot at mastering the apostrophe.

As for Tarantino, he is overrated (in my opinion, obviously) the only film he's done that really merits its reputation is Pulp Fiction, and Kill Bill 2 in particular was dire. I think I've only seen a couple of Oliver Stone's films, Platoon (not so bad, but not in the same league as Apocalypse Now) and Born on the Fourth of July (a very nasty film, which I didn't like at all).