Directories Movie Reviews
Family movie reviews for "Directories" sorted by average review score:
Sirocco, The Directors Cut
Released in DVD by Wolfe Video (21 December, 1999)
Average review score: 
This movie was good but misleading.When I purchased this movie I thought that it was about 8 men trapped in the desert. This part was true but no one said that this movie had no true plot. I gave it 3 stars because it did have some pretty sexy men it, and what was going on was pretty hot. But it is not told anywhere that there were no words to this movie. I thought that I was going to see an actual movie but to me it was not. If you want to see totally sexy men in the nude by all means get this movie. If you are looking for something more like I was you will be sadly disappointed.
Thumbs Up!"Trapped in the middle of a desert, seven men are met by an elusive (and madly passionate) "Desert Man." This stranger will ultimately aid in each man materializing his deepest, most intimate desires. A soldier in love with his commending officer, a photographer smitten by his young model, and a lonely artist who desperately craves a companion. SIROCCO climaxes in a sensual finale set in the depths of a raging sea. Director Steve Bulfield has added previously unseen raunchy footage to this director's cut. The DVD release contains the short feature DESERTION."
SCORCHINGLY SEXY STUDSThis is one of the very few best of the male softcore erotic movies on the market. While viewing this movie which takes place on a desert with the sexiest men, you will wonder if the heat is emenating from the scorchingly hot sun or the studly men under it...or, perhaps, both! With this combination in mind, this piece of erotica definitely burns! In addition, the scoring of the soundtrack and the visuals in this film add fuel to this intense heat.
The Directors - Milos Forman
Released in DVD by Winstar Home Entertainment (27 February, 2001)
Starring: Directors and Milos Forman
This edition of The Directors series is one of the best, not only because Milos Forman is an engaging raconteur, but because the number of films he made between 1965 and 2000 is well matched to the one-hour format of this series. Almost every film--from his Czech debut Loves of a Blonde to Man on the Moon--is given fair screen time in a broad survey. This overview is further enhanced by delightful interview clips with Forman, whose boyish charm is infectiously upbeat (and admirable, considering he lost his parents to the Nazi concentration camps). As one of the few filmmakers in the series who isn't American by birth, Forman also has a different perspective on America and his success in the Hollywood system, beginning with 1975's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. That Oscar winner established many of the themes that dominate Forman's work, and his lively anecdotes compensate for star Jack Nicholson's absence as an interviewee. Equally memorable is Forman's recollection of working with James Cagney on Ragtime (the great actor's final feature film), and receiving a cherished memento while visiting Cagney's home. Among the program's other interviewees, Amadeus Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham recalls Forman's direction to play the composer Salieri as Abraham had previously played Cyrano and Iago--an equal blend of "romance and manipulation." That kind of simple, eloquent guidance is a trademark for Forman, who humorously notes that "I knew I'd made it" when his name appeared as an answer in the New York Times crossword puzzle. --Jeff Shannon
Average review score:
First and FORemostThere are 4 reason why to get this DVD. 2 gold statues and 2 great motion pictures. If the standard for excellence in directing films is how many Academy Awards one recieves for Best Director; then Forman has to be considered as one of the best directors of all time.
Forman has won two "Best Director" Academy Awards and he made two of the best films of all time. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Amadeus.
I will never forget the time when I saw One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest for the first time. I was completely blown away...I just sat there in the theater for a few minutes afterword...just trying to collect my thoughts about what I've just seen. It was a very powerful and moving motion picture experience.
The reason why I took a look at this AFI documentary special was to learn more about Forman and the other films he made. I didn't know of any other Forman film and I wanted to learn more. This special DVD showed me glimpses of his deft, surgeons touch in making compelling drama. He has quite a touch in directing riveting and meaningful drama.
The Directors - Rob Reiner
Released in DVD by Winstar Home Entertainment (27 February, 2001)
Starring: Directors and Rob Reiner
Affable, enthusiastic, and articulate, director Rob Reiner is a natural subject for a documentary. The film doesn't analyze or critique Reiner's work. Instead, it lets him, his actors, and film clips do the talking. Reiner clearly enjoys chatting about his pictures and has something interesting or provocative to say about every one of them. He admits to having been "a nervous wreck" when he began shooting his first feature, the mock "rockumentary," This Is Spinal Tap. Discussing Stand By Me, Reiner waxes rhapsodic, calling it "the most important film I've made in my life." It's quite touching to see several members of the film's young cast, now grown up, talk about making the movie. They and Reiner reminisce about the late River Phoenix, who "blew us all away" with his innate acting talent. Reiner's other popular pictures are also explored: When Harry Met Sally, The Princess Bride, Misery, and A Few Good Men. We sense that the makers of the documentary are out to impress us with the body of work Reiner has put together in such a relatively short period of time. And for the most part, it works. Stars who have worked with Reiner--Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal, James Woods, Michael Douglas--appear oncamera to talk about him, and are virtually unanimous in their praise. John Cusack calls Reiner "the most caring, passionate director I've ever worked with." --Laura Mirsky
Average review score:
A Sure ThingA versitile and unpredictable director, Rob Reiner's varied body of work is well represented in this fascinating documentary that is too short at just an hour!
