This film proves why The Thing was such a bad film.
-
patton98 — 17 years ago(August 09, 2008 07:23 AM)
Carpenter officially stated many times over the years that Starman was a project taken mainly as an APOLOGY for what he caused to the public with THE THING. Read the book John Carpenter:Prince Of Darkness or several documentaries. Its a fact that Carpenter needed very fast something to apologize to the producers and public and show them that he's not a monster and pornographer or what not as most people thought of him at the time. Jesus, some people here are totally ignorant to the facts because of their blind love for the film. And btw, The Thing was generally seen as a bad one of the most hated films of all time at the time. Do the research. And still, sometimes today i find myself laughed at by people when i say openly that i see The Thing as an excellent film.
-
john-hitchcock — 13 years ago(May 21, 2012 02:52 PM)
If he had intended this as an apology, why exactly did he wait until AFTER he'd made yet another more successful horror film before doing so?
If Clint Eastwood and Chuck Norris got into a fight, Clint Eastwood would probably win. -
HellboundHero — 13 years ago(May 25, 2012 03:37 PM)
Interesting that one of the supposedly worst films of all time could make the top 250 here. Even taking into account that being in the top 250 doesn't necessarily make a movie great, it still shows that it's more popular than you're making it out to be.
-
bring_back_Pluto — 17 years ago(September 07, 2008 01:55 PM)
I like a lot of the points you make, but I love both films. They bookend Carpenter's two extremes this being the warmest and most optimistic .. and The Thing being extremely cold and downbeat. In fact, I feel that Starman feeds off of The Thing and when viewed in contrast with the former, it seems all that much more sincere and touching. So like I said, I love both movies.
. they're beautiful! Even better than "terrific"! -
Captain_Bob — 15 years ago(October 28, 2010 11:28 AM)
The Thing is an awesome movie, a true guys-only flick with creepy slimy morphing alien, isolated forlorn location with unseen menace from every corner, diverse set of nerdy neurotic characters including a badass guy who pours whiskey on his computer if he loses a game of chess. Give me a deserted island with a generator, a DVD player, TV and this movie (and a few beers and maybe some native girls) and I'm all set.
Starman is in many ways the girls version. -
TSAV_MaT — 15 years ago(November 03, 2010 12:31 AM)
This guy Thespin is a tard I saw him on the thread "Not a John Carpenter Film" saying this:
"IMO, Starman is his real masterpiece like was The Thing, it's one of his best films as well. You forgot to mention that the high quality of The Thing also was not repeated again by him."
Then in this thread you say:
"i think this film is just a little example of what a great career he would have now had he never made that dreadful The Thing. This is the absolute opposite to that inhuman sick film that was only mocking Hawks' unmatched masterpiece."
So is The Thing a "masterpiece" like you said in another thread, or is it dreadful and never should of been made, like you say in this thread??? -
devilside — 15 years ago(January 15, 2011 06:52 AM)
<<
That's maybe why it is so far superior film to The Thing according to most people. OP completely hit the nail on the head with his comment, totally true. The Thing is surely not in a clasic way a "good" film by any means.
-
Dubz1300 — 15 years ago(March 15, 2011 11:29 AM)
that's your opinionand most people would obviously disagree with youwhen you think of john carpenter you think halloween and the thingend of story.
the thing has gotten so popular over the years and gained a bigger cult following that it is now on imdb's top 250so obviously A LOT of people consider it to be a classic scifi/horror filmas they should.
you can disagree with that all you want..but you can't change the facts. -
Dan_Dryer — 9 years ago(June 19, 2016 04:39 PM)
<<
That's maybe why it is so far superior film to The Thing according to most people. OP completely hit the nail on the head with his comment, totally true. The Thing is surely not in a clasic way a "good" film by any means.
According to most people where? Not on here, where The Thing is amongst the top 250 movies of all time. You
are
the OP trolling under a different name. -
JJNitrofan4439 — 15 years ago(December 06, 2010 10:36 PM)
While I am not an expert, insofar as I have limited training in the making of movies, I have to wonder how anyone could ever call John Carpenter's The Thing "dreadful"! Maybe you liked it, maybe you hated it, but in no case could it ever be described as dreadful. The Thing is one of the all-time classic SF films, a forerunner to the Alien series I believe (I'm not saying intentionally), and one of the best horror science fiction stories I've ever seen.
And this is taking nothing away from Starman, another Carpenter classic. It sometimes amazes me that people cannot separate one movie from another, even though everyone involved in making movies knows that even within the same genre, unless there is an intent to copy or make a series, no two movies are alike. Nor should they be. Starman and The Thing as are different as Alien and Phenomenon. One is not necessarily better than the other, they are simply different. Whether or not John Carpenter had full control over The Thing, it ended up being a truly amazing and haunting story. I understand that in Hollywood compromises sometimes (often? always?) have to be made, and if Carpenter made comments as you suggest, maybe he was not thrilled to have been forced to do so, but that in no way diminishes the quality of The Thing. My question to you would be, why even try to compare the two movies?
My example (Alien vs. Phenomenon) may not be right on point, but one is demonstrably a horror SF movie, and the other, while seemingly a SF movie at the start, ends up being an SF love story in the end, pretty much like Starman compared to The Thing. Is Alien a "better" movie than Phenomenon? To some it is, to others, not. Same with Starman and The Thing. Personally, I don't see the point in comparing the two movies, no matter what Carpenter may have said about The Thing. They are so totally different I cannot compare them at all.
In the final analysis, I think maybe you just didn't like The Thing. That is okay, but don't try to compare apples and oranges and use that false comparison as your reason why you didn't like a movie. -
Dubz1300 — 15 years ago(March 15, 2011 11:16 AM)
yea go screw yourself with your awful opinion and terrible taste in filmthe thing is a scifi/horror/action masterpiecethe way carpenter seamlessly combined genres to make a tense and intelligent film is brilliance at its best..
carpenter will forever be remembered for halloween and the thingthey are classics
deal with it -
Reagans_Revolution — 15 years ago(March 26, 2011 06:38 PM)
Horror is a much more visceral genre than romance will ever be. And Carpenter did horror better than he did romance. This movie was okay, but he should never have had to "apologize" to the mainstream lovebird idiots out there who couldn't accept the genius of The Thing.
-
DreTam2000 — 13 years ago(June 15, 2012 01:39 AM)
I like
The Thing
, but I must agree that
Starman
is a much more well-rounded movie. It has heart, charm, fear, sadness, and love like you said.
The Thing
has great special effects, it is directed and edited well, and the ending is unique. It is acted well also. But we never feel a whole lot for the characters. It is good, but
Starman
is underrated.
When the OP says that many folks consider
The Thing
a bad movie, I believe he or she means, people outside of IMDB who are not familiar with the technical aspects of filmmaking. Film nerds see it as a marvel after looking into it. On the other hand, I can see how the casual viewer can be left cold after an initial viewing (no pun).
I'm not a control freak, I just like things my way -
Reagans_Revolution — 13 years ago(September 12, 2012 11:35 AM)
People like that would prefer Armageddon to Deep Impact. People who don't think. The Thing works on such a visceral, primordial level. The fear of the unknown. The fear that people you know, people you work with and trust, under their mask of humanity are really amoral, amorphous monsters determined to spread their interests and DNA. And the ending is one of the greatest film endings of all time. You can never know who's really who. You can never truly know anyone.