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He wears great hats.

Kim Hollis: What is your perception of Robert Rodriguez as a director?

Bruce Hall: I wonder if he isn’t a bit of a modern day Roger Corman. He specializes in making cheap, profitable movies that aren’t always very good. But they bear a distinctive signature style that among other things, demonstrates a zest for life and a passion for his craft. Rodriguez and BFF Quentin Tarantino have done much to return a sense of full blown adolescent swagger back to the sub hundred million dollar segment. Still, I can’t call myself a fan and would debate the creative value of a lot of his work. But he’s an inventive and imaginative artist, and a positive force in the industry. I’m glad he’s around.

Brett Beach: To borrow a little bit from an old Tarantino riff, I think the most interesting question to ask a filmgoer would be: Do you like Planet Terror or Death Proof? And not which do you like more, but which one do you like, period. I don't think many people, if pressed, would answer that they liked both. Rodriguez may have delivered more fully on the promise of the project, but by definition, that made his film violent and trashy and not as interesting to watch more than once. I have not seen all of RR's films but would have to say my two favorites are From Dusk Till Dawn and El Mariachi.

Desperado did a lot to sour me on him for quite a while. (I have thought about it doing it for Chapter Two, but that would entail watching it again.) It carried all the air of a violent, would-be hip, inside joke and I carry around an intense dislike for it akin to what I feel for Reality Bites - although not as much as I loathe something like Patch Adams). So in sum, if Robert Rodriguez stopped directing tomorrow of his own free will, it would not rouse much sadness in me.

Edwin Davies: I've always liked the idea of Robert Rodriguez. He's got a great origin story - kid grows up loving films, makes award-winning short, sells his body to medical science to earn enough money to finance his first feature and uses the buzz from that to break into Hollywood - and, to me, it's a pretty beautiful expression of his passion and love for cinema. As a concept, he's a great example of how someone can come from nowhere to become something of a force in Hollywood. In execution, I think he's a pretty lousy film-maker, or at the very least is someone who got good enough to break into the film industry and then stopped trying to get better, so even though his career spans almost 20 years at this point, there's still a slightly amateurish and slapdash aspect to everything he does. I'm glad that he exists to inspire young people to get out there and make films, I just wish that he inspired them to make good films.

Samuel Hoelker: My ears always perk up when I hear his name, but that's always as far as my interest goes. I've realized I seldom care about anything he does, although I have nothing but respect for him. It must not be easy to alternate between ultra-violent films and children's movies, even if most of them aren't very good.

Jason Lee: I agree with Samuel. I think he's a talented enough director that I pay attention when he's got a new film out, and I think he definitely has a great eye for visuals, but it doesn't mean that I'm going to go see his movies. I think maybe, that's his problem.

David Mumpower: I liken some of his work to that Princess Bride quote, "You rush a miracle worker, you get lousy miracles." What Rodriguez has that differentiates him from most filmmakers is an ability to relate to the consumer. The Spy Kids franchise is only for children and it doesn't attempt to be for anyone else. The same could be said of Machete, The Faculty, Planet Terror, or my beloved From Dusk Till Dawn. In my estimation, Rodriguez has only made two truly commercial films in his career, by which I mean three titles that did not have finite target audiences. Those features are not coincidentally his best works to date, Sin City and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. And even these two titles see the most famous people in the films get maimed horribly. Rodriguez has no intention of ever being conventional. He has discovered that his ability to make niche movies for such a low price that there is little risk to them makes him unique in the industry. I have a great deal of admiration for him due to this maverick style of movie creation. I just wish he'd do more Sin City-type projects in between the kid films and the ultra-violent ones.

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