John Carpenter -- unsung genius or burnt out hack?

but to tie back to my chevy chase thread - memoirs of an invisible man? ugh....

They Live and Big Trouble in Little China are 2 of my all time faves. Trouble was way ahead of it's time in bringing wire/kung-fu to western audiences and the idea of putting "John Wayne" in a kung-fu flic was genius, but credite for that has to go to (atl eat partially)to screenwriter W.D. Richter of Buckaroo Banzai fame. Did you know the original draft was set in the western era. They Live has republican aliens and a 10 minute long fist fight. What more could you want.

It just occured to me that many of Carpenter's films have an element of "unhinged angry mob" in them. Maybe he feels persecuted.

" he's not exactly unsung though, is he? he gets his fair share of credit for stuff like halloween, the fog, assault, and the thing, doesn't he"

I guess what I was really getting at is that I feel his newest work is dismissed because of it's cheesy B quality (which has always been there). cineasts seem way less tolerant of gorgeous cheese these days -- unless it's got the buffer zone of a couple of decades to make them re-evaluate it on it's own terms.

didn't Al Gore invent techno?

and yes, i think al gore did have something to do with that.

-- LOL!

what's really weird about how often he returns to this theme is that the only villains in his films that were ever actually frightening were the individual ones (there's even one in Escape - it whizzes past a door in the background behind k.russell at one point). Even when the gangs have leaders they're cartoonish unscary lame-os. also his idea of how tough guys look and talk and spend their time is very very odd.

but yeah his classics are untouchable. i kind of liked Vampires too.

lol

I don't know about you, but "Halloween" scared the living bejezus out of me when I was ten years old.

Add in "Big Trouble In Little China", "The Thing" and "Escape from NY" and he has to be one of my favorite filmmakers from when I was a kid as I absolutely loved those movies.

i don't know if you could call Carpenter a techno or soundtrack pioneer, per se, since he was only following the model of Goblin's pulsating Profondo Rosso(1975) and Suspiria(1977) themes. just as the rest of Halloween(1978) cribbed wholesale from Argento's flashiest lighting schemes and camera angles - knowingly and lovingly, but nonetheless derivatively, the mimicry culminating with Carpenter's restaging of Profondo Rosso's bathtub scalding setpiece as a gratuitous addition to Rick Rosenthal's arty Halloween II.

aaaaah. Argento.

the thing is a very great movie: the fog and prince of darkness have great moments, but no comparision

I'm blanking the name, but his Lovecraft adaptation with Sam Neill was one of the worst movies I have sat through - I kept forcing myself to go on hoping there would be somer sort o payoff - but no, it sucked.

One of the directors who I think burned out years ago and is coasting on past reputation.

(there is not a decent rendering on this grebt pic on the entire web: it's a scandal)

His best work is comparable with any director's best work (The Thing, Halloween and Assualt on Precinct 13 though I'd also argue in favour of Big Trouble in Little China and The Fog) while his second teir stuff is good fun (I enjoyed both Christine and Escape from New York). I'm not quite so over on Dark Star, Star Man or They Live, though I don't actively hate them in the way I hate Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Village of the Damned or Ghosts of Mars...

And how can the plot to the Thing be perfect? How does the Brinkley character's actions at all fit with the idea that he's secretly the alien?

big trouble in little china has the wit and suspense of an aftershave commercial, with slightly better visual effects. I really hope you fans saw it when you were 8.

Cage and Carpenter both need a movie like this. I'm going to cross my fingers at least as this could be terrific...

Nicolas Cage to Star in John Carpenter’s Scared Straight

I think almost everyone has been subjected to Arnold Shapiro’s documentary Scared Straight! in High School. But for those who haven’t, the film follows a group of delinquent teens who are brought into a maximum security prison to help them change their ways. Supposedly, many of the teens in the original program were, in fact, “scared straight” and went on to lead happy, productive lives. As a result of the film, many states introduced “scared straight” programs in an attempt to rehabilitate young delinquents. While I was never a troublemaker, one of my high school sociology classes took a field trip to our local prison. I remember on the bus ride over, talking to friends about what would happen if a riot broke out while we were in the prison. It seemed like a great idea for a movie. Looks like someone else also had the same idea.

Nicolas Cage is in final negotiations to star in John Carpenter’s Scared Straight, a prison thriller about a troubled youth who is sent to the Scared Straight crime-prevention program. But when a riot breaks out and the prisoners take him hostage, a lifer (played by Cage) is forced to help the young man out. xXx director Rob Cohen was attached to the project when it was set-up at New Line. Carpenter is a huge step up. I’ve heard that the original spec script by Joe Gazzam was rather weak. Ron Brinkerhoff, who wrote The Guardian, has since rewritten the entire screenplay.

I've long given up hope that Carpenter can make another great film. But I did see Big Trouble in Little China recently for the first time in nearly a decade... man, I love that movie. It's absurd goofiness still does the trick. Too bad we'll probably never see a third and final Escape flick.

"unhinged angry mob" fear = one of the great defining motifs of the era, obv - woven right into all those bizarro rock hits about survivors surviving unspecified threats despite insurmountable odds and all that, which Carpenter's scores sound like the karaoke backing-trax to.

Still one of my fave sentences ever.

i think 'halloween' is one of the worst movies i've ever seen, and re-watching 'the thing' recently, it is absolutely horrible. even 'escape from new york,' which i saw when i was young, i never liked.

big trouble is great though, but i feel like it has no right being so badly plotted.

Are you Dr. Morbius' new username? You seem to be hating everything I like?

(sorry Doc)

no i am my own self thank you very much, humph.

big trouble is great though, but i feel like it has no right being so badly plotted.

― marc iv, Sunday, December 12, 2010 5:05 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

youre life has no right being so badly plotted

BTW, Carpenter collaborator Alan Howarth has a terrific mix up at Resident Advisor: http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=230