SCFZ poll: Robert Zemeckis

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Polling the films of Robert Zemeckis

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half* of the Zemeckis films you've seen, up to a maximum of 8. So if you've seen 6 films, you can vote for 3, and if you've seen 20, you can vote for up to 8.

* If you've seen an odd number, you can round up when deciding the length of your ballot -- e.g if you've seen 7, you can vote for 4, and if you've seen 15, you can vote for the maximum of 8.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Friday, in seven days, whatever day that is

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

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another poll randomly generated, though this is at least one most people should be able to participate in, curious if zemeckis has many admirers around here though

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Contact
Allied
What Lies Beneath
Back to the Future
Flight

seen 8, honestly don't like a single one of them -- edit: seen 10, contact was actually really good besides the religion straw man and how heavy-handed it got with that, and allied wasn't bad either

[Curtis, baby]

seen 5

Cast Away
The Polar Express
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

is there any way that i can downvote forrest gump?

[Curtis, baby]

just realized forrest gump and the shawshank redemption came out in the same yr. 1994, worst yr of cinema oat, easy

[Lencho of the Apes]

I keep telling myself I'm going to watch the year's Zemeckis... and I never do. Vaguewatched Death Becomes Her sometime long ago.

[Silga]

Seen 17

Flight
Back to the Future
Forrest Gump
Back to the Future Part II
Contact
Cast Away
Allied
Used Cars
Romancing the Stone

Love Zemeckis! Great director!

[brian d]

seen 9

contact
romancing the stone


how about roberto gavaldón next?

[ofrene]

seen 8

Back to the Future
Flight
Allied
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

good director, i think, but reluctant to see Forrest Gump

[nrh]

Tales from the Crypt: Yellow
Tales from the Crypt: All Through the House
What Lies Beneath

haven't really kept up with his films since the early 2000s, think there was some significant auteurist support for marwen and allied (kiyoshi kurosawa, who generally has great taste, put it in his best of year list), and maybe a few others.

kind of wish the giant success of back to the future happened a couple films later in his career, and he work for awhile more at the romancing the stone budget level, rather than go all in on the technology stuff...

[Flakotaso]

I really hate his first two films, there is something really disgusting about them, maybe his mind-blowingly tasteless so-called comedy style.

seen 10

Cast Away
Beowulf
Romancing the Stone (for Kathleen Turner)

[greennui]

8

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

I remember liking that one as a kid.

[...]

Used Cars
Contact
Flight
Back to the Future
Forrest Gump
Beowulf

There's a lurking low misanthropic cynicism under so many of his movies that's really irksome. Less for existing as such necessarily, then for being so outwardly directed while refusing self-critique. Milos Forman is the fancy-pants Euro-derived version of this, better director in some ways, but often too reveling in his disgust. Used Cars, for Zemeckis, at least kept it in the forefront as basis of the comedy rather than insinuating it, so it's the one that works best for me by a fair margin. Beowulf is awful, but feels kind of instructively awful, so what the heck I'll give it a vote instead of the other middling stuff I've seen.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

Seen 10

Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Death Becomes Her
What Lies Beneath
Romancing the Stone

I don't really care for him as a director... He has a cartoonish sensibility, but one that doesn't go quite far enough, except with Roger Rabbit, the only one where I feel everything comes together.

To be honest, I almost always find myself wishing Barry Sonnenfeld was directing at the halfway point of his films. Death Becomes Her and What Lies Beneath are both interesting to me because of the (very mildly) subversive casting of Male Action heroes. In Death Becomes Her it pays off with what is probably Bruce Willis' best performance. Less so in What Lies Beneath.

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how about roberto gavaldón next?

done! not sure if i'll start that tuesday or friday, but gavaldon will be our next poll

[deepbluefunk]

seen 13

1. Back to the Future
2. Beowulf
3. The Lift
4. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
5. Cast Away
6. Contact
7. Romancing the Stone


I think there's something really strange, offputting but entrancing about Beowulf. And the neil gaiman script is full of nice touches. I think it's pretty underrated. And for those who haven't seen his early short, The Lift, it's well worth a look. After those top three, Zemeckis is always interesting but rarely fully successful. Haven't seen Flight.

[oscarwerner]

Seen 15.
1.Who Framed Roger Rabbit
2.Death Becomes Her
3.Back to the Future
4.Forrest Gump
5.Used Cars

[wba]

I love this guy! A wonderful, wonderful director!

all 6 I've listed are personal favorites:

01. Back to the Future Part II (1989)
02. Back to the Future Part III (1990)
03. Back to the Future (1985)
04. Cast Away (2000)
05. Forrest Gump (1994)
06. Contact (1997)


Zemeckis seen: 11

[Searchlike]

Seen 9

Back to the Future
Cast Away
Contact
Back to the Future Part II
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

I loved the Back to the Future trilogy as a child. I've largely outgrown those films, the time shenanigans do nothing for me these days, but I can still appreciate the 'would you befriend your old folks?' concept of the first one.

I've also toyed with the idea of making a film called Who Strangled Roger Rabbit?, but I don't know if there's an audience for it.

[wba]

And for those who haven't seen his early short, The Lift, it's well worth a look.

I'm a Zemeckis fanboy, and THE LIFT is easily the worst of his films I've seen.

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not too surprising a winner, but perhaps a surprising #2, and on another forum zemeckis' lone best picture nominated film (which even won, forrest gump) might have been expected to fare much better than it did here:

results
1. Back to the Future (1985) — 28 pts
2. Contact (1997) — 16 pts
3. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) — 15 pts
4. Cast Away (2000) — 13.5 pts
5. Flight (2012) — 12 pts
6. Back to the Future Part II (1989) — 9 pts
7. Death Becomes Her (1992) — 7 pts
7. Forrest Gump (1994) — 7 pts
9. Beowulf (2007) — 6.5 pts
10. Allied (2016) — 6.3 pts
11. Used Cars (1980) — 6.1 pts
12. What Lies Beneath (2000) — 6 pts
13. Back to the Future Part III (1990) — 4 pts
14. Romancing the Stone (1984) — 3.3 pts
15. The Lift (1972) — 3 pts
15. Tales from the Crypt: “Yellow” (1991) — 3 pts
17. The Polar Express (2004) — 2 pts
17. Tales from the Crypt: “All Through the House” (1989) — 2 pts