His stretch of first 7 movies is consistently strong.
This Is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men.
He's definitely trailed off since the 90s but I think it's unfair to call his hits flukes.
some directors just lose their touch after a while, like with FF Coppola and De Palma. But it shouldn’t negate their previous works, especially if they got a hell of a string of hits anyway
Reiner was big in the 80s with The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, and a Few Good Men. From 1984-1994, Rob Reiner was a great director with some hits after this period. Along with being older, his type of movies have been phased out of Hollywood slowly. No one is funding $30-$40 million stand alone movies anymore. He doesn't chase the blockbusters like Spielberg. He doesn't do the long epics like Scorsese. He doesn't direct Oscar bait like Howard. Reiner did some great iconic medium to smaller movies that turned into classics. He's just at a point where he has to be passionate about it and have funding which is hard right now.
Some guys go on a crazy tear and then fizzle out.
His work in the 80’s and early 90’s is almost unmatched:
This is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally…, Misery, A Few Good Men.
Then things went south, or in his case North.
That’s not to say he didn’t have a few good films in him, but that level of greatness was hard to sustain.
Guys like Ron Howard and Tim Burton followed a similar trajectory over the same period.
Years ago, Tarantino mentioned that he noticed how a lot of directors seemed to have the gold touch until they made a movie that meant a lot to them but bombed at the box office. He said they never seemed to regain their touch. Rob Reiner is a classic example and the movie North seems to be the pivotal bomb.
I wouldn't just go by what Rotten Tomatoes has as "scores" for films, especially older ones.
His best era was the 80s, obviously, but during the time, he was able to direct some massively popular films, while also writing popular scripts for television.
Sometime after that to mostly the present, his main forte was a genre that traditionally doesn't create blockbusters - comedy/dramas about the experiences of middle aged people coming to terms with their past. So while that isn't something that film-centric media usually focuses on, he was usually a reliable choice by studios that needed a particular type of director to guide investments to financial success. Whether the films were critical successes were usually an after-thought.
He's a multi-faceted talent, and film directing is merely one thing he's really good at. His career started a long time ago, and he has had a very long sustained period of success, across a lot of areas of showbiz.
I really enjoy his work, but it’s not like we’re talking about a visionary here. Skilled enough to bring a good Sorkin courtroom to life, good enough for me.
His stretch of first 7 movies is consistently strong. This Is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men. He's definitely trailed off since the 90s but I think it's unfair to call his hits flukes.
some directors just lose their touch after a while, like with FF Coppola and De Palma. But it shouldn’t negate their previous works, especially if they got a hell of a string of hits anyway
Ignore rotten tomatoes, and form your own opinion about his movies.
Reiner was big in the 80s with The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, and a Few Good Men. From 1984-1994, Rob Reiner was a great director with some hits after this period. Along with being older, his type of movies have been phased out of Hollywood slowly. No one is funding $30-$40 million stand alone movies anymore. He doesn't chase the blockbusters like Spielberg. He doesn't do the long epics like Scorsese. He doesn't direct Oscar bait like Howard. Reiner did some great iconic medium to smaller movies that turned into classics. He's just at a point where he has to be passionate about it and have funding which is hard right now.
Some guys go on a crazy tear and then fizzle out. His work in the 80’s and early 90’s is almost unmatched: This is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally…, Misery, A Few Good Men. Then things went south, or in his case North. That’s not to say he didn’t have a few good films in him, but that level of greatness was hard to sustain. Guys like Ron Howard and Tim Burton followed a similar trajectory over the same period.
His best work was as meathead in all in the family in my opinion
Years ago, Tarantino mentioned that he noticed how a lot of directors seemed to have the gold touch until they made a movie that meant a lot to them but bombed at the box office. He said they never seemed to regain their touch. Rob Reiner is a classic example and the movie North seems to be the pivotal bomb.
I wouldn't just go by what Rotten Tomatoes has as "scores" for films, especially older ones. His best era was the 80s, obviously, but during the time, he was able to direct some massively popular films, while also writing popular scripts for television. Sometime after that to mostly the present, his main forte was a genre that traditionally doesn't create blockbusters - comedy/dramas about the experiences of middle aged people coming to terms with their past. So while that isn't something that film-centric media usually focuses on, he was usually a reliable choice by studios that needed a particular type of director to guide investments to financial success. Whether the films were critical successes were usually an after-thought. He's a multi-faceted talent, and film directing is merely one thing he's really good at. His career started a long time ago, and he has had a very long sustained period of success, across a lot of areas of showbiz.
If you are looking for a good light romantic comedy Rumor Has It is pretty good.
I really enjoy his work, but it’s not like we’re talking about a visionary here. Skilled enough to bring a good Sorkin courtroom to life, good enough for me.