Why are Ron Howard and Robert Zemeckis struggling to remain relevant?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Film and Television Discussion
exithereplease — 4 months ago(November 08, 2025 08:43 PM)
They're both box office SMASH directors for decades and then the oil stopped.
Which is ironic, since they were both CGI nuts who created this terrible decade of filmmaking. -
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元才 — 4 months ago(November 12, 2025 11:54 PM)
No one ever said "I can't wait to see what Ron Howard is working on!"
I've loved some of his works and liked more than a few more. We've got a lot to pick from but from Splash through to Frost/Nixon he had a good 20 odd year run, Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind being the two big hitters for most.
I even like his earlier stuff with the Fonz and that rag tag team of actors looking for their big break (Which almost never came for any - 'cept Keaton).
There's some dross in there and I'm sure Solo was a favour returned rather than a dream captured.
As for Zemeckis, dude was busting it from Romancing the Stone all the way up to Castaway. People might say he's out to pasture now but for all the great runs he's ran, he just kept on running
As for their relevance these days, like other great directors of their times - it's a different game and it shows in the output and audience appreciation. Why make guff when you can be remembered for the greats already made?
Let the youth (If you can call them that!) have their say and make their own, new mistakes. See what people are talking about when the dust has settled and the only thing living from now then is memory -
jarrodmcdonald-1 — 4 months ago(November 15, 2025 04:53 AM)
The problem I have with Ron Howard's films is they are usually cloying and overly sentimental. They don't seem to hold up well, because they don't know how to let the audience think…they do all the thinking and deciding for the audience.
At least with Scorsese and Spielberg there is something in their stronger works that compares with the best foreign directors. Not Howard. I haven't fully figured out Zemeckis. His works are harmless and occasionally clever but I never feel like Zemeckis is philosophically on to anything very substantial. -
jarrodmcdonald-1 — 4 months ago(November 16, 2025 11:07 PM)
Oh I like to think. It's what makes me glad I am a human with a brain.
I get your comment, though…sometimes simple mindless entertainment can be diverting.
But there are times when I decidedly want something more substantial on screen to ponder. I don't go to Howard or Zemeckis for that. They and their works serve other purposes.
Incidentally, when I graduated from film school (the University of Southern California), Robert Zemeckis was the keynote speaker at our ceremony and he handed each of us our diplomas. We were able to take a photo alongside him, shaking his hand. That was nice. And it was exciting at the time, especially because he was an alumna of our school and had become quite successful.
But looking back on it now, I would much rather have gotten a chance to shake the hand of someone whose work I admired more, like James Ivory (who was also an alumna of USC). I had been accepted into film school because of an essay I had written on Merchant-Ivory's MR. AND MRS. BRIDGE, which is still one of my favorite films. It enables me to feel AND think about the characters' lives, and those characters remind me of my own family.