Favorite directors
by Viva_Chiba | created - 07 Apr 2011 | updated - 05 May 2011 | PublicList of my favorite directors, in no particular order.
1. John McTiernan
Director | Die Hard
John McTiernan was born on January 8, 1951 in Albany, New York, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Die Hard (1988), Rollerball (2002) and Last Action Hero (1993). He has been married to Gail Sistrunk since 2012. He was previously married to Kate Harrington, Donna Dubrow and Carol Land.
Delivered some of the best action movies of the 80's and 90's: Die Hard, Predator, With a Vengeance, Last Action Hero (underrated), The 13th Warrior.
Unfortunately he made the remake of *gulp* Rollerball.
He definetly needs to make a movie these days !
2. John Woo
Director | Ying hung boon sik
Born in southern China, John Woo grew up in Hong Kong, where he began his film career as an assistant director in 1969, working for Shaw Brothers Studios. He directed his first feature in 1973 and has been a prolific director ever since, working in a wide variety of genres before A Better Tomorrow ...
He made some of the best Hong Kong action movies: The Killer, Hard Boiled, Bullet in The head, A Better tomorrow 1, 2 and 3.
After Hard Boiled, he moved to the US, he made Hard Target (starring Jean Claude Van Damme), but after Hard Target, all his movies where crap.
He came back to China and he made Red Cliff, proving that he still rocks !
3. Ringo Lam
Director | Lung foo fung wan
Ringo Lam was born on December 8, 1955 in Hong Kong. He was a director and writer, known for City on Fire (1987), Full Alert (1997) and Wild City (2015). He died on December 29, 2018 in Hong Kong, China.
Lam proved that he can deliver good movies in both east (Full Contact, City on Fire, Prison on fire) and the west (Replicant, In Hell, Maximum Risk)
4. Corey Yuen
Actor | Zhi fa xian feng
Corey Yuen was born on February 15, 1951 in Hong Kong. He is an actor and director, known for Righting Wrongs (1986), Red Cliff (2008) and The Transporter (2002).
Not only a good director, but also a great fight coreographer !
Oh yeah, i refuse to consider DOA: Dead or Alive as one of his movies.
5. Dolph Lundgren
Actor | Rocky IV
Dolph Lundgren was born as Hans Lundgren in Stockholm, Sweden, to Sigrid Birgitta (Tjerneld), a language teacher, and Karl Johan Hugo Lundgren, an engineer and economist for the Swedish government. He lived in Stockholm until the age of 13, when he moved in with his grandparents in Nyland, ...
"Wait a second....he is not a director !"
No, he actually directed 3 of his movies: The Mechanic (AKA: The Russian specialist) and Icarus (AKA: Dolph Lundgren is The killing machine), Command Performance.
Watch these movies and you see that Lundgren not only is one of the greatest action heroes, but also one of the greatest action directors !
6. Sylvester Stallone
Actor | Rocky
Sylvester Stallone is an athletically built, dark-haired American actor/screenwriter/director/producer, the movie fans worldwide have been flocking to see Stallone's films for over 40 years, making "Sly" one of Hollywood's biggest-ever box office draws.
Sylvester Stallone was born on July 6, 1946, ...
Again, you might be thinking that he is only an actor, but he actually directed 8 movies: Rocky IV, Rambo (the fourth one) are some of his best !
7. Peter Hyams
Director | 2010: The Year We Make Contact
Peter Hyams was born in New York on July 26, 1943, and attended Hunter College Elementary School. He studied art and music at the Art Students League and the High School of Music and Art as well as at Syracuse University, where he majored in music and art. Before he became a CBS News news anchor in...
Without a doubt, he made his contribution in making the 90's in the best era of the action movies (see TimeCop).
8. John Hyams
Director | Alone
Beginning his career in the fine arts, John Hyams graduated from Syracuse University's School of Visual and Performing Arts, earning top awards in painting and sculpture. Hyams exhibited and sold work in Los Angeles and New York before turning his attention to film. In 1997 Hyams wrote, directed, ...
Like father, like son !
Universal Soldier: Regeneration is one of the best action movies of the 00's and John Hyams has the potential to make the greatest action movies of the 00's.
9. Sam Firstenberg
Director | One More Chance
Since 1980 Sam Firstenberg has been in the independent filmmaking field. Directing 22 theatrical feature films since completing his graduate studies in film at Loyola Marymount University. One More Chance (1981), starring Kirstie Alley, won prizes in major film festivals and sparked the beginning ...
The director of Breakin'2 is here....but for another reason !
As a fan of 80's action movies, i must say that Firstenberg is one of my favorite directors, in my opinion he gave us a piece of the action genre of the 80's that we tend to ignore.
10. Godfrey Ho
Director | The Ninja Squad
Godfrey Ho was born in 1948 in Hong Kong. He is a director and writer, known for The Ninja Squad (1986), Thunder of Gigantic Serpent (1988) and Challenge of the Ninja (1986).
Yeah...the director of Ninja Terminator, Ninja Thunderbolt and Undefeatable is one of my favorites directors.
Why ?
Probably because i appreciate his "efforts" in creating movies by recycling old or unrealeased movies (AKA: Cut and paste technique), because of this, he ruined the career of actor Richard Harrison (Harrison signed a contract for do 2 or 3 movies.....but Ho managed to make him appear in 10 of them by using this technique !)
11. Prachya Pinkaew
Producer | Ong-Bak
Prachya Pinkaew was born on September 2, 1962. He is a producer and director, known for Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (2003), The Protector (2005) and Chocolate (2008).
He helped us in discovering the awesome Thai action movies !
