i’ve only seen the remake once, back when it was released, but i remember it being pretty good
― Andy Jones, Earth-Born Angel of Love (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 23 August 2019 10:43 (five years ago) link
Obviously Carpenter loved Hawks and siege movies, and he would go to that well a lot - even Halloween is ultimately kind of a one-person siege movie - but Assault is also kind of a riff on zombie movies (minus the zombies).
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 23 August 2019 11:49 (five years ago) link
right down to the weather/lubar radio reports at the start
― phil neville jacket (darraghmac), Friday, 23 August 2019 13:02 (five years ago) link
lunar
feel i normally align with darragh on films but Assault on Precinct 13 is good and James Morrison makes an excellent point.
― quelle sprocket damage (sic), Friday, 23 August 2019 19:28 (five years ago) link
AOP13 is good but it's certainly this (relative to expectations) really understated and bleak and dim movie which i think works effectively as a mood flick more than a kinetic action movie, which is to its credit. i do remember the performances being blatant in terms of the lack of charisma happening onscreen, everything taken away from the performances but the words and the gestures. I mean practically Bressonian in a way tbh.
― omar little, Friday, 23 August 2019 19:47 (five years ago) link
There's a quote from Simon Pegg on the wiki that sums that up, sort of:
"You wouldn't really call it an action film," claims Pegg, "because it was pre- the evolution of that kind of film. And yet it is kind of an action film in a way."
Which is party why it works as a kind of link between Night of the Living Dead and, I dunno, Die Hard.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 23 August 2019 19:58 (five years ago) link
Wikipedia says "Assault ... was shot in only 20 days, including Thanksgiving, on a budget of $100,000."
and you can see every dollar on the screen
― Brad C., Saturday, 24 August 2019 18:51 (five years ago) link
Carpenter only ever makes siege movies, just sometimes the protagonists are under siege (they live, the fog, prince of darkness), and sometimes they're the ones conducting the siege (big trouble in little china, escape from new york, vampires). His is a world of fortresses.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Saturday, 24 August 2019 22:19 (five years ago) link
in dark star the protagonists are under siege by their own bomb
― El Tomboto, Saturday, 24 August 2019 23:07 (five years ago) link
Embarrassingly, I must confess that I only saw Escape From New York for the first time last night. Solid flick! Although not quite what I expected. I figured it would have the brash swagger of his mid-'80s action-oriented material, but falling as it does between The Fog and The Thing it makes sense in hindsight that it's actually a moodier and more meditative film than I'd imagined. Wanna see LA now even though I'm sure it isn't the sequel this thing deserved.
― McGrief the Crying Dog (Old Lunch), Sunday, 25 August 2019 00:47 (five years ago) link
LA is bad
― Οὖτις, Sunday, 25 August 2019 00:48 (five years ago) link
What's the word on Black Moon Rising? I was first alerted to its existence via a trailer compilation I own and thought 'THIS LOOKS AMAZING' even before I learned that there was a Carpenter connection.
Also need to get around to watching Somebody's Watching Me! so the title stops seeming like an indictment of my continued negligence.
― McGrief the Crying Dog (Old Lunch), Sunday, 25 August 2019 00:51 (five years ago) link
FTR, I seem to enjoy Carpenter even when he is bad (eg Vampires and Ghosts of Mars).
Oh right, the other one I haven't seen and always forget he did: Memoirs of a See-Through Chevy Chase. Is there any point?
― McGrief the Crying Dog (Old Lunch), Sunday, 25 August 2019 00:54 (five years ago) link
Nah, Carpenter didn't write it or do the soundtrack... it's pretty bad.
― the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Sunday, 25 August 2019 02:43 (five years ago) link
I've never seen Memoirs. I always forget about Starman (which is not a siege film).Black Moon Rising he ... wrote? Like The Eyes of Laura Mars?
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 25 August 2019 03:30 (five years ago) link
Yeah, he only wrote the screenplay (directed by the fella who helmed the feted Burt Reynolds vehicle Malone).But I mean just look at this thing and tell me it isn't simply drenched in unadulterated Carpenterismhttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MFD9P-QupFs
― McGrief the Crying Dog (Old Lunch), Sunday, 25 August 2019 03:43 (five years ago) link
They Live IS pretty good!
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 17:44 (four years ago) link
Kinda surprised you liked it!
Read the Lethem monograph on the film from several years back if you the chance.
― Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 17:50 (four years ago) link
*get the chance
well it's Carpenter at the limits of his talent, and he knew to give Roddy Piper fewer lines than he would Kurt Russell.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 18:34 (four years ago) link
I'm here to chew bubble gum and listen to Morbs' insights into the horror genre, and Morbs is all outta insights into the horror genre.
