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Joe Dante Appreciation

post #1 of 18
9/9/05 at 5:04pm
Thread Starter 
Anyone else there a big fan of Dante? All his films manage to have a very fun vibe to them and are always filled with in-jokes and numerous homages. I love how his films are essentially live-action cartoons, and knowing how he was clearly heavily influenced by Chuck Jones and Looney Tunes, that is no surprise. Even Looney Tunes Back in Action which had a very troubled production managed to be quite enjoyable. I wish he would get more work because I've enjoyed all his films. I think he is definitely one of the more underrated directors out there.
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post #2 of 18
9/9/05 at 5:07pm
Man's a genius.
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post #3 of 18
9/9/05 at 5:32pm
He's one of my faves. His filmography (feature films, not his TV-related work) is tight and colorful for being thin.

THE HOWLING and both GREMLINS films are the kind of films the horror genre should be aspiring to ape. I miss the cheeky humor but ruthless terror that was so popular in the genre during the '80s, in no small part thanks to Dante.

I haven't watched INNERSPACE in a long, long time. HBO used to play it a shitload in the late '80s. That, THREE AMIGOS, NAKED GUN, and THE PRINCESS BRIDE were the pinnacle of my cable TV movie experience way back when.
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post #4 of 18
9/9/05 at 6:03pm
Huge Dante fan here. Explorers and Matinee are my favorites, but Innerspace is probably his most accessible work. I think he's in danger of outliving his reference points-- I love '50s Bs and '30s exploitation as much as is possible for someone who wasn't yet alive then, but he's gotta update or he'll end up the drive-in equivalent of Woody Allen, stuck in the first half of the 20th century.

Jeez, 'drive-in' is a dated reference itself, isn't it?
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post #5 of 18
9/9/05 at 8:41pm
Matinee may not be the greatest film of all time, but it's certainly one of the most underrated. I don't think there's a more honest portrayal of the "geek" out there.

A true classic. And the rest of Dante's pictures are good, too.
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post #6 of 18
9/9/05 at 9:44pm
I think Dante is a genius.
I even liked The Burbs.
Gremlins 2 was one of the most dizzying experiences i ever had in a cinema that didnt involve oral sex.
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post #7 of 18
9/9/05 at 10:34pm
Dante's work was a big part of my childhood, especially because of Eerie, Indiana. If you guys haven't seen that show, you should check it out. I'd also like to second the love for Matinee, and for all of his films in general, really. I like all of them in varying capacities.
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post #8 of 18
9/10/05 at 2:14am
Chiming in to give PIRAHNA its props.

"Sir, the fish are eating the guests."
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post #9 of 18
9/10/05 at 4:30am
I still hold great love for Innerspace...just watched it again a couple of weeks ago, actually. It's one of my all-time favorite box-office bombs. I never could figure out why it failed so utterly. I know this is scant praise, but it's far and away Martin Short's best movie. And Jerry Goldsmith's score is magnificent, which maybe goes without saying since it's Goldsmith, but I'm saying it anyway.

Even Small Soldiers, which isn't one of his best, deserved more attention than it got.

He also directed my second favorite section of the Twilight Zone movie, "It's a Good Life", which was completely out of control, in a good way. And when is that thing coming out on DVD anyway? Is the helicopter accident still scaring them? If Brandon Lee's death couldn't keep The Crow off DVD, then let's get moving on Twilight Zone, shall we? Another great Goldsmith score, by the way. Let's get the CD of that on shelves too, while we're at it.
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post #10 of 18
9/10/05 at 4:00pm
I love Innerspace, Gremlins, and The Howling. The kitchen scene where Mrs. Peltzer is battling the gremlins still fascinates me. That scene is so twisted and violent. I remember the microwave gag being all the rage back in fifth grade, but the one that gets me now is when Mrs. P simply grabs a kitchen knife and violently stabs one of the gremlins repeatedly. I also love the end of that sequence when Billy arrives and decapitates the gremlin that's strangling his Mom with a sword. That slow push-in on the gremlins head in the fire place while it's still howling is demented cinema at it's best. Although his latest couple of films have been pretty bad, he made some great films in his prime.
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post #11 of 18
9/19/05 at 3:25am
Saw Looney Tunes: Back In Action over the weekend on cable, and I was thoroughly entertained. Dante managed to capture the lunacy of the original cartoons in his characterizations and use of the classic characters. Daffy's bits are especially inspired. ("AHA! The force field penetrating apple!")

