rate the John Carpenter films

[jbat31]

Here is my top five and why

1. Halloween: What a cool flick. He totally created the slasher genre adn nobody did it better

2. The Thing: Again really cool, scary and innovative

3. Big Trouble in Little China.: Very cool and funny. Jack Burton, me

4. Vampires: I liked the story and thought James Woods was a bad ass in it.

5. Escape From New York: Really cool and original as with Halloween.

[C Roberts]

The Thing
Big Trouble In Little China
Escape From New York
They Live

[larphillips]

My Carpenter Top 11

1. Escape From New York
2. The Thing
3. Halloween
4. Big Trouble In Little China
5. They Live
6. Christine
7. The Fog
8. Vampires
9. Prince of Darkness - I loved the concept and the casting, but was just a bit too flawed to break into my top 5
10. Assault on Precinct 13
11. Starman

[Marq]

From this thread: DIRECTORS DISCUSSION: John Carpenter

AMAZING
tie:
1. Assault on Precint 13
1. Halloween

GREAT
2. Escape from New York
3. Dark Star

GOOD
4. Big trouble in Little China
5. Starman

HORRIBLE
6. Village of the Damned
7. Memoirs of an Invisible Man

[larphillips]

Originally Posted by Marq

Love:
01. Halloween
02. Assault on Precint 13

Like:
03. Escape From New York
04. Big Trouble in Little China
05. Dark Star

Hated:
01. Village of the Damned
02. Memoirs of an Invisible Man
03. Starman

Need to See:
the rest of his films

Based on your list Marq, my best guess is that you could add The Thing to your 'loved' list, The Fog, Christine and maybe Prince of Darkness and Vampires to your 'like' list, and you can load the rest into your 'hated' list.

[PorkChopXpress]

1. The Thing (tie)
1. Big Trouble in Little China (tie)
3. Halloween
4. They Live
5. Escape from New York
6. The Fog
7. Vampires
8. Prince of Darkness

Still haven't seen Assault on Precinct 13, Dark Star, Starman, and Christine.

[robarnold99]

WHAT?!?!?! "In The Mouth Of Madness" did not break anybody's top ten!

1. The Thing
2. Escape from New York
3. Halloween
4. In the Mouth of Madness
5. The Fog
6. Big Trouble In Little China
7. They Live
8. Ghosts of Mars
9. Assault on Precinct 13
10. Vampires

[lostwire]

1. Escape from New York - You are the Duke of New York! You're A Number 1!

2. The Thing - There's a storm hitting us in two hours. We're gonna find out who's who . . .

3. Halloween - I spent eight years trying to reach him and then another seven trying to keep him locked up, for I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... EVIL!

4. They Live - I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubblegum.

5. Big Trouble in Little China - They have survived the burning flame. I will marry both girls. Prepare them!

[outoftimejedi]

1. Escape from new york
2. They Live
3. Big trouble in little china
4. Escape from LA
5. The Thing
6. Memoirs of an Invisible Man
7. Halloween
8. The Fog
9. Ass. on P 13
10. Village of the D
11. Vampires
12. Ghosts of mars
13. Prince of darkness
14. Christine
15. Dark Star
16. starman

[Master Gandhi]

Great:

• Halloween
• Assault on Precinct 13
• Fog, The

Good:

• They Live
• Big Trouble in Little China
• Christine

Mediocre:

• Village of the Damned

Poor:

• Escape From L.A.

I still really need to see The Thing, Escape From New York, Prince of Darkness, Starman and Vampires. To a lesser extent, I'm interested in Dark Star, In the Mouth of Madness and (maybe) Ghosts of Mars.

[Anti-Hero]

BEST
-Halloween
-They Live
-The Thing
-The Fog

DECENT
-Big Trouble in Little China
-Christine
-Village of the Damned
-Vampires
-Prince of Darkness
-Ghosts of Mars

YET TO SEE
-Escape from NY
-Escape from LA
-Assault on Precinct 13

Amazing
-The Thing
-Halloween

Good
-The Fog
-In The Mouth of Madness
-Prince of Darkness
-Big Trouble in Little China
-They Live
-Village of the Damned
-Body Bags (The Gas Station)

Bad
-Assault on Precinct 13
-Body Bags (Hair)
-Ghosts of Mars
-Vampires

Not Seen Recently Enough to Give a Fair Rating
-Escape From New York
-Escape From L.A.

