Top Five John Carpenter Movies

I had the pleasure of meeting John Carpenter at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo a couple of years ago. He seemed like a pretty nice guy, although age is really starting to catch up with him. It’s a pity, since he was responsible for several of my favorite movies. None of them made it into my top five, well, with the exception of the very first one.

John Carpenter has always had a eclectic style and has dabbled in many different genres, although he’s probably best known for his horror movies. Still, he has done quite a bit of science fiction and action as well.

And hell, he’s even done an Urban Fantasy movie, years before the sub-genre became so popular! Of course I’m speaking of the classic movie ‘Big Trouble in Little China’. It was so wacky and out in left field when it first came out. Still, it just goes to prove that Mr. Carpenter was well ahead of his time when he directed.

One of my favorite actors was also a regular in his movies. Kurt Russell starred in three of the movies that made my top five favorite list directed by Mr. Carpenter.

Did you know he also produced a lot of the music for his movies? Many of the opening themes were composed by this multi-talented director!

He has also recently begun to dabble in the comic’s media, with two under his name. First is Asylum, and the second is a semi-sequel to his movie Big Trouble in Little China. I’m currently reading the latter, and it is fun, although for me the artist leaves a lot to be desired.

Anyhow, here is my list of my top five favorite movies by this director.

1. Big Trouble in Little China – You might find this hard to believe, but the first time I watched this movie on the big screen, I did not care for it. After I left the theater, I began to think about it. The setting, the wacky characters, the dialog. It took about two weeks for me to decide about sitting down to watch it again. To REALLY watch it. The second time around I discovered what a marvelous gem this movie really is. And as I stated above, this was the first time I have ever been exposed to the sub-genre of Urban Fantasy, although of course at the time I had no idea what that even meant. Now, what do I mean about it being a gem? It was funny! The characters, especially Jack Burton were so off the wall and unbelievable as to become loveable. It had monsters, a hilarious (albeit serious) villain, and magic. Oh, and did I mention martial arts? This movie went on to become the classic it deserved to be.
2. The Thing – I made the mistake of watching this when I was still a wee lad. Like Alien, this movie scared the living hell out of me and I had trouble sleeping for the next few days after watching it. I never did see the original movie, and after seeing this, I honestly did not want to. Let’s face it, the movie had all the earmarks of a perfect horror movie. A cold, dark local, someplace where you could not escape. A mixture of suspense and paranoia, so thick you could cut it with a knife, and when the monster did make its appearance – wow. Unmerciful and relentless and able to take on the form of anyone it has infected, which did not limit it to humans. Even though he did not have anything to do with the prequel that came out a few years ago, I really enjoyed that movie too, as it answered a lot of the questions left open by the original. I certainly would not mind seeing another movie involving this horrific alien. Oh and there have been several comics over the years, mostly by Dark Horse. My recommendation is just stick with the two movies. The comics will probably leave a bad taste in your mouth.
3. Escape from New York ­-  Have you noticed my favorite three movies from Mr. Carpenter all happen to star Kurt Russell? This is another one of his very early movies, and one in which he dabbled in action. New York city as a maximum security prison? Doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to me. You would think that the feds would have had better security for the president of the United States as well. Still, it was a very well-crafted movie, and I would much rather forget about his not so great sequel, Escape from Los Angeles – although that one had a cool cameo by Bruce Campbell! I really enjoyed the dystopian future that was depicted in the movie, although I’m quite glad to see it never did come to pass. Also, there is a comic series, which Mr. Carpenter does not have a hand in writing, which continues the adventures of Snake Plissken.
4. They Live - Who would have thought a wrestling star could make the jump from the squared ring to the silver screen? Well, it turns out quite a few have made the transition quite well. Sadly, ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper never really did get too many decent roles, but those he did have were quite entertaining. Imagine if you will a world in which the Earth has been invaded by aliens, but we don’t know about it. Well, except for a select few, and they are trying to ‘wake’ the rest of humanity up. The aliens use subliminal messages to keep humanity asleep and under their control. Roddy Piper was a blast in this off the wall movie and it was a great deal of fun to watch. Kind of scary too, when you really sit down and think about it.
5. Ghosts of Mars – Okay, some may be reading this and scratching their head and wonder what I was smoking. I don’t really care what people thing, I happened to really enjoy this flick! This movie had elements of ‘The Thing’ and that really clinched it for me. What am I talking about? Simple – once again the protagonists are caught in a situation from which there does not seem to be any escape, and they are being hunted by a relentless force, one which can take over the bodies of people and cause serious problems. As is the case with most of Mr. Carpenter’s movies, it had it’s over the top moments, but I also liked the world he set out to create with this movie. The female dominated society was a pretty nice touch.  Hey, it’s an action movie with horror aspects and you know, I would like to see the story continued!