The Directors - Robert Zemeckis
Released in DVD by Fox Lorber (27 February, 2001)
Starring: Directors and Robert Zemeckis
Average review score:
Robert ZemeckisThis is a good dvd on Robert Zemeckis' films and also talks about his childhood a little bit and how Spielberg got him Started. Has clips from all of his movies such as "I wanna Hold your Hand", "Romancing the Stone", "Back to the Future, Part I,II, and III", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Death Becomes Her", "Contact", "Forrest Gump", "What Lies Beneath", and "CastAway." With interviews from Mike J. Fox, Tom Hanks, Christopher Lloyd, Bob Hoskins, Meryl Streep, and Himself this makes the DVD worth Buying!
The Directors - Ron Howard
Released in DVD by Winstar Home Entertainment (27 February, 2001)
Starring: Directors and Ron Howard
According to writer-director Robert J. Emery, "Ron Howard may well be Hollywood's king of commercial filmmaking and continues to turn the making of box-office films into an honorable art." Perhaps. His short documentary, made for TV in conjunction with the American Film Institute, offers a rather general if nearly complete survey of Howard's career from child actor to big-budget director, concluding with his 1996 box-office hit Ransom. Film clips (including moments from his award-winning short Deeds of Derring-Do, shot when he was 15) are interspersed with generous interviews with Howard himself, his family, his business partner Brian Grazer, and many of his stars (including Tom Hanks and Michael Keaton). It's a portrait of a modest, self-effacing, sweet guy with a love of movie making, and it studiously avoids any detailed exploration of films themselves. "I think of myself as an entertainer," confesses Howard, and that's the view this survey champions: the career of a director dedicated to making audience-pleasing pictures. Don't expect anything much deeper than that. --Sean Axmaker
Average review score:
A Very Influential StarOne of my first memories of television programming were the Gun Smoke and Andy Griffith episodes. So, needless to say, I grew up watching Ron Howard as a young star. Later he acted in a small budgeted, sentimental look at the 50's, film called American Graffitti. As far as I know, I think he later appeared in a very popular hit TV show about the 50's. And that was as much as I knew about Howard's career. I never heard from him again so I thought he was another forgotten TV star...
The next time I heard from Howard, he was directing this film with Steve Martin called Parenthood in 1989. This was a very good effort and I was deeply moved by the story because I could relate to a lot of what was going on on the screen. The family dynamics the film was trying to convey were very felt life and I thought were dead on, at least for me that is.
Now, we have this interesting AFI feature that I strongly recommend. Knowing that I really liked Parenthood, I wanted to see this DVD to get further information and knowledge on other Ron Howard directed films. This DVD was a strong help.
The Directors - Sydney Pollack
Released in DVD by Winstar Home Entertainment (27 February, 2001)
Starring: Directors and Sydney Pollack
This incisive documentary traces the long, varied career of Sydney Pollack, whose movies have been nominated for 46 Academy Awards. Extensive interviews with Pollack get inside the mind of a hard-working man dedicated to his craft. "I've never been completely content with my career," Pollack declares, a surprising admission for a man who's enjoyed such remarkable success. On a personal note, Pollack confesses to having had a crush on Natalie Wood, star of This Property Is Condemned. He addresses the technical problems of his first critical success, They Shoot Horses Don't They?, starring Jane Fonda. (How do you shoot a film in which "people do the same thing over and over for two hours in the same place?") We get the kick of feeling like a Hollywood insider when Pollack divulges his prolonged campaign to convince Robert Redford to star in The Way We Were. Interviews with actors who have worked with Pollack--Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Harrison Ford--paint a vivid picture of the man. One revealing anecdote comes from Out of Africa star Meryl Streep, who tells of filming a scene with a tethered lioness. To heighten the drama--and without telling Streep--Pollack set the lioness free. Clips of Three Days of the Condor, Absence of Malice, Tootsie, and many other Pollack films provide a comprehensive showcase for the work of a masterful American director. --Laura Mirsky
Average review score:
One of the Great (and versatile) directorsA neat bio of this most talented directors. His life and work are examined (although maybe not as close as some might like) in this entertaining and easy to watch documentary. I would have liked to see more personal comments about his favourite films and more about the acting parts he tends to take from time to time.
