Robert Zemeckis

Started by modage, June 13, 2003, 02:49:35 PM

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modage

a lot of people kind of think of him as a second rate spielberg because he was part of the whole protegee thing (with Joe Johnston and Joe Dante and the rest.)  which makes him really terrible to people who dont like Spielberg in the first place, but i really enjoy most of his movies.  it seems like him and spielberg share a lot of the same influences, and he has turned out an interesting array of films since the 80s.    

USED CARS
ROMANCING THE STONE
BACK TO THE FUTURE 1, 2, 3
WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT
FORREST GUMP
CAST AWAY
WHAT LIES BENEATH


he didnt have a folder and i thought he needed one.  anyone else like to discuss?
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

SoNowThen

Roger Rabbit and the BTTF trilogy are great. I like him way more than the 'Berg.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

modage

i can still remember seeing roger rabbit in the theatre when i was like 7.  it was unbelievable.  practically the greatest thing id ever seen.  i just re-watched it recently when the dvd came out and i still think its great.  so smart and different.  not just like a "kids" type of movie.  the whole period noir thing was fantastic.  and i still cannot get over seeing Donald AND Daffy in the same scene.  or Bugs AND Mickey.  something like that could NEVER NEVER happen today.  how those two companies came to agreement over letting both their properties share the same movie, ill never know.  i guess it was pre-The Little Mermaid/Disneys big comeback, so they didnt really have much to lose.  classic.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Spike

I like Zemeckis more than Spielberg.
He's just better.
"BttF" and "Forrest Gump" are amazing masterpieces!
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xerxes

i actually really liked cast away... maybe it was the mood i was in

bonanzataz

without zemeckis, bttf would really just be another 80's teen movie. i rewatched it the other day, the dialogue confirms it.
The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil's rain we'll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, 'cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, 'cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put 'em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put 'em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls

godardian

I don't love Zemeckis, but I FAR prefer him to Spielberg. Esp. these days...
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Gold Trumpet

Zemeckis touches the heels of what Speilberg can do. At best, he can make a very good and imaginative movie like Forrest Gump. The movie's imagination in playing with different topics  of a time period and love for the character Gump himself are the best touches. There were moments of forcing it though in some of the scenes at the end in trying to bring a tear but forgivable due to the lovely nature of the rest of the movie.

And sorry to discredit Back to the Future in any way, but it is another comedy from the 80s. Doesn't mean I didn't like it, because I did and rather watch it over most of the others, but the main reason why everyone continually watches it is that its story is the classic small guy rising up above the bully and looking good in front of everyone else and just being the "coolest". I think the cleverness of the movie is not the main thing to speak for its durability, but of how much it plays to everyones own personal hopes. Cleverness is the nice flavour to it.

Cast Away was typically emotional, nothing more. Roger Rabbit enjoyable and durable because its graphics still hold up just as good today as it did then. Haven't seen any of his others besides the back to the future sequels that just try to play up to the first.

I prefer Speilberg over Zemeckis in not just a minor way, but a great way because I only see one of his movies even competing with the best Speilberg can offer in entertainment. Speilberg captured so many different visions and wonders in cinema magic and entertainment. Zemeckis' career and range has been very minor when compared to it. Most of the times, I feel Zemeckis is telling a more mundane story and is just trying to keep the feel of Speilberg-esque entertainment in. That's all, though. Again, Forrest Gump is really the only work of some identifiable imagination and vision.

~rougerum

bonanzataz

Quote from: The Gold TrumpetAnd sorry to discredit Back to the Future in any way, but it is another comedy from the 80s.

what i was saying is that bttf is one, but it feels so much bigger and grander than it should. it feels like more than an 80's teen movie. it's an 80's teen movie hiding under the skin of a great epic. or maybe the other way around. i don't know.
The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil's rain we'll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, 'cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, 'cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put 'em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put 'em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls

Ghostboy

I think he's a swell director. The first and second BTTF are really amazing comedies...like bonanzataz said, teen comdies with a really grand tone. The third one is pleasant but forgettable, but the first two are amazing -- especially the second, I think.

