Patrick Mirza

John Landis - what happened to a great career?

What exactly happened to derail John Landis' career as an A-list director?

I mean, for a long time there the man could do no wrong! Kentucky Fried Movie, Animal House, The Blues Brothers, American Werewolf, Coming Soon (yes, I really liked it!), Twilight Zone (I won't even go into that backstory...), Trading Places, Thriller, ...Into the Night (a minor classic, IMO), Spies Like Us, 3 Amigos, Amazon Women (pure genius!!), Coming To America and even HBO's fantastic 'Dream On'.

For cryin' out loud, will you look at that filmography! I love every one of those films!

But then, somewhere around Oscar (1990), things began to slip. I liked Innocent Blood more than most people, but Beverly Hills Cop III?!? What was that all about???

After that you have one bad film after another (Blues Brothers 2000 anyone???), until you get to his last film in '98 (Susan's Plan - Dying to Get Rich) that I was shocked to have never even heard of until tonight!

What happened? Why did someone with such a sharp sense of what good projects to make suddenly go so flat??

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Alex Spindler

Perhaps some people are a product of their times, and found himself a fish out of water in the 90s. I've seen several people who never fully made the transition and never found a place.

BarryR

It's amazing how any director can sustain a steady career, given the myriad vagaries of the film biz! of course there are a few exceptions.

[Edited last by BarryR on October 28, 2001 at 08:13 AM]

Peter Kim

I, too was a big fan. I may be horribly wrong on this, but I recall a tragic incident on one of his movie sets. As a result, there was one or more deaths, and John was branded culpable. I think he might have even spent some time in jail.

It's not a coincidence that his precipitous decline runs parallel to this tragedy. Obviously, he must be battling his own, internal demons as a result of the accident. And also, those of Hollywood...

Probably doesn't help that Michael Jackson's career has been a bust since the early to mid-90's.

Work, wonder, rest when you can.

Michael Reuben

The movie was The Twilight Zone. Actor Vic Morrow and two children were killed when a helpicopter crashed. Along with several others, Landis was criminally charged, but he was acquitted by a jury. Several of his biggest successes postdated the trial.

M.

[Edited last by Michael Reuben on October 31, 2001 at 08:14 AM]

"Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything." -- Chinatown

"What kind of movies would there be if everyone in them had to do what we thought they should do?" -- Roger Ebert

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bill lopez

John Carpenter can also be added to the LIST OF WHAT HAPPENED?

Richard Kim

We can also add Francis Ford Coppolla to that list.

Gavin K

To quote Mr. Landis personally, "Cop 3 was a complete whore job."

And in my opinion it is absolutely hysterical. Pure absurdity.

And then he followed with one of his funniest movies ever, The Stupids. Again vastly underrated, and poorly marketed. This movie kept me laughing for three weeks after I first saw it, and I still find myself laughing out loud whenever it comes on TV. (Can't wait for the DVD.)

Add to these films his numerous producing credits and he has kept pretty busy, despite not being very active as a director lately.

Gavin K

Also, by the way, Carpenter still rocks. Do a search, there was a thread discussing him a few months ago.

Matt Butler

Carpenter is still awesome as well as Landis.

(Why do I feel Im the only one who liked Ghosts of Mars or Vampires?)