Saturday, July 24, 2010

My Favourite Director - Actor Collaborations

There are some high-profile Hollywood directors who often choose to collaborate with the same actor for multiple times. Most of the time, these movies they make together become big time blockbusters. Here are some of my favourite director - actor collaborations...

1) Tim Burton - Johnny Depp

Burton and Depp have worked together in seven movies. According to a producer, Depp is basically playing Tim Burton in all these movies. Their partnership has laster for over two decades, and is most probably the most iconic director-actor collaboration Hollywood has ever seen. For example, when I watch The Pirates of The Caribbean movies, it is hard to imagine that the trilogy was not directed by Burton, because Depp's interpretation of the character of Captain Jack Sparrow seems like something that Burton would have visualized! All seven movies have an that dark, larger than life atmosphere, which is what people love.

Johnny Depp might have been eager to drop his '21 Jump Street TV series' image, and his first movie with Tim Burton helped a lot!

I've never had the chance to watch this movie. But since it is a Burton - Depp collaboration, I'm really looking forward to buying the DVD (once I've found it, that is...)


"Why do you want to go up there (to the world of the living) while everyone is dying to come down here (the world of the dead)?" - My favourite line from the movie!

Who knows how many inches of foundation was required to make Depp's skin seem so flawless in his movie???

This is my favourite Burton - Depp movie, and most probably the darkest and most gruesome one of them all. Depp was excited to play the role of Todd because he liked the idea of a musical about a serial killer. Psycho, ain't it??

Not exactly Depp and Burton's best movie, but it was quite entertaining. Hopefully Anne Hathaway becomes one of Burton's frequent collaborators like Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.

The weirdos that brought us seven weird movies... and that is a compliment!

2) Christopher Nolan - Christian Bale

When the Batman franchise was almost doomed thanks to horrible Batman and Robin, there came Christopher Nolan to save the day. After only directing two movies, it was surprising to see that Nolan brought life to the rebooted version of the Batman movies! Christian Bale was okay as Batman, but both Nolan and Bale have worked together on one more movie which, though not as famous at the Batman films, is one of my all-time favourite movies!

I love this movie!!! The twist end, which is not in the original novel, was completely logical, and yet so unpredictable!

Honestly speaking, this was not my favourite movie. I did not like the fact that Nolan took a superhero, family oriented franchise and turned it into a dark, mafia one.

Now, this is the movie that changed my mind about Nolan altogether! I fell in love with the Batman franchise all over again!! Apart from Nolan and Bale, the film's success would not have been possible without the late Heath Ledger's amazing (and not to mention iconic) performance as The Joker! Love the guy!

P/s: I even joined the Facebook group called Dear God: Please give us back Heath Ledger and we will give you Robert Pattinson!!! Hahahahaha.....

3) Martin Scorsese - Leonardo DiCaprio

I'm not really a fan of Scorsese and DiCaprio, because I'm not really into Italian-American mafia stories on Roman Catholic guilt and redemption, though I am a big fan of Titanic, Inception and Catch Me If You Can. But since Scorsese is considered one of the most significant filmmakers of his era, it should be worth mentioning him here.

Never watched this movie. But I would have loved to see Cameron Diaz in a dramatic role!

Never watched this movie either. But it is based on Howard Hughes's life, and it was both critically and financially successful. So, it should be worth the watch, right?

Never watched this as well. But it is hard to imagine that the remake of a blockbuster Hong Kong film could have become the front-runner of the year's Academy Awards. Must be a good movie too.

This is the only Scorsese - DiCaprio movie I have watched to date. I really liked it because it was not an Italian-American mafia movie. Not a bad movie, and really enjoyable. Leo would later play the role of an estranged man whose psycho wife died for the second time in Inception!

4) Ridley Scot - Russell Crowe

This duo has made two of my most favourite movies of all time - Gladiator and Robin Hood. It seems to me that this duo can make great action-packed drama period films. Their two other films - A Good Year and Body of Lies performed averagely at the box office and received generally mixed reviews only.

I can never find words to describe this movie. If you want to watch a true epic movie, you can never get better than this. The story, the acting, the visual effects, the action and not to mention the memorable background music - it all was a part of an amazing film!

My guess is that Scott and Crowe wanted to revive the glory of Gladiator via this movie. It was not a bad movie, but it just cannot compete with the epic beauty of Gladiator. Still, a fantastic film.
Never watched this film, but might have not been worth my time since it received mainly negative reviews. But don't judge me! I've enjoyed many mindless movies like Twilight and Rush Hour!

Never watched this too. But it was did much better compared to other anti-terrorism films like Rendition, Lambs for Lions and much more.

5) David Fincher - Brad Pitt

Fincher has his own style of creating really dark, intense movies. Brad Pitt has starred in two of these movies - Se7en and Fight Club. Pitt also acted in Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which earned them both Academy Award nominations. I have watched all three of their collaborations and they were all amazing.

I love dark movies, and I most probably have never seen a movie sooooooo.... dark. This is definitely not for light entertainment. This is the type of movie you might want to watch alone on a Friday night when it is raining outside.

Finch described Fight Club as a coming-of-age movie for adults. Until the end, I was confused on who was the real person, and who was the alter ego due to split personality. The movie's theme is the subject to various interpretation, and the way I interpret it makes it one of my most favourite movies.

When I first watched this melodramatic, autobiographic movie, I could hardly believe that it was directed by David Fincher! That guy who makes really dark movies??? I was like "What?!" But it is true. It may not be another one of his dark movies , but it certainly is my favourite Fincher movie.

P/s: Taraji P. Henson should have won that Oscar she was nominated for in this movie! She so deserved it!