Kiwi Film Review: Top 10 Directors

This weeks list topic is Top 10 Directors. I found this list very difficult because most of these directors who have created different worlds that have changed our lives, or taught us something about ourselves that we didn't know beforehand. 

10.) Sam Mendes
I think most people have actually not heard of Sam Mendes, although his name is getting a lot of coverage lately for the amazing job he did on the most recent Bond film Skyfall. He's actually only Directed 9 films so far, but all of them have been pretty well-known and extremely well recieved. American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, etc. Since American Beauty is one of my very favorite films of all time, I had to allow him to make it onto this list. Like I said, he's only done a few films but thats incredibly exciting because he definitely got some serious potential, and after seeing his most recent film, Skyfall, I can only assume its going to keep getting better.

Check out my Skyfall review HERE

9.) Clint Eastwood
Mr. Eastwood has surprised me in recent years, as its only been that long since I've begun watching his films. Sometimes I sort of forget about him really, but when you really think about it and see the list you just think, "Wow." All of his films have been very powerful and have shown very different sides of life. The first of his films that I watched was Mystic River which I had actually never heard of before watching it, but had actually won 2 Oscars. I then saw Grand Torino, Million Dollar Baby, and Unforgiven, and he was solidified onto this list. If you haven't seen any of these films, you are definitely missing out. So far he has won 3 Best Director and 3 Best Picture Academy Awards and I imagine many more coming in the future. 

Check out my Mystic River review HERE

8.) Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantino is a truly unique person and a very unique filmmaking style. Every time I watch one of his films or see him in an interview I just think about what it would be like to be friends with him, it would be incredible. He has many films that are extremely popular and he really has quite a cult following. Some of his more famous films include Pulp Fiction, Resevior Dogs, Kill Bill(Vol. I & II), but it wasn't until I saw Inglorious Basterds that I felt like I finally understood him. When he realsed Django Unchained in December, I have to say I think it was his greatest film yet.

7.) Ron Howard
Ron Howard actually has a rather diverse directing career, but I love everything I've seen so far. The films that stick out most for me would have to be Apolo 13, Cinderella Man, Frost/Nixon but most of all A Beautiful Mind which made #3 on my Top 10 Films of all time list, but even more impressively managed to win 4 Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture. I find that his career has been super random but I think there will be many more interesting films coming out of Mr. Howard. 

6.) Ridley Scott

Few directors have as many classic films under their belts like Ridley Scott. His films are always huge productions that are often ahead of their time. He seems to have a thing with the future, but is equally as capable at capturing the past. His films include Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster, and most recently, Prometheus, which I absolutely adored. He and Russell Crowe have had a very productive relationship which works out for all of us as their films are always interesting. Ridley Scott has been making groundbreaking films for decades, and I sure hope he doesn't slowdown anytime soon. 

Check out my review for Prometheus HERE

5.) Woody Allen
I think a lot of people will be surprised that I have Woody Allen so high, but I think that he has an incredible way of capturing people and regular life, like no one else. All of his films I have seen have been incredibly honest and have captured exactly what everyone thinks about when their sitting at home, or trying to get to sleep. Your neighbour mysteriously dies and you think "her husband is suspicious looking, I wonder if he did it." Your listening to your favorite song, or looking at your favorite painting and you think "man, I wish I was born in that decade, those were the golden years." He takes those thoughts and bring them to light. Some of his great films include Midnight In Paris(which made my top 10 flims of all time list), Manhattan, Manhattan Murder Mystery, and probably most famously, Annie Hall. I have many more of his films to see before I'm done, but the ones I have seen have all been enjoyable. 
Check out my Midnight In Paris review HERE 
Check out my Manhattan Murder Mystery review HERE

4.) David Fincher
I had honestly never heard of David Fincher until The Social Network. I was looking up who the director was of some movie and his name came up, and I noticed the unreal list of films with his name on them. Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc. I mean, give me a break, I just listed off some of my very favorite films, and some unbelievably ground-breaking ones. He is the master of thrillers, especially psychological ones. 

3.) Christopher Nolan
Chris Nolan only has 10 films under his directors belt, but so far he has made some amazing, mind-bending films that leave us wondering how his mind works. Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige, Inception, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. Just take a moment to remember how amazing these films are and you will then understand why Mr. Nolan has made it to #3. What he did for Super Hero movies will never be forgotten. 
Check out my review for The Dark Knight Rises HERE

2.) Steven Spielberg
There simply cannot be a best directors list without Steven Spielberg. Spielberg is definitely the most famous director of all time, and I think that makes sense. The films that he has created are always big productions, and you know that you won't be bored or let down when you go into the theater to see them. Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, A.I (Artificial Intelligence), Indiana Jones Trilogy, Saving Private Ryan, Lincoln, War of the Worlds, Catch Me If You Can, Jurassic Park, and most famously ET. While writing this list I've realized how much his films have actually impacted my life. I'm so glad that my Dad showed me so many of these in my childhood. Indiana Jones shaped my love of history and adventure, A.I opened my eyes to amazing film and morality, and Schindler's List showed me how horrible the world can be, and how we need good people to survive. Bravo Mr. Spielberg. Bravo.

