Comparison of working Hollywood directors

[djross]

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[djross]

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[td888]

I had no idea who was Tony Scott before making this list - may be I need to check out more movies of his. I found both of his movies I have seen (The Last Boy Scout and Enemy of the State) to be decent.

I am a big fan of Tony Scott. He always made good films with Denzel Washington. Unfortunately we won't be seeing any more future films by Tony Scott. He committed suicide last year by jumping off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles. The reasons why he did this (despite leaving notes behind) are still unclear.

RIP Tony.

[snallygaster]

I had no idea who was Tony Scott before making this list - may be I need to check out more movies of his.

Yes, by all means. I am certain that you will not be deterred, as indeed you ought not be, by my own assessment of his work. Of course, I should add that my inclusion of him in a list of working Hollywood directors is somewhat of an exaggeration, to say the least.

He's the anti-Twain.

Anyway, among those you list, I have:
1. 7.88 Coens (8)
2. 7.33 David Fincher (3)
3. 7.00 Paul Thomas Anderson (3)
4. 6.33 Scoresese (6)
5. 5.67 Steven Soderbergh (3)
6. 5.17 Quentin Tarantino (6)
7. 4.15 Steven Spielberg (13)
8. 4.00 Wes Anderson (4)
9. 4.00 Clint Eastwood (4)

[paulofilmo]

Write, Kaufman. Write. Also: Direct.
Cuaron. Replace Children of Men.
Coens - more BAR, please. Liked BAR. Malkovich jumping his shark nicely.
Inarritu&Arriaga. MORA BITTE
PTA. replete w/not seeing Master shame
too old for arronofsky/nolan. enjoy, teenagers.
TARANTINO AMBIVALENCE. MEMORIES OF PULP.
moonrise kingdom not seeing ashame.
Linklater became rich, stupid?
+Fincher to DA,nolan.
Soderbergh.... HMMMMM
Ken Lonergan doesn't count, but he seems like a really good idea.


I don't think even Tony Scott was into Tony Scott.

[TheDenizen]

cool idea. since I'm a lazy sod, I cut and pasted your original post and just filled in my own numbers, so they're a bit out of order.

1. 9.0. Coen brothers (11 films)
2. 7.8. Martin Scorsese (10)
3. 9.0. Darren Aronofsky (3)
4. 3.0. Wes Anderson (1) I didn't really care for Fantastic Mr Fox.
5. 8.5. Paul Thomas Anderson (2) (note: one of those is the Mattress Man short)
6. 9.1. Quentin Tarantino (11)
7. 4.5. Steven Soderbergh (4)
8. 10.0. Spike Jonze (2) (note: one of these is the Beastie Boys Sabotage video)
9. 7.6. Christopher Nolan (5) avg Tier dragged down by the first 2 Batman films. His other stuff is brilliant.
10. 5.1. Oliver Stone (9)
11. 8.33. Clint Eastwood (6)
12. 6.9. James Cameron (10)
13. 5.4. Ridley Scott (10)
14. 6.4. Tim Burton (9)
15. 6.0. Sam Raimi (8)
16. 6.8. David Fincher (5)
17. 2.0. M. Night Shyamalan (3)
18. 4.8. Steven Spielberg (16)
19. 4.25. Tony Scott (4)
20. 1.83. Michael Bay (6)

Interesting. If you'd asked me who I thought was the best director working in Hollywood today I would've said it was a tossup between Tarantino and the Coens, and my average Tiers bear that out. Spike Jonze is an anomaly due to the tiny sample size. Props to Eastwood though, I probably wouldn't have thought of him off the top of my head but he's underrated as a director IMO. His avg Tier would be even higher if it wasn't being dragged down by Million Dollar Baby.

[Spanks]

1) 9.6 Darren Aronofsky (5)
2) 9.33 Martin Scorsese (12)
3) 9.25 Wes Anderson (8)
4) 9.11 Quentin Tarantino (9)
5) 8.75 Paul Thomas Anderson (8)
6) 8.5 Coen brothers (12)
7) 8.43 Spike Jonze (7)
8) 8.14 Clint Eastwood (7)
9) 7.67 Oliver Stone (3)
10) 7.00 Christopher Nolan (8)
11) 6.82 Steven Spielberg (17)
12) 6.67 Tony Scott (3)
13) 6.50 David Fincher (6)
14) 6.50 M. Night Shyamalan (5)
15) 6.00 Steven Soderbergh (4)
16) 6.00 James Cameron (1)
17) 5.75 Sam Raimi (4)
18) 5.33 Tim Burton (15)
19) 5.14 Ridley Scott (7)
20) 2.40 Michael Bay (5)

[ShogunRua]

1. James Cameron 8.6 (5 films)
2. David Fincher 8.5 (4 films)
3. Martin Scorsese 8.29 (7 films)
4. Coen Brothers 8.25 (8 films)
5. Katheryn Bigelow (not mentioned in other lists, but she qualifies) 8.0 (3 films)
6. Tim Burton 7.67 (9 films)
7. Christopher Nolan 7.2 (5 films)
8. Darren Aronofsky 7.0 (2 films)
9. Ridley Scott 6.5 (6 films)
10. Clint Eastwood 6.43 (7 films)
11. Wes Anderson 6.0 (2 films)
12. Steven Spielberg 5.94 (17 films)
13. Sam Raimi 5.25 (4 films)
14. Tony Scott 4.88 (8 films)
15. Oliver Stone 4.67 (3 films)
16. Quentin Tarantino 4.63 (8 films)
17. Michael Bay 3.75 (4 films)
18. M Night Shymalan 3.0 (2 films)
19. Steven Soderbergh 2.67 (3 films)

Comments-

Definitely not the way I would rank them myself, as Cameron would be nowhere close to the top 3, (his great films, like T1 and T2, are in the past), and the Coen Brothers would be the run-away number ones. It helps that I haven't watched Scorsese's and Cameron's more recent, simplistic, and less imaginative pictures, too, as those would drag down their tier significantly.

Burton is arbitrarily high because I have avoided all his recent shitty films.

Aronofsky is arbitrarily high because I haven't yet rated "Requiem for a Dream", although I think the picture is pretentious puffery, and because I gave the crappy hack-job "Black Swan" an exceedingly generous T5 that I might well lower in the future.

Not sure how accurate the Eastwood ranking is, as the last picture he directed that I watched was made in 1997. (Absolute Power)

As for Wes Anderson, I loved Fantastic Mr Fox, and despised Royal Tenenbaums. He could go up or down based on future viewing.

Tarantino's low rank perfectly corresponds to how I view him.

As does Steven Soderbergh finishing dead last; that fucking hack's success, both critically and commercially, is far more depressing to me than the popularity of Michael Bay or Twilight.

[djross]

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[ShogunRua]

It helps that I haven't watched Scorsese's and Cameron's more recent, simplistic, and less imaginative pictures, too, as those would drag down their tier significantly.

How would you know they are simplistic and less imaginative if you haven't watched them?

Critics reviews ?

No, but rather the fact that I managed to figure out the entire story AND the ending from simply watching the trailers for both "Avatar" and "Shutter Island", respectively. Sorry, but when I figure out the entirety of your plot AND "twist" ending from just a trailer, that's a more simplistic, less imaginative picture.