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Miami Beach’s own Brett Ratner holds the questionable distinction of being Hollywood’s reigning hack director. Critics abhor the filmmaker for brining an unsatisfactory ending to the X-Men trilogy, stretching racial stereotypes into the three-film Rush Hour series, and helming Red Dragon, the most forgettable film in the Hannibal Lecter series. Hell, the guy’s films have an average score of only 15 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Before making film critics question their life, though, he came to fame as a music video director, and he’s being honored — well, honoring himself — with a DVD retrospective of music videos, commercials, PSAs, and short films. You might remember his work on Jessica Simpson’s “These Boots Are Made for Walking,” in which the bikini-clad tabloid star washes the Dukes of Hazzard‘s General Lee; or Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body,” which almost ruined 30 Rock‘s Kenneth character for us forever.
But the Daily Beast assures there’s more than just dumb music videos that you can already watch on YouTube — such as a short documentary about Mickey Rourke, a Ratner family friend, during his prizefighter days; an interview with Michael Jackson; and “several spectacularly tasteless and pretentious NYU student films.” Joy!
We’ll stick to Palm Pictures’ Directors Label for music video director retrospectives, but if you want a firsthand experience in hackery, pick up Ratner’s Shooters Series: Volume 1 (does this mean there’ll be a Volume 2?) this Tuesday.
