Joe Dante
Just like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron,
Dante started his career as a protege of cult filmmaker Roger
Corman. Dante's first big break came when he was just 30, he
directed the Corman-produced low-budget Jaws inspired
Piranha (1978),
a film that should have been awful but somehow Dante made work. It
was a cult hit and even spawned a James Cameron directed sequel.
His next movie was horror/thriller
The Howling (1981) which
established Dante as one of the brightest young directors young
directors working at that time. Such was his reputation that he
joined Steven Spielberg, George Miller and John Landis each directing
one of the four segments which made up
Twilight Zone - The Movie
(1983).
The Oscar winning Spielberg in particular must have been impressed because
Dante's next directorial effort was produced by Spielberg and it ultimately turned
out to be his most famous movie,
Gremlins (1984).
Dante's next movie
Explorers (1985) starring youngsters
River Phoenix
&
Ethan Hawke was expected to be as big as
Gremlins but unfortunately
the studio decided to rush the production to an early release date
and Dante never fully finished the movie.
Explorers did respectably
at the box-office but has since earned a cult reputation.
Sci-fi comedy
Innerspace (1987) starring
Dennis Quaid,
Meg Ryan and
Martin Short was another big box-office hit for Dante but dark comedy
The Burbs (1989) starring
Tom Hanks misfired despite being regarded
as under-rated by many.
At the end of the 1980's Dante was one of Hollywood's top directors
and his next movie
Gremlins---The-New-Batch.html">
Gremlins 2 - The New Batch (1990) proved to be the biggest
grossing movie of his career. Unfortunately in the sixteen years since
then Dante's career has proved a massive disappointment.
Dante directed five episodes of TV show Eerie Indiana (1991) but it
was cancelled after one season. His next movie
Matinee (1993) was a
box-office flop despite once again slowly building up a cult
reputation. Dante then for some reason decided to direct three TV
movies.
His next theatrical movie was
Small Soldiers (1998) which proved
popular at the box-office and seemed to stop the rot in Dante's
career but he went back to directing TV shows and something called
Haunted Lighthouse which appears to be a 3-D children's movie for
Busch Gardens.
Warner Bros then chose Dante to relaunch one of their most popular
franchises when they appointed him director of
Looney Tunes Back In Action
(2003). Unfortunately the movie flopped and neither the franchise or Dante's
career has recovered since.
What members say |
Filmography
Joe Dante - what members say
Joe Dante - filmography
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Looney Tunes Back In Action
on DVD (2003)
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin
Director: Joe Dante
Certificate: 
Joe Dante directs this fast-paced, inventive combination of animation and live action with irreverent, comic flair. In Hollywood, Daffy Duck is jealous of Bugs Bunny's success and demands a pay increase. Instead of giving him a rise, Kate (Jenna Elfman) a fed-up studio executive, fires Daffy and ..read more »
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60%
from 581 members
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Small Soldiers
on DVD (1998)
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Jay Mohr, Phil Hartman
Director: Joe Dante
Certificate: 
A toy company believes it is onto something when it employs the latest government military technology in a series of action figures, enabling them to talk. They underestimate the power of the special micro chips they've employed, however, as the two opposing sides of the toy line start thinking for ..read more »
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63%
from 1,361 members
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Matinee
on DVD (1992)
Starring: John Goodman, Cathy Moriarty, Simon Fenton
Director: Joe Dante
Certificate: 
It's 1962 and 15-year-old horror film fan Gene Loomis (Simon Fenton) is the new kid in a small Key West town; the Cuban Missile Crisis is happening in his own backyard; an intriguing girl (Lisa Jakub) is actually looking his way, and best of all, master showman Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman) is in ..read more »
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60%
from 292 members
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The Burbs
on DVD (1989)
Starring: Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Rick Ducommun
Director: Joe Dante
Certificate: 
Tom Hanks portrays suburbanite Ray Peterson, whose plans for a peaceful vacation are disturbed by a creepy new family on the block, in this outrageous suspense-comedy directed by Joe Dante.
To the disappointment of his wife Carol (Carrie Fisher), Ray decides to spend a relaxing week at home, and ..read more »
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67%
from 1,581 members
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Innerspace
on DVD (1987)
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, Kevin McCarthy
Director: Joe Dante
Certificate: 
Dennis Quaid stars as Lieutenant Tuck Pendleton, a hell-raising Navy test pilot, in this fantasy-suspense comedy that harkens back to 1966's FANTASTIC VOYAGE. Pendleton volunteers to be miniaturised in a scientific experiment and fly a capsule injected into a rabbit's bloodstream for top-secret ..read more »
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69%
from 2,053 members
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Explorers
(1985)
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Jason Presson, River Phoenix
Director: Joe Dante
Certificate: 
This adventurous space tale stars Ethan Hawke (in his film debut at the age of 14) and young star River Phoenix as misfit best friends whose dreams of space travel become a reality when they create an interplanetary spacecraft in their homemade laboratory. Ben Crandall (Hawke) is a young visionary ..read more »
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68%
from 121 members
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Gremlins - BLU-RAY Version
(1984)
Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton
Director: Joe Dante
Certificate: 
Young Billy Peltzer's (Zach Galligan) everyday smalltown life is given a lift when his travelling salesman father Rand (Hoyt Axton) buys him the ultimate Christmas gift in a far-off Chinatown--the mogwai--an adorable little big-eared, furry, brown and white creature. But the old man who sold the ..read more »
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78%
from 284 members
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Gremlins
on DVD (1984)
Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton
Director: Joe Dante
Certificate: 
Young Billy Peltzer's (Zach Galligan) everyday smalltown life is given a lift when his travelling salesman father Rand (Hoyt Axton) buys him the ultimate Christmas gift in a far-off Chinatown--the mogwai--an adorable little big-eared, furry, brown and white creature. But the old man who sold the ..read more »
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73%
from 4,485 members
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The Howling
on DVD (1980)
Starring: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan
Director: Joe Dante
Certificate: 
Dee Wallace stars as Karen White, a popular female reporter in Los Angeles who cannot escape the horror of a traumatic experience that she suffered while trying to capture a dangerous serial killer. When her psychologist (played by Patrick Macnee) recommends a retreat to The Colony, up the Northern ..read more »
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64%
from 379 members
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The Howling
(2 discs)
on DVD (1980)
Starring: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan
Director: Joe Dante
Certificate: 
Based on the best-selling novel by Gary Brandner, this horror film makes effective use of the classic werewolf tale. Dee Wallace stars as Karen White, a popular female reporter in Los Angeles who cannot escape the horror of a traumatic experience that she suffered while trying to capture Eddie ..read more »
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63%
from 593 members
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Piranha
on DVD (1978)
Starring: Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, Barbara Steele
Director: Joe Dante
Certificate: 
"Operation Razorteeth," a government project involving the breeding of mutant piranhas, gets way out of hand when the fish raid a lake at a summer camp for kids in this Roger Corman-produced, Joe Dante-directed classic. Heather Menzies stars as Maggie McKeown, an insurance investigator out to trace ..read more »
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60%
from 135 members