Movies Quentin Tarantino vs James Cameron

Favourite

  • Tarantino

  • Cameron

Results are only viewable after voting.
SKYNET said:
My personal opinion is Cameron didn't land with Avatar at all. While it was as gorgeous and as grandiose as he had hoped, at the end it felt bloated and full of saccharin. Rewatch factor is about as low as it gets imho
Click to expand...
Ive only watched the first one once and never again.

After that movie came out,every movie looked like that.
 
the ambush said:
I am not sure if they're intended this way but I find myself laughing throughout True Lies and T2.
Click to expand...
I mean theres alot of serious movies that have parts that are hilarious to me. Some moments of violence are so over the top it can be absurd.

It's nothing against those movies at all either.
 
I grew up a Tarantino kid. I was probably 13 or so when I saw Reservoir Dogs and have been hooked ever since.

That's not a knock on Cameron, maybe it's dorky but QT just might be my favorite director.
 
HHJ said:
So does every filmmaker
Click to expand...
In his case as well he rarely tries to hide it as much of the time his films exist to play off of their influences, not a co incidence he called his production company a A Band Apart as really that Godard film is the blueprint for his style, perhaps not as overly arty but taking pulp influences as making something a bit more arty out of them.
 
BisexualMMA said:
JC for me. Virtually nobody can go four for four against Cameron with T1, T2, Aliens and The Abyss. And that's not ocunting the highest grossing movies of all time in his favor. I don't hold Piranha 2 against him. He had to try to break into the studio to keep editing the movie.
Click to expand...

Tarantino stomps, not close at all.

He widely influenced a whole generation with his writing style, numerous examples are the Guy Ritchie or Bullet Train movies. And on top of that, he's better w/ actors and cinematographers. His films have more of an auteur and recognizable style.

And he beats at his best too with Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious.
 
I Fusion I said:
Tarantino stomps, not close at all.

He widely influenced a whole generation with his writing style, numerous examples are the Guy Ritchie or Bullet Train movies. And on top of that, he's better w/ actors and cinematographers. His films have more of an auteur and recognizable style.

And he beats at his best too with Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I would say Tarantino is better with actors at all. James Cameron gets career best performances out of actors that other directors often struggle with. The best work of Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton is hands down under the direction of James Cameron. Both have the capacity to be outright bad in less skilled hands. You could argue that the best work from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen and others was delivered under James Cameron.

On the other hand, Tarantino has been spoon fed a cast of Oscar winners and nominees over and over and over again and while they deliver good work under Tarantino, I don't know if I can think of any career best performances that were delivered under him. There probably are but with the names that come to mind, I can think of better performances that they gave in non-Tarantino movies.
 
BisexualMMA said:
I'm not sure I would say Tarantino is better with actors at all. James Cameron gets career best performances out of actors that other directors often struggle with. The best work of Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton is hands down under the direction of James Cameron. Both have the capacity to be outright bad in less skilled hands. You could argue that the best work from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Paxton and others was delivered under James Cameron.

On the other hand, Tarantino has been spoon fed a cast of Oscar winners and nominees over and over and over again and while they deliver good work under Tarantino, I don't know if I can think of any career best performances that were delivered under him. There probably are but with the names that come to mind, I can think of better performances that they gave in non-Tarantino movies.
Click to expand...

Bruh.. with QT, i'd say Waltz, Travolta, Jackson, Thurman, Pitt all had their best performances. On top of that, he nails side characters like Shoshanna, Bill's brother, Mr Wolf.

JC got some good performances and movies under his belt, he's a great director but overall he's not close to QT. Their resume in last 30 years speak for themselves.

I still rate T1, T2, Titanic and Aliens highly and enjoy the rest. But Cameron vs Mann or Fincher would be a far more appropiate compairson, in terms of filmaking and directing skills.

I'd even say that once you took T1, T2 and maybe... even Aliens out of the equation. JC's resume isn't that impressive, i'd put films like Only God Forgives, Thief, Gone Girl and Begins at more/same lvl of his 4th film.

And those are like the 3rd, 5th best film of those directors.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HHJ
I Fusion I said:
Bruh.. with QT, i'd say Waltz, Travolta, Jackson, Thurman, Pitt all had their best performances. On top of that, he nails side characters like Shoshanna, Bill's brother, Mr Wolf.

JC got some good performances and movies under his belt, he's a great director but overall he's not close to QT. Their resume in last 30 years speak for themselves.

I still rate T1, T2, Titanic and Aliens highly and enjoy the rest. But Cameron vs Mann or Fincher would be a far more appropiate compairson, in terms of filmaking and directing skills.

I'd even say that once you took T1, T2 and maybe... even Aliens out of the equation. JC's resume isn't that impressive, i'd put films like Only God Forgives, Thief, Gone Girl and Begins at more/same lvl of his 4th film.