1.) Martin Scorcese
Scorcese is an absolute master at what he does. He has mastered crime films, and just thrillers in general. I want to live in his mind for a day to see where he gets the ideas for his films. We can thank him for films such as Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, The Departed, Shutter Island, Raging Bull, Cape Fear, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and so many more. He creates films and characters that give the actors the incredible opportunity to showcase their amazing acting abilities. His films have entertained us for 4 decades, and I can't see him slowing down anytime soon. I think he impressed me the most when he showed that he could even conquer the genre of feel good family films when he released Hugo in 2011. That film fully solidified himself as my favorite director  and proved that he could really do anything. 


Check out my Top 10 Films of All Time list HERE to see where I rank the products of some of these amazing directors.

Honourable Mentions: Peter Jackson, Stanley Kubirck, Alfred Hitchcock, Kevin Smith, James Cameron, Oliver Stone, Darren Aronofsky, JJ Abrams, John Hughes, Frances Ford 
Coppola, 

Kiwi Film Review: Prometheus

IMDB: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
Roger Ebert: 4/4
What The Flick: 7.2/10


Stars: Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce.
Written By: Jon  Spaihts, Damon Lindelof
Directed By: Ridley Scott


Release Date: June 8th 2012
Described by IMDB as "A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race."


Holy mother of god. This movie was amazing. I'm really regretting not writing this review last night because I  know I'm going to forget some things I meant to write about it, but I'll do the best I can. I was going to try to write this without spoilers but I don't think thats possible. 


I want to start with talking about how this film fits in with Alien. For 99.9% of this movie I was trying to figure out how exactly this  fits in with Alien. Honestly, it still sort of doesn't in my mind, but for the most part it does. They were actually VERY smart with how much they showed in Alien and how much they didn't because of the lack of technology they had at that point. As far as I can remember you didn't really see any details of the planet itself, just the ship and the aliens. Now, that the technology is in the right place they were able to make an astonishingly beautiful planet. The parallels were pretty clear in the film, *SPOILER* first off the robots. Even the fact that they're both beheaded and talk. If I were him I'd want to redo that actually because it was so badly done in Alien, when we find out that Ian Holm is a robot because his head has been ripped off, but he can still talk. Obviously we know David(Fassbender) is a robot through the full film, but he's still beheaded none-the-less. Also, clearly the ending of both movies are entirely the same. everyone else being killed and the lead, strong, female lead, Elizabeth Shaw(Rapace) being the only one left. This one is a little different because she's forced to rely on David (Fassbender) Even the part where she thinks she's safe in her ship and then PSYCH you actually have to beat the final alien. I'm very happy with the final scene when we see how the Alien alien is created. Very cool.

Now for the things I enjoyed about the film (besides the things above). First of all, Ridley Scott pretty much never disappoints. The cinematography was absolutely beautiful. All of the scenes while they're in space, travelling to the planet are beautiful, especially when you first see the planet. The moon they land on is also beautiful, but not quite as breathtaking as the planet you see when they arrive. The CGI was amazing and the special effects over all were great. The acting is also fantastic in this film. Michael Fassbender absolutely killed as David. The scene at the beginning when he's going around the ship alone and he's riding a bike and spinning a basketball on is finger and carelessly shoots the ball and it lands in the net, was absolutely perfect. It truly showed how un-human he is. It was a perfect scene to describe him without actually having to explain it. Brilliant idea. He looked super robotic the whole time, and his acting was just fantastic. Guy Pearce was also awesome, the only reason I even knew it was him under all of the prosthetics was because I knew he was in the film.Noomi Rapace was also fantastic, as was Charlize Theron. I thought the "engineers" were were super interesting looking, just human-like enough to "believe" that we could have come from them. I thought that was a really interesting, different idea of our origin.


There were a few things that I felt could have been better explained, but I felt that most of them can be passed as "that can be explained in the next film." Most of the problems I had were pretty much what Shaw was looking to ask the "engineers" when she went to find their home planet.


Overall I'll give it an 8.5/10. Seriously was such a good movie, a must-see for any sci-fi lover!