― Pauline Male (Eric H.), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 18:57 (four years ago) link
yeah that famous one-liner is the kind that impresses lotsa 14-year-old boys
more scifi than horror, honeybunch
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 19:02 (four years ago) link
i did like that there isn't even a liplock with Meg Foster
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 19:03 (four years ago) link
Also that one-liner is the only memorable line in the whole movie, as far as I remember.
― Pauline Male (Eric H.), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 19:07 (four years ago) link
the line is great because Piper’s character is an idiot who would come up with something like that
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 19:08 (four years ago) link
I always felt like it stops the movie dead a bit, much like the endless fight scene. As much as I really like the film, I wish it didn’t wink so much.
― Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 19:11 (four years ago) link
the winking kinda elevates it for me
"Brother, life's a bitch, and she's back in heat."
the protractedness of the fight scene is what makes it work! put the goddman glasses on, you might say to your Trumpist relations as you pummel them.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 19:27 (four years ago) link
Letham has a similar take on the fight scene, without the Trumpist angle (which didn’t exist yet). I get it; I just think the film is already goofy enough (the cheapo FX, the casting of a wrestler in the lead) that it didn’t need to run a highlighter over its sillier aspects.
― Maria Edgelord (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 19:40 (four years ago) link
/They Live/ IS pretty good!
― expedited frictionless convergences (bizarro gazzara), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 19:44 (four years ago) link
morbs otm re: the fight scene
― american bradass (BradNelson), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 19:46 (four years ago) link
well, replace Reaganite for Trumpist at the time
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 20:03 (four years ago) link
the fight scene isn’t just protracted, it’s extremely awkward and graceless. It rules!
― brimstead, Tuesday, 22 October 2019 20:42 (four years ago) link
yeah, it's two stubborn tough dudes without anyone around to go "break it up guys"
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 21:33 (four years ago) link
also it goes on so long that it gets boring, then it goes on so much longer that it gets funny, then it keeps going and gets boring, and still keeps going so long that it gets funny again
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 21:35 (four years ago) link
And it's just about whether or not he will put on sunglasses!
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 October 2019 21:36 (four years ago) link
Keith David, actor of Shakespeare and August Wilson, is perhaps best known for this film and his Ken Burns voiceover work.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 21:59 (four years ago) link
(yes, i know he was in The Thing and Platoon)
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 22:01 (four years ago) link
you came so close to him
my Paramount studio tour went all over the set on Tuesday. Have never seen the show.
― joyless shithead (Dr Morbius), Friday, July 15, 2011 8:00 PM (eight years ago)
― now let's play big lunch take little lunch (sic), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 22:30 (four years ago) link
They Live is probably neck-and-neck with The Thing as my most-watched Carpenter at this point.
― Go-Gurt Ops (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 22:37 (four years ago) link
i'd kill to see Keith David do Shakespeare
― omar little, Tuesday, 22 October 2019 22:49 (four years ago) link
well maybe he's got a Lear in front of him
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 23:55 (four years ago) link
I saw him in Wilson's Seven Guitars
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 22 October 2019 23:56 (four years ago) link
Is there a more influential director this decade than John Carpenter? Nope. The Carpenter renaissance happening is music to my ears. It's about time we acknowledge how The Thing, Escape from NY, They Live, Halloween & Assault on Precinct 13 have aged like fine wine over the years https://t.co/RaaQCy3MwA— Jordan Ruimy (@mrRuimy) October 24, 2019
― Pauline Male (Eric H.), Thursday, 24 October 2019 17:12 (four years ago) link
No Halloween thread? (Maybe I missed it wading through 10 screens of Halloween threads.)
A nearby Cineplex was running it all week--finally got out the final night. Recliner, $5, completely empty except me. Or so I thought--an hour into the film, some guy down near the screen got up and changed seats. A little unnerving.
I think I noticed P.J. Soles' platforms for the first time tonight. And I remembered how much significance I attached to the following exchange when I took an independent course in horror films back in 1979:
"I'm scared.""Then why are you sitting there in the dark?""I don't know."
― clemenza, Friday, 6 November 2020 02:40 (three years ago) link
I liked The Thing, but not as much as Halloween
― Dan S, Wednesday, 18 November 2020 02:33 (three years ago) link
The fog is super lo fi fun
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Wednesday, 18 November 2020 04:09 (three years ago) link
watched Body Bags the other night, it was also pretty entertaining... and it has John himself doing the linking material! plus a bunch of other horror movie and character actor luminaries
― thousand-yard spiral stairs (f. hazel), Wednesday, 18 November 2020 04:17 (three years ago) link
I liked Halloween much more than The Thing
― Dan S, Friday, 11 December 2020 01:30 (three years ago) link
I said that already
― Dan S, Friday, 11 December 2020 01:35 (three years ago) link