Directors You Used To Love, But Have Now Given Up On

[Hey Man]

I would have to go with:

Brian De Palma
Francis Ford Coppola

You?

[adamjohnson]

John Carpenter - hoping his next flick brings him back

Tim Burton - seems to have trailed off considerably, despite making a pretty good Sweeney Tood recently.

Robert Zemeckis - Dear GOD, return to live action!

[FireCaptain4]

Robert Zemeckis - Dear GOD, return to live action!

I honestly don't get why he decided to use motion capture for both Beowulf and The Polar Express. Both seem like they would have been less expensive and less... unintentionally creepy had he just made them live action in the first place.

[BakeTheMooCow]

Rob Reiner, Kevin Smith, Robert Zemeckis

but most of all -- Cameron Crowe.

I refuse to watch any film this knobhead will ever make in the future.

[John Galt]

Too many to mention. But #1 has GOT to be Steven Spielberg.

Crystal Skull clinched it.

[FireCaptain4]

Too many to mention. But #1 has GOT to be Steven Spielberg.

Why?! Just because Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull wasn't perfect? Why would you give up on man that is still capable of churning out great stuff like Munich and Catch Me If You Can?

Sure, Spielberg isnt the "every movie a masterpiece" guy he used to be, but he still rules and is one of the best filmmakers working nowadays just the same. There's no reason to "give up" on him.

[Hey Man]

Rob Reiner, Kevin Smith, Robert Zemeckis

but most of all -- Cameron Crowe.

I refuse to watch any film this knobhead will ever make in the future.

Sure Elizabethtown sucked, but Almost Famous is fucking amazing and Jerry Maguire for what it was was very good.

[bonoferox]

M Night Shyamalan, but I still have a little hope in him if he returns to finish Unbreakable.
Richard Donner (Superman: The movie - Timeline)

[spacemonkey]

Hey put Tobe Hooper down on that list...after he did The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part II (which I think was his last great film) the guy just went completely down hill and has never recovered. Though he has made one or two watchable films (like Spontanious Combustion, The Toolbox Murders) he has never gone back to his glorious Texas Chainsaw Massacre days.

[FireCaptain4]

Sure Elizabethtown sucked, but Almost Famous is fucking amazing and Jerry Maguire for what it was was very good.

Agreed. Elizabethtown was weak as all hell, but everything else Crowe has released has ranged from good to golden (Singles, Vanilla Sky, Say Anything, Jerry McGuire, Almost Famous). Every director is entitled to a slip up or two.

[BakeTheMooCow]

Sure Elizabethtown sucked, but Almost Famous is fucking amazing and Jerry Maguire for what it was was very good.

But "Elizabethtown" was so bad that it that it is akin to a director making 2 or 3 or 4 bad movies in a row, which is what causes most fans to give up on directors. It has tainted everything he has ever done and will do in the future.

[razgriz21]

Robert Zemeckis - Dear GOD, return to live action!

Same here.

Brian Robbins - He destroyed Eddie Murphy's career with Norbit and Meet Dave.

[FireCaptain4]

But "Elizabethtown" was so bad that it that it is akin to a director making 2 or 3 or 4 bad movies in a row, which is what causes most fans to give up on directors. It has tainted everything he has ever done and will do in the future.

Quite honestly, I had actually completely forgotten about that film until you brought it up. Every director has a bad film or two. I mean, hell, David Fincher's first film was Alien 3! How many people do you think would't have given Se7en and The Game and Fight Club chance if they subscribed to the "one sucky film ruins a director" clause.

Personally, I liked Alien 3, but many hate it with a passion.

[John Galt]

Personally, I liked Alien 3, but many hate it with a passion.

Yes. It should never have been made. Just like Terminator 3; but even worse.

Fight Club is overrated pretention. The first half of The Game is good; but after that it flops and becomes prosaic.

Basically Seven and Zodiac are Fincher's 2 great films.

Haven't yet seen Benjamin Button.

