What’s your favorite four-film run from a director?

I was looking up Quentin Tarantino—I don’t really like most of his films, but I know plenty of people love them—and for anyone else considering him, I don’t know what to do with the 2011 release Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. Looks like it was a re-edited combination of both films, and so it feels like a cheat to count that as a new film between 2009’s Inglorious Basterds and 2012’s Django Unchained; I don’t think that should count as new directorial work, but if anyone does, just justify it in your pick.

I was thinking late '90s/2000 Steven Soderbergh

Out of Sight - 1998
The Limey - 1999
Erin Brockovich - 2000 (Haven’t seen)
Traffic - 2000

I’d say if you like the other 3 movies enough (and I think Minority Report is great) then having one you think isn’t good is fine.

And that is a very excellent list for Speilberg. AI is a dud, but those other 3 are top tier.

Alejandro González Iñárritu “I make a movie every few years” is kinda good.

Love’s a Bitch - 2000
21 Grams - 2003
Babel - 2006
Biutiful - 2010

James Cameron’s run starting with his second feature film is pretty epic

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Each of those is a legitimate classic.

Duh! Corrected.

I feel like there is probably a Kurosawa list out there, probably somewhere between Rashomon and Red Beard, but I haven’t seen all the films in that set so don’t actually know what it would be.

Oooh, that is good.

McTiernan had a great run.




And the streak would continue for other people who enjoyed Last Action Hero, and I really disliked that movie. And then I loved Die Hard with a Vengeance after that, and I know a lot of people love Thomas Crown Affair after that, but I haven’t seen that one. So for me, this is a great four movie streak for McTiernan. I know Medicine Man doesn’t have many fans here, but I just loved that movie so much.

Mine’s a five film run, because I can’t decide if I want to chop off the first or last in this run to make it four. That counts, right?

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Oof.

Oh yeah, I think that could be the one. Incredible.

Bong Joon-Ho had a great run that’s technically still going:

  • Mother (2009)
  • Snowpiercer (2013)
  • Okja (2017)
  • Parasite (2019)

I also think Denis Villeneuve’s filmography is impressive. I need to check out Polytechnique and Maelstrom but Incendies is one of my favourites of his.

That’s a good one.

I hit the imaginary LIKE button.

Hal Ashby:

Harold & Maude
The Last Detail
Shampoo
Bound For Glory

Charles Chaplin:
The Gold Rush
The Circus
City Lights
Modern Times

Coppola mentioned, but here’s the run:

Godfather
The Conversation
Godfather II
Apocalypse Now

Kubrick, pick a start point/end point here:

The Killing
Paths of Glory
Spartacus
Lolita
Dr. Strangelove
2001
A Clockwork Orange

I probably stop there, since Barry Lyndon doesn’t do much for me. But it can be included if you like.

Not a fan of strictly genre picture runs, but this is a hell of a genre picture run:

Sergio Leone:
Fistful of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Once Upon A Time In the West

Hitchcock’s career is bumpier than I had imagined, mostly because he was so prolific at his peak that even when he had a (relative) miss in there, wait 8 months and he’d hit a new high point. But his is a pretty great run:

Vertigo
North by Northwest
Psycho
The Birds

Denis Villeneuve has had a heck of a run in my estimation:

Prisoners
Sicario
Arrival
Blade Runner 2049

And PT Anderson:

Boogie Nights
Magnolia
Punch-Drunk Love
There Will Be Blood

Terrence Malick also kicked things off with a great stretch:

Badlands
Days of Heaven
The Thin Red Line
The New World

But! That was only for the extended TV reedit. Lynch’s name is still on the theatrical release.

I could go with Paul Thomas Anderson for a straight of:

Hard Eight/Sidney
Boogie Nights
Magnolia
Punch-Drunk Love
There Will Be Blood
The Master

Especially the middle four, and skipping The Dirk Diggler Story as a silly joke.