Best Director in the Bizz. whats your tops (1 Viewer)

[ShawnCoghill]

Yes I meant (as-they-live-and-breathe) Directors,If we did ,of all time Directors, we'd be here way to long.
As Hollywood has always had,theres a whole lot of low-brow directors out there too who only make the tripe,So finding the Elite is always best,and theres never many.Ever since there has been film,there has been thoes directors out there who make a visual feast,and thoes who make Haggis.I think Ill start a Worst Directors in Hollywood thread.

 

[Sam E. Torres]

Kevin Smith the writer, incredible

if by incredible you mean writing immature sex and fart jokes followed by pseudo-intelligent conversation, then yeah, he's incredible all right.
i honestly don't think there is anyone better than spielberg out there right now. i have my lasers, i have my icbms set on paul thomas anderson as an up and comer, as well as wes anderson. i do find it extremely unfair to call them the best directors in the business right now, though. as far as quality, quantity, and skill-spielberg. he has proven himself as an amazingly diverse director who has recently vowed to make films for his own experimentation. and contrary to popular belief, i don't think minority report was his comeback, he never had a downfall. if anything, a.i. was a pivotal climax in his career.

 

[Nick Sievers]

Steven Soderbergh is my favorite director, I feel the guy just shows pure talent and vision in his films. He is always willing to try something new and for me he succeeds with it. Just look at his recent film track, we have Traffic, Ocean's Eleven, Full Frontal and Solaris. Its all over the map in terms of genre, and given his style and direction in the past you can just about gurantee that apart from being critically accalaimed, I will love them (which was the point of posting here in the first place .

 

[Travis_S]

Steven Spielberg
M. Night Shyamalan
Cameron Crowe
Sam Mendes

 

[Steve Clark]

My favorites are Ridley Scott, Ron Howard, James Cameron and Martin Scorsese.

 

[Steeve Bergeron]

My favorite director is definitely Steven Spielberg.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

I hate to seemingly jump on the "hot new director" thang, but I really REALLY dig the work of David Fincher.
Other directors I admire - in no particular order:
The Immortal Coens
Sam Raimi
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Spielberg
John Carpenter (Not to sound pretentious, but I really only like the "Early Carpenter".)
Cameron Crowe
Lawrence Kasdan
Ridley Scott
John Sayles
Ang Lee
Danny DeVito
Paul Verhoeven
Richard Donner
Martin Scorsese
Keith Gordon
Terry Gilliam
Peter Jackson
Richard Linklater
Clive Barker
Milos Forman
Brian De Palma
Wes Anderson
Walter Hill (He's directed a lot of cool action flicks!)
Paul Thomas Anderson
Jonathan Lynn
Michael Ritchie :frowning:
Joe Dante
Bryan Singer
Michael Bay (Yes, I like Michael Bay's visual style a whole lot. Sue me!)
-soon to be favorites-
Sam Mendes (Sneak blurb: Scott says Perdition is damn damn good.)
Spike Jonze
Christopher Nolan
Baz Luhrman
John Dahl
...OH, and Albert Pyun.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Scott's just jogged my memory a bit. I would like to add Wes Anderson and Richard Donner as honorable mentions for very different reasons.

 

[Mark Palermo]

The best of the now:
David Lynch
Brian De Palma
Steven Spielberg
Werner Herzog
Dario Argento (although Sleepless sucked)
Joel Coen
Robert Altman
Wish he was working more:
Alex Proyas
Most promising of the young generation of filmmakers:
M. Night Shyamalan
Robert Rodriguez
Sofia Coppola
Matthew Bright
Acclaimed directors whose movies I don't care about:
Steven Soderbergh
Wim Wenders
Wes Anderson

 

[Mike Broadman]

Stanley Kubrick

Martin Scorsese is a distant second.