Have Not Seen
-Christine
-Dark Star
-Starman
-Memoirs of an Invisible Man

[Dilmo]

GREAT:
Halloween
Elvis
The Fog
Escape From New York
Big Trouble In Little China
The Thing
Starman

GOOD:
Christine
Assault On Precinct 13

OK:
Vampires

Trash:
Ghosts Of Mars
Memoirs Of An Invisable Man
Prince Of Darkness
They Live
In The Mouth Of Madness
Village Of The Damned
Escape From L.A.

Carpenter started off great and then slowly started losing it, the stuff he has made in the last several years is embarassing.

[Tender Branson]

great:

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
Halloween (1978)
Fog, The (1980)
Escape from New York (1981)
The Thing (1982)

good:

Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
They Live (1988)
Prince of Darkness (1987)

underrated:

Ghosts of Mars (2001)
Vampires (1998)
Escape from L.A. (1996)
In the Mouth of Madness (1995)

I haven't seen the rest.

[Lex M]

Originally Posted by Dilmo

Carpenter started off great and then slowly started losing it, the stuff he has made in the last several years is embarassing.

This is the most common complaint among both Carpenter fans and detractors. On the basis of his 1974-1988 years, he's one of my filmmaking idoles, but I'll concede that STARMAN was probably his last really excellent film.

Part of the problem is that though he's very much an "auteur," his frequent collaborators in his early days helped elevate the visual and aural qualities of his films. Around the time of PRINCE OF DARKNESS, many of his regular tech crew kind of jumped ship, and by the time of IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, the technical polish of his early stuff was replaced with a generic, flat, almost made for USA Network look and feel.

The loss of cinematographer Dean Cundey, who shot the first three HALLOWEENs, THE FOG, THE THING, ESCAPE NY, and BIG TROUBLE... was pretty harsh. His current long-time DP, Gary Kibbe, has a very bland, almost style-less look that's a far cry from Cundey's beautifully eerie nightscapes and use of shadow and foreground.

The loss of co-composer/synth-meister Alan Howarth was pretty drastic, too. True, no one really uses analog synth scores anymore, so maybe that's why they split, but Carpenter's Trixter-esque blues rock-metal scores of recent years sound far cheesier than cool ambient synth notes.

His earlier casts had a little more panache too. ESCAPE FROM LA has some fun stunt casting, but his casts feel low-rent now (Daniel Baldwin? Kirstie Alley?), and aren't filled with the simpatico B-players of his early work, like the great Tom Atkins, Charles Cyphers, Harry Dean Stanton, etc.

I also miss his old trademark white on black credits. GHOSTS OF MARS had thoroughly generic titles.

I also think that Carpenter is a little too flattered by Robert Rodriguez's appreciation of his work, and is overcompensating by trying to return the favor by emulating Rodriguez's style... VAMPIRES and GHOSTS OF MARS were in Rodriguez-vision, only without the flair or energy of RR's work.

In short, stick with anything from the ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 to THEY LIVE era. MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN is an admitted hired-gun job, but it's entertaining. IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS is underrated by but technically bland compared to his early stuff. VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED is icily unpleasant AND TV-movieish. ESCAPE FROM L.A. is amusing but mediocre. So is VAMPIRES. And GHOSTS OF MARS seems pretty phoned-in.

[OAR]

The Thing, then everything else.

[larphillips]

Originally Posted by outoftimejedi

9. Ass. on P 13

Yeah, I saw that one! German porn is really different from American porn, isn't it?

[Charlie & Tex]

...at the bottom of the pile comes Escape from LA. Carpenter may think it's a better movie than the first one, but if this is his opinion, then it certainly explains why his career has been on the skids for so long.

Give George Lucas pressure and a low budget, he makes Star Wars. Let him all the money he needs and all the facilities available, he makes Episode 1.

Still, Escape from LA is just dreck, full of psuedo-wit and bloated, half-baked ideas. In essence, the movie licks the undigested peanuts & prawn tails from Satan's rectum.