John Carpenter
 

Anyone else think hes the greatest?

some good films, not so recently

I think a lot of his work suffers from being way too drawn-out and boring.

I can't sit thru Halloween without FF'ing half of it. Same for the Fog, and even Big Trouble in Little China. The thing is, they're great to watch the first time around, but there's so much down-time, it's tough to watch them more then once.

That being said, The Thing is fucking awesome... one of my favorite flics of all time. I also like the other 3 I just mentioned, but I always feel let down whenever I try to watch them again.

Wouldnt call him "the greatest"...but ya, I think he's a damn good filmaker.

[FONT=century gothic][COLOR=purple]ARE YOU KIDDING HALLOWEEN IS THE BEST! I HAVE WATCHED THE FOG AND I DIDNT REALLY LIKE IT EITHER. THE OTHER ONE YOU SAID, BIG TIME IN LITTLE CHINA I THINK I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF CAN YOU TELL ME MORE?

OOPS! I TRIED TO CHANGE FONT AND COLOR. DONT KNOW WHAT HAPPENED:confused:

Damn good- yes

greatest- no


If you're talking greatest horror directors his name definately deserves to be thrown in the mix, imo he's not.

If you're talking overall greatest directors then he's not even on the honorable mentions list.

need to add

[/COLOR][/FONT] at the end

...about 20 years ago....

Dude... release the caps-lock button! ;)

Big Trouble in Little China is a pretty cool flic. Stars Kurt Russell who plays a big-mouthed truck driver who turns into an action hero in order to save his friend's fiance from a chinese cult/gang.

I love Halloween too. Well, I did the first time I saw it. On further viewings, its too slow to hold up.

Assault on Precinct 13 was pretty cool too... you should check that out (the original, not the new one).

Sorry about the caps, i have a 1 yr. old that likes to help me type. Also, im not a dude im a girl and both of those movies sound good im going to look for them.

Keep an eye out for Escape from New York too, if you havnt seen it already. Definatly my favourite non horror from Carpenter.

I didnt realize John Carpenter wrote non horror. Thanks i will check these out!

Escape from NY and Assault on Prescint 13 spring to mind...they're both awesome.

Carpenter is good, but definitely not the best. He's made some great ones in the past, but he's made some real crap too. All the same though, the man deserves a lot of respect for those aforementioned classics. If only he'd continued in that vein.

This is so random...
John Carpenter's great-great-great uncle invented the elevator.

He made more good than bad,he's damn good,not the greatest.

He may not be among "the greatest" but, his films such as "In The Mouth Of Madness" and "Halloween" are splendid.

When i was a child(in a certain period), "Big Trouble In Little China" was my favourite movie :)

I don't think he's the single greatest horror flm maker but he's one of the big ones and one of my favorites for sure.

You dont have to be a kid to love Big Trouble in Little China!

JC is one the better horror directors eg Mouth of Madness and (obv.!) Halloween, but he has lost his way a little in recent years, just try watching Ghosts of Mars its rubbish.
Having said that the original Assault on Precinct 13 is one of my all time fav films, a prime example of less is more

hasnt tried.....looks awful

For me - its a toss up between Romero and Carpenter for the two horror directors who have been continuously challenging even if not always successful. At the moment, my nod would go to Romero - but mainly because I thought Land of the Dead was a masterpiece. I thought Carpenter's They Live was fabulous - but can't say the later stuff (vampires or ghosts of mars) were anything to write home about (although, on Romero's count - Bruiser left me totally baffled).

I've never really considered Vampires or Ghosts of Mars to be horror films. Rather they exude the feel of a western, which is a theme that John Carpenter has always wanted to use. On that note, I don't agree that he has "lost his way". I think he's just trying out different approaches to his films and he has succeeded considerably, in my opinion. These two films albeit somewhat modern, sit comfortably beside The Thing, They Live, and In the Mouth of Madness.

I didnt like Prince Of Darkness at all, I was expecting it to be really good because so many people told me it was really good. But i just didnt care for it.

Halloween is good, but overrated. Halloween III is where it's at! The Thing is amazing. I liked Prince of Darkness, was kinda disappointed. But come on, They Live!

Not the best director ever, but his great stuff definitely makes up crap like Ghosts of Mars.

omg you freaking noobs i mean damnit you havent seen a horror movie before have you freaking noobs get a life you noobs i mean damn. clearly the best horror movie director is George A. Ramero..... woot woot night of the living dead woot woot :D :D :D

and who the fook is george a ramero






:rolleyes:

excellent point there, zwoti.

Easily one of my favorite directors. So many classic films that have already been mentioned in this thread (suprised no one mentioned Dark Star or Starman). He gets a lot of shit these days but I still enjoy his films and I thought Vampires was a return to form.... James Woods was great in this film and his character was the solid, gruff bad ass tuff guy Carpenter's films have become known for (something that the remake of his Assault on Precinct 13 lacked). I have faith in him and will continue to watch his films as he is one of the more interesting American filmakers and his films will always be a good antedote to the bullshit feed to us by the Tom Hanks/Russel Crowe/ Tom Crusie driven Speilberg/Ritchie Cunningham vechicles that Hollywood churns out endlessly and that always top dipshit critic and "movie lovers" lists.

p.s I've said it before on threads on him and I'll say it again Escape From L.A was MEANT to be that BAD.... it was a tongue n' cheek pisstake showing his distain for sequels :)

John Carpenter IMHO is one of the best directors out there. He has a great sense of vision and brings some unique styles to films. He has also written some of the best scripts out there. I do think that most people only really know him from Halloween and The Thing, and I wish they would look at some of his other work as well.

I also see a lot of people who bash his work for various reasons, but it seems to be that they do not get the idea of what the film is about or how it was portrayed. Eg. Escape From L.A. and Ghosts Of Mars.

The one film I really feel is not his best is Memoirs Of An Invisible Man which really lacks some of his best qualities.

The reason any of John Carpenter's films work is simple: he adds some tension. It's easy to suddenly have something jump into frame at any given time and scare people. Every horror movie on the planet has done that. The secret is to let them know something is going to happen and drag it out. Until it does, you will have people on the edge of their seats and biting their nails. He's not as brilliant as everyone thinks. Just very clever with his shots.
CK

this is what Hitchock called 'the bomb under the table'
tension heightened by anticipation and the frustration that you know what is going to happen but you are unable to warn the characters in the movie ..

i always think of JC as making westerns - there always seems to be some kind of 'frontier' and also some kind of 'fortress' and the characters end up under seige most of the time. . .so, hitchcock is an obvious influence, but so are Hawks and Ford

he's o.k.

I have yet to see The Thing, but Escape from New York and Big Trouble In Little China were pure masterpieces.

You should definitely watch The Thing ASAP. It (along with Halloween) is generally regarded as one of his highest achievements. I still think that In the Mouth of Madness is better, though.

got it! The Thing is actually on the IMDB top 250! So obviously this one's a must. PLUS Kurt Russell is one of my favorite actors, so that's a total-high.

Yeah, In the Mouth of Madness deservies its place right alongside Halloween and The Thing! Very good and eerie movie.

i'll never understand why people like this movie so much ..
i thought it was his first miss ... soon to be followed by more.

best thing about it was the commentary .. if you want to learn a bit about lighting techniques.

I think people like it because it is clever and unexpected. The main thing i couldnt stand about it was Jurgen Prochnow spouting poorly written attempts at lovecraft-style knockoff "literature"