Director's Spotlight: John Woo

John Woo

John Woo Yu-Sen (born 1 May 1946) is a Hong Kong film director, writer, and producer. Recognized for his stylised films of highly choreographed action sequences, Mexican standoffs, and use of slow-motion. Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong and Hollywood films.

Sharp choreography, smooth gun play, doves, and stand-offs are usually signs you're enjoying a John Woo original.

With that being said, here are a few of his films that you might want watch at some point in life:

The Killer (1989)
A disillusioned assassin accepts one last hit in hopes of using his earnings to restore vision to a singer he accidentally blinded, only to be double-crossed by his boss.

Hard Boiled (1992)
A tough-as-nails cop teams up with an undercover agent to shut down a sinister mobster and his crew.

Face/Off (1997)
To foil an extortion plot, an FBI agent undergoes a face-transplant surgery and assumes the identity and physical appearance of a ruthless terrorist, but the plan backfires when the same criminal impersonates the cop with the same method.

Hard Target (1993)
A woman hires a drifter as her guide through New Orleans in search of her father, who has gone missing. They discover a deadly game of cat and mouse behind his disappearance in the process.

Mission Impossible 2 (2000)
A secret agent is sent to Sydney, to find and destroy a genetically modified disease called "Chimera."

Read More

Director's Spotlight: Tobe Hooper

Tobe Hooper

This suave "Old Harrison Ford" looking dude right here is Tobe Hooper. Born January 25, 1943, he is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for his work in the horror film genre. His best known film is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and although the concept has been run into the ground, the original film still holds up pretty well.


Here are a few of his other films that you may (or may not but should be) interested in checking out:


The Funhouse (1981) 

Four teenage friends spend the night in a carnival funhouse and are stalked by a deformed man in a Frankenstein mask.

Poltergeist (1982) 
A family's home is haunted by a host of ghosts.

Salem's Lot (1979)

Vampires are invading a small New England town. It's up to a novelist and a young horror fan to save it. 

Read More

Director's Spotlight: Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks (born June 28, 1926) is an American film director,screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. His most well known films include The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, History of the World, Part I and Spaceballs.

Comedic. Genius. There will never be another like him. Not much more needs to be said.


His most famous films are listed above, but here are a few others that are definitely worth viewing.

Silent Movie (1976) 
A film director and his strange friends struggle to produce the first major silent feature film in forty years.

High Anxiety (1977)
After a Harvard psychiatrist takes over the Psycho-Neurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous, he realizes his predecessor died under suspicious circumstances. When events take a murderous turn, he is accused of the crime and left with a full blown case of High Anxiety.

Life Stinks (1991)
A filthy rich businessman bets a corporate rival that he can live on the streets of L.A. without the comforts of home or money, which proves to be tougher than he thought.

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

Cary Elwes stars as Robin Hood, the dashing defender of the down-trodden, who along with his merry men and Maid Marion, resides in Sherwood Forest. There they have become together to fight against the seriously neurotic Prince John, the not quite-evil Sheriff of Rottingham, and the mad sorceress Latrine. 

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
A comic reinvention of the Bela Lugosi classic about a Transylvanian vampire who works his evil spell on a perplexed group of Londoners.

Read More

5 Scenes from...

John Woo has directed some of the most stylish action flicks in existence. You may not know his name, but you are definitely familiar with his work.


Here are five of his best scenes:

Face/Off (1997) - An FBI agent and a terrorist, assume the physical appearance of one another.

Red Cliff (2008) - A Story centered on a battle fought in China's Three Kingdoms period (220-280 A.D.).

Hard Boiled (1992) - A tough-ass cop teams with an undercover agent to shut down a mob crew.

The Killer (1989) - A disillusioned assassin accepts one last hit, only to be double-crossed by his boss.

 

Hard Target (1993) - Van Damme stars as a homeless Cajun who helps a woman track down her father.

 

Read More

Director's Spotlight #5

Kathryn Bigelow

Kathryn Ann Bigelow (born November 27, 1951) is an American film director. Her best-known films are the cult horror film Near Dark (1987), the surfer/bank robbery action picture Point Break (1991), the science fiction/film noir Strange Days (1995), the historical/mystery film The Weight of Water (2000) and the war drama The Hurt Locker (2008). In April 2010, Bigelow was named to the Time 100 list of most influential people of the year.

Well known within the Hollywood circle, chances are you've seen a few of her films and didn't know it was her. Once the Hurt Locker was released, she became a household name.

