The "Send M. Night Shyamalan back to film school" fundraiser

[Master_Edward]

I'll admit I haven't seen any of his movies, I'm not a fan of that movie category. But what those people are doing is insulting, rude, and just plain mean. But like other people have said I agree Shyamalan probably doesn't even care.

Ed.

[Aggiesque]

My bet is he doesn't care, or realizes it's still publicity.

...because now I want to go see some recent stuff and see if it really is that bad LOL

[baglady]

I wouldn't be surprised if MNS subscribes to the belief that "all publicity is good publicity." He's seen the bad reviews. He knows which of his movies are considered masterpieces and which aren't. This is just another "bad review," albeit not pegged to a specific movie. I'd like to think he has a sense of humor about it, if he even knows about it.

This might have been the "Send Ang Lee Back to Film School" festival, if he had made "The Hulk" *after* "Brokeback Mountain." Just sayin'.

I'm curious, though, as to how many people decide which movies to see based on who directed them. I can only think of a few directors who have the sort of reputation that drives people to (or from) their movies based on the fact that they're the director. Woody Allen, for example. Altman and Hitchcock, when they were alive. But if you want to see the hot new superhero movie, or the new (Insert Cute Actress Here) rom-com, you'll go see it without thinking much about who directed it. (And by "you" I mean "I."  )

[jimithing]

I wouldn't be surprised if MNS subscribes to the belief that "all publicity is good publicity." He's seen the bad reviews. He knows which of his movies are considered masterpieces and which aren't. This is just another "bad review," albeit not pegged to a specific movie. I'd like to think he has a sense of humor about it, if he even knows about it.

This might have been the "Send Ang Lee Back to Film School" festival, if he had made "The Hulk" *after* "Brokeback Mountain." Just sayin'.

I'm curious, though, as to how many people decide which movies to see based on who directed them. I can only think of a few directors who have the sort of reputation that drives people to (or from) their movies based on the fact that they're the director. Woody Allen, for example. Altman and Hitchcock, when they were alive. But if you want to see the hot new superhero movie, or the new (Insert Cute Actress Here) rom-com, you'll go see it without thinking much about who directed it. (And by "you" I mean "I."  )

I think there are probably quite a few directors out there. After "The Sixth Sense" being such an amazing hit, with an amazing twist, Shaymalan's name was gold. If you saw a movie with his name on it, there was an expectation of surprise. Unfortunately, nothing has been able to live up to his first movie.

I would say that when I see Spielberg is involved, I expect it will be a really good, possibly an Oscar contender, movie. Or with the Cohen Brothers, you can expect a quirky, involved plot.

[Larrabee]

I wouldn't be surprised if MNS subscribes to the belief that "all publicity is good publicity." He's seen the bad reviews. He knows which of his movies are considered masterpieces and which aren't. This is just another "bad review," albeit not pegged to a specific movie. I'd like to think he has a sense of humor about it, if he even knows about it.

This might have been the "Send Ang Lee Back to Film School" festival, if he had made "The Hulk" *after* "Brokeback Mountain." Just sayin'.

I'm curious, though, as to how many people decide which movies to see based on who directed them. I can only think of a few directors who have the sort of reputation that drives people to (or from) their movies based on the fact that they're the director. Woody Allen, for example. Altman and Hitchcock, when they were alive. But if you want to see the hot new superhero movie, or the new (Insert Cute Actress Here) rom-com, you'll go see it without thinking much about who directed it. (And by "you" I mean "I."  )

I think there are probably quite a few directors out there. After "The Sixth Sense" being such an amazing hit, with an amazing twist, Shaymalan's name was gold. If you saw a movie with his name on it, there was an expectation of surprise. Unfortunately, nothing has been able to live up to his first movie.

I would say that when I see Spielberg is involved, I expect it will be a really good, possibly an Oscar contender, movie. Or with the Cohen Brothers, you can expect a quirky, involved plot.

