Directors Who Forgot How to Direct List

[HAL237]

The Wachowskis
Ridley Scott
Rob Reiner
Francis Ford Coppola

[Monterey Jack]

Most of these filmmakers still know how to DIRECT...they just lost the ability to write or choose good scripts. Even the worst Ridley Scott movies are beautifully-made on a technical level.

[Alister_M]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

Having seen all of the movies he directed (dozens of times each), I would have to totally disagree. He gets it, he knows what the movie needs, and he gets what he needs out of his actors. He even knew how to get a great performance out of a puppet!

The primary credit for Yoda's greatness is due to Frank Oz and Irvin Kershner.

My answer to the OT is William Friedkin. Not only can he not make good films any more, he seems to love shitting on and ruining the good one he's already done.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by Alister_M

The primary credit for Yoda's greatness is due to Frank Oz and Irvin Kershner.

Oz and Kershner deserve a big part of the credit, but Yoda would never have existed if Lucas hadn't conjured him up and hired talented people to help bring his vision to life

[Riddler The Slag]

Guy Ritchie

[lesco]

Kevin Smith was still learning to direct with his first film, and then stopped trying.
His films are the only ones where I notice someone not being able to direct actors.

[UltraMario9]

I know others disagree but outside of The Usual Suspects and maybe X2 & DOFP, Bryan Singer is kind of a hack.

Although I love Money Talks and Rush Hour 1 & 2, Ratner hasn't made a good movie since (I do like Red Dragon & Rush Hour 3 as guilty pleasures though). Definitely a hack.

Originally Posted by DR Herbert West

Renny Harlin

Skiptrace was suprisingly decent.

Originally Posted by HAL237

The Wachowskis

[imsounoriginal]

Cameron Crowe.

[Leslie Dame]

David Cronenberg. He lost his edge, sad to say. His last great film was Eastern Promises (2007).

[The Sovereign]

Originally Posted by UltraMario9

I know others disagree but outside of The Usual Suspects and maybe X2 & DOFP, Bryan Singer is kind of a hack.

No disagreement from me. I would never know that I'm watching a Singer film if I didn't see the credit. The script & stars were what made The Usual Suspects a success, and I think any number of directors could have done with he did with the X-Men films. He's completely unremarkable.

[Aclea]

Since Chris McQuarrie got regular directing gigs, it does look like he was the real talent behind that breakthrough. If only he'd been allowed to direct Valkyrie as originally planned: Singer's direction is pretty pedestrian and anonymous and lets the material down badly.

[UltraMario9]

I have yet to see his debut, Public Access, but Singer feels like he's more suited for directing episodes of Soap Operas or CW shows, but you don't get enough power in the business doing that. He owes his career to McQuarrie, Newton Thomas Seigel and John Ottman massively.

Mike Dougherty has proved himself to be the better filmmaker, wish he had done Superman Returns instead.

[sawdustandtinsel]

Sadly I think the answer here is Jonathan Demme. When you think about it he was the canary in the coal mine for the current state of film culture/discourse. For anybody who was too young, he was accused of making a homophobic movie in The Silence of the Lambs and he spent the rest of his life and career apologizing for it. Somebody should write a book on his career as he clearly lost his edge as a director after that.

[RodChester]

Originally Posted by BluBonnet

He even knew how to get a great performance out of a puppet!

Did he? The only time Lucas directed a Yoda puppet was for the Phantom Menace. And he just ended up replacing it with CGI. So...

[SymbioticFunction]

Originally Posted by lesco

Kevin Smith was still learning to direct with his first film, and then stopped trying.
His films are the only ones where I notice someone not being able to direct actors.

Not too sure about that as the Chasing Amy performances are excellent.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by RodChester

Did he? The only time Lucas directed a Yoda puppet was for the Phantom Menace. And he just ended up replacing it with CGI. So...

Lucas didn't personally direct ESB because he didn't want to bother with the details of the day-to-day things at the set and on location. But pretty much everything that went into making the movie had to be OK'd by him. This included hiring Frank Oz, among other things.

People who are inherently biased against Lucas always downplay the fact that Kershner and Marquand were just directors for hire.

[Canada]

Originally Posted by Aclea

Since Chris McQuarrie got regular directing gigs, it does look like he was the real talent behind that breakthrough. If only he'd been allowed to direct Valkyrie as originally planned: Singer's direction is pretty pedestrian and anonymous and lets the material down badly.

After seeing what Christopher McQuarrie has been able to do with Jack Reacher and the Mission Impossible series of late, I think I would have been a lot happier with a Christopher McQuarrie directed Valkyrie than with a Bryan Singer directed one.

[The Debts]

Roland Emmerich. Dude does indeed have a good eye for spectacle and he's not exactly some sort of genius but seeing him drop the ball so bad on ID:R was almost sort of mind blowing.

[Synchg]

Originally Posted by UltraMario9

Singe owes his career to John Ottman massively.

stop trolling.

who said walter hill? he was never a decent director.

age kicks your ass. at some point, you just start doing it for the paycheck

[DR Herbert West]

Originally Posted by Synchg

who said walter hill? he was never a decent director.