I've been eyeing the blu-ray of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China, and it finally dropped to a good price on Amazon. I've seen a good number of Carpenter's flicks, although oddly enough not Halloween, which was what really put his name on the map. Anyway, I got to thinking about my personal ranking of the Carpenter movies that I've seen, and here it is:
1. The Thing (1982) -- Unquestionably the best of his movies, and it's not really close. Simply drips with paranoia, and the blood testing scene still packs a punch.
2. Big Trouble in Little China (1986) -- Really weird in a good way. I didn't realize it back in 1986 (because I was a clueless teenager) but Kurt Russell's Jack Burton isn't really the hero. He's a blundering, blustering fool, while Dennis Dun's Wang Chi is the real hero.
3. Escape from New York (1981) -- I thought this was awesome when I first saw it as a young teen (don't ask how a young teen got to watch an R-rated movie), but it doesn't hold up quite as well now.
4. They Live (1988) -- The ridiculously long fight scene between Roddy Rowdy Piper and Keith David gets all the attention, but I think it gets tiresome. The movie as a whole, though, is like a Philip K. Dick idea crossed with WWF.
5. Escape from L.A. (1996) -- Where the original made Manhattan look burned out and dystopic, the sequel turns L.A. (as a detention island for "degenerates") into a parody of Southern California living. More of a comedy than a thriller, it's nice to see Kurt Russell play Snake Plissken again, but it's so-so.
6. Black Moon Rising (1986) -- Starring a pre-Fugitive Tommy Lee Jones as an industrial thief who gets mixed up with the development team of a high tech car and Linda Hamilton's car thief, this is a pretty underrated thriller. It's very much a product of the 1980s, though.
7. Prince of Darkness (1987) -- The second in the loose "Apocalypse Trilogy" (along with The Thing and In the Mouth of Madness), this is about a group of physics grad students who investigate a container filled with a mysterious fluid that may be Satan. Pretty gory and horrific, with a killer twist ending.
8. Christine (1983) -- This was a relatively faithful version of the Stephen King novel about a demonic car. It's much more a King movie than a Carpenter one.
9. Dark Star (1974) -- Impressive for its extremely low budget, but still a low budget sci-fi flick about a space crew assigned to blow up unstable stars. Great as showcasing Carpenter's talents, but not one I need to watch again.
10. The Fog (1980) -- Dead sailors come back as ghosts to exact their revenge. Has some very good mood, but supernatural horror just isn't my cup of tea.
