Kevin Smith (a.k.a. Silent Bob, a.k.a. Bluntman...) is da man. I know so much about this guy's movies, it's nuts. He's one of my favorite directors. The characters in his movies are often easy to relate to and sympathize for -- Whether they be Dante from Clerks or Holden from Chasing Amy. He's the director of View Askew Productions. Oh yeah, and he wrote the Superman Lives script that there was so much fuss over, and then was never produced.
In my opinion, his movies are, from best to worst (not meaning bad, just the less good of his):
1. Chasing Amy
2. Clerks
3. Dogma
4. Mallrats
A pretty basic, but excellent Kevin Smith page (includes the original screenplays of Chasing Amy and Dogma:
http://www.godamongdirectors.com/smith/index.shtml
A somewhat out-of-date but still very thorough page on Kevin Smith's films:
http://www.uidaho.edu/~purc3906/thebob.htm
Smith on the Internet Movie Database (his filmography, biography, links, etc):
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Smith,+Kevin
Years ago, I saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail with my friends. It was hilarious, and my friends & I started making a habit out of quoting
from it at random. ("...And death awaits you with sharp, pointy teeth!") Way before I even saw it, though, I saw The Fisher King. Until recently, I didn't know they were both directed by the same man -- But The Fisher King amazed me, even at nine years old, when I didn't understand a lot. Then, I saw Brazil for the first time... WOW. It may possibly be my favorite movie. It encompasses so many things that fascinate me, like fantasy, the kind that interchanges with sci-fi and manages to be a comedy (a very dark one, but still) at the same time.
Other really awesome movies of Gilliam are The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Jabberwocky, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. There are also a number of his movies I have yet to see, like Time Bandits (which I've heard is wonderful), Twelve Monkeys and the tv series Monty Python's Flying Circus, which is available on video and dvd.
The Official Monty Python Site (Made by the Masters themselves)!
http://www.pythonline.com
Lots of great interviews, etc:
http://members.aol.com/morgands1/closeup/indices/gillindx.htm
An absolutely wonderful page devoted to Brazil:
http://www.trond.com/brazil/
Gilliam on The Internet Movie Database (his filmography, biography, links, etc):
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Gilliam,+Terry
I've always been one to watch my favorite movies over and over. I figure, I like it, so stick to it. When I was about 10 years old, my dad came with me to the video store and got fed up that I wanted to get the same thing for the millionth time. "Let me pick the movie, okay?" he said. "I promise you'll like it." The movie he picked was Life Stinks, one of Mel Brooks' less known movies (but by no means less funny). Guess what? It became another movie I wanted to rent again and again!
I recommend any and all of his movies to anyone that wants a good laugh. Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, History of the World: Part I, Spaceballs, Dracula: Dead and Loving It, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights all are absolutely HILARIOUS! And, of course, The Producers, which has been called the 11th funniest film of all time by the American Film Institute, and is now an extremely popular Broadway musical. (Which I saw, and it's wonderful!)
An excellent Mel Brooks page:
http://www.ladyofthecake.com/mel/
Interesting (loooong) essay about Mel Brooks' use of Jewish humor in his movies:
http://www.jtsa.edu/users/hsp/htm/mbrooks.html
Brooks on The Internet Movie Database (his filmography, biography, links, etc):
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Brooks,+Mel
Ah, the Mysterious Man himself. My first experience with a Tim Burton movie was when I was 7, and my parents brought me to see Beetlejuice. I got soooo scared within the first 5 minutes, that they had to take me out of the theater. I was nearly in hysterics. Of course, when I got a little older, I saw it again, and thought it was great. My most recent was seeing Planet of the Apes, and quite honestly, it was a huge disappointment. It didn't feel anything like a Tim Burton film -- It was too fast-paced, there were too many damn dirty apes, and there were so many plot holes that it confused the hell out of me, and I actually fell asleep while watching it.
But other than that, his movies are really wonderful. Edward Scissorhands holds a fond place in my heart. I think Burton must have really liked Winona Ryder back when she was young, since she's in both that and Beetlejuice. Batman and Batman Returns, were of course the best of the Batman movies, and why? Well, because Tim Burton directed them, of course! He also produced and wrote The Nightmare Before Christmas, which for some reason, a lot of people say is a disappointment, but I think it's absolutely wonderful.
A brief but cool page on all of Burton's movies:
http://www.euronet.nl/users/mcbeijer/dan/home_burton.html
Great (although out-of-date) Tim Burton page:
http://home.acadia.net/userpages/joel/timburton/
Burton on The Internet Movie Database (his filmography, biography, links, etc):
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Burton,+Tim
I've only recently discovered who Peter Jackson is. I saw The Frighteners a couple years ago and loved it -- When I was little, I was somewhat obsessed with Michael J. Fox (the Back to the Future movies and Family Ties did it for me), and I still really adore him, so that certainly helped -- But I also really liked the camera work and the plot and that asshole FBI agent that freaked out when women yelled. Plus Jake Busey is scarily like Christopher Walken, only more cartoonish, so that makes it pretty cool.
I saw Dead Alive (also known as Braindead) not too long ago, and thought it was extremely funny. It's right up there with the Evil Dead movies (more on them soon), really nutty crude splatter horror films, only Dead Alive had a larger cast and therefore a larger bodycount, so you could say the gore was even more over the top. One great thing about Dead Alive is that the lead female role is not your average helpless girl, she is in fact quite intelligent (although for the first half of the movie, she comes off like a total ditz), and kills a lot of the zombies. Timothy Balme, the lead male role, is hilarious and has a lot of those comical expressions that Bruce Campbell uses in the Evil Dead movies, and also gets put in a lot of similarly very uncompromising positions -- often quite literally. The point is, if this kind of movie is up your alley, rent it right away, and make sure to get the uncensored version!! Damn the MPAA!
Also, of course, I can't fail to mention that Peter Jackson is directing and cowriting the very much anticipated Lord of the Rings trilogy. All my geeky friends -- Okay, myself included -- are practically shittin' their pants waiting for these films!
(Update, 12-20-01: LoTR was an enormous disappointment. Bah.)
Fantastic Unofficial Peter Jackson Site:
http://welcome.to/pj-online
Really cool page, sums up most of Jackson's movies succinctly:
http://optimusfilms.20m.com/directors/pj/
Jackson on The Internet Movie Database (his filmography, biography, links, etc):
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Jackson,+Peter
There are, of course, many films that I love, but I'm not necessarily particular about their directors. I recommend the following: Back to the Future I, II, & III, Boogie Nights, Bulworth, the Evil Dead trilogy, Heathers, High Fidelity, The Jerk, The Matrix, The Princess Bride, Princess Mononoke, Wayne's World I & II, and When Harry Met Sally.
I have the scripts of:
Coming soon:
I will eventually have more, but for the time being, get tons of free scripts at Drew's Script-O-Rama!
Miscellaneous
Amadeus
Annie Hall
Fight Club
Clue
Army of Darkness
Ghost World
Return To Oz
