John Carpenter should never make a movie withour Kurt Russel.
I mean really, out of all the Baldwin brothers out there, he has to use Daniel?
They kept the name Jack Crow. Of course, they killed Cherry Cat a few minutes into the movie.
They also kept the bit where they lured vampires to their death with blood in an elevator.
I can’t remember if they kept the Vampires name.
Other than that, I agree with you fully.
See, now I loved Vampires. Sure, it wasn’t a GREAT movie, but it did have some interesting aspects to it in terms of the vampire mythos, and I loved the characters. That’s something every John Carpenter movie has: a rather unlikeable main character. Jack Crow was great, and I loved Wood’s portrayal of him. Not to mention the rest of the Vampire Squad. I mean, here’s a group of people hired by the Catholic Church to fight vampires. Any other movie, they would have been priests, or monks, or people raised to use swords and holy relics as weapons and who were chaste and pure and wonderful (see End of Days). Here, they’re low lifes, probably picked up because they were criminals and would work for hookers and blow. A very nice touch.
The tactic of harpooning the vampires and bringing them out into the light with the wench on the jeep was pretty cool. The idea of the vampires being created by the Church, and the possibility for the vampires to become immune to sunlight through finishing the ritual that created them was rather interesting in my opinion. I admit, the love aspect of the film was dumb as shit, but the inclusion of the character, the “psychic connection,” and the shot of Baldwin burning himself with a lighter was pretty neat.
As for Ghosts of Mars I saw that in theaters and really enjoyed it as well. It was kinda a Evil Dead meets old western type movie. It couldn’t be taken seriously, but it was lots of fun. An interesting (if not recycled) premise, but it set it up for what it was: an action movie taking place on Mars. What more were you looking for? As for lack of creativity, I think it did a good job. I mean, I never knew hub caps could be such a deadly weapon, yet they’re used to kill, like, FIVE people in the movie.
Overall, in the miriad of movies he’s made, John Carpenter has made very few REALLY good movies. The Thing I would say is the best, but if you look at it, even Excape from New York wasn’t THAT good. He doesn’t make great film, but he makes GOOD movies. Halloween is probably his pinacle work piece, but the likes of They Live are just as good (okay, maybe that comparrison’s a little off…let’s say Prince of Darkness). He’s always got great main characters, that are faulty and realistic. Sure, the plots to his movies aren’t always the best, but he’s a lot better at using an idea than many other Hollywood directors.
Again, in it’s defence, Vampires may not have been that great of a film, but I’m pretty sure vampires are the most widely used movie monster, and they’ve got the lowest success rating in terms of “good films.” Vampires is DEFINITELY head over heals better than I would say 80% of the shit put out there.
Actually, the people chosen are those who don’t crap their pants at the first sight of a vampire. They’re chosen for the ability to keep their heads on tight and fight rather than cower. The hookers and blow comes simply from the fact that a vampire hunter has a lifespan of about 6 months, except Jack.
From the book
Taken from a different source, if I remember the commentary correctly.
Also taken from another source.