Rank/rate the films of Joe Dante

Gremlins -8/10
Gremlins 2: The New Batch -7/10
Matinee -7/10
The 'burbs -6/10
Looney Tunes: Back in Action -6/10
Small Soldiers -6/10
Twilight Zone: The Movie -5/10
The Howling -5/10
Piranha -5/10

The Howling - 7.5/10
Piranha - 7/10
Matinee - 6.5/10
Gremlins - 6.5/10
Twilight Zone: The Movie - 6/10
Rock 'n' Roll High School - 6/10
Explorers - 5/10
The 'Burbs - 3/10

I think most horror and general film fans have some love for Joe Dante, but he really fell off pretty hard at a certain point.

We all have our fondness for the early stuff, which may have peaked with Gremlins, but continued to impress up until the end of the 80s with The 'Burbs and Gremlins 2. Even his early stuff that doesn't fully work like Innerspace and Explorers have such a fun energy and so much technical inventiveness that they're fully watchable... but then he never really hit in the 90s. I haven't seen Matinee, but I know it's got some cult fans. I always meant to, and it sounds like it would appeal to me.

I liked Small Soldiers, and I believe it was a modest hit, but it never touched the zeitgeist the way so many of his earlier hits did. He worked a lot on TV in the 90s and beyond, but it really feels like his time as an A list director was kind of over by then.

I remember very little about Looney Tunes: Back in Action other than that I found it very disappointing. Dante was a huge fine of classic animation and took on that project because he had befriended Chuck Jones and Jones told him that he had been very disappointed by Space Jam and hoped there would be a great Looney Tunes movie that would respect the characters more. Again, I don't really remember it, but I don't think that movie was the answer.

From then on he never really made a 'real' movie again.. at least not so far. The Whole is a smaller, cheaper one that feels like The Gate a little bit, but never as good. And then Burying the Ex is another cheapo movie in spite of its solid cast (this movie introduced me to Alexandra Daddario, so thanks Joe!). It has the ingredients for a good and memorable movie, but never comes together.

I have an affinity for anthologies, so there are a lot of things I like about the Masters of Horror episodes, and his other work with Mick Garris in Nightmare Cinema, and Dante's segment is fine, but it's an entirely mediocre movie in general (either Mick Garris' segment being the worst by far... which I guess isn't surprising).

I see he has a few upcoming films he's attached to, including one about Roger Corman taking LSD with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson so that he could direct The Trip, and a remake of Corman's cheapo Little Shop of Horrors, which presumably will not be the musical... which may be for the best, since the original movie is mediocre and the Frank Oz musical is exceptional... and these both sound like films with a lot of potential, if they can ever get off the ground.

He hasn't made anything better than OK in a long time, but I'm always rooting for the guy. I hope he has at least one more great movie in him.