MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN **** USA 1992 Dir: John Carpenter. 99 mins A financial flop at the time, this adaptation of H.F. Saint’s novel about the loneliness of invisibility was a pet project for Chevy Chase who, wanting more serious roles, agreed to do NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CHRISTMAS VACATION for…
Browsing: John Carpenter
THEY LIVE ***** USA 1988 Dir: John Carpenter. 95 mins Carpenter’s most enduring sci-fi movie is this frighteningly prescient Reagan-era political satire, following drifter Roddy Piper, who believes in America and is happy to follow the rules. He joins a working homeless community incorporating Carpenter regulars George “Buck” Flower and…
PRINCE OF DARKNESS **** USA 1987 Dir: John Carpenter. 97 mins Considered the middle part of an “apocalypse” trilogy bracketed by THE THING and IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS, this was Carpenter’s return to low budget filmmaking after several years of working for Hollywood studios. A mature and unfashionable 80’s…
BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA **** USA 1986 Dir: John Carpenter. 99 mins Awkwardly marketed by 20th Century Fox and unloved upon its release, this bold, brash genre mash-up proved a commercial failure that sent the filmmaker back to indie genre pictures, starting with PRINCE OF DARKNESS – which carries…
STARMAN **** USA 1984 Dir: John Carpenter. 110 mins. Columbia Pictures passed on E.T. to make Carpenter’s least cynical, most tender movie – the director having endured a critical backlash thanks to the release of THE THING in the summer of the Spielberg picture. Far away from the nihilism of…