Lists Make Glenn Angry

I've been perusing through Total Film's 100 Greatest Directors Ever list and, for the most part, it's a generally acceptable list. I always cherist a movie-related list that doesn't have Citizen Kane or Orson Welles at the top (I've said it before, and I'll say it again - The Magnificent Ambersons is better than Citizen Kane) and it's hard to deny the likes of Hitchcock, Scorsese, Spielberg, Hawks and Coppola their place in history, but the following names didn't just annoy me in a "Oh no they di'nt!" way. No, they made me angry in a "Oh no they did not!" See that, non-abbreviation. That means angry.

#9 Peter Jackson
I don't deny that his career has certainly been an achievement, but if Brett Ratner had directed the Lord of the Rings trilogy, would he be here too?

#10 David Fincher
No. Just NO! FUCKING NO!, even. Christ. It's a good thing he hasn't made more than six movies because if he had he might have actually been number ONE! I like the guy and has made a few great movies, but this is fanboy-ism gone beserk. Sorry, but it is. Fincher is the TENTH best director EVER after six movies? No. Way. Jose. (who's Jose?)

#12 Quentin Tarantino
Even as a huge fan of QT's I can't help but think he's a tad high, don't you think? He, too, only has six films on his resume. Jackie Brown is still his best, by the way (and don't you forget).

#20 Paul Thomas Anderson
Much like Fincher at #10, this is utter madness. Let me get this straight Total Film: After FOUR films, Anderson is already considered a greater director than Robert Altman, the man who has influenced him more than any other. For the record, Altman came into the countdown at #26. Yeah, I'm confused too.

#22 David Lynch
Should be, like, #2. :P

#32 Christopher Nolan
Just like the other younger modern directors on this list it seems that the fanboy mentality has overtaken rational thinking. Four movies (okay, five, but only about three people on the planet have seen his debut Following) into his career and he is already considered one of the greats (a spot under him at #33? Yasujiro Ozu!) I presume it is only because he made Batman Begins. If he hadn't he'd be hanging around #99 with Sofia Coppola. Or, at least, #65 with Bryan Singer.

#38 James Cameron
Yeah, I KNOW! Quite possibly one of cinemas greatest pioneers of all time apparently hasn't done enough of merit to rank him alongside David Fincher (five films) and Paul Thomas Anderson (four films). Not creating one of cinemas most beloved franchises with The Terminator. Not revolutionising cinema and visual effects with Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Not even creating the highest-grossing film of all time with Titanic. Nope. He didn't make Fight Club so, naturally, he doesn't deserve to be that high. :/

#51 Robert Wise
I'd rank him (much) higher, but my issue is with their selection of his best film. The Curse of the Cat People, his debut and a sequel to Cat People, is actually lame and doesn't feature anything that made the original an amazing classic. Bizarre.

#75 Tony Scott/#76 Milos Forman
Let it be known that the man who has won two Best Director Academy Awards and been nominated for another is ranked one position below the man who made Days of Thunder. You did read that correctly.

#92 Paul Verhoeven
This isn't about Verhoeven (I haven't seen any of his Dutch work to say), but could they at least do some fact checking? They say that "Verhoeven impressed with ironic/iconic sci-fi(Robocop, Starship Troopers) until success bred excess (Showgirls)." yet Starship Troopers came after Showgirls. So, until success bred excess, which bred success again?

#97 Baz Luhmann
With only three movies to his name, with Australia he'll be TOP TEN MATERIAL!

Christ, what a stupid list (yet at other times, spot on perfect - Hitchcock!) I thought I'd type down a few names that failed to meet the taxing criteria put upon the candidates.

