Robert Zemeckis

[flyonthewall2983]

Any opinion on I Wanna Hold Your Hand?

[Antoine Doinel]

Wasn't sure where else to put this, but Jeffrey Weismann, the famous Crispin Glover stand in for Back To The Future Part II responds to an IFC piece about actor replacements.

It's interesting to hear his side of the story as it's never really been discussed.

[hearthesilence]

So when is Zemeckis getting back to making actual films? He was making amazing, visual cinema with Forest Gump, Contact and What Lies Beneath. And now cartoons...

Ha. I have a soft spot for Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. It's the only Zemeckis film I've ever owned.

[Cold Bishop]

Ha. I have a soft spot for Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. It's the only Zemeckis film I've ever owned.

One of the best neo-noirs and for my money, the best thing Zemeckis ever did. This and Used Cars are the type of films he should be aspiring to.

It's a clincher for my 80s list, and it should be for everyone else.

[jojo]

My heart gets warm and fuzzy whenever I think of the Back to the Future trilogy (yes, I liked ALL of them) but reading this thread just made me realize how much I hate his stuff outside of BTTF. I mean teeth-gnashing hate.

[hearthesilence]

Even the first Back to the Future hasn't aged well with me. I saw it a few months ago when it was on TV. Hadn't seen it in probably decade, it's one of the first movies I remember seeing. A couple minutes into it, I got a nostalgic kick out of it, but as the movie wore on, there were long stretches of it that were really grating. Everything seemed familiar, but this time around, the cheesy sentimentality and Hollywood clichés really sunk in. Wasn't all bad, a good bit of it's still entertaining, but it was NOT the "perfect" movie Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck made it out to be.

[flyonthewall2983]

On a few of the interviews he does on the BTTF trilogy DVD, Robert expresses a bit of regret/cynicism at the ending of the first film because it was a very materialistic/"80's" ending (the truck in the garage, primarily). He said that a couple of European reviews latched onto this as well, but no American ones did.

[mfunk9786]

[Flight] looks like a solid film - here's hoping that Zemeckis hasn't lost his ability to direct a great film after what feels like a dozen dreadful animated efforts.

[knives]

Has he ever directed a great movie?

[matrixschmatrix]

Roger Rabbit

[mfunk9786]

In my opinion, he has made four or five of them, if you count Back to the Future Part II as its own film.

[knives]

Roger Rabbit

I blame Speilberg for that one considering what's known of the production history. I would have thought Used Cars would have been mentioned, but otherwise I'd say nothing.

[matrixschmatrix]

Huh, I would have said Richard Williams if I had to name an alternate auteur for that one. At any rate, it's a pretty great movie and Zemeckis's name is on it.

[knives]

William's of course gets all of the credit for that animation (which is amazing), but it sounds like the project Zemeckis started on was a mess at best and Speilberg basically mandated all of these changes for the film's benefit.

[hearthesilence]

It's been years since I've seen it, but at the time, when I was more into animation than anything else in films, I thought it was a little overrated. Still a very good movie with a lot to like, but except for Jessica Rabbit, the other animated characters were a bit of disappointment. A bit of a spark was missing in all of them, both the new ones and the way the classic ones were used. (Just to use another example, the dueling piano sounds great on paper, and I was expecting to be blown away by it. Instead, I remember it as being serviceable, riding on the novelty of the idea rather than doing anything brilliantly funny with it.)

Haven't seen Used Cars, but otherwise, Roger Rabbit would get my vote as his best film too.

[mfunk9786]

Forrest Gump is a great movie. There, I said it.

*leaves forum forever*

[zedz]

So we're hoping that Flight is going to be as good as Forrest Gump, then?

That's all I need to know.

[mfunk9786]

Flight looks like it could be much better than Forrest Gump, but they appear to be two very different projects. But yeah. I stand behind my unpopular opinion.

[George Kaplan]

Has he ever directed a great movie?

No.

[mfunk9786]

That contributes a lot at this stage in the conversation! \:D/

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

You like it and he doesn't - start a dialogue, man!

[mfunk9786]

He just said "no" to an extremely broad question, what dialogue?

[stroszeck]

At his best Zemeckis conjures the schmaltz of Spielberg but somehow manages to capture a certain sense of "whimsy" that I always see Spielberg himself trying to achieve but falling fairly flat (Hook begin the best example). He's certainly gifted technically and has some very memorable moments in several of his films. As bastardized at it was, I found Contact to be a very personal big budget sci fi tentpole movie and for what it was it did succeed on a certain purely cinematic level (while failing in my opinion on the execution of Sagan's philosophies). Can someone describe the specific changes Spielberg requested for RR?

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

He just said "no" to an extremely broad question, what dialogue?

Dialogue about why you think Forrest Gump is a great movie? You left it out there that you thought the film was worthwhile and then your response indicated that George Kaplan's "no" wasn't contributing much, either.

[mfunk9786]

Good point. I feel like I'd be pissing in the wind, but perhaps I'll ruminate tomorrow