Ivan Reitman Quotes

We watch movies about all sorts of things that we don't know anything about, but we do get caught up in the human drama.

The real trick for me as a director is to make sure that people don't start pushing because the harder you push as a perform the less funny it becomes.

I don't think my sense of humor has changed at all; I was born with this, for better or for worse.

I've always believed in populating my films with characters who we like, who we have some warmth for, who have warmth for each other, who we would like to hang out with, who we emulate in one way or another. It's not that they all get along, or that there aren't bad people or people we make fun of. But at the core, there's a kind of sweetness.

Also watching a movie on DVD is different than watching it in the theater.

I've always believed in populating my films with characters who we like, who we have some warmth for, who have warmth for each other, who we would like to hang out with, who we emulate in one way or another.

I call it like the domino theory of reality. If you can go one step at a time and it seems to make sense, you can then take your audience into an area that is relatively outlandish.

I believe that improvisation is really just a directorial tool. It's a writing tool. It's not so much that the actors get to say whatever they want, whatever pops into their head. It's an opportunity to write the last draft of the screenplay as you're working on it.

I'm not sure I agree with the thesis, because I think that even though something grotesque or gross has been part of film since way back, what we accept or what we can get away with on the screen is broader now.

Movies either work or they don't work and they're either funny or they're not and we work very hard. To achieve that kind of work is really kind of delicate stitching.

I never like to do parodies. I never do. It's just not my style of comedy.

The hardest thing for everyone, for the writer, for the director and certainly for the actors, is not to panic when they're doing a certain line for the tenth time because everything ceases to be funny after it's been repeated.

A good actor is someone who knows how to take the part and make it real and make it honest and be effective in it. If it's in a funny movie and, as long as they are cast in an appropriate way, humor will come from it.

It's sort of the most important thing for acting, is to listen to the person you're dealing with.

The home viewing experience is slightly different and there's room for these kinds of extra excursions.

I think if people want to see pure sex in the movie, they have the Internet and the extraordinary things are available.

Well, actually, I did start out in comedies. Very, very early.

We got some devastating reviews on Animal House at the start.

Evolution .. Just the right formula of science and comedy may get moviegoers through the door.

There's been an amazing backlash for the last decade in America: political correctness. In many ways, I think that, while we've been remarkably violent in our media, there's been a real schizophrenia. In private, on the Internet, and on public-affairs shows or talk radio, we're way more explicit than we've ever been. But traditional Hollywood has been much more frightened than it ever was in the '70s about presenting things that could be perceived as politically incorrect.

In a comedy it helps enhance things that were already there.

I think Junior is certainly a science fiction premise as is Twins, as is Dave, beyond Ghostbusters.

I always see things that I can improve. But frankly with Stripes, I'm surprised at how effective it is, even today, and how vibrant that movie is and how juicy the performances all are.

I'd always been a science fiction enthusiast.

My sense is, I think it's okay for directors to do movies that speak to other work in their career.