This is a thread where I would like everyone to pick directors they like/admire and list movies that demonstrate them at the top of their game, and then some that make you wonder what in the hell they were smoking while they were making said movie. I will also say that this is a matter of opinion , so please respect those of others, and refrain from making it a "Christopher Nolan is overrated/flawless" thread as well.

Oliver Stone:

Top of Game: Platoon, Wall Street, JFK, Natural Born Killers*

WTF is this crap: U-Turn, Alexander, Wall Street 2

* I thought it was good, but still falls into the category of "What was he smoking?" on general appearance.

He's not a huge favorite of mine, but John McTiernan had a heck of a run with Predator, Die Hard, and The Hunt for Red October. 3 great action/suspense films.

Then later, he gave us garbage like The 13th Warrior, Rollerball, and Basic.

And then on top of that, he ends up in prison.

George Romero.

Top of Game: Dawn of the Dead, Creepshow, Martin

WTF is this crap: Diary of the Dead

John Carpenter.

Good stuff: Halloween, The Thing, The Fog, Christine

Crap: Village of the Damned, Vampires, Ghosts of Mars

Dario Argento

Top of Game: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Deep Red, Suspiria, Tenebre, Phenomena, Opera

Crap: Trauma, Phantom of the Opera, Do You Like Hitchcock?, Mother of Tears, Giallo

William Friedkin

Top of Game: The French Connection, The Exorcist, Sorcerer, Cruising, Too Live and Die in LA, Bug

Crap: The Guardian, Deal of the Century, Blue Chips

Francis Ford Coppola

Top of Game: The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather: Part II, Apocalypse Now

Crap: Everything else

Jacques Tati

Top of game: Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Mon Oncle

Crap (mostly): Play Time

Brian DePalma

Top of Game: Carrie, The Untouchables, Blow Out, Casualties of War, Femme Fatale

WTF is this crap?: The Black Dahlia, Mission to Mars

Peter Jackson

Top of his game: Everything not called The Lovely Bones*

WTF: The Lovely Bones

* Yes, even King Kong..

Another question I should ask. Can you still be considered a great director if you've made more shitty films than good ones if your good films are considered great?

John Sayles.

Fantastic: 'Brother From Another Planet', 'Matewan'(a masterpiece), 'Lone Star'. 'Eight Men Out', 'The Secret of Roan Inish'.

Worst: 'Sunshine State', 'Casa de los Babys', 'Silver City', 'Amigo'.

You are virtually alone in your opinion of that film. It's wonderful.

Never seen Meet The Feebles, huh?

And I think I'm the only one that liked Lovely Bones.

This is a great thread topic. A few favourites of mine from yesteryear;


Alfred Hitchcock

Top of his Game: Number 17 (I know nobody else likes this but I really think it is Hitch's best film), The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Shadow of a Doubt, I Confess, The Wrong Man, Vertigo, Psycho.

WTF: Jamaica Inn, Under Capricorn, Marnie, Torn Curtain, Topaz, Family Plot.



Carol Reed

Top of his Game: The Stars Look Down, Night Train to Munich, The Way Ahead, Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, The Third Man.

WTF: A Kid for Two Farthings, The Key, The Running Man, Flap, Follow Me.


John Ford

Top of his Game: The Lost Patrol, The Informer, The Prisoner of Shark Island, Young Mr Lincoln, How Green Was My Valley, 3 Godfathers, Wagon Master, Rio Grande, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance (hell of a resume.)

WTF: Steamboat Around the Bend, What Price Glory, The Wings of Eagles, Donovan's Reef, Cheyenne Autumn, 7 Women.


Terence Fisher

Top of His Game: To the Public Danger, Horror of Dracula, The Mummy, The Brides of Dracula, The Gorgon, The Earth Dies Screaming, The Devil Rides Out, Frankenstein Must be Destroyed.

WTF: The Last Page, Spaceways, The Man Who Could Cheat Death, Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace.


Val Guest

Top of his Game: The Quatermass Xperiment, Quatermass 2, The Abominable Snowman, The Camp on Blood Island, Yesterday's Enemy, Hell is a City, The Day the Earth Caught Fire.

WTF: Give Us the Moon, Mr Drake's Duck, Penny Princess, The Boys in Blue.


Tod Browning

Top of his Game: The Unholy Three (1925 version), The Unknown, Freaks, Mark of the Vampire.

WTF: Dracula (good bits direct by Karl Freund), Miracles for Sale.

Steven Spielberg:

Top of game: Munich, Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark

Worst: The Terminal, The Lost World, Temple of Doom

Two off the top of my head.

Robert Altman-

Great stuff- Nashville, Mash, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, 3 Women, The Player, Short Cuts.

? Stuff- Dr. T and the Women, O.C. and Stiggs, A Prairie Home Companion.

Tim Burton

Good stuff- Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Big Fish

? Stuff- Batman Returns, Sleepy Hollow, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland.

John Boorman

Top of Game: Point Blank, Hell in the Pacific, Deliverance, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, The General, Hope and Glory, The Tailor of Panama

WTF?: *Zardoz, *Exorcist II :The Heretic, Where The Heart Is




* I actually LOVE Zardoz and Exorcist II for various reasons, but I can't defend them in a general sense, since they are wildly uneven, and poorly written with some terrible sequences. Though the art direction, cinematography, production design, and direction is wildly inventive and deliciously brilliant in places.

Many good ones have already been covered. A few more:

Michael Haneke
●Top of his game: Funny Games (1997), The Seventh Continent, Benny's Video, The Piano Teacher, 71 Fragments of a Chronology..., Cache
●WTF is this crap?: Code Unknown

Andrei Tarkovsky
●Top of his game: Stalker, Solaris, Nostalghia
●WTF is this crap?: The Sacrifice

Claude Chabrol
●Top of his game: L'Enfer, La Femme Infidele, Une Partie De Plaisir, Cry of the Owl, La Ceremonie, Nada, This Man Must Die, Blood Relatives
●WTF is this crap?: Les Biches

Bob Clark
●Top of his game: Black Christmas, Deathdream, Murder by Decree, A Christmas Story
●WTF is this crap? Everything else

Peter Watkins
●Top of his game: Punishment Park, The War Game, Privilege
●WTF is this Crap?: The Journey

Carroll Ballard
●Top of his game: Never Cry Wolf, The Black Stallion
●WTF is this crap?: Fly Away Home

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I think Batman Returns is one of his best films and is superior to Batman.

Nope. I'm in that club as well. Sure, some of the CG was atrocious, but I quite enjoyed the entire film.

Clint Eastwood
Top of His Game: Mystic River, Unforgiven, Pale Rider, The Outlaw Josey Wales
WTF is this Crap: Hereafter, Blood Work, True Crime, The Rookie

Stuart Rosenberg
Top of His Game: Brubaker, The Laughing Policeman, Cool Hand Luke
WTF is this Crap: My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, Let's Get Harry, The Amityville Horror, Love and Bullets

Tobe Hooper

Top of Game: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive, The Funhouse, Salem's Lot, Poltergeist, Lifeforce, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre II

Bad Bad: Spontaneous Combustion, Invaders from Mars, Crocodile, Mortuary, The Mangler

Tarantino...

Best = Everything except...

Worst = Death Proof

My sentiments exactly.

Clint Eastwood you have to give a pass to.
He makes all kind of movies except horror. So he's gonna hit or miss.