The Thing

Actually, last semi-reliable mention I found was that he's in real estate!

The doc on the Thing DVD is great. Lotsa interviews with the actors and Carpenter and Bottin.

Wow, Bottin did "The Howling,'' "The Thing," "Robocop," "Total Recall," "Se7en" and "Fight Club." Looks like he built up quite the relationship with Joe Dante (with whom he did five or so movies, plus Verhoeven. No credits on IMDB past, um, "Mr. Deeds," in 2002. What's up with that?

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, August 26, 2011 1:13 AM (48 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

like i said, he's basically retired

― https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i_qxQztHRI (Princess TamTam), Friday, August 26, 2011 1:19 AM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you dont work on Serving Sara and get away clean

― https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i_qxQztHRI (Princess TamTam), Friday, August 26, 2011 1:20 AM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol^

Antarctic scientist finds creature. Gory horror remake. Power-of-suggestion original was much better. Read the review
NY Times

If it's the most vividly guesome monster ever to stalk the screen that audiences crave, then The Thing is the thing. On all other levels, however, John Carpenter's remake of Howard Hawks' 1951 sci-fi classic comes as a letdown. full review
Variety Staff, Variety

Because this material has been done before, and better, especially in the original The Thing and Alien, there's no need to see this version. full review
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19820101/REVIEWS/201010349

One of the aspects the Billson book discusses over several early pages is the reviewer response when Carpenter's film came out: which really was was 99% negative, when not actively hostile then baffled (pretty sure she includes a bad-review quote from Ebert). She was a young critic, I think at Time Out, and loved it: the NME critic Richard Cook had good stuff to say (also very shrewd, iirc, he was a great critic); but mainstream and genre comment was not positive, across the board. She says it only gathered its rep via video and cult word-of-mouth: and even in 1997, when her book came out, it was still seen as an outsider film, and a daring one to be writing a BFI modern classic about.

But more about my remake Scando-fusion: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, THING. They are of course THE SAME FILM ANYWAY: "am i standing next to an inhuman monster/am i standing next to the MOLE" -- "in the bleakly inhospitable, icy and distant reaches of Whitehall, a group of men are turned inside out by their own paranoias..."

wtf i could swear i read somewhere that Bottin died in the 80's. pretty cool that I'm wrong.

He was the pirate captain in the Fog too, which is just aces

http://www.411mania.com/siteimages/the-fog-movie_73989.jpg

gah why haven't i ever seen the fog?? must correct this immediately!

it is literally impossible to post images from the fog on the internet: the film is cursed

http://www.411mania.com/siteimages/the-fog-movie_73989.jpg

curse lifted by switching on brane

The Fog is scary as shit, and totally slept on by fans and director alike. Carpenter considers is a failure!

it's kinda hokey imo

Fog missing something ... like the action is spread too wide. Carpenter works better in closed quarters.

pink poop!

gah why haven't i ever seen the fog?? must correct this immediately!

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, August 26, 2011 8:18 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

same

The Fog is awesome! It was on all of the time when our family first got cable and it seemed so completely terrifying.

And it's on Netflix instant view. Housebound due to hurricane movie watching weekend material - yes!

I think it lends itself to stormy weather watching.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.

I like the Fog but it's no Thing.

Back in the 80s when I shared a flat with my sister and this French dude, we had gone off to Shropshire for xmas with mum and dad, and Philippe was watching The Fog alone in the TV room. He went to bed already quite scared, and as he was dropping off the ceiling fell in on the sofa he's been sitting on, like half a ton of bricks!

He told us he lay in bed staring into the dark for about three hours before he plucked up courage to investigate.

watched the Fog recently actually - there's good stuff in it but the pacing is very strange, probably due to the brutal last-minute re-editing

Oh, yeah. I admire it despite its flaws. Carpenter originally wanted it to be more of a spooky ghost story, which it is, but they made him add some shocks and grue.

Personal Life

Carpenter is a Godzilla fan.[citation needed]

What's his actual worse film? I've never got very far with "In the Mouth of Madness" or whatever its called.

Worst film he's been in is "Silence of the Hams", which may actually be the worst film I ever had to sit to the end of, ftb reviewing it.

Carpenter? He's made a lot of shot lately. "Ghosts of Mars?" Never seen "Memoirs of an Invisible Man." I thought "Mouth of Madness" was OK.

Shit, not shot.

carpenter's most recent flick, the ward, is p bad, sadly :-(

his contrib to the portmanteau 'Body Bags' flick is also the weakest segment, imho

b-but i was actually coming here to say that 'In the Mouth of Madness' is his most underrated movie, so...

Village of the Damned is similar to The Fog (sleepy village horror) but I think is a notch better.

Cigarette Burns is totally over-the-top creepy and gruesome.

I think that I quite liked Ghosts of Mars -- on the nothing-Nastassia-does-is-non-excellent principle -- but I actually can't remember much about it: I saw it on TV and probably skipped over to CSI in the middle.

Natasha not Nastassia. My typing is gone to shot today.

his vampires movie with James Woods was AWFUL. there's a few of his I still haven't seen (Ghosts of Mars - which reads like a retread of Assault on Precinct 13, and Mouth of Madness which was on TV the other day and looked pretty terrible). but the vampire movie... ugh

bah i am going to have start 'refining' my 'all horror movies w sam neil in them are grate' theory eg possession, in the mouth of madness, dead calm, the omen 3 (hang on...)

you watched the Omen 3

I mean, that's REAL dedication

dedication to ART

vampires is awful, yes -- hadn't even twigged that was him

haha the only halloween i have seen is "III: Season of the Witch" <-- it is p silly but quite watchable

that's the non-Mike Meyers one right? v odd entry.

WATCH HALLOWEEN MARK S

yeah the first one is unfuckwithable

Yes, Halloween is wonderful.

Vampires is probably the worst movie I have ever seen at a theater.

Halloween 3 was originally written by Nigel Kneale, who take his name off the credits once Carpenter and his producers started tinkering with the script. It still has its moments.

Vampires is probably the worst movie I have ever seen at a theater.

ugh I saw this in the theater too. was actively angry/irritated when it was over

I remember feeling aggravated when it was done as well. It was just so aggressively dumb and terrible.

Vampires and Ghost of Mars were both total shit, and each time they underperformed and got terrible reviews, Carpenter started whoa is me-ing. Oh, my budget was too small, oh they were mismarketed, oh we didn't get the cut we wanted, oh, you should have seen the original script. Romero pulls the same shit, too. And then they inevitably make a come-back low-budget return to roots movie that sucks, too. At least Carpenter doesn't pretend to be anything other than totally burnt out.

Carpenter slagging off Cronenberg as being too high-falutin for his own good these days is lolzy

Also, Carpenter in particular seems very happy to accept checks after people remake his films. Halloween, The Thing, The Fog, Precinct 13. Even an Escape from New York remake has been in the works for a while.

xpost To be fair, Cronenberg is totally in I Want an Oscar mode these days.

well whatever, Cronenberg has also continued to make decent movies, unlike Carpenter.