[Beard_of_Meat]

M Night Shyamalan-Lady in the Water was bad but The Happening was just unexcusable

[BakeTheMooCow]

Quite honestly, I had actually completely forgotten about that film until you brought it up. Every director has a bad film or two. I mean, hell, David Fincher's first film was Alien 3! How many people do you think would't have given Se7en and The Game and Fight Club chance if they subscribed to the "one sucky film ruins a director" clause.

Personally, I liked Alien 3, but many hate it with a passion.

Fair point. I suppose I could give Crowe another chance, although I won't get my hopes up.

[echo_bravo]

Tim Burton...he is basically terrible now.:(

[spacemonkey]

I wouldnt go as far as calling Burton terrible. Corpse Bride and Sweenty Todd arent the best films ever made, but they arent terrible. Im very curious for his upcoming film projects. His Alice in Wonderland should be surreal visual trip. His upcoming remake of Frankenweenie, is high on my list. I cant wait to see how he expands the concept which he started his film carreer with. Frankenweenie is currently in pre-production.

[Cosimo]

I would have to go with:

Brian De Palma
Francis Ford Coppola

You?

yup, youth without youth was shocking

however i believe coppola has atleast one more masterpiece in him, not so sure about de palma

also abel ferrera, wong kar wai, zhang yimou

[APzombie]

Coppola
Zemeckis
De Palma
Carpenter
Bogdonovich
Robin Hardy (don't think cowboy's for christ will ever happen)

[Cop No. 633]

I see a couple I can definitely agree with:

John Carpenter -- He was great, but lost his knack for making good movies. I think it's because he never evolved his style. You look at a movie like Escape from LA and the action scenes are so stationary and stagnant, you're seeing a guy who makes action scenes as if it was still 1981 . His last two Masters of Horror entries were utter failures (not to mention Ghosts of Mars, another turd). I heard "good things" about them, but I really think it came from apologetic fans. Anybody who can call Pro-Life good needs to check their head. He's a prisoner of his own style, which needs to evolve pronto. I hope he's sitting on his couch watching better movies, trying to find a different way to go about it.

Cameron Crowe -- I never was a huge fan. The best thing he'll probably ever do is Almost Famous, mostly because it was autobiographical. Vanilla Sky was a lame lighter-pop song filled remake of a better movie which was darker. I didn't even bother with Elizabethtown. It looked stupid and Orlando Bloom is about as charismatic as a carrot. Overall, I would say he's always been in them middle for me. I don't think I've ever loved a movie of his except for Almost Famous.

Kevin Smith -- Just not funny anymore. The guy had a bag of tricks that he's used up and is now trying to go for poor dramedy director. His last moment to shine was the Lord of the Rings speech in Clerks 2, which had a lot of bad moments. I saw Zach and Miri and I hardly even laughed. Looks like your dick and fart joke telling days are over Mr. Smith.

My candidate for a "I hope you're not slipping because I really dug your work, man..."

Wes Anderson. I really liked your first three films. Zissou was fun, but about the same as your other movies plot wise, character wise. It felt like an exercise, which I could let it slide because it was fun. Then you made Darjeeling Ltd. which was pretentious up the ying-yang, wasn't witty in the slightest and you had me looking at my watch half the time. If Zissou was an exercise, this was beating a dead horse. I really like you Wes, but I hope you evolve as a filmmaker and not repeat yourself over and over (look at what happened to Carpenter up there). You've got what it takes to be remembered as a great, but you need to look at the other Anderson (Paul Thomas) and see how he's changing and evolving in ways you haven't thought of yet. You need to get out of your comfort zone, stop making movies about sullen, sarcastic people and about them not connecting with their parents. Stop focusing so much on the nice colors and wardrobe than the actual script and inject some life into it. Where's the Wes who made Bottle Rocket? A little movie that was filled with more life and joy than any minute of the Darjeeling Ltd? I hope to see you in top shape soon, because I say it with love. Rushmore was my introduction, then Bottle Rocket and I enjoyed the hell out of Royal Tenenbaums. But if the next preview of yours gives me feelings of deja vu, I probably won't see it in theaters, but bootleg it.

