Perfect Runs - Page 3

Scanners definitely has moments and ideas, but the whole just doesn't gel at all. It's a film of great setpieces stitched together with dental floss.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spike Marshall 

Yeah, surely VIDEODROME is the perfect encapsulation of all of Cronenberg's tics, ideas, and stylisations.

Agreed. But Dead Ringers is still my favorite.

Having just seen Melancholia at TIFF, I can't help but feel that Lars von Trier's name is sorely missing from this thread.  I've not seen anything prior to '91's Europa, but from then to now, love it or hate it, every movie he's done has been pretty spectacular.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin Clark 

Scanners definitely has moments and ideas, but the whole just doesn't gel at all. It's a film of great setpieces stitched together with dental floss.

'Scanners' has many, MANY issues, but 50% of them would have been solved if he'd have cast someone other than Steven Lack in the lead role.  ANYONE else...fuck, even re-animated corpse would have been better.

No ones mentioned Peter Weir yet? For shame. Man hasn't made an average film, let alone a bad one.

I love me some Peter Weir but the man made Green Card. That said, his oeuvre really is quite jaw-dropping.

1975 Picnic at Hanging Rock
1977 The Last Wave
1981 Gallipoli
1982 The Year of Living Dangerously
1985 Witness
1986 The Mosquito Coast
1989 Dead Poets Society
1990 Green Card (ugh..)
1993 Fearless
1998 The Truman Show
2003 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
2011 The Way Back

WHITE SQUALL embarrasses me.

Anthony Mann's WINCHESTER 73 thru THE MAN FROM LARAMIE. Man was the master of the psychological Western.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis 

WHITE SQUALL embarrasses me.

 

Anthony Mann's WINCHESTER 73 thru THE MAN FROM LARAMIE. Man was the master of the psychological Western.

White Squall ain't no Weir.

But you are calling Scott into the conversation, one of the most ridiculously inconsistent filmmakers I can summon to mind. I think he's one of the only "great" filmmakers who's made more bad films than good, actually.

'Iron Maiden'

'Killers'

'The Number of the Beast'

'Piece of Mind'

'Powerslave'

'Somewhere in Time'

'Seventh Son of a Seventh Son'

That's a hell of a good run by Iron Maiden.  SiT is actually pretty weak, but it's still listenable and fully redeemed by SSoaSS.  They completely went off of the rails with their next album, though...I blame that on the loss of Adrian Smith more than anything.

I don't think Ridley really belongs in this discussion either.  Might be worth discussing which of his films are legitimately great (Kingdom of Heaven!), but I think the general consensus is that the majority of his work is very 'meh'.

But if we're talking music...

'77'

'More Songs About Buildings and Food'

'Fear of Music'

'Remain in Light'

'Speaking in Tongues'

'Little Creatures'

In my mind, that's about as perfect a run as you can get.

I'm stunned at how much I completely agree with so much of this thread (minus two small items: Naked Lunch is utterly fucking sublime, even whilst sober, and I will go to my grave never comprehending those who put down the second half of Full Metal Jacket... oh and also count me in among those who support Alien 3 as fantastic and who finds the hatred heaped upon it to almost seem completely arbitrary at times). That having been said though, I'm stunned that nobody has already name checked Wong Kar Wai far earlier in this thread.

As Tears Go By

Days of Being Wild

Chunking Express

Ashes of Time

Fallen Angels

Happy Together

In the Mood For Love

2046

I've yet to see My Blueberry Nights (and what I've heard has been decidedly mixed at best, so that may well indeed be the streak killer for all I know), but aside from that I'd call everything else prior to it as spotless a record as they get.

I've heard some make the argument that Fallen Angels is a misfire. I find that claim to be complete lunacy as I am (and always have been) absolutely in love with everything about that film and find it to easily stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of Wai's oeuvre. But even if one is stubborn enough to not bend on considering Fallen Angels a weak link, then much like QT's Death Proof it's far more of a slight stumble than anything even approaching an outright failure... and its the kind of stumble most directors only wish they could make to boot.

Geez, that bad huh? God that's fucking heartbreaking. Wong Kar Wai has been one of my filmmaking heroes since the 90's. Guh.