There are quite a few directors I follow, I'd say I care more about who directed the movie than who stars in it.  I'll go to see anything by Spielberg, as mentioned above, James Cameron, Michel Gondry, Charlie Kauffman, Christopher Nolan, Spike Jonze, Pedro Almodovar, Danny Boyle, Alfonso Cuaron, Baz Luhrmann, Kevin Smith, Tina Fey, The Coen brothers, Sofia Coppola and several others. 

Equally you won't drag me to a film by Darren Aronofsky, Judd Apatow, or the aforementioned Michael Bay.

[Aeris]

I wouldn't be surprised if MNS subscribes to the belief that "all publicity is good publicity." He's seen the bad reviews. He knows which of his movies are considered masterpieces and which aren't. This is just another "bad review," albeit not pegged to a specific movie. I'd like to think he has a sense of humor about it, if he even knows about it.

This might have been the "Send Ang Lee Back to Film School" festival, if he had made "The Hulk" *after* "Brokeback Mountain." Just sayin'.

I'm curious, though, as to how many people decide which movies to see based on who directed them. I can only think of a few directors who have the sort of reputation that drives people to (or from) their movies based on the fact that they're the director. Woody Allen, for example. Altman and Hitchcock, when they were alive. But if you want to see the hot new superhero movie, or the new (Insert Cute Actress Here) rom-com, you'll go see it without thinking much about who directed it. (And by "you" I mean "I."  )

*raises hand*

The director of a movie plays a *huge* part in whether I go see it or not. But I don't go see a lot of movies, and I am super picky about those I do see.


Honestly, I think this is vaguely rude, yes, but when you are a famous director (actor, musician, artist, author, whatever) you have to be prepared for the bad reviews - and a lot of those bad reviews are going to come in the form of parody, or SNL skits, or John Stewart skewering, or what have you.

Is it rude when a public figure like this is made fun of on SNL?

[Harriet Jones]

I think there are probably quite a few directors out there. After "The Sixth Sense" being such an amazing hit, with an amazing twist, Shaymalan's name was gold. If you saw a movie with his name on it, there was an expectation of surprise. Unfortunately, nothing has been able to live up to his first movie.
 

<pedantic threadjack> Imdb says The Sixth Sense is the 3rd movie he's directed. </threadjack>

[baglady]

Aha! You both brought up directors that I hadn't thought of but I'm now doing the Homer Simpson "D'oh!" head slap over the fact that I didn't think of the Coen brothers and Kevin Smith. That's why I posed the question -- I wanted to know if people do, these days, choose movies based on the director.

I smell spinoff. Follow me to Entertainment?

[MrsJWine]

I think it's pretty funny.  When it comes to celebrity and criticism, it's harder to judge these things.  I think it would be a horrible thing to do to, say, a coworker who is an engineer.  But his chosen profession is one that requires criticism and scrutiny from the public.  I am certainly not one of those people who thinks that just because a person has chosen to be a movie star means he is required to grin and bear it as gossip rags and paparazzi take over his personal life.  But his professional life is fair game, IMO.

The only movie of his I haven't liked was The Happening, which causes me to shudder just thinking about it.  Especially since I think it could have been kind of cool and creepy if it hadn't been done so, so badly.  Some of the dialogue was so atrocious I could just about see the actors cringing as the delivered their lines.  My husband and I are in the middle of The Last Airbender.  Some of the actors are terrible, but it's a really pretty movie so far.

I also think Unbreakable was excellent.  I may be alone in that, or maybe it's just that a lot of people haven't seen it.  I never hear about it.  It's possible my adoration of Bruce Willis is skewing my opinion.  I'm unable to be objective when Bruce Willis is involved.  What's with me and old bald guys?

[Larrabee]

I think it's pretty funny.  When it comes to celebrity and criticism, it's harder to judge these things.  I think it would be a horrible thing to do to, say, a coworker who is an engineer.  But his chosen profession is one that requires criticism and scrutiny from the public.  I am certainly not one of those people who thinks that just because a person has chosen to be a movie star means he is required to grin and bear it as gossip rags and paparazzi take over his personal life.  But his professional life is fair game, IMO.