[Sad man]

Cameron Crowe
Brian de Palma
John Carpenter
Wes Craven
George Romero
Robert Zemeckis
M. Night Shyamalan
Tim Burton

[John Galt]

Cameron Crowe
Brian de Palma
John Carpenter
Wes Craven
George Romero
Robert Zemeckis
M. Night Shyamalan
Tim Burton


Aye. Romero is my #2 and Craven #3.

[Scarface98.9]

I would've said Brian De Palma on the list but he would've had to have a series of good movies first, and I've yet to see one I could get into.

My picks:

George Lucas

Wes Anderson

Steven Soderberg (haven't seen Che but am not anticipating a change of opinion)

M Night Shymalan

Kevin Smith is coming close to it. I love his Evening With DVDs moreso than a lot of his movies and while Zack and Miri had its moments, it was a classic example of excess and how dirty humor should be quality over quantity

[MidnightAngel]

Bret Ratner
Michael Bay
Paul WS Anderson
Renny Harlin
John McTiernan
Simon West
Jan De Bont
Stephen Sommers

[Powerslave]

Coppola
Ridley Scott
Tim Burton
Kevin Smith (for the most part)

I'd say Zemeckis as well, but I haven't actually seen anything he's made recently. So my having given up on him is due mostly to the complete lack of interest I have in anything he does, thus its not totally legit. Same goes for Shyamalan. Haven't seen anything since Signs, so I dunno.

[Smarmy Douche]

Given up on is a loose term, which I only used roughly in the last thread. I don't really "give up on" any artists, I only become really displeased with them and only gvie them further chances upon recommendation from people I trust.

I mean, Jonathan Demme used to be in a place like this, but Rachel Getting Married was a fine picture. I was one of the few who liked Youth Without Youth as well. I think it's a enourmously misunderstood and underappreciated film.

I can't think of any directors I've "Given up on". A lot of the ones mentioned here were always crap as far as I'm concerned.

[Mr. Mxyzptlk]

Coppola is the most obvious choice for me. I don't keep up with most directors currently working, because I generally hate the vast majority of films made in the past two decades.

[QUENTIN]

I don't think I've ever "given up" on any director. I'm always open and hopeful that a director's next film will be better than his last and I don't think of any filmmakers as celebrities I'm fans of or opposed to.

But I will say there are a great many directors whose work I used to eagerly anticipate and expect to be great that I now have considerable reservations about and who I no longer expect much of. Near the top of that list would be:

Kevin Smith
Clerks is the funniest movie I've ever seen. Chasing Amy is one of my favorite romances. Dogma is very funny, original, and I can rewatch it dozens of times without it getting old. I still appreciated the sophomoric humor in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back even if it was one big repetitive bout of masturbation and am in the minority who genuinely liked Jersey Girl. But Clerks II was not only totally unnecessary and nothing more in concept than plumbing the depths of a previous success in the hopes of repeating it and appeasing fans, it was fucking TERRIBLY written and acted. Smith no longer had any sense of comedy, character, or timing and seemed to have been replaced by a 12-year-old fan of his trying to emulate his style but only getting the dirty words and crude situations, none of the intelligence or charm. Zach and Miri continued down the same road with characters who aren't believable for a second, sacharine melodrama, and dick and fart and sex jokes that belong in a National Lampoon's direct to video flick, not a movie from the guy who once wrote a declaration of love as powerful as the movies have given us. Even his Evening with Kevin Smith standup routines have gotten awful, repetitive, and boring. He seems to have totally lost whatever he once had and become a complete, unrepentant sellout. I no longer expect anything from a man who not only refuses to grow, but seems determined to revert to an even greater immaturity than he first displayed. Still hope he changes course but find it increasingly unlikely.

