AWKWARD ZOMBIE

I have to go with David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club), Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) and Satoshi Kon (Paranoia Agent, Paprika)

And you?

Miyazaki.

That's an incredibly good answer.

And L, don't be surprised if no one has a favorite director.

Rad. What's your favorite Miyazaki movie?

Well, the cliched answer would be Spirited Away.

So, I'm going to say Spirited Away, just because it's such a good movie.

Second in line is Princess Mononoke, because it's beautiful in a different way.

Also, I kind of want to see Porco Rosso.

Have you seen Nausicaa? Besides the music, it's fantastic.

WIN

Howl's Moving Castle is awesome too, if you haven't seen it yet. So is Nausicaa. That's the only movie of his I actually own. I need to get the rest of them.

I'm sorry to say I don't. I barely pay attention to what actors are in what movies, let alone the directors of them.

Howl's is pretty generic and just more of the same. It didn't have the emotional resonance that Spirited Away, Nausicaa, and Princess Mononoke had.

Ditto.

Although I do love Spirited Away and other Miyazaki movies.

Spirited Away is everyone's favorite. Princess Mononoke is more action-ey. (Someone once noted to me that Miyazaki's movies have bad animation, but this Mononoke defies them) Howl's is a love story, and finally, Nausicaa is just epic. It has flying machines, giant bugs, poison gas spreading across the world, and that gritty '90s feel that makes me feel like a kid again.

Honorable mention goes to Castle in the Sky, which is just beautiful in its wild creations and characters.

Hayao Miyazaki, Kevin Smith, Johnathan Frakes, and Brad Bird. Snoogans.

Oh, least favorite directors? Tim Burton and Quentin Tarantino.

Why do you dislike QT? He's a fucking genius! Rabble rabble rabble!!

People said Tim Burton was also a genius when my sister said she doesn't like him.

These guys are not "geniuses" just because they make a bunch of similar movies and have a "theme." One just does a bunch of fighting and horror over and over, and the other thinks every day is Halloween.

If they made a movie together, it'd be the dancing skeletons doing karate!

Ack, I'm not referring to Burton. I've never enjoyed any of his films all that much. QT, on the other hand, although all of films do contain action, and similar criminal underworld type themes, all of his films are profoundly different. Take Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction for example. Sure, they are set in the same universe, contain similar ideas, etc, but the execution is completely different. Reservoir Dogs is a gritty, violent film filled with betrayal, told through the experiences of the individual Reservoir Dogs. Pulp Fiction is a delightful and hilarious, although still violent, depiction of the criminal life style.

And what are you taking about with excessive fighting? Kill Bill does have a lot of fights, like you said, but, if you were focusing in on the action of the film, you were missing the point. QT uses action very well, I think. It's not overly done, it's well choreographed, and it furthers the character's role. But, the thing that makes QT's films amazing is not the fights, it's the extremely well written the dialog, the fact that anything can happen, the amazing soundtrack, and the stunning way he directs his actors.

QT is a genius, and you obviously weren't paying good enough attention to his movies to notice it. Yeah, I know I sound like a pompous fanboy right now, but, seriously, the only flaw I see in a lot of his films is the fact that he puts himself into the story. [spoiler]It was alright in Reservoir Dogs, though, because he got shot in the face.[/spoiler]