Forrest Gump is really good, although the hype hurt it. I liked Contact up until she gets to the planet, at which point the entire movie just fell apart for me. Castaway was great while he was on the island, but less than stellar before and afterwards.

Now, I've come to realize I'm in the minority, but I loved What Lies Beneath. It was too long and the writing can best be described as clunky...but the way he directed it was just so great. So obviously an homage to Hitch, but it worked. I loved how it got so cheesy and over the top at the end, it was great to see Ford go psycho like that, and to top it all off, that bathtub scene scared the SHIT out of me.

I'm really looking forward to the Polar Express, on a technical level. I'm curious as to how such a wonderful SHORT book can be turned into a film successfully, but I'll definitely be there to see it opening day.

bonanzataz

thanks for reminding me ghostboy. i remember really liking all of contact and i own what lies beneath. I own quite a few zemeckis actually. i guess i'm a zemeckis fan.
The corpses all hang headless and limp bodies with no surprises and the blood drains down like devil's rain we'll bathe tonight I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls Demon I am and face I peel to see your skin turned inside out, 'cause gotta have you on my wall gotta have you on my wall, 'cause I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls collect the heads of little girls and put 'em on my wall hack the heads off little girls and put 'em on my wall I want your skulls I need your skulls I want your skulls I need your skulls

modage

Quote from: bonanzatazthanks for reminding me ghostboy. i remember really liking all of contact and i own what lies beneath. I own quite a few zemeckis actually. i guess i'm a zemeckis fan.

i actually havent seen contact, but i did also love the hitch homage what lies beneath.

i kind of noticed while looking through my dvds that i am a zemeckis fan as well.  and then the sky parted and THE TOPIC WAS BORN!
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

ono

Contact is brilliant (one of the best movies of the 90s), and for that reason alone Zemeckis is worth mentioning.  But he also has Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Back to the Future, and Forrest Gump under his belt, which aren't too shabby either.

For me, the ending of Contact is what made the movie, aside from the fact that the whole thing was peppered with these moments that just make you say "wow" and think a bit.  And the fact that the creators of South Park (though I love the show) hate the film so much just validate it all the more for me.  If you were going to that film to see aliens, or to see something like Men in Black (which, incidentally, was playing at about the same time), you were going for the wrong reasons.  What made Contact work so well was that it didn't wrap things up in a neat little package for you, and it didn't have to because of the way it told its story.

Ghostboy

I definitely did not want to see aliens...but I also didn't want to see her dad on a beautiful tropical island. I thought THAT was wrapping it up in too neat a box (although it could have been much worse). It was just really sappy and sentimental. It could have stood to be a lot more ambiguous. The rest of it was really great, though.

ono

Possible spoilers.

The fact was, though (and what I liked about it most) was that you don't know if that was her dad for sure.  She could've been hallucinating, or dreaming, but the twist I liked most, about that whole thing, was the fact that there was 18 hours of footage on her video, and it was all fuzzy.

Her "seeing" her dad after traveling through that wormhole wasn't really the climax, IMO.  It may have been what the audience was waiting for all along, but I think it was more rising action that led to the ultimate conflict between Foster's character and the government, and her character and McConaughey's character.  The resolution, of course, being Foster's final conversation with McConaughey's character, outside the government building.  McConaughey's character's words were beautiful there.

I get what you mean totally by feeling that her seeing her dad was "wrapping things up too neatly."  But, me, I thought it came full-circle nicely vis-a-vis the "what we see when we die" idea, and the plight of humans who want to answer those questions that bug us so much, yet when faced with them, we come up with ideas, yet we still aren't sure, so we resort to what's most comfortable and meaningful to us.  In Foster's character's case, that's her father.