John Carpenter

The Pocket Essentials: Film

by Michelle Le Blanc

Excellent Book

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

Reviews

[Irwin Fletcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not awful or anything but a kind of pointless book. It just sort of lists Carpenter's films with a short summary of each and a few paragraphs of thoughts about it. Feels kind of like reading somebody's blog after they decided to watch all of Carpenter's movies and write a little article on each. There's nothing too in-depth either about the director or any of the films with maybe 4-5 pages being the longest entries. You're not going to get any interesting behind-the-scenes info or anything you probably didn't know. Either you've seen these films and you already know most of this or you haven't and you probably shouldn't be reading this.

Still I give it three stars, the author writes in a pretty entertaining way sometimes, makes some valid observations and it's about my favorite director's films. So even though it wasn't what I hoped for I didn't have a bad time reading it.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Generally speaking, this is a good dive into the work one of the big American auteurs to have been working since the 1970s. It gives some information on his work as a writer as well as a director, composer, and (executive) producer. That said, it could've been extended a bit, just to flesh out some of the opinions that are dropped throughout.

[Joe Noir · Rating 3 out of 5]

Handy, cool reference. For fans of Carpenter only. No real depth or insight for non fans.

[Julesreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little guidebook, nothing too crazy. For the fans, best left on top the toilet tank.