Also funny enough, I also have not yet seen the Redux version of Ashes of Time (absolutely loved the theatrical cut though of course). Lucky me I guess huh? I'm still gonna check out Ashes of Time Redux anyhow, if nothing else out of pure curiosity and obligation to my immense love of the original cut, but I'm even more frightened to see My Blueberry Nights now than I already was. Seems like something to avoid so as not to sully my longstanding love affair with the rest of his work.

I love Wong Kar-Wai, and I kinda want to Cyclops anyone who says negative things about My Blueberry Nights. I know a lot of people aren't fond, but I have yet to hear a compelling argument as to why it's not a wonderfully romantic, swoony movie. Cat Power, Rachel Weisz like a Phoenix in that bar, Jude Law's old-timey pie shop, the postcards, and, like all Wong Kar-Wai movies, THE COLORS THE COLORS THE COLORS. Yes, she sort of fades into the background, but in close-ups, still shots and montage, Norah Jones has the loveliest heartbroken face.

Whenever it's on cable, I drop everything and watch it immediately. It's a significant step down from his other work, but it remains, to me, a movie of many many pleasures. It kinda breaks my heart when people are so dismissive of the film, actually.

Kar-wai and his particular brand of whimsy is all wrong transferred to that setting. Someone so Hong Kong in his filmic expression is, unsurprisingly, totally lost in an American road movie. Even with Lawrence Block as co-writer the dialogue --and especially narration-- is stilted, the actors inexperienced (Norah Jones), miscast (Natalie Portman), or way over-the-top (Rachel Weisz). So what we're left with is the "story," never Kar-wai's strong point.

Park Chan-Wook's on a pretty darn good one.

JSA

Sympathy for Mr Vengeance

Oldboy

Lady Vengeance

I'm a Cyborg

Thirst

You can't talk about music without mentioning Radiohead's near perfect run:

1993 Pablo Honey (hence the "near")

1994 My Iron Lung EP

1995 The Bends

1997 OK Computer

2000 Kid A

2001 Amnesiac (flawed but it still trumps most other bands' best)

2003 Hail To The Thief

2007 In Rainbows

2011 The King Of Limbs

Eh.  While Radiohead did have an utterly fantastic, and brief, early run, individual tracks aside, I loathe most of their output post OK Computer.  Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows have moments, though.

I'm much more prone to Dunlop's suggestion of the genius run on display by Talking Heads as a prime example of near-perfection.

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil spurn 

Eh.  While Radiohead did have an utterly fantastic, and brief, early run, individual tracks aside, I loathe most of their output post OK Computer.  Hail to the Thief and In Rainbows have moments, though.

 

I'm much more prone to Dunlop's suggestion of the genius run on display by Talking Heads as a prime example of near-perfection.

 

Yep, this opinion is pretty common with regard to Radiohead's run & I'm not about to argue with anyone on it. But I will say that I think most of the Talking Heads albums are really, really spotty. Fear Of Music, Remain In Light, & Speaking in Tongues are the masterpieces but the albums released prior & post have alot of uninteresting fat. Song by song, Radiohead is more consistent & versatile than the Heads ever were. But of course, this is just my own arbitrary opinion.

Edit: Now THIS is a perfect run:

1983 THE SMITHS

1985 MEAT IS MURDER

1986 QUEEN IS DEAD

1987 LOUDER THAN BOMBS

1987 STRANGEWAYS, HERE WE COME

While I don't think each individual album is perfect necessarily, I'm inclined to agree in regards to Radiohead's perfect run simply because of the distinct ways in which the sound changes and the music evolves with each album.  I don't think any other band has been able to pull off so many various stylisitc shifts with as much success as Radiohead.  Bowie maybe, to a degree, but his discography, while more expansive, tends to be much more hit or miss.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Art Decade 

Yep, this opinion is pretty common with regard to Radiohead's run & I'm not about to argue with anyone on it. But I will say that I think most of the Talking Heads albums are really, really spotty. Fear Of Music, Remain In Light, & Speaking in Tongues are the masterpieces but the albums released prior & post have alot of uninteresting fat. 

I was kind of cheating with my Talking Heads list.  Speaking in Tongues is probably their final indisputable masterpiece, and while I absolutely love Little Creatures, it can be argued that each record after Tongues was essentially a David Byrne solo album.  