 

[Justin Doring]

Paul Thomas Anderson
Kenneth Branagh
Joel Coen
Brian DePalma
Clint Eastwood
David Fincher
John Frankenheimer
Stephen Frears
Terry Gilliam
Lawrence Kasdan
David Lynch
Adrian Lyne
David Mamet
Michael Mann
John Milius
Nicholas Roeg
John Sayles
Martin Scorsese
Ridley Scott
Steven Spielberg
Oliver Stone
Paul Verhoeven
Peter Weir

 

[Stevan Lay]

Michael Ritchie :frowning:

Scott, you mean Guy not Michael, right?
Respected and admired Directors:
Ang Lee (Eat Drink Man Woman)
Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas)
Richard Linklater (Dazed & Confused)
Wes Anderson (Rushmore)
Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia)
Coen Brothers (Big Lebowski)
Steven Spielberg (Jaws)
Guy Ritchie (Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels)
M. Night Shyamalan (Sixth Sense)
Steven Soderbergh (Traffic)
Kevin Smith (Clerks)
Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rogue)
Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction)
David Fincher (Se7en)
Cameron Crowe (Jerry Macguire)
Darren Aronofsky (Requiem For A Dream)
James Cameron (Aliens)
Wong Kar-Wai (Chungking Express)
Wayne Wang (Smoke)
Rob Reiner (Misery)
Mathieu Kassovitz (La Haine)

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Stevan,

Nope, I meant Michael. Your question was logical, tho.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

My favorites (not in order):

Scorsese
Shyamalan (so far anyway)
Lean
Hitchcock
Jarmusch
Tarantino
Kubrick
The Brothers Coen
Soderbergh

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Director of the Fletch movies and Fantasticks. Died last year of cancer complications, as I recall....:frowning:
Ted Demme's another promising director who passed away recently far before his time.

 

[Rob Lutter]

Favorite "new" Directors:
David Fincher (Alien 3, Se7en, the Game, Fight Club, Panic Room).
Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back)
Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums)
Favorite Director that should REALLY stick to writing:
George Lucas
Favorite Director (still living):
Steven Spielberg
Favorite Director (deceased):
Stanley Kubrick
Honorable Mentions:
Sam Raimi
David Lynch
Alfred Hitchcock
The Coen Brothers
John Lasseter

 

[Jason Whyte]

My list is far too long for favorite directors, so I'll just add this:
- My five favorite directors currently working in the business now are Martin Scorcese, Paul Thomas Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Steven Soderbergh and Cameron Crowe.
However.....
- My favorite director of all time is Stanley Kubrick.

Jason

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

The modern dependables, IMO:

Coen Bros.
Sam Raimi
James Cameron
Ang Lee
John Dahl
Peter Jackson

The old dependables (among others):

John Ford
Preston Sturges
Alfred Hitchcock
Akira Kurosawa
Howard Hawks
Buster Keaton
William Wyler
Billy Wilder
Powell/Pressburger
Jules Dassin
George Stevens
Sergio Leone
Fritz Lang
William Wellman
Henry Hathaway
F.W. Murnau
Robert Siodmak
Anthony Mann
Robert Wise
Cy Enfield
Ernest B. Schoedsack
William Dieterle
Jacques Tourneur
Bob Clampett
Tex Avery
Friz Freleng
Chuck Jones
Art Davis
William Cameron Menzies

 

[Seth Paxton]

if by incredible you mean writing immature sex and fart jokes followed by pseudo-intelligent conversation, then yeah, he's incredible all right.

No, Sam, I think Kevin also has a strong sense of deeper subtext within all his work.
There are all sorts of cultural commentaries going on within his films, expressing ridiculous fears, true joys, complexities of romantic relationships, religious hypocricy, corporate greed, etc.
That half of these themes come from foul-mouthed punks isn't the point.
And that's not just Chasing Amy and Dogma. Mallrats starts off immediately attacking a rather standard early 20 something relationship where the guy still wants to be a kid. Is Brodie any different than the guys in Swingers? And in the same film we have the voice of Gwen speaking out from a woman's point of view on the matter.
Is he changing the world in a heavy-handed manner, no. But his jokes go beyond saying "poopy" every five seconds. It reminds me of Eddie Murphy's response to similar accusations in Raw, which I also happened to agree with. Being dirty might be a way for cheap laugh, but the real comedy comes from something more than that. Carlin and Murphy knew that, Smith knows that, the South Park guys know that. There has to be some sort of serious social commentary for the deeper humor to exist.
This is why I don't care for films like Scary Movie, but do find Smith's work to be hilarious.

 

[Seth Paxton]

John Carpenter (Not to sound pretentious, but I really only like the "Early Carpenter".)

I also forgot to say Crowe. I really like his touch, but I know others find his musical hand to be too strong. Doesn't bother me, but I suppose I can see that. One of my fav Crowe moments is when they are jamming on "Third Stone from the Sun" (IIRC) in Singles (something from "RU Xper?")
I always dig out the album after seeing that scene.