bunkaroo

Very tough but I have to go Nolan.

Se7en is still one of my all time faves, but Fight Club seems to be losing steam with me over time. The Game is great but I haven't seen it for a while. Kind of meh about Panic Room and Zodiac is well made, but didn't really resonate with me. And Benjamin Button did not live up to its potential IMO.

With Nolan, I'm not a big fan of Following, but Memento floored me. Insomnia was good but I need to revisit it. The Batman movies are pitch-perfect to me. The Prestige has great mood and execution and of course, great performances. Inception is still churning in my head but I love the ambition Nolan showed in making it.

MrTerrific

Nolan.

Both are great, but I enjoy every movie that Nolan has done. I didn't care for Benjamin Button and really dislike Alien3.

RagingBull80

If Alien 3 is "ok" and is the "worst of the series," then that makes Alien Resurrection more than ok. Alien Resurrection is far from being an "ok" movie.

I agree with you about Benjamin Button though.

nando820

its funny but it is true, is a movie with a simple plot. Like Moskovitz said "a dramatization of history...it is interesting to see my past rewritten in a way that emphasizes things that didn't matter"

Anyways both directors are great and have must see films. But the facts are the facts and Nolan has not yet made a film that would rank lower than a 4
(out of 5) stars and that's just impressive.

notkevinbacon

Ok, I know I'm in the minority, but I happen to really like Alien Resurrection. The entire Alien series is a pretty impressive thing, each film is distinctly different, yet they all feel natural to the universe.

Alien is horror/haunted house type film. And the best.

Aliens is an actioner. Standard, but fun. The safest of all the flicks, but works.

Alien 3, is dreary and dark and to me is the only film that doesn't stand out as anything too interesting or very ambitious. It somewhat meshes Alien and Aliens, and there is a spiritual and apocalyptic feel to it. It's the heaviest/bleakest of all the films.

Alien Resurrection is just a quirky, borderline comedy and is mostly an absurdest, surreal film. I really like some of the concepts in the film, even the fumbled ones (the 'gift' the queen gets from Ripley, and the resulting creature, the clone room, etc). It's gory as all hell and creepy, yet hilarious. I think the biggest turn off for a lot of people besides the tone is the change to the Ripley character, who is the glue for the entire series. The tone reminded me a lot of the Alien Dark Horse comics I was reading at the time and for me, it's an interesting film. Not a failure, but not a total success either. It's a complete manic flick and I just kinda dig it.

gmanca

I think that's what makes me hate it even more, the fact that it had some good/great concepts and it was pissed away by the excessive lame humor and lack of direction. That clone room scene stayed with after seeing the film, specifically the living specimens.

Joe Buck

I think I'd vote Fincher, but Ben Button was such a disaster that I almost want to say Nolan just because. I like them both but my love of Zodiac will be the decision maker. Fincher.

Labor

Finchers best movies are on a totally different level than Nolans. So Fincher.

Nolans de facto theme that he likes to explore is Obsessions...and in that area, Fincher's Zodiac obliterates everything in Nolan's fimography.

jmu878

Alot of love for Zodiac here. I thought it was good but nothing spectacular...am I missing something?

DeanoBKN

I agree. I love The Prestige and Memento, and quite enjoy his Batman films so far. Insomnia is a decent thriller and some of the ideas of Inception were quite mind blowing.

Nolan by far, because Fincher is hit or miss with me.

Goat3001

I'd take out Batman Begins and I would add Zodiac.

I'll give the slight edge to Nolan since he has more great movies but Fincher is can't miss for me as well.

Nolan landed Batman and that was huge. I'd like to see what Fincher could do Superhero movie, I think he'd knock it out of the park much like Nolan did.

PopcornTreeCt

What are the six?

The Antipodean

I kind of had the same view immediately after seeing it but it was one of those movies that really sticks with me, I kept thinking about it a lot and after seeing a 2nd time I think it's definitely my favorite Fincher flick. Theres something really subtle and powerful about it.

JumpCutz

Downey Jr. and Ruffalo put on an acting clinic in this film. They are perfection.
I've seen this film 6 times and it just keeps getting better. I lived through this event as a child in the SF Bay Area. Fincher nails all the little details (the KGO radio spots are eerie) and captures the mood and paranoia of the period perfectly. Easily the best Fincher film and my favorite film of the last ten years.

Boba Fett

The "basement" sequence is also one of the creepiest sequences I've ever seen in a movie.

lamphorn

Fincher, by far. While, like Nolan, he's more of a style-over substance guy, when it comes to the simple act of staging a scene, he crafts a lovely piece of drama, while Nolan is all crazy MTV edits and pointless camera motion. Fincher is also a master of cinematography, using a color palette like no one else, whereas Nolan has a very bland, kind of Nordic, visual style (though his cinematography is good).

For the films themselves, I wasn't a fan of Ben Button, but greatly admire Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Game... and found Panic Room interesting, from a directorial standpoint.

I have to be honest and say the only Nolan films I've seen are Memento, the Batman's, and Inception. I enjoyed Memento, was mildly entertained by the Batman's (though I will contend, no matter what anyone says, that Tim Burton's were better written/acted/directed), and really really disliked Inception.

To sum up, Fincher is an interesting director, and even though I can't say I "love" Fincher, I actively dislike Nolan's directing. Fincher creates iconic images, while Nolan has yet to compose a shot I can even draw up from memory. I think he's honestly a flash-in-the-pan in the history of cinema and will be remembered as this decade's Wachowski Bros.

Blu Man

No, just no.

project86

Nolan. I have yet to be disappointed by any of his films. I can watch any of his movies repeatedly and not get tired of them. I can only watch Fincher's flicks every now and then. Don't get me wrong, I do love them both.

JumpCutz

Agreed. It's a very short sequence, brilliantly devised and perfectly executed, it raised the hair on the back of my neck in the theater.

Zodiac is filled with many, many masterful sequences. The interrogation scene with John Carroll Lynch is another jawdropper.

I can't think of a better modern example of a director SO on top of his game.

Dragon Tattoo

You're wrong.

Fincher Fan

Neither... oh, wait. Fincher.

Hokeyboy

For those unfamiliar with the concept, that's Fanboy talk for "it sucked".

Tim Burton's Batman movies were HORRIFICALLY written. I will go toe-to-toe on why the first Batman movie is ridden with plotholes, dramatically inert, generally plotless, and completely unconcerned with the character of Bruce Wayne/Batman and only interested in the Joker. Production design and visual flair was impressive. The direction and writing were FAR from it.

You're insane.

Labor

Speed Racer is more creative and imaginitive than anything that Nolan has done, and better than any of his movies bar Memento. Needless to say that the first Matrix also slaps down Inception every which way.

I wish he was this decades Wachowskis.

RichC2

Speed Racer was creative and imaginative visually, as a movie it was absolutely terrible -- banal script, terrible acting and generally poor directing (of course much of that could have been the scripts fault). The Wachowskis have made exactly two good movies (Bound and The Matrix), Nolan has a couple great ones under his belt.

(Note: Was never a huge fan of The Matrix but do note its influence on movies for the decade that followed).

My vote still goes to Fincher but I dunno how the Wachowskis got caught up in this.

I agree he is more of a visual craftsman than Nolan is. However, The Prestige, imo, was one of the more visually impressive movies this decade with numerous beautifully composed shots in it, at least, imho.

Labor

The directing and editing of Speed Racer is better than anything in Inception. The way it switches between different time periods within a single scene so flawlessly and creatively absolutely shames any of the switching between dream layers editing in Inception