12. Sam Peckinpah
Writer | The Wild Bunch
"If they move", commands stern-eyed William Holden, "kill 'em". So begins The Wild Bunch (1969), Sam Peckinpah's bloody, high-body-count eulogy to the mythologized Old West. "Pouring new wine into the bottle of the Western, Peckinpah explodes the bottle", observed critic Pauline Kael. That ...
The master of the good old movie violence.
13. Paul Verhoeven
Director | RoboCop
Paul Verhoeven graduated from the University of Leiden, with a degree in math and physics. He entered the Royal Netherlands Navy, where he began his film career by making documentaries for the Navy and later for TV. In 1969, he directed the popular Dutch TV series, Floris (1969), about a medieval ...
Challenged the audience of these times, giving to hollywood movies that are too "excessive".
14. Lucio Fulci
Writer | Lo squartatore di New York
Lucio Fulci, born in Rome in 1927, remains as controversial in death as he was in life. A gifted craftsman with a sharp tongue and a wicked sense of dark humor, Fulci achieved some measure of notoriety for his gore epics of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but respect was long in coming.
Abandoning ...
Made some of the goriest and greatest horror films ever: Zombi 2, The Beyond, New York Ripper are some of his movies that i strongly reccomend to you.
Fulci Lives !
15. Ruggero Deodato
Director | Deathcember
Ruggero Deodato was born on May 7, 1939, in Potenza, Italy, and grew up outside Rome. One of his close friends at the time was Renzo Rossellini, the son of famed Italian director Roberto Rossellini. Knowing Ruggerio's love for the movies, Renzo persuaded him to work as a second unit director on ...
Well known for the controversial Cannibal Holocaust.
16. Umberto Lenzi
Writer | La casa 3
Born in Massa Marittima, Italy on August 6, 1931, Umberto Lenzi was a movie enthusiast since his early grade school years. During those years, he founded various film fan clubs while studying law. Lenzi started out as a journalist for various local newspapers and magazines. Lenzi put off his law ...
One of the greatest italian directors of the old times.
17. Bruno Mattei
Editor | Double Target
Born in 1931, Bruno Mattei grew up in Rome, Italy, where his father owned a small film editing studio. At age 20 Bruno started working odd jobs at his father's company as his assistant, then went on to other small spots. He wanted to follow in his father's footsteps as a film editor, and soon found...
Probably, the greatest italian B-movie director, considered as the italian Ed Wood.
18. Herschell Gordon Lewis
Director | This Stuff'll Kill Ya!
Only one film-maker can claim the title "Godfather of Gore." That peculiar but apt identification seems to be the exclusive property of Herschell Gordon Lewis. With an unusual background that included teaching English Literature to college students, producing and directing television commercials, ...
The master of gore, nothing on this planet prepared the audience for such a bloody spectacle called: Blood Feast
19. George A. Romero
Writer | Land of the Dead
George A. Romero never set out to become a Hollywood figure; by all indications, though, he was very successful. The director of the groundbreaking "Living Dead" films was born February 4, 1940 ,in New York City to Ann (Dvorsky) and Jorge Romero. His father was born in Spain and raised in Cuba, and...
Romero introduced the zombies....in the way that we know them now !
20. Alexandre Aja
Director | Haute tension
Alexandre Aja was born on August 7, 1978 in Paris, France. He is a producer and director, known for High Tension (2003), The Hills Have Eyes (2006) and Piranha 3D (2010). He is married to Laïla Marrakchi.
One of the best horror directors of our generation. High Tension made him cross the ocean and do the remake of The Hills have Eyes, then Piranha 3d (i still haven't seen Mirrors anyways).
21. Olaf Ittenbach
Special_effects | Beyond the Limits
Olaf Ittenbach was born in 1969 in Fürstenfeldbruck, Bavaria, Germany. He is a director and actor, known for Beyond the Limits (2003), BloodRayne (2005) and 5 Seasons (2015). He has been married to Tanja Ittenbach since March 30, 2012. He was previously married to Martina Ittenbach.
You don't need to have a very high budget to make a movie with a high level of gore.
22. Lloyd Kaufman
Producer | The Toxic Avenger
Stanley Lloyd Kaufman never really wanted to make movies, he wanted to work in Broadway musicals. During his years in Yale he was introduced to "B" pictures and the works of Roger Corman. Lloyd later got the opportunity to executive-produce a short movie made by a fellow student. The film, called "...
One word: Troma
Need something else to say ?
23. Robert Hall
Make_up_department | Quarantine
In just over 25 years Robert Hall has become one of the most prolific special effects makeup artists in Hollywood and a prolific filmmaker with his own Horror Franchise LAID TO REST and directing hit TV shows Like "Teen Wolf'. Hall and his FX studios, Almost Human and Now PostHuman FX, have created...
He directed one of the best slasher flicks of the 00's: Laid to Rest, we wish a good and brillant career to Mr.Hall
24. Sam Raimi
Director | Spider-Man
Highly inventive U.S. film director/producer/writer/actor Sam Raimi first came to the attention of film fans with the savage, yet darkly humorous, low-budget horror film, The Evil Dead (1981). From his childhood, Raimi was a fan of the cinema and, before he was ten-years-old, he was out making ...
He made The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II (my favorite horror comedy) and Army of Darkness, unfortunately, he lost my respect with the Spiderman movies.
Drag me to Hell was cool, but i hope that Raimi will do another horror movie in the same vein as The Evil Dead !
25. Martin Scorsese
Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...
Without a doubt, the true master of cinema of our days. All of his movies are good.
26. Albert Pyun
Director | Cyborg
Albert Pyun was an award-winning US filmmaker best known for his contributions to the science-fiction and action genres. He is credited with pioneering the cyborg sub-genre and is considered to be a maverick and renegade in independent genre cinema. With over 50 titles to his name, he has enjoyed a...
Made many kind of A, B, Z grade movies, probably, one of the best B-movie directors of this generation.
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