Elia Kazan - East of Eden, On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, Splendor in the Grass,

Jacques Tourneur - Cat People, Out of the Past, I Walked With A Zombie, The Leopard Man

Sidney Lumet - Dog Day Afternoon, 12 Angry Men, Serpico, The
Verdict

Charlie Chaplin - The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, The Kid

FW Murnau - Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Nosferatu, Faust

Bernardo Bertolucci - The Last Emperor, The Last Tango in Paris, The Conformist, 1900

Warren Beatty - Reds, Heaven Can Wait, Dick Tracy

Victor Fleming - Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Joan of Arc

Otto Preminger - Anatomy of a Murder, The Man with the Golden Arm, Bunny Lake is Missing, Carmen Jones

William Wyler - Mrs Miniver, Funny Girl, The Little Foxes, The Best Year of Our Lives

George Stevens - Giant, A Place in the Sun, Woman of the Year, Shane

Bob Fosse - All That Jazz, Cabaret, Lenny, Sweet Charity

Vincente Minnelli - An American in Paris, Meet Me in St Louis, Designing Women, Gigi

King Vidor - The Champ, War and Peace, The Citadel, The Crowd

Michelangelo Antonioni - Blow Up, L'aventtura, The Passenger, Zabriskie Point

But who are those guys compared to the man who made Alien3? REALLY? I'm surprised they didn't throw Guillermo del Toro or someone like him on there because Pan's Labyrinth was the greatest thing evaaaaa!

Underrated Movie of the Week

(Consider this another minor entry for the Action Heroine Blog-a-thon. Angela Bassett in Strange Days)



Strange Days, 1995, dir. Kathryn Bigelow, written by James Cameron, starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott, Vincent D'Onofrio, William Fitchner, Glenn Plummer and Nicky Katt.

Damn, Sigourney!

I adore Sigourney Weaver. I cherish her. I covet her. I wish she was in every movie ever made... well, I wouldn't go that far (can you imagine Sigourney in The Da Vinci Code?). But, yes, I just love her so much. I was reading an article at the New York Observer but the very first thing my eyes darted to was the delicious and lusy image you see to your right (click to watch it grow). Yowza! Sigourney is smokin' in that picture. I'm not sure if that is a new image or an older one (she sure don't look 57!) but no matter when it was taken, it's a fine picture don't you think?

In relation to what the article is about for a part, James Cameron's Avatar... well, really, this is going to be an experience. I can't wait to see what tricks Cameron has up his sleeve. I just hope more Aussie cinemas are equipt with 3D by 2009. I was hunting around to see where Meet the Robinsons was playing in 3D and there's a whole massive total of four cinemas in the state. FOUR. Crazy. The illusion of being able to touch the film's star, Sam Worthington, will be an added bonus.

I hope that Sigourney is about to kickstart a big massive career comeback (after years in little-seen indies and a few lame big movies). That stretch she had in the '80s is pretty darn prolific - Aliens, Gorillas in the Mist, Ghostbusters, Working Girl to name some, three of which she recieved Oscar nods for. But she remains, much like that other Queen of the '80s Glenn Close, Oscarless. :(

He Has Returned.

It's about bloody time, James! As I'm sure you've read by now the man James Cameron is getting all ready and steady and make his long-awaited dramatic comeback with sci-fi adventure film Avatar. Since Titanic in 1997 (TEN YEARS in December!) he's only made two documentaries. I gotta say, this one sounds fuckin' unreal! Crazy, even. Cameron's Terminator 2: Judgement Day is in my Top 5 of all time (no joke) and I've pretty much loved everything he's done (except for Piranha 2: The Spawning :/).

But, then there's another reason to get excited, and it has to do with the cast. Turns out that Cameron has decided on his leading man and woman.

SAM WORTHINGTON AND ZOE SALDANA!!!!


I sorta exploded when I read that. Sam Worthington is an Aussie actor. He won an AFI award for his role in Somersault (but, to be honest, who didn't? lol). He was great in that, and I've liked him in stuff like Gettin' Square, The Surgeon and he was... different in Macbeth and he's in the upcoming Greg McLean (Wolf Creek) thriller Rogue. Plus, let's face facts here, he's a hot bastard, so ya know... he's got that going for him.

And Zoe. Well, Zoe's a sweetheart. I'm so glad she's finally gonna get a role to show her off to a big audience. I haven't seen Crossroads (the ill-fated Britney Spears movie) but Zoe almost made me hire it out... as a weekly... with a coupon. But she charmed the pants off of me (...) in The Terminal (a movie I didn't like) and Centre Stage and had a small role in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. It's annoying she wasn't in the sequels - did something happen to her character that I don't remember?

Aaanyway. They're both majorly hot and they're in a new James Cameron movie so I don't think I'll be able to contain myself until Avatar arrives. Aagh!