I guess to have all that, it would become a three hour documentary. However, on the whole highly watchable and recommended.
The Directors, Master Collection: Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, and Clint Eastwood
Released in DVD by Fox Lorber (05 September, 2000)
Starring: Directors
Average review score:
A MUST FOR FANS!Being a huge fan of both Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese this is a great set to own. Plus, you get to have it on dvd,what more could you ask for?I managed to get a sneak peek at this set from a friend of mine and let me tell you its worth every cent. The picture quality is ok but who really cares its a documentary about Scorsese and Lee! The sound is average but the real meat is of course the information about the making of their films, and bios of their life. I really loved hearing about Goodfellas.This set goes into much more detail then i thought it would.So, i really think that if your a fan of these two guys then their shouldn't even be a thought in your mind except to buy this great dvd. Its worth being in your collection. Trust me, and before I go:"Are you talking at me."(I just had to do it,hee-hee).
The Directors - Wes Craven
Released in DVD by Winstar Home Entertainment (27 February, 2001)
Starring: Directors and Wes Craven
The modern-day master of the horror genre, Wes Craven, is featured in this installment from the American Film Institute's The Directors series. Craven appears on camera throughout this production, coming across as an intelligent man who refers occasionally to his work as a college teacher before bursting onto the scene with Last House on the Left, a film some critics at the time denounced as revolting. Appearing to speak about their work with Craven are Robert Englund, who tells the story of the interview that got him the part of murderous Freddie Krueger, and Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox Arquette, who appeared in the wildly successful Scream trilogy. Meryl Streep also appears to discuss Music of the Heart, an unlikely Craven film in which Streep plays a music teacher. Clips from some of Craven's films, including The Hills Have Eyes, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and A Nightmare on Elm Street, are featured along with Craven's reminiscences of how he came up with particular scenes and stories. For instance, Craven tells how reading about how bears reached around corners in caves to attack ancient humans inspired the chilling concept of the killer's claws in A Nightmare on Elm Street. This is a very positive look at a genial man with the uncanny talent of scaring millions of people out of their wits. --Robert J. McNamara
Average review score: 
The Master Of The CinemaFor those who may not know much about Craven than you will find this an informative look into one of the best storytellers around. Craven is a master at what he does except I don't like the Scream trillogy so that was a waste of space where he could of talked more about his other wonderfully crafted films. I got a interesting look into 'A Nightmare On Elm Street', 'Shocker'and,"The Last House On The Left', but not 'The People Under The Stairs which was kind of disappointing. Other than that this is one for the fans. Worth a buy.
Wes Craven: Man of Mystery and MoviesWes Craven, the man who has written, directed, produced, or edited more than 30 television and feature films such as "Last House on the Left", "Swamp Thing", "A Nightmare on Elm Street", and the recent "Scream" trilogy, is finally revealed here in the popular "The Directors" series. Wes speaks highly and thoroughly about the making of his films, but keeps quiet about his personal life which he has always done and I respect. Though, it is very informative about his feature films, this DVD neglects to mention almost none of his television work like the new "Twilight Zone" of the 80's and his short lived "Nightmare Cafe" series. Any fans of "The People Under the Stairs" will be sorley disappointed as they pretty much mention the title then move onto "Wes Craven's New Nightmare." What can you expect, they had to squeeze 15 films into one hour. Other than that the DVD is great. Wes Craven fans should check it out.
The Directors - John McTiernan
Released in DVD by Winstar Home Entertainment (27 February, 2001)
Starring: Directors and John Mctiernan
With credits that include Die Hard, Predator, The Last Action Hero, The Hunt for Red October, Die Hard with a Vengeance, and others, John McTiernan has put himself at the top of the heap for Hollywood action directors. This installment in AFI's The Directors series follows McTiernan's career, featuring interviews with Alec Baldwin, James Earl Jones, Bruce Willis, Colleen Camp, Bonnie Bedelia, and others. Perhaps the most revealing conversations, though, are with McTiernan himself. He discusses his background and education, the trials and tribulations of making each movie, the factors that have shaped his directorial style (it's quite interesting that he memorized Truffaut's Day for Night from the first shot to the last), and the realities of doing business in the rarefied air of Hollywood's big- budget studio system. McTiernan shows himself to be a very intelligent, articulate director with both the vision and the toughness that it takes to succeed in his chosen profession. --Jerry Renshaw
Average review score:
We want to see the man at workThis is a slightly disapointing portrait of one of the best american directors working today. My biggest regret was not to see McTiernan at work. At the beginning of the DVD we get a glimpse of the Die Hard With A Vengeance shoot, but why don't we get more of it and see the director talk with his actors and crew. The interviews of the different actors who worked with him are interesting but don't really make us understand McTiernan's approach to filmmaking. The quality of the clips of McTiernan's films are very poor and it is a real shame to see Die Hard shots in the wrong aspect ratio. In fact this is quite insulting to the director I think. The most interesting are the interviews of John McTiernan himself. There (with a little of surprise) we discover a quiet, sensitive and very human man who definetely does his job because he likes it and not for the money. For anyone who truly appreciates McTiernan's work, this is a interesting watch to discover the man behind the films, but you won't get too much of his directing genius.
