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Spoilers What Movie Are You Watching?
- Thread starter Huntn
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The Fog (1980) Outside of the overearnest performances from Hal Holbrook and Janet Leigh, this is still a fun ghost story with awesome undead lepers seeking revenge for their murder and the theft of their gold. The core story is very good and there are still a few creepy moments. I think it's interesting Carpenter tried different forms of horror (slasher, ghost, body / psychological and religious horror.)
Saw Young Frankenstein twice at the theater or was it 3 times?
[doublepost=1462112235][/doublepost]
... And scifi, his best.
Saw Young Frankenstein twice at the theater or was it 3 times?
[doublepost=1462112235][/doublepost]
... And scifi, his best.
Ah-hem, speaking of John Carpenters's The Thing (1982), the movie was a critical and commercial flop, when it came out, but is now considered one of the top 10 horror films. And it is considered more true to the original 1938 story by John Cambell (an impressive achievement for scifi circa 1938* which can be read online), than the 1951 movie.
- Alien Blood: The greatest weakness in the creature's disguise is that its blood, once separated from the body, is a separate organism with its own instinct for self-preservation.
- Alien Hair: The creature has "blue hair like crawling worms".
- An Axe to Grind
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: People repeatedly make the mistake of assuming that you can't be a Thing if you attack a Thing.
- The Assimilator: It's a little different (and slightly less nightmarish) than the movie version created by John Carpenter. While the thing can absorb people and create multiple copies, the creature is less like a virus and more of highly morphological plasticity. While pieces of its body will act independently of the main body, it seems unable to infect and devour people from within by using its blood or just a few cells. Instead this version of the thing seems to envelop and digest organisms to copy themand grown more copies. Still horrific but less so than an enemy that can attack you on a cellular level. The dogs are theorized to have bitten off pieces large enough that the pieces were still alive and could digest them from within.
- And 20 more!
Ah-hem, speaking of John Carpenters's The Thing (1982), the movie was a critical and commercial flop, when it came out, but is now considered one of the top 10 horror films. And it is considered more true to the original 1938 story by John Cambell (an impressive achievement for scifi circa 1938* which can be read online), than the 1951 movie.
*The novella provides examples of:
- Alien Blood: The greatest weakness in the creature's disguise is that its blood, once separated from the body, is a separate organism with its own instinct for self-preservation.
- Alien Hair: The creature has "blue hair like crawling worms".
- An Axe to Grind
- Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: People repeatedly make the mistake of assuming that you can't be a Thing if you attack a Thing.
- The Assimilator: It's a little different (and slightly less nightmarish) than the movie version created by John Carpenter. While the thing can absorb people and create multiple copies, the creature is less like a virus and more of highly morphological plasticity. While pieces of its body will act independently of the main body, it seems unable to infect and devour people from within by using its blood or just a few cells. Instead this version of the thing seems to envelop and digest organisms to copy themand grown more copies. Still horrific but less so than an enemy that can attack you on a cellular level. The dogs are theorized to have bitten off pieces large enough that the pieces were still alive and could digest them from within.
- And 20 more!
The Thing novella (John Campbell writing under the pen name Don Stuart) is still one of the scariest stories I've ever read, even 20+ years after first reading.
I really dig The Thing mostly for Kurt Russell's fantastic performance as MacReady more than ever now. It's the character moments for me. Yeah, I know Rob Bottin's FX are amazing too. So crazy and great. As great as this is though, it's a tougher watch for me these days. Largely because of the breakdown of friendships and that. I have to be in a certain place to watch this and Prince of Darkness (which, for me, has the scariest and most messed up ending Carpenter ever shot. Probably why I haven't watched that film since the 90s.)
The Thing had the unlucky break of being released as the same summer as E.T. (which I still dislike all these years later, but that's another tangent I'll leave in the ethers) and its failure drove Carpenter into a tailspin. It's too bad. John was on an absolute roll from Assault on Precinct 13 through They Live. The man was ridiculously talented whether filming his own stories or someone else's.
When watching his films now, I stick with the two that are pure popcorn fun (Escape From New York - which remains my most favorite movie of all time & Big Trouble in Little China.) I'm glad his films are being recognized for how wonderful and influential they are now too.
For anyone thinking about reading: Who Goes There?
Chapter 1
The place stank. A queer, mingled stench that only the ice buried cabins of an Antarctic camp know, compounded of reeking human sweat, and the heavy, fish oil stench of melted seal blubber. An overtone of liniment combated the musty smell of sweat-and-snow-drenched furs. The acrid odor of burnt cooking fat, and the animal, not-unpleasant smell of dogs, diluted by time, hung in the air.
Lingering odors of machine oil contrasted sharply with the taint of harness dressing and leather. Yet, somehow, through all that reek of human beings and their associates - dogs, machines and cooking - came another taint. It was a queer, neck-ruffling thing, a faintest suggestion of an odor alien among the smells of industry and life. And it was a lifesmell.