I'd argue that everything between 1971's Man Who Sold The World & 1983's Let's Dance is exceedingly consistent in terms of quality & versatility (Bowie went shit in 1984 with the mostly unlistenable Tonight). Statistically speaking, since Bowie had more albums in that 12 year stretch than Radiohead did in the same stretch of time, I think he trumps them pretty handily when measuring hits against misses.

My favorite run of Bowie albums is Station to Station and the Berlin trilogy, up through Scary Monsters.  I realize I'm in the unpopular minority with this one, but I've never been big on Aladdin Sane / Diamond Dogs era Bowie and would probably rank Scary Monsters ahead of all his early 70s output with the exception of Ziggy, and it wouldn't be all that close.  But yeah, I'm the asshole who loves Heathen, so take all of this with a grain of salt. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by fuzzy dunlop 

My favorite run of Bowie albums is Station to Station and the Berlin trilogy, up through Scary Monsters.  I realize I'm in the unpopular minority with this one, but I've never been big on Aladdin Sane / Diamond Dogs era Bowie and would probably rank Scary Monsters ahead of all his early 70s output with the exception of Ziggy, and it wouldn't be all that close.  But yeah, I'm the asshole who loves Heathen, so take all of this with a grain of salt. 

Dude, you are no asshole. Heathen is a GREAT album. A true return to form. So is (half of) Reality. The Berlin Triptych is my hands down favourite Bowie period too. In fact, that's where I lifted my handle from.

Hey, I'm the asshole that thinks that 'Tin Machine II' contains some of Bowie's absolute best work.  There's a lot of complete shit on there ('Sorry' and 'Stateside'...ugh), though.

Yer goddamn right about that, JB. "Shopping For Girls" & "You Belong In Rock N' Roll" are two of Bowie's best songs & they're both off of Tin Machine II.

'Amlapura', 'Goodbye Mr. Ed', and 'Baby Universal' are up there as well.  The cover of 'If there is Something' is good, but the live version of it that they did on SNL crushes the studio version like a grape.

Count me in as a major fan of both 'Outside' and 'Earthling' as well.  I'll need to give 'Heathen' a go one of these days.

I actually wrote up a whole thing on Bowie's 80s-90s output ages ago in another thread. It includes the tracklist to my ironclad Bowie 84-99 mix:

http://www.chud.com/community/t/99011/past-their-prime-albums-that-are-actually-worth-a-listen/50#post_3115690

It might seem a little out-of-place amidst all the talk of classic rock, but if we're talking perfect runs in music Kanye West is a damn good recent example. I really don't know what the consensus is on him around these parts, but this streak of quality can't be denied:

The College Dropout

Late Registration

Graduation

808s and Heartbreak

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Watch the Throne (w/ Jay-Z)

Other than him, um The Beatles.

Personally I find the quality of 808s pretty easy to deny.

Shinya Tsukamoto

Tetsuo: the iron man               

Hiruko the Goblin                  

Tetsuo 2 Body Hammer

Tokyo Fist

Bullet ballet

Gemini

A Snake of June

Vital

Nightmare Detective

Tetsuo 3 Bulletman

Sure, Hiruko is derivative, but it's silly fun. People seem down on Tetsuo 3, but I enjoyed it a great deal. 

I'd agree with Edgar Wright.  If anything, he seems to get better with each film. 

Richard Stanley is pitching a no hitter with just Dust Devil and Hardware.  I'll always lament him being kicked of Dr. Moreau, but the Frankenheimer version has some interesting....... merits.

Todd Haynes

1995 Safe

1998 Velvet Goldmine

2002 Far From Heaven

2007 I'm Not There

2011 Mildred Pierce

While the individual successes of the films are debatable, each one of them is infused with such creativity & successive versatility that, collectively, they stand as a fascinatingly mercurial artistic statement.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul C 

Personally I find the quality of 808s pretty easy to deny.

Nope. I think it's brilliant.

Herzog, up until WHERE THE GREEN ANTS DREAM.

Jackie Chan, as director:

FEARLESS HYENA, THE YOUNG MASTER, DRAGON LORD, PROJECT A, POLICE STORY

(ARMOUR OF GOD is mostly mediocre, but then...)