The Directors - David Cronenberg
Released in DVD by Winstar Home Entertainment (27 February, 2001)
Starring: Directors and David Cronenberg
Anyone who has closely followed the career of David Cronenberg will be pleased to know that this one-hour program is one of the best in the entire Directors series. Articulate and highly thoughtful about his work and its dominant themes, Cronenberg is an engaging intellectual throughout an extensive interview, explaining how he'd been inspired by the New York underground scene of the 1950s (perhaps destined to be "an obscure novelist," he says) when an independent Canadian film titled Winter Kept Us Warm prompted him to pursue filmmaking. "The body is the first fact of human existence," the director observes, in reference to the fascination with flesh, mutation, and other bodily matters that recur throughout his films. Shivers and Scanners are given their due, including enjoyable interview clips with ex-porn star Marilyn Chambers and Michael Ironside (the latter providing a revealing anecdote about Cronenberg describing a bizarre dream). Cronenberg blames Paramount for botching the release of The Dead Zone, and discussion of Crash allows him to reveal his disdainful "strange relationship" with film critics, while Holly Hunter observes that Crash is an exercise in "exploring the moral code." Like Cronenberg's films, these interviews and film clips are filled with challenging perspectives and passionate defense of the artist's prerogative, and the result is a welcomed and illuminating examination of a truly original director. --Jeff Shannon
Average review score: 
Follow-up Review (Terrible quality production)Now that I have viewed the entire program, I felt compelled to follow up my original review by stating that the technical standards of this disc are ABSOLUTELY AWFUL! Terrible tracking lines, shimmering, grainy video - everything about it is terrible. Film clips look as if they were taken from a second generation bootleg dub. Content aside, the quality is terrible. Fox Lorber has always been a poor quality company, releasing classic films with bad transfers and no extras, and this is just like them.
Superficial glimpse of CronenbergAs a dedictated Cronenberg fan, I eagerly awaited this disc in the hope that it would prove a complete if not exhaustive look at this complex film auteur. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Although it features interviews with numerous actors (even Rabid's Marilyn Chambers) and Cronenberg himself, much of the material covered seems rather bland and a retread of what I've heard before. Also, the quality of the actual program is questionable and I noticed several instances of shimmering and pixelation. There are even TRACKING LINES - they must have just transfered the videotape version onto the disc! Aberrant films in Cronenberg's body of work (think Fast Company) are passed over completely with only a few seconds of description. Produced by the AFI, whose credibility has nose-dived ever since they released their 100 greatest films list, this documentary is weak and superficial. I can only imagine what the other programs in the series are like. Overall, I'd recommend this for people interested in learning about Cronenberg, but I wouldn't waste the extra money on the disc, just buy the vhs instead.
If you dig Cronenberg's work - go for it!I am very happy to have finally picked up this disc. To get to hear David Cronenberg himself speak in detail about his films, his actors and his experiences of making the films is not superficial by any means - but quite fascinating. To get to hear nine actors from his films speak about their experiences of working with Cronenberg is really the icing on the cake. Who cares if the image quality of some of the film clips is crappy (what, maybe three out of the thirteen films?) - I didn't buy the disc to catch glimpses of Cronenberg films. (Besides, if you are buying this disc then you probably already own all of the available DVD or Laser Disc versions anyway...) The picture quality of all of the interview footage is excellent and the transfer to DVD is clean and sharp. If you have an interest in making of Cronenberg films, I would suggest seeking out the Canadian DVD version of eXistenZ (a region one disc) because it has an incredible documentary called "The Invisible Art of Production Designer Carol Spier" - that also features extensive interviews with Cronenberg himself and is absolutely fantastic. And if you can read French, then check out the recent interview book published by Cahiers Du Cinema in 2000 - another fabulous resource about the films and life of David Cronenberg.