Quentin Tarantino
Pulp Fiction is my all-time favorite movie. Jackie Brown isn't far behind. Kill Bill was as well executed and exciting an exercise in style as I've seen. But it began to demonstrate the problem with Tarantino's 21st century output. Fiction, Jackie, even Dogs were predominately about very human characters we believed and cared about. Somewhere along the way, Tarantino forgot that that is a necessary key to great films and stopped telling movies about characters. There were always homages and references to other films, but now his films are just one big long homage, films about other films rather than about people. Though he's as naturally talented as anyone to ever pick up a camera and Kill Bill is a stunningly well-directed, visually dynamic and exciting pic, his decision to follow it up with Death Proof was a big mistake. Proof was also extremely well-directed, a visual treat with one of the best chase scenes ever captured. But every character is a phony writer's construct spouting overwritten dialogue and the story is just one big excuse to ape the exploitation pictures Tarantino loves. I'm really hoping Inglorious Bastards is about soldiers, not about other WWII movies, but I kind of doubt it. If he continues down the path of making insulated pictures that respond to cinema instead of life, I'm afraid Tarantino will become little more than a great stylist who wastes his enormous talent on amusing trifles instead of the masterpieces he's capable of.

Oliver Stone
W. was a step in the right direction after the pedestrian World Trade Center and awful Alexander and Any Given Sunday, but greatness eluded every scene and in many of its most important scenes, Stone relied on caricature unknown to his early work. He hasn't made a great film since Nixon nearly 15 years ago, and after one of the best and most consistent track records any filmmaker's ever accomplished, I've begun to wonder whether he has any left in him.

Never thought enough of Tim Burton or Robert Zemeckis to include them here. Both have made great movies, but just as frequently are mediocre or in the case of Burton just terrible.

As for frequently mentioned De Palma, I didn't see Redacted or The Black Dahlia, but one of the best films of his career was the recent Femme Fatale and he's always been a remarkably inconsistent director so I wouldn't be surprised if his next film was amazing and was followed by crap, on the same kind of loop that has always characterized his work.

[Le_Big_Mac]

Ridley Scott
Francis Ford Coppola
Robert Zemeckis

[wisdomsword]

Tsui Huk

[Cop No. 633]

Good call on Oliver Stone, Quentin. I used to look forward to his films until Any Given Sunday came out, which isn't necessarily bad, but something I wouldn't sit through again. I wonder what happened to the guy? His films had real energy to them. Not of them were great, but he was definitely talented. Oh well. I personally am not even interested in W.

I guess it's been so long since I gave up on him that I forgot.

[Badbird]

John Woo - the guy hasn't made a good movie since Face/Off in 1997.

[overwatch]

Why?! Just because Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull wasn't perfect? Why would you give up on man that is still capable of churning out great stuff like Munich and Catch Me If You Can?

Sure, Spielberg isnt the "every movie a masterpiece" guy he used to be, but he still rules and is one of the best filmmakers working nowadays just the same. There's no reason to "give up" on him.Don't worry Galt is the hardest man to please on the forum. I'm not surprised he's given up one of the most talented directors ever. His reasoning should be interesting.

I'd agree with Robert Zemeckis, why he is on a motion-capture tangent I don't know. Also agree with John Carpenter. I would like to add John Landis though.

[TheMazVolta]

Spike Lee - The 25th Hour came out a long time ago.

[overwatch]

Spike Lee - The 25th Hour came out a long time ago.Not a fan of Inside Man?

[DaMovieMan]

Well it's hard for me to think of any director that i used to really love and now completely gave up on. I never really loved Tim Burton, Kevin Smith or Spike Lee enough to care as much about what they do now, I loved Brian DePalma's Femme Fatale which was pretty recent (haven't seen Black Dahlia) and I'm certainly not giving up on directors like Tarantino or Stone who so far made just one mediocre film (Death Proof for Tarantino, WTC for Stone) while constantly entertaining (Inglourious Basterds looks to be amazing and I'm looking forward to Stone's new documentary). There is one name though,

David Fincher

I loved Se7eN and Fight Club and really liked Alien3 and The Game. With Panic Room things started to change for the worse, it was just okay. Zodiac was an over-long, over-CGIed, badly executed thriller and his latest overrated fiasco has digital sunsets evoking more emotion than the characters in the film, not to mention the weak writing. I'll still see his next movie, whatever is, but I won't be expecting much at all in terms of story or character depth.

