I had this conversation on my Facebook recently and it went absolutely ballistic, so I thought I’d bring it to Kotaku.
Best Back-To-Back movies by a single Director. What are your favourites?
Top of my list: Ridley Scott with Alien and Blade Runner. Imagine making those two movies back-to-back.
Insane.
Runners up for me are…
John McTiernan: Predator and Die Hard.
Steven Spielberg: Jaws and Close Encounters.
Quentin Tarantino: Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction
Let’s hear yours!
Comments
49 responses to “Best Back-To-Back Movies By A Director?”
Robert Zemeckis – Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and BttF2.
Michael Mann – Heat, The Insider, Ali and Collateral.
The ultimate has to be James Cameron – The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, T2 and True Lies.
Beat me to James Cameron.
Whether you buy into the box office conquering Titanic/Avatar double or not, he was killing it in the 80s and early 90s.
Beat me to Zemeckis, kudos!
Michael Mann – Last of the Mohicans (1992) and Heat (1995)
Fo’ sho’! Two fucking awesome movies! I tried to upvote you but it wouldn’t let me…
Brad Bird followed up Iron Giant with The Incredibles.
Oh, that’s a good one! Hell, just do Iron Giant + Iron Giant.
Half of James Cameron’s career!
The first half, preferably.
That’s where I was aiming!
I’ll stick with my comment from facebook and say
Rob Reiner – Stand by me / The princess bride
The princess bride/when Harry met Sally 😉
Christopher Nolan: Dark Knight and Inception
Denis Villeneuve – Prisoners and Sicario
Duncan Jones – Moon and Source Code
Shane Carruth – Primer and Upstream Color
Christopher Nolan – Everything
Darren Aronofsky – The Wrestler and Black Swan
The Coen Brothers – The Big Lebowski and O’ Brother Where Art Thou?
Shane Carruth’s only two films, both excellent
The Wrestler and Black Swan is a great combo considering how different they were but yet the same level of quality.
Chris Nolan: Memento and Insomnia.
Francis Ford Coppola: Godfather Part 2 and Apocalypse Now.
Coens: Fargo and Big Lebowski.
oh man, Coen Brothers is a good one. And after Lebowski they did O’Brother…. thats also a hell of a double header.
Hayao Miyazaki: You could pick pretty much any point in his career and get an impressive back to back but I’m gonna choose Princess Mononoke followed by Spirited Away
Sofia Coppola: The Virgin Suicides and Lost In Translation
Coen Brothers: Fargo and The Big Lebowski
Wes Anderson: The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic
Sofia Coppola is a great choice, both fantastic films
Paul Thomas Anderson – Boogie Nights & Magnolia
Pretty sure he’s never dropped the ball.
John McTiernan: Predator and Die Hard is my pick
Either of which are a masterclass in “How to make an action movie.”
Mel Gibson: The Passion of the Christ/ Apocalypto
John Woo: Broken Arrow/ Face Off
David Fincher: Social Network/ Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Robert Zemeckis: Back to the Future/ Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Rob Reiner: The Princess Bride/ When Harry Met Sally
John Woo: Hard Boiled/Hard Target
Fixed it for you brah.
As a big Stephen King fan, I’ll go Frank Darabont – The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.
Also Pete Docter – Up and Inside Out.
Steven Spielberg did it more than once.
Close Encounters then Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark then ET, then the motherlode: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, followed by Hook, then Jurassic Park, then Schindler’s List.
Amazed that this is the first time I’ve seen him in these lists
That’s a good quinella!
Iain Softley: Hackers and K-Pax
Francis Ford Coppola: Godfather Part II then Apocalypse Now.
You could also probably make a case for Akira Kurosawa, and definitely Sergio Leone (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly followed by Once Upon a Time in the West)
Chris Columbus
Home Alone 2->Mrs Doubtfire
Harry Potter->Harry Potter 2
George Lucas – American Graffiti/Star Wars
Michael Bay: Turd and then Turd II
Luc Besson – The Big Blue was followed by Nikita…
…and then Leon was followed by The Fifth Element
He had a good run there. In fact, if you ignore the documentary Atlantis he directed between Nikita and Leon, that’s 4 bloody good fiction movies in a row…
Heh I was just about to write exactly this.
Happy to help. 🙂
Steven Spielberg – Goonies and Back to the Future
Um…?
Tough. I’m taking three because nobody should be expected to make this decision (a fourth would probably to agree with Mr Serrels).
(1) David Lynch, ‘Dune’/’Blue Velvet’
(2) Stanley Kubrick, ‘Dr Strangelove’/’2001’
(3) Paul Verhoeven, ‘Robocop’/’Total Recall’
OR maybe Terry Gilliam… ‘Life of Brian’/’Brazil’
Not quite back-to-back for Terry Gilliam.. better pairs for him are: Life of Brian/Time Bandits, and Meaning of Life/Brazil.
(and if you really want a challenge – try 12 Monkeys/Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)
Yeah, I fucked up. Meant to put ‘Meaning of Life’/’Brazil’, although my preference would be ’12 Monkeys’/’Fear and Loathing’ (was going to put this, but everyone seems to hate his Fear and Loathing film. I thought it was fucking genius).
Spielberg – Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List IN THE SAME FREAKIN’ YEAR.
Edgar Wright hasn’t put a foot wrong.
Shaun of the Dead / Hot Fuzz / Scott Pilgrim / World’s End / Baby Driver
Alex Proyas.?!??!?!? Dark City!!!!!, The Crow
Kathryn Bigelow. NO! , Point Break , Strange Days!!!!
Dito for every thing above, except The Princess Bride, Sorry did not like it.
Satoshi Kon
Perfect Blue – Millennium Actress – Tokyo Godfathers
Sorry to go back in history, but…
Stanley Kubrick
Dr. Strangelove – 2001: A Space Odyssey – A Clockwork Orange