I'll say it, I like Ghosts of Mars.
Its Carpenter riffing on Carpenter, remaking his first successful film with as many goofy elements as possible (one part of it is a flashback within a flashback within a flashback). He spent a decent budget on not-great looking practical effects and made yet another siege picture, all seemingly to satisfy his intended audience of one, himself. Its the abject proof (along with Escape from LA) that no matter how many resources you give John Carpenter, he's incapable of not making scrappy B-pictures, and I love him desperately for that.
I even like Memoirs of an Invisible Man (its breezy), Starman (Bridges is great in it) and even Village of the Damned (fun performances from a game cast). If I had to pick the biggest outliers in his career, Christine would be near the top, as it feels kinda like Carpenter trying to make a companion piece to De Palma's Carrie, at least until its vehicular carnage heavy ending. In the Mouth of Madness is also a bit of a queer duck in his resume, but its also my choice for the best Lovecraftian film ever made.
The weird thing for me is how he made a couple of sub-par movies and then the studios took away his keys like grandpa was senile and its time to stop driving.
I mean everybody has a couple of real absolute clunkers in their filmography including the great directors.
I think, and interviews with him back this up, that he lost the fire in his belly needed to power through all the Hollywood BS nessecary to keep making films. Even as much as I like his later films, I'd even say that they're lacking a certain verve that he had earlier on (his most recent film only confirms this further). So rather then taint his legacy by putting out a bunch of bland, crappy films just to keep going (pulling an Argento), he decided to stay home and play a
bunch of Xbox and
compose music. I'm sure he's much happier that way.