PROJECT A PART II, POLICE STORY II, MIRACLES and OPERATION CONDOR.

Why, oh why does Mimic have to fuck up Guillermo Del Toro's resume?

John Carpenter had a DAMN great 12 year run....

1976 - Assault On Precinct 13

1978 - Someone's Watching Me!

1978 - Halloween

1979 - Elvis

1980 - The Fog

1981 - Escape From New York

1982 - The Thing

1983 - Christine

1984 - Starman

1985 - Big Trouble In Little China

1987 - Prince of Darkness

1988 - They Live

They might not all be classics, but I still think they're all great.  Even the few films he produced.............at least the ones he actually had a hand in and weren't just using an old script of his....turned out pretty damn well during this time period.  He decided to take a break for a couple of years at the end of the 80s to spend time with his family and his career never really recovered from that creatively.

I'll also offer up the ever-great David Cronenberg for his entire directorial run.  Almost 40 years on and the quality is still there...

1974 - Shivers

1977 - Rabid

1979 - Fast Company

1979 - The Brood

1981 - Scanners

1983 - The Dead Zone

1983 - Videodrome

1986 - The Fly

1988 - Dead Ringers

1990 - Naked Lunch

1993 - M. Butterfly

1996 - Crash

1999 - eXistenZ

2002 - Spider

2005 - A History of Violence

2007 - Eastern Promises

2011 - A Dangerous Method

2012 - Cosmopolis

Yeah, that's right, I'm putting his new films on there already.  Why?  Because when the hell has he actually ever made a bad film anyway?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gabe T 

I'm a huge fan of John Carpenter's seventies to mid-eighties run. My favorite block of films from any genre filmmaker in history.

Beat me to it!  For some reason my browser wasn't initially showing this thread as having multiple pages.  Still, 100% agreed.  That is absolutely my favorite directorial run in cinema to date.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ratty 

Barring Home Movies, which I haven't seen, DePalma's run from Sisters (1973) through Body Double (1984) is pretty terrific.  

It's seems not too many have seen Home Movies.  It'd be nice if it would get a release someday so I can close that gap in my collection.  I'd extend De Palma's run through 1989 though.  Wiseguys is a bust, but Untouchables and Casualties of War are too good to pass up.  Hell, barring Bonfire as well, Brian is still great up until Snake Eyes (which is a guilty pleasure of mine, but not a good movie).
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clarence Boddicker 

Sergio Leone:

 

A Fistful of Dollars

For a Few Dollars More

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Once Upon a Time in the West

Duck, You Sucker

Once Upon a Time in America

Preach it!  Has anyone seen his first "official" film, The Colossus of Rhodes?  Just curious about how it is.  I've read it's unremarkable, as he was pretty much doing just what the producers wanted.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMulder 

Cronenberg, folks. Fucking Cronenberg. Fast Company kind of ruins his early career ascent -- although I admit I haven't seen it so perhaps it is great -- so I'm not gonna include Rabid, although it is one of the best zombie flicks I've seen.

Fast Company is great, as are Shivers and Rabid.  There isn't a single Cronenberg film undeserving of being on that list.  Also, kudos for beating me to this one as well.

Also, count me in as another who thinks Tarantino easily deserves to be on this list for his entire run to date.

Dario Argento

1970 - The Bird With The Crystal Plumage

1971 - The Cat O' Nine Tails

1972 - Four Flies On Grey Velvet

1975 - Deep Red

1977 - Suspiria

1980 - Inferno

1982 - Tenebrae

1985 - Phenomena

1988 - Opera

Dario hasn't had the best career for a long time, but that is a great run of films right there............along with some great producing efforts (Dawn of the Dead, Demons, The Church, etc.).  Obviously his only non-horror film, The Five Days of Milan (1973), has been excluded because.............well, almost no one has seen it anyway.

While I might be in the minority (then again, maybe not), I'm going to throw out Clive Barker's trio of films as being great as well................ Hellraiser , Nightbreed, and Lord of Illusions.  

Ji-woon Kim has also been on a great run since 2003.  Maybe even before that, but I haven't seen his pre-A Tale of Two Sisters works.  Here's hoping his Schwarzenegger film, The Last Stand, can be added to that list once 2013 roles around.