Weekly Collection of Random Film Thoughts

• First of all, I have a rather pressing question that has been troubling me: Does one say directing or direction when speaking of the work of the film director? , I have seen both written here and there and was wondering which one is the correct term.

•  I was wondering what directors you find to be the most overrated,  I find Christopher Nolan, J.J. Abrams, Zack Snyder, George Lucas, Brian De Palma, Ridley Scott and James Cameron to be very overrated. Antonioni and Godard would probably qualify as well if I had seen more of their work.We all have a list of directors we find are overrated, mine happens to be rather controversial but I didn't mean for it to be so, I juts don't think these directors are as good as their reputations.

•  I've just got my hands on "The Yakuza Papers", they are known as a sort of Japanese "The Godfather" a crime epic of sorts spanning six films. I can't wait to watch them. Directed by Fukasaku, director of Battle Royale.

• I've also got hold of a collection of Shaw Brothers Kung Fu films, about 12 of them.
• AND I've also managed to find the complete collection of Zatoichi films, 26 of them in all, these will come in handy if I ever get around to organising a Samurai blogathon.

•  I've been on a Peckinpah marathon this week, in preparation for my detailed post that will deal with his whole career. I hope you saw the poll to the top right hand side of the blog, please vote on it, I would be interested to see the results. Also if you have any thoughts about Peckinpah's work please share them in the comments, especially if they're negative...

• Lesya at Eternity of a Dream lists a few acclaimed films she didn't care for, this intrigued me and although I usually think about these kind of issues in terms of directors rather than individual films (see above), I would still be interested in hearing what your number one most overrated film is. For me it is probably The Dark Knight or No Country For Old Men.

Now for a few links:
The Film Connoisseur reviews Natural Born Killers.
loveitalianmovies takes a look at a seemingly underrated Italian film.
themoviesnob reviews My Left Foot in honour of St Patrick's Day!
CS takes a look at some of Spike Lee's films as well as reviewing Waiting For Superman in an interview style format.
Univarn reflects on the use of Black and White in modern films.
I read another review of Drive Angry at Careful With That Blog Eugene, and found it very entertaining, I'm not sure about the film though.
Watch Read Reviews posted a review for Adventureland which I should probably see.
A hilarious review of Red Riding Hood was posted at The Move 411.

And finally just in case you missed my previous post, here is a link to Anomalous Material's blogathon in which I participated, called Desert Island CD's.


I'm also putting together a list of my favourite Westerns, it will be in the same vein as my recent Underrated Directors List. So, what are your favourites?

I also would like a bit of feedback concerning the blog itself, what would you like to see more of? Reviews? Directors analysis? Lists?
What films would you like to see reviewed, which directors written about etc... ?
As always, comments are most welcome and will be answered!