Michael Winner - Director
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Anirban711
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I can't remember off hand but I'm pretty sure he directed some right trash.
His last three films were:
Parting Shots (1999)
Dirty Weekend (1993)
Bullseye! (1990)
I never saw Parting Shots so can't comment on that.
Dirty Weekend was supposed to be Death Wish but a woman and was rubbish as are most of his films.
Bullseye was a comedy(?) starring Michael Caine which again was rubbish.
In the last 30 years Michael seems to have had a career based on the huge success of the Death Wish film combined with he was one of the few British Directors in a time when the British film industry was pretty much dead in the water. It helped that he was always up for doing interviews, chat shows and game shows if he wasn't filming something so he got an profile as a personality. Unlike someone like Alan Parker who avoided that stuff
Parting Shots (1999)
Dirty Weekend (1993)
Bullseye! (1990)
I never saw Parting Shots so can't comment on that.
Dirty Weekend was supposed to be Death Wish but a woman and was rubbish as are most of his films.
Bullseye was a comedy(?) starring Michael Caine which again was rubbish.
In the last 30 years Michael seems to have had a career based on the huge success of the Death Wish film combined with he was one of the few British Directors in a time when the British film industry was pretty much dead in the water. It helped that he was always up for doing interviews, chat shows and game shows if he wasn't filming something so he got an profile as a personality. Unlike someone like Alan Parker who avoided that stuff
His last movie was Parting Shots in 1999. Never saw it, but by all accounts it was pretty bad, as is much of his later work.
He made a few reasonable movies in the sixties and seventies, like Hannibal Brooks, Scorpio, The Mechanic, and to a certain degree Death Wish.
But I find him a very bland and anonymous director, he has no sense of style whatsoever, he simply points the camera and shoots. No flair, nothing to mark him out as an individual.
And after Death Wish, he really made some dreadful movies. His nadir for me is Bullseye, a terrible comedy with Roger Moore and Michael Caine. He seemed to fall into making dreadful exploitation movies, often returning to the Death Wish theme (he made two sequels, the dreadfully lurid Death Wish 2, and the entirely unconvincing London based 3, which was supposed to look like New York) with movies like Scream for Help and Dirty Weekend.
Nope - I am afraid he would be on my list of worst directors.
And of course these days he seems to have thankfully given up making movies altogether...though I am not sure those awful tv adverts are any better...
He made a few reasonable movies in the sixties and seventies, like Hannibal Brooks, Scorpio, The Mechanic, and to a certain degree Death Wish.
But I find him a very bland and anonymous director, he has no sense of style whatsoever, he simply points the camera and shoots. No flair, nothing to mark him out as an individual.
And after Death Wish, he really made some dreadful movies. His nadir for me is Bullseye, a terrible comedy with Roger Moore and Michael Caine. He seemed to fall into making dreadful exploitation movies, often returning to the Death Wish theme (he made two sequels, the dreadfully lurid Death Wish 2, and the entirely unconvincing London based 3, which was supposed to look like New York) with movies like Scream for Help and Dirty Weekend.
Nope - I am afraid he would be on my list of worst directors.
And of course these days he seems to have thankfully given up making movies altogether...though I am not sure those awful tv adverts are any better...
seekin an answer
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Dirty Weekend was great unpretentious campy fun, far more purely entertaining than most big-budget tripe. His Wicked Lady's also good for a laugh, inbetween the snoozesome soft porn.
1973's The Stone Killer is also pretty good and unduly dismissed, better than his other police actioners of the era (let's not even go near The Big Sleep).
1973's The Stone Killer is also pretty good and unduly dismissed, better than his other police actioners of the era (let's not even go near The Big Sleep).
199 more to lvl 3 (1000)
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His late seventies horror The Sentinel has a few sharp moments too. A vulgar, but effective entry in the devilry genre popular at the time.
Trivia: ever the opportunist, Winner hired people with genuine facial deformities to play ghouls emerging from the gates of Hell at the film's typically lurid finale.
Trivia: ever the opportunist, Winner hired people with genuine facial deformities to play ghouls emerging from the gates of Hell at the film's typically lurid finale.
