Ivan Reitman Quotes (34 Quotes)

I remember when first, Stripes, and then Animal House came out - which I was really proud of, even though it was kind of loose and quite raucous - there were imitative movies that were not quite as good.

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

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.

I don't think people can be mad at Nick or hold anything against him, because he almost makes fun of himself, ... He knows how other people feel about him. So he disarms them. He will not allow them to get into his head because he already knows their position on him.

I love horror and sci-fi.

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

Then my first film was something called Cannibal Girls, which sounds like a horror movie but was actually kind of a goofy comedy with horror elements. Like a horror spoof.

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

I always thought that Bill Murray was one of the great actors that I've worked with. And I've worked with all kinds of people who are known primarily for their dramatic work.

When you have a performer as talented as Bill Murray or as Harold, that can write as well as they can perform, you can do a final draft on the set if you think of it that way.

I've always been a fan of science fiction films, and I've never been able to put my particular spin on it.

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.

Everybody says how hard comedy is, but, when it comes time to honor things, whether it's on a weekly critical basis or whether it's award time, at that time of the year, comedy is the poor, dumb child of dramatic work.

A lot of movies at this festival were struggling to find distributors, ... This film was fortunate enough to find more than its share.

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

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

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.

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

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

My first student film was Orientation, which was basically the set-up for Animal House. There are a couple of scenes that we later borrowed in some form.

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

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.

Yes, there are bodily function issues that are a central premise of this movie and I think they're handled with amazing delicacy of humor.

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.

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

I'd always been a science fiction enthusiast.

Very early on, I decided I didn't want smoking in the movie. It's not really a movie about smoking, but about lobbying. Tobacco is just the setting. It's not that I believe in the idea that movies should be responsible and not show smoking. But I think if the characters had been smoking, it would have seemed a pro-smoking movie, whereas it's about lobbying and spin and talk.

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

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

I don't think there will be another Ghostbusters. I think we're all too old to do it. I think we've done it a couple times and there is not that much to get out of it, to do that would be fresh in it.

I've almost never watched The X Files through. I was never a fan, I don't watch much television anyway so it's nothing personal.

It's been about 15 years, and I've never really worked seriously in CGI and I thought that here was an opportunity to do the kinds of things that I was not able to do on Ghostbusters.