What a drop-off he had after the 80s. In the 70s and 80s he directed such hits as The Blues Bros, Trading Places, Animal House, An American Werewolf in London, Spies Like Us and Coming to America.
And then, somehow, by the 90s he couldn't make a hit to save his life, and by the turn of the 21st century his career was basically over.
It's always strange to me when a clearly-talented director just falls off like that.
Everything went bad for him after he caused the deaths of Vic Morrow and those 2 little kids while filming The Twilight Zone movie.
shareThe Twilight Zone incident ruined his career. He was no longer a director who had 100% influence and control over whatever he wanted. Even when he was making hits after 1983, like Coming To America, they were not the movies he wanted to do. He was being forced to take whatever lifeline was thrown his way. By the 90's, he had burned alot of bridges due to both The Twilight Zone case and his poor attitude with actors and producers, so nobody wanted to work with him. That's why all of his 90's movies are complete shit.
shareWell he certainly made some good movies--comedy classics, even--after Twilight Zone, so he at least showed that he was still capable of making good movies after that incident. If there were other issues after that that cut off opportunities for him then that would make sense, because it really seems like he just forgot how to make a good film once the 90s arrived.
shareI know some of the cases, like Innocent Blood, BHC3, and The Stupids were all because studios sought him out and he basically couldn't say no because no other films were coming his way. Innocent Blood was a fall-back film he agreed to do a decade prior, and he went into BHC3 and The Stupids already knowing they would be total shit, so I don't think he tried very hard.
shareWHAT IN THE HELL WERE THEY GOING TO DO WITH THE STUPIDS?...SUCH A STRANGE ADAPTATION...LANDIS DID ABOUT AS WELL AS THAT SOURCE MATERIAL WOULD ALLOW.
shareI WOULD SAY OSCAR AND INNOCENT BLOOD ARE ALSO QUITE GOOD...INNOCENT BLOOD WAS 1992...AFTER THAT HIS ENTIRE 90S IS MICHAEL JACKSON,SEQUELS AND THE STUPIDS...VERY WEAK INDEED...SINCE IT SEEMS TO BE ALL TV WORK EXCEPT THE FAIRLY DECENT BURKE & HARE (2010).
THERE ARE A FEW HIGHLIGHTS...BUT...YEAH....THAT'S A DAMN FALL OFF.
Weird that a lot of the late 70's/early 80's masters of horror all kinda ended up the same way. Carpenter, Craven, Hooper, and Romero were basically completely irrelevant by the 21st century.
shareSAD...BUT TRUE.
shareJohn Carpenter seemed to just not care anymore after Ghosts of Mars failed. And that film, while I don't think it's great, I still kind of enjoyed. But after GoM he basically just retired.
As for Craven, I actually think Red Eye was an enjoyable, underrated film, but I think that is the only one he made this millennium that is noteworthy. (Though to be fair, I did not see Scream 4.)
Craven I think was the most accomplished of the bunch, though Carpenter was the best filmmaker. Hooper is basically a one-film wonder and by the 2000's he was making direct-to-DVD SyFy Channel stuff.
shareBeing that I'm not really a big horror fan, Hooper I have no particular appreciation for. Of this bunch, Carpenter is by far my favorite. Escape from New York, The Thing, They Live and especially Big Trouble In Little China are all great. Big Trouble is among my very favorite movies of all time--it's so original and so much fun--and They Live has a message that is still vital and relevant today.
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Maybe I will have to check out Oscar and Innocent Blood. I have not seen them. If those are good then it looks like we can put the cut off point for him at 1992. In any case, he suffered a major decline after making stone cold classics in the 80s.
shareInnocent Blood is actually a unique take on the vampire horror genre with comedic elements. Highly recommended. Oscar, is not great. It is a take on the screwball comedy of the 30s and 40s. It did not deserve all the hate it got but Stallone was miscast.
shareOscar was also a remake of a 1960s French comedy.
shareInnocent Blood is a good movie, but it didn't do much at the box office.
shareStudios were still willing to hire him and those actors dies on the set of the Twilight Zone due to his negligence. The quality and financial failure of the movies are what did his career in.
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