Popular USA director. Donner left his mark in several genres, which is quite a feat. His film are very commercial, and he lacks a clear signature, but when looking for decent USA fluff, his oeuvre's a decent place to start.
Movies
A film that somewhat works, despite Murray's presence. Murray's character requires him to be annoying, but he's just too loud and obnoxious. The stuff surrounding him is pretty goofy and funny, though time also chipped away at its edginess. There are some fun moments, but overall it's just not that great.
Probably not a film that could still be made today (in Hollywood). Take a conspiracy theorist and make his theory a reality, that's not a message they want to sell in the US right now. Other than that, this was a pretty basic action thriller. A few twists, a couple of familiar faces, and that's that. Donner could've done more with it, but he didn't seem that inspired. Roberts and Gibson are a bland pairing (especially Gibson is a bit iffy here), the film is too long and Stewart is a poor baddie. The film is still somewhat amusing and taken as a simple blockbuster there's some fun to be had, but you must be a pretty big 90s fan to get excited about this.Read all
A pretty unique kind of kitsch. I'm not entirely sure what Donner was thinking when he directed this film, but the result is beyond camp and unintentionally funny. It's obviously a pretty expensive film, but the horrendous performances, the offensively cheesy soundtrack and some very questionable directing choices turned this into an intriguing train wreck. Time has not been kind to this film. The colors are kitsch, Broderick and Hauer are amateurish, the plot is a snoozefest and the ever-present soundtrack deserves a decade's worth of Razzies. Somehow the kitsch was just the right amount of astonishing to keep me interested, but a good film this is not.Read all
A ridiculous film. Surely, this must've been a landmark for the superhero genre, but it's pretty much unwatchable by modern standards. I didn't make the right choice by going for the extended version, but I'm pretty confident that even cutting 45 minutes of cruft wouldn't have saved this film. I don't think I've ever seen a film in more dire need of an editor. It's as if they shot every scene five times and just stitched all the material together for the final film. There is so much pointless overhead that it completely kills the pacing. The effects are terrible, performances are weak, the score is laughable and the 3-hour runtime indefensible. Even worse than most contemporary Marvel stuff.Read all