It's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll end up watching it again. Dante knows his Looney Tunes, and the film is WORLDS better than the festering pile of excrement that was Space Jam.
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post #12 of 18
9/19/05 at 4:14am
Some other Chewer originally said it in a thread long ago, but in an alternate dimension/Earth 2.....Dante would be bigger than Spielberg.

Nothing but love for his films, I watched Gremlins and Gremlins 2 back to back this Christmas eve, that was delightful. The opening of Gremlins with the snow covered city always sticks out in my head, maybe the matte shots, maybe the use of music, i don't why, one thing I do know is Gremlins is one of my top 10 faves for sure.

Shame that Back in Action had to bomb so badly, wonder what Dante will be upto next.

Tempting to go rent Innerspace and all that stuff now, never seen the Howling.
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post #13 of 18
9/19/05 at 4:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Darth_Chocula
Some other Chewer originally said it in a thread long ago, but in an alternate dimension/Earth 2.....Dante would be bigger than Spielberg.
That was me, in the Movie Insider Underdogs "movies that deserve more love" feature.

Quote:
Joe Dante is the kind of demented geek genius who should be preserved in clear plastic for future generations. His entire career is underrated, but none more so than this much-maligned sequel to his own 1984 hit. Completely unlike the original in every respect, Gremlins 2 is a live action cartoon, an ACME-fuelled sprint through more sight gags, name drops and in-jokes than should safely be crammed into 106 minutes. It effectively killed the budding franchise stone-dead before the law of diminishing returns could render it infertile, and left us with one of the most breathlessly anarchic movies ever to burst out of Hollywood. If you have an ounce of appreciation for sci fi, fantasy, horror, comics, cartoons and movies then you should love this lunacy with all your heart. In an alternate geek universe, Dante is as big as Spielberg.

The Defense: Proof that when you don’t give an audience what they expect, you piss them off – even if what you give them is better than they deserve.
I interviewed Dante for the DVD release of Looney Tunes and it was great to pick his brains about his career to date. Hearing how he and Landis were goading each other on to make the ultimate werewolf movie in the early 80s. How his dream project is a small independent movie about the making of Roger Corman's The Trip.

I asked him what he was working on next and he said "Nothing. I'm unemployed."

Which, considering some of the hacks who seem to consistently be handed blockbuster projects, is pretty fucking depressing,
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post #14 of 18
9/19/05 at 12:21pm
Nothing but love here. Both Gremlins films and Innerspace were childhood faves.

Still, it was rather sad that when I saw Looney Tunes on opening day, I was one of three people in the theatre and the only one laughing.

It's depressing that the man's out of work, especially as there's got to be a comic-book property out there that he would be perfect for.
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post #15 of 18
11/3/05 at 2:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Whitehead
I asked him what he was working on next and he said "Nothing. I'm unemployed.
Fuck this non-geek universe.
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post #16 of 18
11/3/05 at 3:41am
I wouldn't say I'm a fan, but I appreciate some of the work he's done.
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post #17 of 18
11/3/05 at 6:23am
I'm not as die-hard a fan as others, but I certainly love the quality and tone of his work. Looney Toons: Back in Action could have been so ridiculously terrible and instead it's the exact opposite. As I believe Slater said in his DVD review, it's the anti-Space Jam.
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post #18 of 18
12/4/05 at 9:41pm
Everybody check out his latest, Homecoming. It's the 6th installment of Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series and it's Dante at the absolute top of his game. Spectacular stuff, and it couldn't be more timely either.
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