And those are like the 3rd, 5th best film of those directors.
Click to expand...

I probably like Cameron's top four including The Abyss better than any Tarantino movies. But Tarantino like Cameron has a very high floor. His worst movie is still pretty good.

I think Tarantino writes terrific dialogue which serves to make both his actors and his own direction look better. Of course it is Tarantino that deserves credit for that writing...but I'm not sure the benefit his actors enjoy from the good screenplays belongs under Tarantino's "direction of actors" when doling out the credit.
 
BisexualMMA said:
I probably like Cameron's top four including The Abyss better than any Tarantino movies. But Tarantino like Cameron has a very high floor. His worst movie is still pretty good.

I think Tarantino writes terrific dialogue which serves to make both his actors and his own direction look better. Of course it is Tarantino that deserves credit for that writing...but I'm not sure the benefit his actors enjoy from the good screenplays belongs under Tarantino's "direction of actors" when doling out the credit.
Click to expand...

Pulp Fiction > Any Cameron film.

Though, i'd put T1 and T2 above the rest of QT's films.

Well, considering he's both the writer and director, and he writes the synopsis, does decoupage of scenes, and select itself what to put in the film, it's his merit.

QT should be compared to Lynch, Kitano, PTA, Spielberg and this tier of directors IMO.

Fedorgasm said:
This one's hard. Tarantino might be my favorite director now that Nolan sucks, but Cameron had the best run ever with Terminator, Aliens, Abyss, T2, and true lies.

Then he also made Titanic which is basically the T2 for women.

So you're talking about a streak of 6 absolute home runs in a row.

QT has never had a streak like that. Every 2 or 3 films, he has a miss. I consider Jackie Brown a miss. Death Proof was a miss, I even think Django was a miss overall, even though it has some good parts.
Click to expand...

Nolan's Oppenheimer and Dunkirk are two of his best films, and on top of that TDKR was a solid and fitting 3rd entry in a trilogy.

Not sure how he's bad when Tenet is his only sub-par film since Following.

QT > Nolan > Cameron.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: HHJ
HHJ said:
So does every filmmaker
Click to expand...
somewhat. there is an acceptable level of borrowing and some like to "borrow" more than others

the idea that everyone takes ideas is wrong and leads to more "borrowing"
 
Tarantino. Might not always knock it out of the park, but his name still invokes interest, and you know you're always in for something a bit different. His only real stinker is "Death Proof", and even that flick has a very good first half. Cameron is no slouch, but I really wish we lived in alternate universe where "Avatar" didn't exist and didn't consume all of his time.
 
Kind of an odd comparison. I give it to JC because his focus on film technology
 
BisexualMMA said:
I'm not sure I would say Tarantino is better with actors at all. James Cameron gets career best performances out of actors that other directors often struggle with. The best work of Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton is hands down under the direction of James Cameron. Both have the capacity to be outright bad in less skilled hands. You could argue that the best work from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen and others was delivered under James Cameron.

On the other hand, Tarantino has been spoon fed a cast of Oscar winners and nominees over and over and over again and while they deliver good work under Tarantino, I don't know if I can think of any career best performances that were delivered under him. There probably are but with the names that come to mind, I can think of better performances that they gave in non-Tarantino movies.
Click to expand...
Another way I think you could argue they are opposites, Tarantino is obviously a very dialog heavy director, his films tend to work strongly by giving his performers great dialog to work with. Cameron, especially early Cameron is much more focused on physical acting IMHO. Arnie as the Terminator most obviously but a role like Biehn's Reese is based very strongly on expression/movement as much as it is dialog.

I think Camerons latter films became less interesting in part because they lost some of that aspect, they became more conventionally scripted and in the case of Avatar I don't think CGI could match the kind of nuance human performers can give, at least not as consistantly.
 
moreorless87 said:
Another way I think you could argue they are opposites, Tarantino is obviously a very dialog heavy director, his films tend to work strongly by giving his performers great dialog to work with. Cameron, especially early Cameron is much more focused on physical acting IMHO. Arnie as the Terminator most obviously but a role like Biehn's Reese is based very strongly on expression/movement as much as it is dialog.

I think Camerons latter films became less interesting in part because they lost some of that aspect, they became more conventionally scripted and in the case of Avatar I don't think CGI could match the kind of nuance human performers can give, at least not as consistantly.
Click to expand...

Yeah Biehn hotwiring the car with Linda Hamilton in T1 is a master class in how to make pure exposition riveting. I'm not sure how the credit is to be divided between Biehn and Cameron behind the scenes there.

Early Cameron was good at efficient and purposeful dialogue that still avoided reading false like Shyamalan. Tarantino writes scenes where everything does a meandering loopity loop for a while and then reveals its purpose at the end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,119
Messages
55,468,391
Members
174,786
Latest member
plasterby

Share this page

Back
Top