Movie directors - who's the best?

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Golfman
To call Kubrick's The Shining a horror classic is laughable. Even if i hadnt read the book, i would still say that, to put it bluntly, Kubrick's The Shining is terrible. Not even up there with the best horror films in cinema history. Jack Nicholson's talent was wasted, and Shelley Duvall was annoying as hell.
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Duke
2001 On the other hand, he took a simple-but-decent scary book (King's The Shining) and somehow sucked all the life and horror out of it. The casting was miserable. I was praying for Shelley Duvall to get axe murdered by 20 minutes in. Worse, he cast Nicholson as the main character. In the book, the father makes a slow, insidious descent from nice guy to homicidal maniac, but in every damn movie, at the first moment you see Nicholson's face, you check your watch to start timing just how long until he loses it. So any trace of subtlety or genuine horror in the story is just stomped flat in the first 15 minutes of the movie, and you're left with a bunch of disconnected visuals that aren't compelling enough to really drag you in.
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I know what it’s like to go see a movie adaptation of a novel you read and liked: 99% of the times you will feel let down, either because the film doesn’t follow your own interpretation of the events, the cast is outright wrong, the film director/ screenwriter decided to depart from the original story way too much for your liking, etc. I think most of us know what that’s like. But isn’t it in a way a somewhat prejudiced way to go see a movie?
I haven’t read Stephen King’s The Shining so I can’t really elaborate on the losses and eventual gains of Kubrick’s film adaptation. I just think it’s an amazing film, incredibly terrifying, with a great cinematography and music score and an outstanding performance by Jack Nicholson. Maybe it doesn’t have a very linear storyline, maybe it doesn’t follow the conventions of the genre or faithfully follow Kings novel - but can you say his film’s worse because of that? Is King’s own TV adaptation a better movie? I strongly doubt that...

Well, to each his own; I guess it’s our gain and your loss…
But even though I don’t usually feel very comfortable in the midst of a huge crowd I will have to point to a few (?) other (very) positive (re)views of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining; it’s seems I’m not alone in considering a masterpiece (these are just a few worthless links):

http://www.imdb.com/chart/horror

http://www.best-horror-movies.com/100-top-horror-movies.html

http://www.besthorror.com/best-horror-movies/the-best-horror-movies-of-all-time

http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/12/sense-of-wonder-50-best-horror-films-of-all-time/

http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/662/662450p5.html

http://www.buried.com/editorials/top25horrormovies.shtml

http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2007/10/31/best-horror-movies-10-1/

http://cinemarv.com/best-horror-movies/
 
Danoff
Peter Jackson wins for the Lord of the Rings (and nearly gets booted for district 9). The LOTR trilogy sits at my overall number 1 spot on my top 10 movies list. He (and his team) brought those books to life in a way that I didn't think was possible,
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You mean by butchering the story? The ents.. It still infuriates me.
 
RUI
I haven’t read Stephen King’s The Shining so I can’t really elaborate on the losses and eventual gains of Kubrick’s film adaptation.
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I haven't read it either and I didn't like the movie much. It's just not my type of movie.
 
astrosdude91
Tarantino. I loved Reservoir Dogs. Inglourious Basterds was really good too. And Death Proof was one fun ride!

Driftking, and Evilneal. You guys are going to hate me for this, but I enjoyed Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! *awaits verbal abuse*
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Apokalipse
I enjoyed it too actually. Guess we both get the verbal abuse. Hurray!
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;)
 
RUI
I know what it’s like to go see a movie adaptation of a novel you read and liked: 99% of the times you will feel let down, either because the film doesn’t follow your own interpretation of the events, the cast is outright wrong, the film director/ screenwriter decided to depart from the original story way too much for your liking, etc. I think most of us know what that’s like. But isn’t it in a way a somewhat prejudiced way to go see a movie?
I haven’t read Stephen King’s The Shining so I can’t really elaborate on the losses and eventual gains of Kubrick’s film adaptation. I just think it’s an amazing film, incredibly terrifying, with a great cinematography and music score and an outstanding performance by Jack Nicholson. Maybe it doesn’t have a very linear storyline, maybe it doesn’t follow the conventions of the genre or faithfully follow Kings novel - but can you say his film’s worse because of that? Is King’s own TV adaptation a better movie? I strongly doubt that...

Well, to each his own; I guess it’s our gain and your loss…
But even though I don’t usually feel very comfortable in the midst of a huge crowd I will have to point to a few (?) other (very) positive (re)views of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining; it’s seems I’m not alone in considering a masterpiece (these are just a few worthless links):

http://www.imdb.com/chart/horror

http://www.best-horror-movies.com/100-top-horror-movies.html

http://www.besthorror.com/best-horror-movies/the-best-horror-movies-of-all-time

http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/12/sense-of-wonder-50-best-horror-films-of-all-time/

http://uk.movies.ign.com/articles/662/662450p5.html

http://www.buried.com/editorials/top25horrormovies.shtml

http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2007/10/31/best-horror-movies-10-1/

http://cinemarv.com/best-horror-movies/
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I didn't like the book enough to be offended by a movie adaptation that didn't fit my imagined vision. It's just that Kubrick utterly missed the point. I admit I'm not the biggest Nicholson fan - I think he's highly overrated, in fact, except in his much later performances - but casting him in this role like putting a big sign saying WARNING - I'M GOING TO FREAK OUT AND KILL SOMETHING on the character from the beginning of the movie. It should have been John Ritter or somebody innocuous. And Shelley Duvall could be totally zonked on narcotics and still look like she's about to die of terror. So with this cast, the inevitable result was telegraphed from the opening 90 seconds of the film, totally ruining any suspense and rendering it non-horror.
 
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Ok, I think I can win you guys over. Phantom Menace is in my opinion the best Star Wars film. Jar Jar Binks is just what the series needed. (Now I'm just asking for it)
 
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Speedy Samurai
You mean by butchering the story? The ents.. It still infuriates me.
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He did mess up the two towers quite a bit. It wasn't a perfect effort for sure. But it was still far better than I ever expected to see from LOTR in movie format. What he did with the movies is nothing short of astounding - despite the mistakes.
 
There cannot be only one, too many different tastes in the world for that imo.

My top shelf ones would be F.Coppola, D.Fincher, Q.Tarentino, S.Kubrick, H Korine
 
The Coen brothers are pretty good as far as directors out there today. Danny Boyle and Christopher Nolan are also pretty solid although they haven't made as many films as the Coens. Tarantino is solid but not the best out there today... I didn't like the Kill Bill series as much as most although all of his other work is AMAZING!
 

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