Movie Anomalies By Directors?

Wes Craven - Music of the Heart (w/Meryl Streep, no less!)
Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Brian DePalma - Wise Guys
Francis Ford Coppola - Peggy Sue Got Married

 

That gets my vote. Watched the film for the first time during the mandated shutdown. Loved the film, didn't realize it was one of his until the very end, and it just seemed like an odd pick for him. I love the film though!

 

Mario Bava - Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs
George Romero - There's Always Vanilla/Knightriders
David Cronenberg - Fast Company
Dario Argento - The Five Days of Milan
John Carpenter - Elvis: The Movie
Stanley Donen - Saturn 3

 

Exactly. Its underlying topics and ideas seem pretty in touch with movies like "Raging Bull" or "Taxi Driver" upon repeated viewing, but mostly it's such an odd, offbeat movie for Scorsese. I love it as well, it's one of my very favorite movies and the DVD still is in heavy rotation in my player.

 

John Cassavetes - Big Trouble

 

I disagree completely. I really like Burn After Reading and find it very funny. But even if one doesn't, I don't see how it is any anomaly in their filmography. It fits right in with their prior more comedic (than NCFOM) films.

I've always wanted to see that one!

 

Duly noted.

- siyt

 

It’s an awful film as well.

 

Not so much an anomaly as just a weird film in general: Julien Temple's Earth Girls Are Easy...although you can't discount completely a film with Charles Rocket, Uptown Julie Brown, and...Jim Carrey!

 

I'm not sure what you mean. Hugo is a sensational film. Of course it's different from what he had done before,
but since it's a tribute to Georges Melies, it's nearly a masterpiece. And it WAS nominated for best picture.
One of my all time favorite films....

 

That's why I mentioned it.

 

I agree with you in that Burn After Reading was funny and in-line with Coen satirical comedy. I thought NCFOM was a bore and overrated big time, and Hail, Caesar unwatchable.

 

I actually really like all three of those. IMO, the only true dud the Coens have put out is Hudsucker Proxy.

 

It's the only screwball comedy he ever directed and has none of the characteristic Hitchcockian themes or tropes. IF you watched the film without knowing the identity of the director, you would never it guess it correctly. 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' is barely mentioned in the Truffaut book. Hitchcock says something to the effect of, "Oh, I just did that because Carole asked me. I didn't really want to do, but she asked and I caved. And all I really did was photograph the script as written. I really didn't have much imput."

IIRC, while Hitchcock has always dismissed the film and claimed he only did it as a relucant "favour", someone researching the RKO archives came across memorandi showing that Hitchcock in fact sought out the assignment. My guess is that his only interest in working on this particular film was the fact that he was in love/ lust with Lombard and wanted to spend time with her. In fact, Lombard herself may be only the linking factor to Hitchcock's other films. I don't think that it's a co-incidence that Lombard's general physical appearance was similar to Madeleine Carroll, Grace Kelly, Tippy Hedren, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint, and even Doris Day. Hitchcock really did have a "type".

 

Sam Peckinpah's "Convoy" in '78 during the CB radio "breaker, breaker" CW McCall car & semi truck racing movie craze competing against Burt Reynold's "Gator" & "Smokey & The Bandit".

I mean WTF?! SAM! You previously directed "The Wild Bunch", " The Killer Elite" and "Straw Dogs".

 

During this period of Sam Peckinpah's life, it was reported he suffered from alcoholism and drug addiction. His four previous films, Cross of Iron (1977), The Killer Elite (1975), Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), had struggled at the box office and the director needed a genuine blockbuster success.[3] Unhappy with the screenplay written by B.W.L. Norton, Peckinpah tried to encourage the actors to re-write, improvise and ad-lib their dialogue, with little success.[4] In another departure from the script, Peckinpah attempted to add a new dimension to the film by casting a pair of black actors as members of the convoy including Madge Sinclair as Widow Woman and Franklyn Ajaye as Spider Mike.[5] The director's health became a continuing problem, so friend and actor James Coburn was brought in to serve as second unit director. Coburn directed much of the film's footage while Peckinpah remained in his on-location trailer.[4]

After seeing Peckinpah's rough cut, EMI and their executive producer Michael Deeley fired him and Craven from the film and hired another editor, Graeme Clifford, to drastically reduce the running time and emphasise aspects that would play well to Smokey and the Bandit's audience; Hal Needham's comedy had been a huge hit a year earlier. Peckinpah essentially disowned the released version. Garner Simmons, author of Peckinpah: A Portrait in Montage, said that EMI and Clifford's version of Convoy "cut the guts out of it".[6][7][verification needed]

 

Yup. First thought which came to mind.

 

The film was OK. But it's high on my list of Favorite Movie Titles ever!

PS: Is "Uptown Julie Brown" your way of distinguishing the comedian from former MTV VJ Downtown Julie Brown? If yes, did you make that up? (Not that either Julie Brown comes up in conversation very often, but it is a helpful device to keep them straight.)

 

As much as I'd like to claim that for my own, it's how I remember her being referred to in the days of her namesake on MTV. More as a joke, but as you said, to keep the two straight.

 

I don't recall "comedic Julie" being called "Uptown".

"Miss Julie Brown" was used, but I don't remember "Uptown"...

 

Hulk by Ang Lee.

 

Just watched it again - I don't think it's a dud so much as it just gets undermined by a few bad choices, like letting Jennifer Jason Lee do a bad 40's dame impression through the whole movie. She almost single-handedly tanked it, but I thought the rest of the cast was great and ultimately I think they did manage to capture that Capra-esque quality they were after. It's definitely the least consistent of their earlier films but I'd personally rank it above Intolerable Cruelty, Ladykillers and a few others. IMHO of course.

 

It's the only movie I can recall Roger Ebert slamming because "it was too dark."

 

Let's not forget Hugo...a kid's 3D movie about George Melies living in the Paris railway? Without nary a goodfella in sight? Joe Pesche and Robert DeNiro musta been honked-off for months...

 

I didnt think it was that horrible. But I’ve never had then inclination to watch it since.
JK Simmons knocked it out of the park though.