Is That A Mullet?

[Nicholas]

Some folks have suggested that my haircut in the pic at left is a mullet, or, as they put it: "Business up front, party in the back." I thought I had more of a Kurt Russell kind of thing going on.

[kcball]

Nick:

Your hair is not high or poofy enough on top for it to qualify as a full mullet. Maybe a demi-mullet, hmmm? And there are worse things than a mullet; it worked for Billy Ray Cyrus. 

BTW, Kurt Russell is the only one who has a Kurt Russell thing going. He is the man!

K.C.

[Shameless]

I'll give ya the Kurt Russell thing.

These are mullets:





You've got some growing to do if you want to top these dudes.

[Nicholas]

  Good Lord! Thanks for the pics, Kevin--but now I've got to go Google up Kurt as Snake Plissken in Escape From New York to wash them out of my mind and re-establish my standards of cool manliness!


                           

[Shameless]

Oh yeah!

That is SWEET, your profile pic beside Snake's.

See, K.C., you've got to give Nick his Kurt Russell props.

[kcball]

I am old-fashioned, Kevin.

There is only room in my heart and mind for one bad-ass, stone-cold ... er ... Snake Plisskin?  I thought he was dead. 

K.C.

[Nicholas]

What happened to Snake Plisskin, K.C.?

I heard he escaped from a few other cities, got rid of the eye patch, married Goldie Hawn and settled down!

[Shameless]

Last I heard he was surfin' trashy rivers with Peter Fonda...

[kcball]

I was goofing.  All real Kurt Russell fans know that that line -- "Snake Plissken? I heard you were dead." -- is the running gag in Escape from New York.  Sheeesh! 

K.C.

[Nicholas]

Oh yeah! Lord, it's been years since I've seen that flick...

[kcball]

Nick:

I have it on VHS and DVD; did I mention that I am a Kurt Russell fan? 

BTW, I have VHS and DVD copies of Big Trouble in Little China and The Thing there on the shelf beside Escape from New York, but not Escape from L.A. I think Carpenter screwed the pooch on that one. 

[Shameless]

I absolutely agree about Escape from L.A.  That's why I chucked in the comment about Snake and Peter Fonda surfing a trashy river.  That was a bitch much (edit:  a BIT much)  (oh, the subconscious) for Snake.  Fonda's character--maybe.  But when did Snake Pliskin surf?  Um...  yeah, just the once with Peter Fonda.

[Nicholas]

Kevin and KC: So you'd say the surfing thing was when Carpenter "jumped the shark"?

Here, for the record, are (imho) the greatest Carpenter films:

Halloween
The Thing
Big Trouble in Little China
Escape From New York

Close runners-up (worth seeing, but just not worthy of classic status):

The Fog
Assault on Precinct 13

[kcball]

Wow!  That's got to be a world-record pause-in-conversation.  September 19, 2008 to September 16, 2009. 

A shark might have made that surfing scene more -- what?  Palatable?  Toothsome?  It certainly would have given it more bite and a much better finish.

Sorry about that, Nick.  You got my pun generator powered up and it can be a bitch to shut down.

I like your list.  It would be difficult to pull a favorite from it, although I've got to lean toward The Thing.  It was SO much better that the original.  I mean how can you miss with Kurt Russell as MacReady and the likes of character actors such as Wilford Brimley, Donald Moffat, Richard Dysart (remember him in Saint Elsewhere?) and Keith David.  There is nobody acting today -- except maybe for Ron Perlman and Clancy Brown -- who looks as tough on screen as Keith David.

I haven't looked at a Husky the same since I first saw the film.

[Nicholas]

I won't wait 12 months to respond this time 

yeah, The Thing I've always said was my favorite--one of my favorite horror films. From the perspective of three decades, Halloween has certainly been the more influential film, but The Thing is near-perfect.

Have you heard rumors that someone's doing a (another) remake?

[kcball]

I heard.  Big mistake, don't you think?  How can you improve on perfection?

[Nicholas]

I generally don't get my hopes up for any Hollywood remake--going back to my crushing disappointment on opening night of The Haunting in 1999.