best john carpenter film?

I am assuming you are talking about the filmmaker John Carpenter and not the John Carpenter who was Bob Crane's buddy and whom probably killed him

 

Didnt Carpenter do Escape from New York?

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don't forget the thing! listen to morricone intentionally try to sound like carpenter! they live is pretty good for political commentary. I also dig prince of darkness for it's ham-fisted religious commentary. vampires is prolly his last good film; which also had a bit of that religious commentary, too. plus it's his best film score in ages…

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i havent watched vampires….but now i shall….

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Dark Star - haven't seen it, looks yicky.

Assault on Precinct 13 - cool for the ice cream scene and general lawlessness.

Halloween - just saw it again this holiday and it's not really that scary, even crappor who craps & pees at PG movies said it wasn't that bad. influential dough.

The Fog - eh, but when you're a kid pirates and buggery and poop decks in the mist will make you weep.

Escape From New York - fuck yeah! ask me about my Ox Baker comicon story.

The Thing - goddamn remakes, except for this one. scariest movie I've ever seen. top shelf.

Christine - people always poop on King's movie adaptations, not the worst thing you've ever seen.

Starman - The Dude is an alien.

Big Trouble In Little China - zany, Kurt Russell mullet everywhere, and Raiden from Mortal Kombat. top notch.

Prince Of Darkness - why demonically possessed people gotta shoot shit out their mouth? Alice Cooper.

The Live - last Carpenter movie I've seen all the way through and my favorite. Gay.

I love his nasty synthesizer music too.  Big trouble.

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dark star's actually pretty good if you view it with the context in mind: it's a student film, and not soley made by carpenter… worth seeing for a few stoner laughs, and to see youthful energy behind the camera, but not essential. 

oh, and I finally caught Carpenter's Chevy Chase vehicle, Memoirs Of An Invisible Man, on tv a year or so back… not as bad as you'd think. In fact, it might be one of the better Chase films in ages, while being only a mediocre Carpenter film. 

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Really - still the best actor's take on the Big E I've seen on film.  TV-movie, I know, I'm still countin' it as MY fave JC flick!  Tho' I liked Starman and Big Trouble in Little China - fun for the whole family!

I remember perplexing CG when we worked at the video store by saying I had a real interest in seeing They Live - still haven't seen it all the way through, glad to see recommendations.  Ask me to do my "Rowdy" Roddy Piper imitation sometime.

Has anyone seen In the Mouth of Madness?  That looked interesting too, but I don't remember good reviews.

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I haven't seen all of those but I will agree (based on seeing it several times in my employ at the West Main Theatre) that The Thing is an awesome movie.  Paranoid as hell and full of dread.  When men fall apart.  I haven't seen Halloween in a really long time but I would agree with an assessment of it as being at least just OK. 

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The Thing rawks. I never get tired of seeing that. Kapn, “Chariot of the Gods man…they practically own Peru.” “In the Mouth of Madness”? Is that the one with Sam Neil? It’s okay.

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mouth of madness is ok, and has some decent ideas;adness). but I found it's attempt to mesh King-style horror with Lovecraft to be totally misguided… Carpenter is good, but not always on top of his game. See Escape From LA to witness a serious misfire.

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See Escape From LA to witness a serious misfire.

Surfing on lava?  Fuck that made me yell at the teevee.  I still want to see Ghosts Of Mars because Ice Cube is in it.  The last 30 minutes of They Live was on HBO last night after writing on here.  Couldn't go to sleep that depressed.

The Thing was shown at the Little Theater about 5-7 years ago during a horror fest type of deal, it was the last film, and the only time I saw it on the big screen.  I still sing "cuz we're dancin on the ceiling" during that one part, otherwise I'd get too fucking scared.  

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I think The Thing is amazing. I have such memories of that film I haven't seen it since it came out. Wait. Maybe I rented it in the late 1980s, but I guess, what I'm saying is that I really dug that movie. I should see it again and see what I think now.

Saw They Live with Steve Raymond and Saucerman and others. Jeff Jackson, I think. Wait. If Etaoin was there, I apologize. I like that movie, too. Politically interesting and frequently as off-base over-the-top funny as Roadhouse. Don't get me started down that long country road.

A while ago, Slimons and I watched the big fight scene, just that, from the middle of They Live. It is amazing. I think we timed it. Clocked in at like 20 minutes or something. Just two guys punching each other, while the plot rested in the corner, catching its breath.

Crap. I'm not logged in as myself. Well, this is Nathan. About to update this here site. 

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Weird to see movies that I thought were scary when I was a kid, like Halloween and The Thing.  then to see them again with jaded & phaded eyes and think that Halloween is a technically cool cheap flick (and the reason Carpenter was successful enough to do the others) and The Thing is just soul crushing and the fx are fucking disgusting.  First movie that I will watch when I get Alzheimer's.

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Attention. Attention, please. DO make kap’n do his Rowdy Roddy for you. I desperately want the Rowdy Roddy-meets-Springsteen NRP basement session to show up SOMEWHERE for others to enjoy……..

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I don’t know doodly about john Carpenter. Sorry to jump thread. I tried to watch Halloween once when I was about 13 and home alone and i thought i would absolutely die of terror within the first 15 miutes where she keeps seeing him when she’s walking home from school. I had to turn it off. CHICKEN! Who directed PUMPKINHEAD? Or WITCHBOARD?

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pumpkin head….clive barker

witchboard….kevin tenney

 

 

i watch the thing every six months….and the original every two years…..the original is no joke….great great film……remember being nine years old and being allowed to stay up late to watch saturday night live….the commercial for the thing came on and freaked me the fuck out…..i was so scared i couldnt watch snl……

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barker didn’t do pumpkinhead! his first was hellraiser… rawhead rex came before hellraiser, but it’s only based on his story and not directed by him. (in fact, I think he hates it for some reason)

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oh yeah….

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pumkinhead, directed by the Stan Winston, the guy who did sfx and creature fx, like Predator.  Maybe shoulda oughta stayed making the monsters. 
Rawhead Rex, hot, frothy pee baptism.

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I remember watching that at The Bohm in albion when I lived there for a summer. we would go see ANYTHING there because there was some semblance of air conditioning. I also saw “Throw Mama From The train,” “Nightmare on Elm Street Part III,” “Spaceballs,” whatever that movie was with Arnold or Sly in the jungle battling metallus liquid mercury monster……what else????? I can’t recall. The Bohm always smelled of Pine-Sol. I remember laughing my pumpkin head off at “Pumpkinhead.” i believe Maryjane accompanied us to the theater and then waited outside while we watched…..

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is mary jane special drug talk for crack?

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So, the biggest reason I haven’t seen Carpenter’s “The Thing” is because I’ve never seen Howard Hawks’ original. Anyone seen them both? Does it matter?

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that rules that you haven’t seen Carpenter’s The Thing! Yes, I’ve seen them both and they both rule for their own reasons. Hawks’ version has some really great things going on, and some awesome moments (finding the UFO in the ice, etc.). Plus, you get James Arness (!!) as the monster! Carpenter’s is a mucho bloodier update of the ideas from the Hawkes’ version, but easily equals it and maybe passes it by… You could do no wrong in watching them in the order they were made.

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[quote=dingey]"Spaceballs"[/quote]

I’m adding it to the Netflix queue! Imagine the howls when it is found in the mailbox.

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