Judging Scorcese's films against each other isn't really fair, but then judging them against other peoples' isn't fair either
A Scorcese flick which isn't quite as good as another Scorcese flick is still going to mash most other directors. Put Kundun and Taxi Driver next to each other and one might destroy the other, but put either of them next to anything by Michael Bay or M Night Shyamalan and watch the blood fly.
Look at the horrors Spielberg's inflicted on us since Schindler: The Terminal, AI (started by the great Stanley Kubrick and Disney-fied by Spielberg, what an utter waste), Minority Report, War Of The Worlds. It's a shame because for a while he really was one of my favourites! The Indy Jones films are awesome, DUEL is still one of my favourite films ever, Jurassic Park (don't start me on the sequels) & Schindler's List were brilliant, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind still stands the test of time as a SF classic (never saw ET but I'm told it's very heartwarming
), but there just seems to be something missing from Spielberg's recent stuff. Haven't seen Munich. If that is indeed a good flick, it'll be just a blip on the recent Spielberg radar as far as I'm concerned.
Tim Burton - well, I'll agree with you there. I just used him as an example because of the ham-fisted Planet Of The Apes remake. His Charlie & The Chocolate Factory do-over wasn't inspirational either, despite it being more faithful to the book. Sometimes it seems that Burton thinks he can just take a bunch of oddball characters, throw them into a bizarro setting (often with Johnny Depp) and let the film fly on autopilot. Nightmare Before Christmas was probably the last Burton film I really liked, and not a human to be seen.
Point taken on Van Sant. I'd also give him kudos for trying something new, but there's the rub - he wasn't in the case of Psycho. He was attempting to re-do something that was already pretty much perfected. You wouldn't re-carve Michelangelo's David, don't remake Hitchcock films
Not shot-for-shot anyway - the remake of Dial M For Murder (with Paltrow & Michael Douglas in it, can't recall the name) was pretty decent, but ultimately pointless. I just think Gus should've done his Psycho shot-for-shot experiment in film school, where it could do no harm and never be seen by anyone
510N3D (do you have a word-name? Surely your parents didn't name you with a "5"
), I think Deadwolf's comment that AvP was a comedy was meant be ironic. Lost in translation I guess