But it came from the thing that lay bound with cord and tarpaulin on the table, dripping slowly, methodically onto the heavy planks, dank and gaunt under the unshielded glare of the electric light.
How can you not keep going?
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For anyone thinking about reading: Who Goes There?
Chapter 1
The place stank. A queer, mingled stench that only the ice buried cabins of an Antarctic camp know, compounded of reeking human sweat, and the heavy, fish oil stench of melted seal blubber. An overtone of liniment combated the musty smell of sweat-and-snow-drenched furs. The acrid odor of burnt cooking fat, and the animal, not-unpleasant smell of dogs, diluted by time, hung in the air.
Lingering odors of machine oil contrasted sharply with the taint of harness dressing and leather. Yet, somehow, through all that reek of human beings and their associates - dogs, machines and cooking - came another taint. It was a queer, neck-ruffling thing, a faintest suggestion of an odor alien among the smells of industry and life. And it was a lifesmell.
But it came from the thing that lay bound with cord and tarpaulin on the table, dripping slowly, methodically onto the heavy planks, dank and gaunt under the unshielded glare of the electric light.
How can you keep not going?
Indeed. I adore the description of Macready in the novella too, he seemed like a part of the environment and that he was a meteorologist in the story makes me love that character even more.
[doublepost=1462279029][/doublepost]Two Champions of Shaolin (1980) One of Chang Cheh's better Shaolin vs. WuDang films, this one is growing on me beyond the awesome acting and weapons work from Lu Feng. A friend at another board mentioned kicker Sun Chien's stunning array of kicks during a fight and I had to revisit. The array happens so fast and and in one single fluid motion, it's no wonder I didn't catch all of it on earlier viewings.
Like Shaolin Rescuers (1979), this is one of those Venoms mob films that gets better with repeat viewings. Like I need an excuse to watch Lu Feng cut loose.
The Kid with the Golden Arm (1979) Still enjoyable and the most comic book film the original Venoms mob did, but only Lo Meng and Sun Chien come out of this not looking silly. Still, they're the primary characters beyond the rest of Lo's bad gang who are after the gold Sun's security bureau are escorting to needy folks.
I really dig those two and Lu Feng (but Lu plays an absolute dumbass of a right hand man to Lo's title character. It's rare when I think lowly of a Lu Feng character: this guy is quite stupid.) That said, he's downright fun compared to Wei Pai's hilariously pouty hero and Kuo Choi's annoying drunken sheriff. Still, the film has a lot of fun moments and the Iron Armor (robe and fan) are really simple, neat weapons too.
I really dig those two and Lu Feng (but Lu plays an absolute dumbass of a right hand man to Lo's title character. It's rare when I think lowly of a Lu Feng character: this guy is quite stupid.) That said, he's downright fun compared to Wei Pai's hilariously pouty hero and Kuo Choi's annoying drunken sheriff. Still, the film has a lot of fun moments and the Iron Armor (robe and fan) are really simple, neat weapons too.
Any good? Btw the top and bottom graphics look like black rectangular blocks.
Yes. I like it. Some surprises I really wasn't expecting.
It did not feel repetitive with any other Star War story you've ever seen?
See my signature, lol. 
Best thing about it is that its a really good star wars film.
However the worst thing about it is that if you have watched the others and and other science fiction movies in the last 20 years, then you've essentially seen it all before.
Worth watching for Skellig Michael at the end
. If you ever get chance to visit Ireland it's a beautiful spot.
Yes. I like it. Some surprises I really wasn't expecting.
I honestly never found it to have any surprises - I could tell what any potential reveals were going to be long before they hit as they were generically & thematically blatant.
Nice, I picked it up last weekend, digital HD DMA/iTunes (lots of nice extras) for $6.89 - and believe or not, we _still_ haven't watched it
You can not go wrong with those two.
I've had it a couple of weeks and haven't got round to watching it yet either. Maybe this weekend.Nice, I picked it up last weekend, digital HD DMA/iTunes (lots of nice extras) for $6.89 - and believe or not, we _still_ haven't watched it
I guess if you start tomorrow night, you'll have seen it before we even start
(we're on US EST)I _think_ my little girl wants to watch it too, she really liked the original Star Wars, then kind of didn't click with Empire (my favorite of the 3 movies, as I also don't recognize the 3 prequels), this seems more dynamic and appears to have more "girl power"
My little one (14) watched it with me on opening night at the cinema. She seemed to like it.I guess if you start tomorrow night, you'll have seen it before we even start
I _think_ my little girl wants to watch it too, she really liked the original Star Wars, then kind of didn't click with Empire (my favorite of the 3 movies, as I also don't recognize the 3 prequels), this seems more dynamic and appears to have more "girl power"
Thanks for mention this movie, have not seen it. Spencer Tracy was a fine actor.
Yes indeed he was. I've only seen a handful of films he was in, like It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and now this one.