The fistfight in They Live has always made me laugh just because of how absurdly long it is. All because Keith David won’t put a pair of glasses on.
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And it also tries to be a satire! 
For me, it ends after Big Trouble In Little China, which I consider to be his last movie I enjoyed as a whole. After that his ouevre seems to me a bit unbalanced. I used to like Escape from LA, but lastly I’ve seen it I wasn’t that enthusiastic about it. Almost a worthless movie.
Although I have a soft spot for Ghosts of Mars it is just so trashy but somehow it works for me.
- De Toth: House of Wax
- Franco: Devil Came From Akasawa
- Kokkonen: Speedy Gonzales -noin seitsemän veljeksen poika
- Corbucci: Miami Supercops
- Tsukamoto: Tetsuo
- Franco: ¿Cuánto cobra un espía?
- Morelli: Corto Maltese
- Yinan: Black Coal, Thin Ice
- Welles: Falstaff
- Horne: Way Out West
It’s hovering on that, so bad its good borderline - But it’s a million miles from ‘The Thing’, and as for ‘Star Man’, I found Jeff Bridges performance excruciating - he plays the character like someone with head trauma or who’s had a recent stroke. Fuck off Jeff and find a better way to play an alien.
‘Christine’, I disliked when it came out, and now find it unwatchable - in Keith Gordon, could you find a less likeable lead actor! … I realise we’re supposed to pity the poor nerd, but I had none … and the ridiculous school bullies, who all look 25 to 30 are just cartoon jerks, that can’t be taken seriously.
‘Big Trouble in Little China’, yes it’s meant to be funny, but it’s really tiresome.
I just wonder how a low budget director can make 3 classics, ‘Assault on Precinct 13’, ‘Halloween’, and ‘The Thing’ … and then follow those with such mediocre movies and or total flops - What went wrong ? 
Jeez, still haven’t seen this one. I guess, never really cared about slashers…
Me neither, but this one is different … or was, until it was copied 10,000 times - Haven’t watched it for a long time, but I thought it very atmospheric - Donald Pleasance is great and the music is iconic and brilliant.
Just pretend it’s 1978 as you watch, before the term ‘slasher’ was evened used.
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Poor Carpenter tha guy is a real renaissance guy, directing, making scores and Writing.
Yes, and for me of course his last grea film was Prince of Darkness, but In the Mouth of Madness wasn’t bad either, maybe a bit a ambitious but still a very good horror film, with a cool end.
Ghosts of Mar was a failed project
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Demons - 3.5/5
Also met Lamberto Bava at Sheffield Horror Con at the weekend. Lovely guy!
They Live was really a pretty good idea a bit wasted by a director who rarely made me enthusiastic. 5/10
Maybe Dark Star is his best film for me, but that’s not a very carpenterish one, but a funny satire with a great ending.
The Thing is one I still like (I could rewatch it theatrically a few years ago), while Escape from N Y never gave me much, not back in the year of its release, not on 2 re-watches since then, the last one not too long ago.
From his later ones I enjoyed at least Vampires.
Same for me.
Huh, that’s interesting, never seen that one. I’ve always been rather dismissive of Carpenter’s debut, heard it’s rather lackluster and not that interesting. I guess I gotta check that one.
It was made with a shoestring budget (maybe around 50 000 $), but looks amazingly good for that.
It’s a very funny satire of 2001, but then has a kinda “serious” philosophical (and still funny) ending in which they try to convince a talking (and thinking) bomb not to explode by questioning the patterns of its existence.
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Hell nobody likes Prince of Darkness i think it’s a great flick
I find great only finale, the previous stuff not that much.
The Accused (1988) - 7/10 - A very decent courtroom drama that could have been something more, but it settles for fairly foreseeable patterns and characters that are typical of this kind of genre. The rape scene is one of the most gruesome ones I’ve seen, but it is likewise a bit protracted and overdone IMHO. Its lengthiness is conspicuously intended to emphasize the nastiness of the act, drive the film’s message home more effectively and lambaste the concept of machismo that supposedly factors into the number of sexual assaults that take place, but the sequence kind of doesn’t work in the context of the movie. Being this voluminous, it should have been placed at the very onset and then it would harmonize with the rest of the composition more efficaciously. The flashback/testimony, which presented towards the end, functions as a sort of a climax, but it also throws the narrative off the track to some extent. Just a thought. A great performance by Jodie Foster is the best thing about the movie though and by virtue of it, the film is well worth checking out.