Like Mr Clay I think The Sentinel is pretty good, and still watch it.
Lawman was ok from the 70s, and the original Death Wish also.
But as another poster says, "right trash" just about sums up most of his output.
Oddly perhaps I have a soft spot for The Big Sleep- probably beacause its so bad its good.
Lawman was ok from the 70s, and the original Death Wish also.
But as another poster says, "right trash" just about sums up most of his output.
Oddly perhaps I have a soft spot for The Big Sleep- probably beacause its so bad its good.
Bed Headed FREAK
New member
I think Death Wish 3 gets funnier as time goes by!
It's shot with all the style of a tv movie, and has the most spectacularly unconvincing location and set design...it was shot in London standing in for New York, and it simply does not work.
Bronson looks like he is speepwalking (but then he always did), and it's the usual old geezer against the gangs storyline, with someone close to him getting killed and setting him off on his trademark vigilante routine...exactly the same storyline as the previous two movies.
I guess you have to give Winner a point for consistency if nothing else.
It's shot with all the style of a tv movie, and has the most spectacularly unconvincing location and set design...it was shot in London standing in for New York, and it simply does not work.
Bronson looks like he is speepwalking (but then he always did), and it's the usual old geezer against the gangs storyline, with someone close to him getting killed and setting him off on his trademark vigilante routine...exactly the same storyline as the previous two movies.
I guess you have to give Winner a point for consistency if nothing else.
Olexa Torres
New member
I always liked 10 to Midnight for some reason.
Naked, muscle boy kills women.
In the TV version, he wears pants.
Naked, muscle boy kills women.
In the TV version, he wears pants.
He made Death Wish 3 - that makes him ok in my book.
That movie is a comedy classic,although 50% unintentional!
They killed the giggler man!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuKeUAavpnU
That movie is a comedy classic,although 50% unintentional!
They killed the giggler man!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuKeUAavpnU
Yet,it's the second best movie in that franchise!
I think it has a twisted sense of humour,despite it's unashamedly glamorization of violence.It's like Winner realised the source material was dumb,right wing nonsense with a confusing moral,and treated it as such.He added even more caricaturesque urban mayhem.Cannon would knock any tat out that had an audience,and enough people enjoy mindless,non stop violent action,although perhaps not as silly as the DW films were.
In contrast,DW 2 took itself way too seriously,revelling in nastiness,bad sound and dodgy editing.4 and 5 were even dumber,but had better production values.
I think it has a twisted sense of humour,despite it's unashamedly glamorization of violence.It's like Winner realised the source material was dumb,right wing nonsense with a confusing moral,and treated it as such.He added even more caricaturesque urban mayhem.Cannon would knock any tat out that had an audience,and enough people enjoy mindless,non stop violent action,although perhaps not as silly as the DW films were.
In contrast,DW 2 took itself way too seriously,revelling in nastiness,bad sound and dodgy editing.4 and 5 were even dumber,but had better production values.
Lovely Bride
New member
For me, "Dirty Weekend" was the worst film of the year. And that was a year which included "Boxing Helena".
The film 'Parting Shots' is being shown on ITV1 this Friday night at 10.35pm showing as part of ITV's short season of Winner directed films. It's had mostly negative reviews from what I can see, but quite like the sound of the story so will probably watch it see what it's like 
funky fresh man
New member
His 70's stuff is fantastic. He doesnt get enough credit IMO
The original Death Wish is actually a pretty sharp satire with the Bronson vigilante character depicted as a full blown psychotic.
Of course by the time Death Wish 3 rolled around the films themselves were psychotic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7PrbNU0UT0&feature=related
PS
Chato's Land is another one of his flicks worth a look with Bronson & Jack Palance going mano-a-mano.
Of course by the time Death Wish 3 rolled around the films themselves were psychotic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7PrbNU0UT0&feature=related
PS
Chato's Land is another one of his flicks worth a look with Bronson & Jack Palance going mano-a-mano.
epic_times_nine
New member
He made some good movies in the 60s, especially Hannibal Brookes and I liked Lawman, The Mechanic and Chato's Land. I don't know what happened to him in later years, it seemed he was making movies but his heart just wasn't in it.