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rabid kazook 
"Pushing the antelope"
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 Posted - 11/12/2007 : 13:17:03
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quote:
Originally posted by 8nimal Mutha
Next week, why Walter Hill is a living god.
Heh, he's another long rider for me too.  
The Warriors is just too much of a cheesy musical, and I can't take much of it, (P. Kaufman's Wanderers are so much better, if we could draw that analogy), and with his other movies my beaf is, that while Hill can color them movies with a very nice serious tone, those movies are often lacking the proper big thrills of the action trade.
The exception that proves the rule though is the bestest action movie this side of Timbaktu - Extreme Prejudice. I'm convinced he's a much better filmwriter.
Undisputed 4/10
Last Man Standing 5/10
Trespass 4/10
Red Heat 4/10
Extreme Prejudice 8/10
Streets of Fire 1/10
48 Hrs. 3/10
Southern Comfort 3/10
The Long Riders 3/10
The Warriors 2/10
The Getaway (writer) 7/10
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Edited by - rabid kazook on 11/12/2007 13:18:02 |
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Animal Mutha
"Who would've thunk it?"
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Posted - 11/12/2007 : 14:12:01
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I'll admit that Carpenter has his flaws, but when it comes to making films you can watch again and again, he really was the man for the job (right up until the end of the 80's and 'They Live'). Because he never really had a budget, he had to be very creative and write an entertaining and witty script that would get you passed the bumps. I could usually find a couple of things in each of his films that endeared them to me for life:
Dark Star - A precursor to 'Alien' and one of the first films to show the future as a broken down, shabby bureaucratic nightmare. (sounds like a couple of Terry Gilliam movies to me). Oh... and one of the characters is a beach ball.
Assault On Precinct 13 - Classic Theme. Napoleon Wilson is the archetypal modern anti-hero. You never find out what his motives are. It contains the immortal scene, where a young girl says "I wanted vanilla twist!", right before getting shot at point blank range. It's a remake lovingly adapted into an enjoyable and compelling story. Something which seems to be sadly lacking in todays film industry.
Halloween - Instantly recognisable music. Innovative 1st person murder scene to open. William Shatner has never been so scary (except for when he's holding a microphone). Paved the way for nearly every slasher movie that followed.
The Fog - Ummmmm... Zombie pirates?
Escape From New York - Another great theme. A plot that seems to mirror some contemporary worries about liberty that we are all having today. It's got C.H.U.D's in it. Snake Plissken and Kurt Russell... need I say more? Probably
The Thing - Kurt Russell, SFX that still stand up today and "You gotta be fucking kidding!" A genuine sense of tension and isolation (30 Days Of Night could have taken some notes from this movie) and that ending.
I'll stop there. All I can say is that every time I watch a John Carpenter movie I feel like a kid again and in my humble opinion he has influenced popular culture for years to come.
Here are the movie connection pages for the films I just mentioned:
Dark Star: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069945/movieconnections
Assault on Precinct 13: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074156/movieconnections
Halloween: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077651/movieconnections (this ones a bigee)
The Fog: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080749/movieconnections
Escape From New York: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082340/movieconnections
The Thing - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/movieconnections |
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Animal Mutha
"Who would've thunk it?"
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Posted - 11/12/2007 : 14:20:55
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Dang rabid kaz%k, you're a pretty tough critic. I can't believe you'd give 'Streets Of Fire' 1/10. I'd give it at least a 7 just for the opening credits alone. Once again though, my opinion is probably tainted by nostalgia, but I still really enjoy these movies when I watch them today. Hill's influence is still going strong too. I was watching this movie: City Of Violence the other day and a bunch of kids are dressed as the baseball gang from the Warriors.  |
Edited by - Animal Mutha on 11/12/2007 18:10:30 |
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rabid kazook
"Pushing the antelope"
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Posted - 11/12/2007 : 19:37:48
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quote:
Originally posted by 8nimal Mutha
I'll admit that Carpenter has his flaws, but when it comes to making films you can watch again and again, he really was the man for the job (right up until the end of the 80's and 'They Live'). Because he never really had a budget, he had to be very creative and write an entertaining and witty script that would get you passed the bumps.
