Worst Best Director of the Decade

[Damien]

As for Bill Condon, I mean, when a supposedly serious director has to make a movie from a commercial teenage saga, I cant say anything because it would be unfair - I never kick someone who's already down. Let's hope that he will do this job fast and get to more personal projects soon.

Well, serious directors do put their own mark on fundamentally commercial projects (eg, Scorsese with The Departed, Kubrick and The Shining, Polanski with any number of projects). And accorsing to this report, Bill Condon's Twilight entry will differ from the others:

BILL CONDON PROMISES TO MAKE FINAL TWILIGHT FILM "WAY MORE GAY"
Academy Award-Wining Director Has Big, Gay Plans for Final Chapter

Now that he appears to be in the finishing stages of signing on to helm Breaking Dawn, the last film (possibly two films) in the hugely successful Twilight series, director Bill Condon is opening up about his plans for his adaptation of the final chapter.
“There’s always been a pretty gay element to theTwlight movies — it’s hard to see all those fetishistic shots of the ripped, shirtless boys in New Moon and argue with that,” Condon said. “I’m hoping to take it to the next level. The next level of gayness.”

Condon, 54, is the writer/director of the films Gods and Monsters, a fictionalized biopic of homosexual filmmaker James Whale; Kinsey, about famed sex researcher Alfred Kinsey (who, in the film, engages in same-sex relations with one of his research assistants) and Dreamgirls, a musical.

“I want to retain the basic elements that Stephanie Meyer included in Breaking Dawn,” the director added. “But I want to add many more gay elements. I haven’t decided yet what those will be. Maybe everyone will have goatees.”
“We know the Twilight movies are a huge hit with female audiences,” said a representative for Summit Films, the studio responsible for releasing the popular movie series. “We’re hoping that by gaying upBreaking Dawn, we can break into at least a section of the male audience, too. Bill Condon is just the director to do that, and we’re thrilled at the prospect of working with him.”

Not everyone is happy about the direction Condon is planning to take Breaking Dawn. Jake Brannen, a 20-year old college student in Muncie, Indiana, says he’s concerned about how a gayer Twilight will make him look.

“I like my Twilight just the way it is,” Brannen said. “A beautiful abstinence parable about a teenage girl named Bella Swan who falls in love with a vampire who sparkles like brilliant diamonds when the sun hits him, only they can’t be together because of ancient vampire rules passed down from Rome. Also, there’s an American Indian who’s also a werewolf, and he falls in love with a baby. If Twilight starts to include gay stuff, I might be embarrassed to admit I like it."

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I actually love the fact that this board is "elitist." It's the only film site I post on because it is the one with an extremely high level of intelligence. I mean do we really want to have a bunch of screaming banshees like Gold Derby (which, admittedly, I haven't looked atin over a year). Even Awards Watch, which has a knowledgeable group of followers, can get overly fan-boy.

Marco, LOL over Anne Shirley vs. Andrea Leeds.

[OscarGuy]

Coldness in a film about a devastating part of human history is NOT a good quality. You're making a film, not a documentary. I couldn't have cared less if Brody's character lived or died. Shouldn't you care about something like that in relation to a protagonist? It was flat storytelling. It had minor peaks and valleys, but never went anywhere with them. It's my biggest complaint about the first half of the novel The Return of the King. We're walking. We're walking. We're walking. OOOH! A big event occurs. We're walking. We're walking. We're walking...the writing may have good form, but it's not terribly compelling or engaging.

And when I said don't like, I didn't mean I hated it either. I gave it a positive 3 star rating, but deducted the full star for the reasons I've made clear here.

[ITALIANO]

The Pianist isnt my favorite Polanski either - what I meant, though, is that the coldmess you refer to may be a good quality if compared with the tearjerker factor that sometimes you seem to enjoy so much. Just this.

As for Bill Condon, I mean, when a supposedly serious director has to make a movie from a commercial teenage saga, I cant say anything because it would be unfair - I never kick someone who's already down. Let's hope that he will do this job fast and get to more personal projects soon.

[OscarGuy]

I have it on good authority from a few ex members that it's contributors here who drove them away. And while the specialization thing is, I'm sure, a bit discouraging for many, I'm sure the condescending attitudes (and I'm not saying that I haven't done that as well in the past) contribute to the problem.

And just because I dismiss a movie I found boring and lacking in heart isn't the end of the world. That it was made by legend Roman Polanski is probably the main reason it is so heavily favored around here. Yes, we all have our favorite directors, but even our favorites can disappoint us. You'll jump on me about my enjoyment of Bill Condon films, but then remain silent when I make a statement to refuse to watch one of his films. We all don't have to love everything done by a single director and someone's "legend" status should not give us a reason not to dismiss his work if we don't like it (Steven Spielberg anyone?)

[ITALIANO]

Dismissing The Pianist could be as elitist and snobbish as dismissing The Blind Side.

The reason why not many come here is that this is a very specialized board. Comparing, say, Anne Shirley with Andrea Leeds isn't something most people can easily do.

[OscarGuy]

Shut the fuck up, Italiano. I explained why I didn't like the aloof, emotionless, lugubrious Pianist long ago.

There's a reason I don't contribute as much as I used to and don't explain most of my choices and this is precisely the reason. It's also one of the many reasons why no one comes here anymore. The UAADB is a bloated, self-important dinosaur, like many of its contributors. If you want to know why there are only about 10 people who actually contribute anymore, just look at the elitists snobs who post here.

[ITALIANO]

So The Color Purple, Dreamgirls and The Blind Side are better movies than The Pianist.

This board gives me glimpses I'd never expected of the darlest sides of the human psyche.

[OscarGuy]

I don't like The Pianist, true, and I thought Polanski win was undeserved, but I was not the vote for Polanski.

[ITALIANO]

Nobody takes Ron Howard seriously now. But many still think that Peter Jackson is a great visionary director (they are too young to know about Fellini), and of course he thinks so, too. But he isn't, and his recent The Lovely Bones is so pedestrian, so devoid of any kind of magic, of feeling for fantasy, that I thought his fans would have taken a second look at his celebrated, neverending trilogy. They haven't. Yet the Lord of the Rings saga, while technically competent, isn't much more than that. I'd be tempted to say that he represents the triumph of form over content - the problem is that even the form isn't that good.

[Sabin]

Wes doesn't like The Pianist.

[Bog]

Criddic or Van Helsing or DreaMaker as a shot in the dark?

[Okri]

So, who voted Polanski?

[Uri]

Howard is too easy a choice, and his very bland movie is not really the travesty people here tend to declare it to be – it's not that distinctive to be such passionately addressed to anyway. That Ring stuff, on the other hand…

I went with Jackson.

[Mister Tee]

I see no need to avoid the obvious. Howard is by far the least distinctive of these winners in career terms, and his film the worst of the ten. And, even though I said I might not have voted for a single one of the decade's winners, Howard is the only one who would have finished a clear fifth in his year. Opie for the win.

[Damien]

No Country For Old Men is loathsome, and it's got Asshole's and Douche Bag's paw prints all over it.

Which one is which?

They're interchangeable. They're both filthy.