Films NOT Directed By Joe Dante
Today is Joe Dante's 60th birthday. He's been making films for over half of that time - plenty of films. As part of today's Joe Dante Blogathon, here's my list of films NOT directed by Joe Dante that would have been better, and more interesting, had he been behind them.
First of all, and most obviously, perhaps, is ET The Extra Terrestrial. I'm going to remake ET myself, I swear, but if Dante had handled it, and not Spielberg, I'm sure I'd feel more satisifed with the film as it stands (to say the least).
Space Jam. Almost as obviously.
Cinema Paradiso probably would have still had the famous montage of kisses, but I wouldn't be surprised if it also had a montage of aliens, robots, monsters and mutants too. That's something I'd like to see.
I'm not a fan of The Goonies, which is apparently quite unusual for a geek of my age. Dante could probably have changed that, however. It would have had more genuine characterisation, a lighter touch, and better staging, generally.
Or any of this little lot: Tarsem's The Cell; Condorman; Cellular; maybe Cherry 2000 - though I'm rather fond of it as it is; Garfield 2: A Tale of Two Kitties; War of the Worlds; The Journey of Natty Gann; The Avengers; Under the Rainbow.
What would you add to the list? And why?
4 comments:
What's not to like about the Goonies? It's a perfect film. Stand By Me with pirates and gangsters and girls. Love it.
Nothing intrinsically wrong with pirates, gangster or girls but... all the same, it's hardly Stand by Me. Certainly not in terms of how well it is or isn't made - Richard Donner's no Rob Reiner.
But then, you see, his no Richard Lester either - despite all of the anti-Lester, pro-Donner propaganda being bandied about at the moment.
Well, the forgettable comedy MILK MONEY was originally developed with Joe Dante attached, but he was ultimately dropped from it during production. And while Richard Benjamin's finished film quickly turns into santized "hooker-with-heart-of-gold" pap, I think Dante really understood the concept of how thirteen year old boys can be both innocent and sexually-minded at the same time, and would have brought the right mix of sentimentality and danger to this story. It's a tragic blown opportunity for one of my favorite directors.
I have always thought Joe would have been great if he directed Mars attacks
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