Ya, I was always giving him props for everything from importance in so many filmmaking aspects to le popular culture to being such a resourceful filmmaker, and a few years back, The Fog, Assault, The Thing were all good movies to me, but day today they seem weak, they still good music and ok atmosphere and good characters but they just pale sans to the bad looking sets, costumes, generaly bad looking time to make this genre movies on lowbudget, and then there is also the thing with for me uneven stories and plots. Sounds tough, but no, I respect him alot, and would love to see giving him an A for his next movie I see.
quote:
Originally posted by 8nimal Mutha
The Thing - Kurt Russell, SFX that still stand up today and "You gotta be fucking kidding!" A genuine sense of tension and isolation (30 Days Of Night could have taken some notes from this movie) and that ending.
These days I really don't like how the creatures look like. That only would not be a big deal, but the complete package don't make me the giddiest man. 
quote:
Originally posted by 8nimal Mutha
Escape From New York - Another great theme. A plot that seems to mirror some contemporary worries about liberty that we are all having today. It's got C.H.U.D's in it. Snake Plissken and Kurt Russell* Do I need to say more? Probably.
*and Lee Van Cleef. 
You can say more if you want to, but I really can't change my opinion, it's just the way I click these days.
quote:
Originally posted by 8nimal Mutha
Dang rabid kaz%k, you're a pretty tough critic.
Not that the case of tough, just probaly the case of crazy... no wait, it's tough.
Still, I also like a lot of critically maligned movies. Do I redeem myself somewhat?
quote:
Originally posted by 8nimal Mutha
I can't believe you'd give 'Streets Of Fire' 1/10. I'd give it at least a 7 just for the opening credits alone. Once again though, my opinion is probably tainted by nostalgia...
It was pretty cliche and uninteresting, and it probably is more than a 1 10th but I really gave up on it then.
And for a thing with nostalgia, well it could be a lot there; I saw Extreme Prejudice a lot of times as a kid (see see, movies didn't ruin me, as I'm a stellar non-violent person today), and I was seeing it the other day and found that I love every scene, every character in it. On the other hand The Fog didn't hold up.
quote:
Originally posted by 8nimal Mutha
I was watching this movie: City Of Violence the other day and a bunch of kids are dressed as the baseball gang from the Warriors.
Yeah I saw that, bad movie though, two fantastic brawls don't make a movie (that face-off with gangs and the final face-off).
Also with The Warriors, at the start of the decade there was a track (and a cool video, probably can be found on Youtube) by Dumonde (german trance djs) called Can U Dig It?, a very cool track obviously inspired by TW, and I had always appreciated it. So you can say that I very much like the mythology of The Warriors, just not the movie itself. Funny as that. Something I would like to see is an animated film of the story, directed by Mr. Tartakovsky's team or somebody else. How great would that be... probably better that the full-lenght remake.
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randall 
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 11/13/2007 : 03:21:23
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I would have loved THE WARRIORS even if I hadn't had a dog in the hunt. It is a comic book, a bloated saga reduced twice: first, Sol Yurick's novel tracking Greek mythology, then Hill's brilliant screen rendition set in an ungovernable New York City [reflect upon how few adults -- cops, passers-by, etc., you actually see in the flick -- it's 90% gangs!]. I cringe at the thought of a remake, which Tony Scott is apparently trying to get going, because Hill's comic-book violence will be rendered nil once the makeup FX guys get their knives out.
An interesting note is that Hill was in pre-production on THE WARRIORS when his rewrite of ALIEN got green-lit. But his hands were already full, thence Sir Ridley. Imagine ALIEN directed by *Walter Hill*, Mutha! |
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Animal Mutha
"Who would've thunk it?"
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Posted - 11/15/2007 : 22:26:50
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quote:
Originally posted by Randall
An interesting note is that Hill was in pre-production on THE WARRIORS when his rewrite of ALIEN got green-lit. But his hands were already full, thence Sir Ridley. Imagine ALIEN directed by *Walter Hill*, Mutha!
The chest burster scene would've probably taken place in a Torchy's if he'd gotten the job. I read that he was going to helm a remake of John Woo's 'The Killer' starring Denzel Washington and... Richard Gere!!! Dodged a bullet there. |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 11/16/2007 : 01:14:59
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quote:
Originally posted by Animal Mutha
quote:
Originally posted by Randall
An interesting note is that Hill was in pre-production on THE WARRIORS when his rewrite of ALIEN got green-lit. But his hands were already full, thence Sir Ridley. Imagine ALIEN directed by *Walter Hill*, Mutha!
The chest burster scene would've probably taken place in a Torchy's if he'd gotten the job.
You're missing the point: Hill frickin re-wrote it in the first place! He knew exactly what to do, thus THE WARRIORS. |
Edited by - randall on 11/16/2007 01:17:08 |
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Sean's FYCTH - #351