Johnny Mnemonic (1995) - 2/10 - Not easy to decide what’s the worst aspect:
The unimaginative directing?
The dull acting?
The unatmospheric sets and costumes?
The lousy photography?
The shitty action scenes?
The awful dialogues?
Takeshi Kitano, what the heck are you doing in this abhorrent piece of nauseating shit?
I’m really sorry for Kitano, who could have served as an amazing villain in a duly prepared Sci-Fi. However, here he just gets a painfully generic villain role and walks around aimlessly, performing in the most stereotypical and lukewarm way possible.
The premise? The premise is brilliant, worthy of a Philip K. Dick novel, but it is utterly, utterly, utterly, nonsensically wasted. Every good thing about the movie is turned into this awful excuse of a Sci-Fi comedy that is tainted by its wretched lack of talent.
Then there’s the fish.
Yes, the fish in a water tank. Whoever thought of it as something hilarious must’ve been stoned out of his mind to put it into the movie. It’s not funny, it’s obnoxious.
And there is the preacher. Shit.
Keanu Reeves? Okay, he’s funny. I wish the movie itself was a serious Sci-Fi that properly capitalized on the core concept and turned it into something more brooding and worthwhile, but even if the movie is downright awful, he is at least passable in his own wooden, cheesy way. His room service monologue is kinda-sorta-kinda funny. Not funny in an intelligent way though, it’s probably one of the cringiest moments that have ever been eternalized on film, but at least it’s abysmal in a mildly funny way. Whoever wrote these lines must’ve been dead drunk.
I like Brad Fiedel music, but his score here sounds obsolete here with its acid sweeps in the background. Most of it is unmemorable anyhow.
Have I mentioned the lovely premise?
Blink (1993) - 7/10 - Oddly enough, this one is somewhat obscure, but it’s a pretty good serial killer thriller. The thing that distinguishes this one from a multitude of similar crime movies are its well delineated characters. The film puts emphasis on character development and the love story at the center of it rather than the killings themselves which in and of itself is somewhat intriguing and unorthodox in this kind of flick. Also, nice cinematography and good pacing help greatly as well.
Fright Night (1985) - 8/10 - One of the best horror comedies I’ve probably seen. It’s rather old-fashioned in its approach to horror gags, but the film is very well made and has got a lot to offer in terms of pure entertainment.
Pacific Heights (1990) - 7/10 - A gripping study of a sophisticated and charming con man that handily manipulates people around him and makes his way through life by ruining other people’s lives and turning their misery into hard cash, so to speak. The story is handled well, the pacing is good, and I like the way it presents the tale to the viewer. Albeit slightly manipulative, the approach makes for a gripping watch and keeps you at the edge of a seat. No complaints here, gets a solid 7/10.
Dead Calm (1989) - 7/10 - A pop culture thriller that delivers the goodies. The setting kind of invigorates the film by making it say something also about complete isolation from the rest of the world. The acting is good, the film is good. Pretty straightforward, but also entertaining.
3 Days of the Condor - 8/10 - A re-watch. I’m not sure why I like this one this much. There is this lovely 1970s’ aura that the movie has and the jazzy score by Dave Grusin is super-classy. Overall, the movie has a very polished and stylish look to it and it also never gets too vehement or action-driven which is probably why I like it so much. The dialogue between Redford and Von Sydow towards the end is one of my favorites too, it has an oddly soothing quality to it, not sure if it’s because of the soundtrack or the charisma and coolness of Von Sydow’s character who is one of the most badass assassin characters ever. The film’s message regarding intelligence agencies is perhaps even more valid now than it was around the time of its release.