The only movie of his I haven't liked was The Happening, which causes me to shudder just thinking about it.  Especially since I think it could have been kind of cool and creepy if it hadn't been done so, so badly.  Some of the dialogue was so atrocious I could just about see the actors cringing as the delivered their lines.  My husband and I are in the middle of The Last Airbender.  Some of the actors are terrible, but it's a really pretty movie so far.

I also think Unbreakable was excellent.  I may be alone in that, or maybe it's just that a lot of people haven't seen it.  I never hear about it.  It's possible my adoration of Bruce Willis is skewing my opinion.  I'm unable to be objective when Bruce Willis is involved.  What's with me and old bald guys?

I liked Unbreakable too.  Bruce Willis plus Samuel L Jackson plus an unusual take on the comic book/superhero theme with a twist, what's not to love?

[jimithing]

I wouldn't be surprised if MNS subscribes to the belief that "all publicity is good publicity." He's seen the bad reviews. He knows which of his movies are considered masterpieces and which aren't. This is just another "bad review," albeit not pegged to a specific movie. I'd like to think he has a sense of humor about it, if he even knows about it.

This might have been the "Send Ang Lee Back to Film School" festival, if he had made "The Hulk" *after* "Brokeback Mountain." Just sayin'.

I'm curious, though, as to how many people decide which movies to see based on who directed them. I can only think of a few directors who have the sort of reputation that drives people to (or from) their movies based on the fact that they're the director. Woody Allen, for example. Altman and Hitchcock, when they were alive. But if you want to see the hot new superhero movie, or the new (Insert Cute Actress Here) rom-com, you'll go see it without thinking much about who directed it. (And by "you" I mean "I."  )

*raises hand*

The director of a movie plays a *huge* part in whether I go see it or not. But I don't go see a lot of movies, and I am super picky about those I do see.


Honestly, I think this is vaguely rude, yes, but when you are a famous director (actor, musician, artist, author, whatever) you have to be prepared for the bad reviews - and a lot of those bad reviews are going to come in the form of parody, or SNL skits, or John Stewart skewering, or what have you.

Is it rude when a public figure like this is made fun of on SNL?

I agree. While I certainly agree that this fundraiser isn't polite, I personally think it's pretty hilarious.

[Shopaholic]

I think that in Hollywood, where the hype about what you do is so much more important than what you actually do, they are doing MNS a favor. He's probably laughing somewhere.

That said, I thought all of his movies were terrible. "The Sixth Sense" was interesting enough, but everything that followed was IMO horrible. MNS is still riding the "Sixth Sense" success wave, I honestly didn't think it would last that long...

[Ms_Shell]

Aha! You both brought up directors that I hadn't thought of but I'm now doing the Homer Simpson "D'oh!" head slap over the fact that I didn't think of the Coen brothers and Kevin Smith. That's why I posed the question -- I wanted to know if people do, these days, choose movies based on the director.

I do! I love Darren Aronofsky - I was super excited to see Black Swan before I even knew what it was about.  Also I haven't seen a bad Coen brothers movie yet.   

[JenJay]

I really don't think that is that bad compared to what people have been saying about his movies for years now.  If he could shrug off the reviews to "The Last Airbender," this won't bother him at all.

Maybe not, but at the same time no one's raising money to send Uwe Boll or Michael Bay back to film school, and lots of people hate their films as well.  The whole idea strikes me as being terribly rude. 

Maybe because no one has thought of it yet.  Or maybe they don't think it would help.

I am fairly certain that you could not separate Michael Bay and his explosions with a giant crowbar wielded by the entire Marine Corps.

Or his "Extreme close-up of the action shots so that the viewer can barely understand what's happening but gets dizzy anyway!!!". Yeah, not a fan of the Transformers movies AT ALL.

[Larrabee]

Aha! You both brought up directors that I hadn't thought of but I'm now doing the Homer Simpson "D'oh!" head slap over the fact that I didn't think of the Coen brothers and Kevin Smith. That's why I posed the question -- I wanted to know if people do, these days, choose movies based on the director.

I do! I love Darren Aronofsky - I was super excited to see Black Swan before I even knew what it was about.  Also I haven't seen a bad Coen brothers movie yet.   

If you're a Darren Aronofsky fan does that mean you can tell me what was going on in The Fountain?