I never cared so much for Edward Zwick but he did make a couple of great films in Glory and Legends of the Fall back in the day and now, after the predictable patterns in Last Samurai and Blood Diamond, I have no desire to see Defiance because i pretty much know exactly what's going to happen just from seeing the trailer, which makes me cringe every time.

[ArtFactoryRadio]

People here give up very easily it seems. There have been some who are, like, "Well, most of their movies are good, but they made one I didn't like, so they suck now."

It takes an awful lot for me to give up on a director whose movies I've loved. It takes a long time of consistently putting out mediocore or bad movies for me to stop caring about a director.

I've stopped caring about new Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, and Tony Scott.

I'm getting close to Shyamalan, but not ready to give up on him yet. With Burton, I won't rush out and see everything, but I'm always interested in what he's working on. I'd like to see Zemekis do live action again.

Oh, and fuck Paul WS Anderson. That guy hasn't made a good film since Event Horizon, and even that one wasn't that good.

[spacemonkey]

John Woo - the guy hasn't made a good movie since Face/Off in 1997.

Damn you're right, what the hell happened to that guy? That movie Paycheck sucked, havent heard from him sense. Theres was talk of him directing a movie based on the Metal Gear games...but that never came to fruition.

[legato]

I hear his new one, Red Cliff or something, is good so there's hope.

[Abbie Normal]

Rob Cohen: His early films were entertaining.
Roland Emmerich: He made a few alright films before 2001 that were watchable
Luc Besson: At least he still writes a decent movie.
The Wachowski brothers: I am still pissed about Matrix 3
Robert Zemeckis: I am with you people. Stop making animated movies!

[Servo]

As stated before, Luc Besson - I miss his endearing characters followed up with unforgettable action. Taken was all right, but it was incredibly cheesey at times and nowhere near the brilliance of films like La Femme Nikita and Leon. Fifth Element was cheesey, but again, I loved the characters and the bizarre world it took place in. A great movie to quote, too (Give me the ca-a-a-a-asssshhh!). He hasn't really recovered since The Messenger, which was awful if you ask me.

John Woo - Face/Off is one of my all time favorite action films, and I really do miss this guy's brand of action. It all went downhill after M:I2. He just needs a good script. Red Cliffs I'm excited about though...but we'll see.

Wes Craven - Man, don't get me started. If you watch Wes Craven's New Nightmare with the commentary, the guy really is a genius in the way of storytelling. I mean he really is brilliant. Scream and Scream 2 were enjoyable for me, but Scream 3 and then Red Eye were just...ugh. It just irks me because I'm positive the man KNOWS how to make a great film, and right now he's just cashing checks.

Kevin Smith - His movies were fun in high school, at least.

Zhang Yimou - I'm seriously waiting for this guy to do another decent and solid Wuxia. Curse of the Golden Flower was just boring, and nowhere near as intriguing as films like Hero or House of Flying Daggers. I understand directors like to branch out, and that's a good thing, but c'mon man...Mr. Kurosawa made tons of Samurai films that were amazing...Yimou could totally be the Chinese Kurosawa.

David Proyas - Where is our Crow director? Our genius behind Dark City? I, Robot was disposable trash and his new film Knowing has -cringe- Nicholas Cage in it. The premise is intriguing and I think I'll give it a shot, but at this point I'm really not expecting more than another disappointing Cage movie.

And of course, M. Night Shyamalan - I'm not gonna be one of those people that bags on his style of filmmaking, because I like it. And that's his thing if he doesn't want a change. But give us a story to freaking care about, man. 6th Sense was amazing, Unbreakable was just as great, Signs wasn't as great as those two but I enjoyed it nonetheless as a nearly perfect film. The Village I kinda gave him the benefit of the doubt because I wasn't going in expecting a horror movie. Lady in The Water was just so much a piece of shit I didn't even care to see The Happening. And now he's making a movie based on a tv show my 8 year old nephew watches religiously. I think he's all out of tricks at this point.

[Pentangeli]

Francis Ford Coppola
First name to mind. He's one of my favourite directors, only for his earlier work. I don't look forward to any of his new films (as director).