Someone To Watch Over Me (1987) - 7/10 - A gorgeous-looking flick by Ridley Scott. Lots and lots of shots are highly reminiscent of the kind of style that is even more apparent in Blade Runner, minus the fog and the dystopia of course, as it is pretty much a sleek, modern, cosmopolitan and metropolitan (that’s quite a lot of adjectives, jeez) neo-noir with a glossy, affluent entourage. Berenger is good in the leading role, he is pretty convincing in the working-class cop role. It’s nothing special and the characters are what they are, but hey, it’s a nice, little Scott flick that some people might’ve missed and it’s not an insufferably bad one.
Cat People (1982) - 6/10 - A sultry little arthouse flick from Schrader. It’s got some pretty staggering visuals and a nice overall milieu, but it oftentimes veers on being somewhat cheesy and goofy. The pacing sporadically gets somewhat slack and it feels like the film could’ve been a trifle shorter. It’s okay though and it’s always nice to see John Heard in a non-comedic role.
Relentless (1989) - 6/10 - The future Blue Underground founder (now how cool is that?) delivers this very solid serial killer entry. It’s not exactly fancy or anything, but it’s done with a rugged style and humor. Pretty cool overall.
Man on the Roof (1976) - 6/10 - The action sequences towards the end are pretty goddamn well-made for a 1970s flick, but the former half leaves a lot to be desired IMHO. It’s not that the direction itself is intrinsically this unimpressive, it’s just that it feels like the man behind the camera is not assured enough in his attitude towards storytelling and lacks some sort of narrative discipline, so to speak, to deliver something that’s more taut and engrossing than what we’re being offered. Making things more absorbing isn’t necessarily tantamount to resorting to implementing rambunctious action sequences: it would merely be nice to make the story more linear and less episodic in its structure in order to ameliorate the general flow of the movie. While the narrative is not exactly disjointed, it appears rather loose in the sense that it feels as though it lacked a clearly specified thematic aim. Instead of recounting the story in a more absorbing fashion, building tension and embedding a sense of dread, things just happen and certain shots frequently lack purpose or stylistic conviction. Albeit not particularly unusual, the story is replete with nuance and begs to be treated in a special way. It’s a bit of shame it’s not more than that, but it is pretty good and the action part is exciting enough.
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Absolutely.
Yeah, I watched this for the first time in years and years at the start of this month and although I always recalled that I enjoyed it I was struck by just how much I still enjoyed it. An underrated little gem, I think.
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Last 9 days:
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (Miller, 1981) 
The Untouchables (De Palma, 1987)
Grave of the Fireflies (Takahata, 1988)
Raising Arizona (Coen, 1987)
The Cannonball Run (Needham, 1981)
Koyaanisqatsi (Reggio, 1982)
The Breakfast Club (Hughes, 1985)
Godzilla vs Biollante (Ōmori, 1989)
Stand By Me (Reiner, 1986)
Young Guns (Cain, 1988)
Pale Rider (Eastwood, 1985)
To Live and Die in LA (Friedkin, 1985)
For Your Eyes Only (Glen, 1981)
Gregory’s Girl (Forsyth, 1981)
Hellraiser (Barker, 1987)
Licence to Kill (Glen, 1989)
The King of Comedy (Scorsese, 1982)
National Lampoon’s Vacation (Ramis, 1983)
Dead Poets Society (Weir, 1989)
This is Spinal Tap (Reiner, 1984)
The Fly (Cronenberg, 1986)
Party Party (Winsor, 1983)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Nimoy, 1986)
Blue Velvet (Lynch, 1986)
The Cured (Freyne, 2018)
Die Hard (McTiernan, 1988)
The Evil Dead (Raimi, 1981)
Evil Dead II (Raimi, 1987)
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Hell yes.
That’d be 5 stars for me.
I’ve always liked that one a lot. I know it’s one of his lesser films, but I like it all the same.
I have to rewatch it ASAP.
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Strange one this, because I do like it, and I’ve always liked it, but I’ve liked it a little less each time I’ve seen it over the last few years. It’s always been my seventh-favourite Clint western behind the Dollars trilogy, Unforgiven, High Plains Drifter and The Outlaw Josey Wales but it was always right up with those pictures, for me, in a close grouping. Now I definitely see it as being a “lesser” movie than those. Maybe I’ve just got to be in the right mood for it.