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He's clever with set-pieces, has a great feel for the visual and the timing within a sequence, but I would say he quite specifically *isn't* a good storyteller because he consistently sacrifices narrative logic and consistency in his characters to set up his "wow!" moments. It's a huge flaw that, for my subjective tastes, has crippled every one of his movies.
That said, I'd have to acknowledge that any list of the most memorable screen moments in American film really should include a fair proportion of Spielberg sequences. But as to whether you rate his films highly overall, I think it depends on whether you see a flick as simply a container for moments of spectacle, or whether you want some congruence in the plot to justify the "wow!". It's the latter that I reckon Spielberg stumbles on, pretty much every time.
Thank you for that.
I have lost any (and future) respect that i might have for spike......Go FU** yourself spike.
Having coppola on the list is a serious mistake.
Thanks for those rebuttals. Very Good.
Then he didn't direct again until Phantom Menace. People act like he's directed all this stuff but he HASN'T and his efforts at directing the prequel trilogy are universally mocked. So you just can't call him an overrrated director at all. As you've said, he's very accurately rated.
My vote is for Hitchcock.
As for the rest, 8 of the other 9 don't belong on this list -- and George Lucas, although overated, isn't much of a director to begin with... Overated movie mogul perhaps?
Personally, thinking QT is overrated is fine, but finding him overrated on a universal level is pretty absurd.
Basically, it's a list of the ten most well-known directors where the author is claiming they secretly suck because they made one or two crappy movies. And that the public thinks they are brilliant without reason.
Shyamalan was cool like 10 years ago, his last 2 have been utter disasters. I'll give you Apatow being over-exposed in venues other than the directors chair.
And honestly, while Bryan Singer does suck for the most part, I don't think his reputation is even high enough to warrant him being uttered in the same sentence as these other guys. X-Men was kind of cool, but mostly disappointing to this long time reader. I don't like anything Singer has done and didn't think he was 'rated' enough to be 'overrated.'
As for Spielberg, I'd argue for the sake of argument that he can be called overrated simply because he is regarded as probably the greatest living director. So if you consider him the second greatest living director, then he is overrated in a way. Now if you'll excuse me, my whiskey is approaching room temperature.
While I agree with one or two names on the list, I'm not going to put much stock in something brought to us by the network behind Gary the Rat and Stripperella.
That being said, I liked this article. It really did point out obvious "Should have had a V-8" moments, ie- Judd Apatow and Kevin Smith. As much as I hate QT, I think he may have been overrated when Kill Bill hit the scene, but now he's just a director no one takes seriously anymore. After that throw away Grind House triple(?) feature, I think we can all see past the brilliance in Kill Bill and see the creepy immaturity he jams into every movie he can. Pulp Fiction wasn't bad though.
I believe we have a confusion between two different cocks here
This coming from the network that airs Manswers.
In the end though, you didn't need to write this article and you just come off as sort of whiny.
Either the Spike writer wrongly believes that everyone worships QT or he's basing it off his personal opinion and admitting that he dislikes several directors that have given us some of the best films of the past 30 years alongside their crappier outings. Ignorance or bad taste. Take your pick.
jes
http://www.privacy.cz.tc
To my mind a director can be overrated if they have produced some good work, at some point in their career, but have carried the credit and respect for that work long after they ceased to make good films. In short its about consistency throughout a career. All directors make some duds but if they truly have talent and vision then they can make good films throughout their career. Nobody is denying that the Coppola made some great films, you only alude to "the 2", I assume you mean the first two parts of the Godfather trilogy, what's wrong, haven't you seen Apocolypse Now? He made 3 of the best films ever in the 70s but outside of that nothing particularly great. He's not overrated if you're talking about skill, but if you put it in the context of greatest directors of all time then yes he would be well overrated. And seeing as I mentioned greatest directors of all time there is only 1 person on this list who could even be considered for that top 10 list and that's Spielberg, whether you rate him or not individually just look at his body of work and you'll several excellent films spread out over a long career. That makes him a contender and I definitely agree he is not overrated, he can make some sentimental rubbish but you can never discount his ability to make a classic, he's probably still got a few in him.