If you haven't already, check out some of her work:

Point Break (1991) 

An FBI agent goes undercover to catch a gang of bank robbers who may be surfers.

Simply put: Johnny Utah was The Perfect Role for the Master of the "Whoa!" 

Strange Days (1995) 

A former cop turned street-hustler accidentally uncovers a police conspiracy in 1999 Los Angeles.

Hurt Locker (2010) 

Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.

Blue Steel (1990)

A female rookie in the police force engages in a cat and mouse game with a pistol wielding psychopath who becomes obsessed with her.

The Embedding was disabled, so you'll have to click here to watch.

Jamie Lee Curtis is a fox!

Read More

Director's Spotlight #4

Robert Rodriguez

Robert Anthony Rodríguez (born June 20, 1968), [currently giving you the "eff me eyes"] is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. A friend and frequent collaborator of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. 

Robert Rodriguez has directed a good amount of well known films. Some I'm sure you've heard of, and some I'm sure you were planning on getting to later. Anyway, take a look. If you're a fan, check some of these out. None of these films would score lower than a 7 on anyone's list.

Desperado (1995)

We pick up the story as a continuation of "El Mariachi," where an itinerant musician, looking for work, gets mistaken for a hitman and thereby entangled in a web of love, corruption, and death.

Planet Terror (2007)

After an experimental bio-weapon is released, turning thousands into zombie-like creatures, it's up to a rag-tag group of survivors to stop the infected and those behind its release.

Machete (2010)

After being set-up and betrayed by the man who hired him to assassinate a Texas Senator, an ex-Federale launches a brutal rampage of revenge against his former boss.

Spy Kids (2001)

The tables are turned when pint-sized kids Carmen and Juni must rescue their secret-agent parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino) from the diabolical clutches of Alexander Minion (Tony Shalhoub), who's after a powerful artificial brain that will automate his army of kid robots to do his bidding.

From Dusk Til Dawn (1996)

Robbers-on-the-lam Seth and Richard Gecko take an ex-preacher and his kids hostage. On a race to the Mexican border, they rendezvous at a cantina, not knowing the owners and clientele are bloodthirsty vampires

Sin City (2005)

In this series of interwoven stories adapted from Frank Miller's graphic novels, an ex-con avenges a hooker's death, a detective gets mixed up with dangerous vixens, and a rogue cop becomes hell-bent on saving a stripper from a rapist.

Read More

Director's Spotlight #2

Wes Craven

Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven (born August 2, 1939) is an American film director, writer, producer, actor, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films, particularly slasher films, including the famed A Nightmare on Elm Street featuring the iconic Freddy Krueger character, and the Scream series, featuring Ghostface. 

One of the more prolific horror/thriller directors today, Wes Craven's resume of well known.
While he has also done straight horror films, his later films began to develop a sense of humor yet the laughs (at times) lightened the mood which as we ask know, can derail a film if not done properly.

Either writing, directing, or producing, he's had his hands in quite a few films.

Here's some free trivia:
Q: Do you know who directed the 1995 Eddie Murphy stinker "Vampire in Brooklyn"?
A: Wes Motherfucking Craven.

Anyway, not counting A Nightmare on Elm Street, here are a few worth checking out:

Shocker (1989) - After being sent to the electric chair, a serial killer uses electricity to come back from the dead and carry out his vengeance on the football player who turned him in to the police.
The Hills Have Eyes (1977) - On the way to California, a family has the misfortune to have their car break down in an area closed to the public, and inhabited by violent savages ready to attack.
Red Eye (2005) - A woman is kidnapped by a stranger on a routine flight. Threatened by the potential murder of her father, she is pulled into a plot to assist her captor in offing a politician.
The Last House on the Left (1972) - A pair of teenage girls are headed to a rock concert for one's birthday. While trying to score marijuana in the city, the girls are kidnapped by a gang of psychotic convicts.

Read More

Director's Showcase #1

Guillermo Del Toro

Guillermo del Toro (born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and designer. He is mostly known for his acclaimed films, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy film franchise. His films draw heavily on sources as diverse as weird fiction, fantasy and war.


Guillermo del Toro presents...
Is a label given to a series of foreign language films that would not be as noticed without his name attached. The man knows quality work and wouldn't attach himself to something he wouldn't feel, is worthy or something he wouldn't have made himself.


If he's not directing, he's "presenting" here are a few of his foreign films that may interest you:

Read More