ACW1992: Memories of an Invisible Man

Oops. I seem to have the German bluray… But there’s an English soundtrack on there, too, so never mind.

This looks like an incredibly 80s film.

Yup. Even though it’s from 1992.

Oh, well.

He’s more 90s.

John Carpenter. Memories of an Invisible Man. 1992.

Oh, dead. Carpenter’s back making a studio film after two low-budget independet ones. And this one has the highest budget of his career, so we get stars like Chevy Chase and Darryl Hannah, and more crane shots than you can count.

And, as is the norm with Carpenter’s studio films, it was a massive flop at the box office. (And, as usual, didn’t fare well with the critics, either.)

It suffers from severe audience genre expectation confusion. It’s Chevy Chase, so is it going to be a screwy comedy? It’s Darryl Hannah, so is it going to be a romantic comedy? It’s John Carpenter, so is it going to be sci-fi horror? The title says “Invisible Man”, so is it a remake of the cheesy oldie horror flick?

But if you try to watch it without any of these prejudices, it’s… still kinda boring. It seems so restrained and tasteful (everything you don’t want in a John Carpenter film).

Unfortunately, there’s no “making of” extras on this bluray… Hm… Perhaps Wikipedia knows how this movie happened.

Ah. “[T]he film was initially developed for director Ivan Reitman; however, this version never came to fruition, due to disagreements between Reitman and Chevy Chase”. That makes more sense.

“The project was largely a vanity project shepherded by Chase through the studio (the film is billed as “A Cornelius Production” – Cornelius is Chevy Chase’s real first name). He wanted to make a film about the loneliness of invisibility, intending the film to be a bridge into less comedic roles.”

Oh, dear. I guess that explains everything.

So much chroma keying. So much boredom. The special effects are sometimes kinda interesting, I guess, but it’s just hard to care.

This post is part of the A Carpenter Winter series.

ACW1988: They Live

John Carpenter. They Live. 1988.

It was a dystopia back when Carpenter made it, but it seems like a pretty romantic and optimistic future now.

Anyway, there’s so much to like about this film. The unfathomably stupid protagonist and the wildly corny “pithy sayings” he comes up with; the drag-out professional wrestling match in that alley; OBEY; and the kick-ass heroine.

It’s like the greatest film ever.

This post is part of the A Carpenter Winter series.

ACW1987: Prince of Darkness

John Carpenter. Prince of Darkness. 1987.

After the unpleasant experience with releasing Big Trouble in Little China (the studio wanted Indiana Jones, which that film definitely wasn’t, so they made him recut the film a couple of times before spiking the release), Carpenter swore off studios. (Or perhaps it was the other way around, because Big Trouble flopped seriously.)

So we’re back to indie film-making on a pretty small budget. (A tenth of the previous film.) Carpenter re-uses some of the actors from Big Trouble, though, and Donald Pleasance from his earlier low-budget films.

It’s pretty scary; perhaps Carpenter’s spookiest horror film so far. But it could have done with a bit of editing. Not a lot, but some of the scenes are just a smidge too long.

This post is part of the A Carpenter Winter series.

ACW1986: Big Trouble in Little China

John Carpenter. Big Trouble in Little China. 1986.

I really thought I had seen this before, but absolutely nothing looks familiar.

I do remember this film getting really bad reviews at the time, and I can see why. It’s a zany comedy/action film; a very popular genre in the 80s. But Carpenter seems to have too much fun with the concept, so I guess it was just too much for people? If the action isn’t taken seriously enough, people (and I mean 14 year old boys) might feel condescended to?

It’s very silly, and I like that, but it’s also very loud, which I don’t particularly enjoy this evening. Everybody’s shouting all the time.

But after taking an acetaminophen things got a lot funnier. Kurt Russell is perfect as the buffoonish action hero.

Is this the first Carpenter film to use greenscreen extensively?

This post is part of the A Carpenter Winter series.