As for the rest of the list you're defending I'm afraid Spike would generally have my agreement, you definitely wouldn't. They're all overrated, they've done one or two good films, earned their reputation and then gone downhill from there, usually by churning out the same old kind of stuff and sticking too closely to what's worked from them before.
The fact that you suggest that Hitchcock, Kurosawa and Kubrick (?!) could possibly, ever, ever, ever be included on a list of overrated directors says a lot. None of those directors could ever be accused of having a "period" of success and then churning out rubbish for the remainder of their careers. They made a whole canon of work and consistently produced some of the greatest films ever made at different stages of their lives, that is all you can reasonably ask from a great director. Not for every film they make to be a brilliant blockbuster but for a fairly good portion of them to be good and a few of them to be truly great. On that basis Spielberg is the only director on the list I disagree with, the rest of them have a handful of good films between them and some have only the merely average (apatow, smith, shyamalan). For me that means that they are not great directors, they may yet prove to be (Tarantino could still do something in the future to redeem himself) and so rating them as such, as many do, makes them overrated. Well done Spike.
to choose my favorite Director of all time, (which is the time I've lived in) it would have to be him. Remember that there is a time that each man lived in and worked in and the genius who made "Greed" wouldn't even be appreciated by today's audience because they don't know who made that film or why it was, at the time, the most innovative film ever made, but always preface with 'at the time'.
I'm burying this on Digg. This is pretty lame. I didn't even read the 1/10th of this to know some egotistic dumbass wrote it.
Oh, and by the way, Coppola is not Jesus. He was great, but I don't see how he doesn't qualify as overrated while Orson Welles does. I suppose that by your standards Eisenstein was a hack. I suppose you think "montage" has something to do with preparing for a fight in the 80's.
Spike's list is awful, and your commentary is worse.
In real life most people just are not movie characters, so when
you get to know them better you find that they are just people
like yourself.
As such, quite a silly article and you should probably feel bad that it bothered you enough to write this. Still, half a sheet of blotter acid is a decent effort so I'll give you a pass.
And while I disagree with Cole's suggestions of Hitchcock, Kurosawa, and Kubrick, I do think those directors and their lack of Academy Awards would raise a worthwhile discussion. I feel that I should also defend Cole's rebuttal of Apatow seeing as he has only directed two films and both have them have grossed a lot and been very well received by critics.
While I love Apatow films, I will say I think you have a point that time will tell, especially seeing as he only has directed two films. He may be soiling his name as a producer with sh*t like Don't Mess With the Zohan, though. It's also interesting you mention The Big Lebowski because I felt that was a very overrated film. I love the Cohen Brothers, but I was told that would be the funniest movie I'll ever see and it fell far short. My suspicions are it's because I wasn't high while watching it.
I would say that each of these directors have just the right amount of credit for their field, and therefore are not overrated. Some films may suck more than others, and I think that overall that has been noted in their field. I agree with the comments from Cole, and I do see the humor in it. It was a comical read, which I don't think the Spike article was humorous at all.
The list is patchy and irritating though. Francis Coppola is a genius, period. His less celebrated/known work is actually amazing (see Rumblefish). And who considers George Lucas a great artist? Wake up people! Anthony Lane's brutal take-down of--was it Phantom Menace? (one of the newer ones at any rate, I just remember laughing a lot)--in the New Yorker will become an all-time classic of film criticism. I like Sofia Coppola's work; Lost in Translation was quite affecting. Is she over-rated, I don't know. I didn't know she was considered some amazing genius.
I can make a stronger list with my eyes closed:
Cronenberg
Kubrick
Lucas
Shyamalan
Burton
Carpenter
Coen Brothers
Lynch
Gondry
Smith
Quite easy.
also, not that i give a rat's ass, but 1. take coppola off of any "10 worst..." list, ever.
and, 2. ....how can you call QT overrated when you write for Spike?! there's got to be an erectile dysfunction joke in there somewhere. i trust you'll find it.
In real life most people just are not movie characters, so when
you get to know them better you find that they are just people
like yourself...
We are starting a new worldwide mowement, this is it!. We the people takes control, enough is enough. Please, wait until 1. dec, we will rock the hole world.