Reviews

This movie looked very promising at the beginning. I love snow storms and cold weather, I love Stephen King, and I love mini-series'. I also love Tim Daly from Wings, so I thought this was a sure bet. After an hour or so, I found myself not only NOT sympathizing with the character(s) anymore, but hoping the bad guy would win and kill them all.

This is just plain bad writing from King, no other way around it. He is usually really good at creating awesome characters that you relate to and sympathize with, but in this town everyone is so dumb and lifeless you start hating them quickly.

Example 1: Daly and citizen are walking the prisoner, who just savagely beat an old woman to death, into the jail which is located in, get ready, the grocery store. Ummm, what? I get that this is a VERY small town and they have no police department, but still, you don't put the jail in one of the most public places in town, where there is always many townsfolk inside. You put in in some other building where there are few people frequenting. Sooo, they get to the back door and it's jammed, so they have to walk him through the front and all the people stocking up for the storm. The cop tells everyone to stand clear and stay off aisle two, so what do these retarded people do? They stand on aisle two, leaving barely enough room to walk through. One idiotic townie is so busy gawking that she pays no attention to her kid, who runs around the aisle and smack into the killer. He picks up the kid and creeps everyone out, then they FINALLY get him into the back and the cop tells him to stand against the cell and spread-em so he can search him. Wait, what? He waits until AFTER he marches this vicious killer past the whole town before he searches him? Come on King, can you be any more retarded?

Example 2: Later, killer is in cell, cop and citizen are guarding. Killer is talking, pissing off the citizen who then proceeds to pick up the cops gun, which he left laying on the desk, and tries to shoot the killer. Committs attempted murder, but accidentally shoots THE COP! Almost kills the cop, who blacks out for a minute, gets up and checks his wound, which proves to be superficial, and all he has to say to this citizen is "I told you to keep a safe distance from him." Ho doesn't even seem mad at all! And what does the guys distance from the killer have to do with anything at all? HE picked up a gun and tried to kill him. Again, King, what the hell is wrong with you here?

All in all, this is some of the dumbest writing I've seen, including B-movies. I know this guy is not a REAL cop but a constable, but still... forget police protocol, this guy has no COMMON SENSE whatsoever, by any standards. These people are all so brainless and dull you just can't care for them at all.

I saw only a couple of episodes of this show when it aired, and I enjoyed it a lot. So I got the DVD and tried watching it, but I have some issues. After getting about halfway into the first season I started thinking it was more of a comedy than a serious show, which Iused to think it was.

There were always little jokes, especially from Archie Goodwin, but that isn't what I'm talking about. I don't know what the book was like, I've never read it, but the show seemed to almost be making fun of Wolfe all the time. The grotesquely fat guy with all kinds of issues like never being able to leave the house, not liking women being around, etc. Archie actually says in his commentary "he weighs a seventh of a ton..." Making it sound like he was so huuuuge, but that's not even three hundred pounds. BIG sure, but not extremely obese, not bed ridden. But apparently he is the fattest man they have ever seen. This comes up a lot, like when a lady is telling Wolfe about a very fat man, then says, "he's not nearly as fat as you", and he says "I didn't expect so..." It's actually a little offensive.

The two main problems I have though are these: Everyone who watches the show knows that there are several actors who are in nearly every episode, but play a different character every time. This became a problem to me after a while. When I first saw the bald FBI guy from the first episode dressed up in some costume serving at a party, I almost thought he was undercover or something. But no, he was just a servant. Then it was happening with others, in every episode, and I was tripped out but tried to ignore it. But it became to hard, every time I was entrenched in the story, and one of these guys popped up acting like someone else, it slammed me right back to reality and pulled me from the story. A story should draw you in, not push you out.

My final problem only happened once as far as I know, but that was more than enough. Archie is in some place investigating, and two crooks pop up and get the jump on him almost. But he is able to get his gun out and point it at them. So they drop whatever blunt objects they had and he's got them. He's freaking got them. The he says "alright were going down to the police station." And one of the bad guys says "what for?" Archie thinks for a second, then says "you got me. Here you go." And he hands them his gun and lets them tie him up! Then he gets shot by them while tied up, with his gun, and almost dies. Luckily they hit his shoulder. The stupidest thing I've ever seen happen in a show that isn't a comedy.

So I decided the only way the show makes sense is as a comedy, and a parody at that, what with all the same stupid characters in different costumes looking almost like Mad TV or something. Except it's the same gag, over and over again.

Watch it as a comedy, don't take it very seriously, and be prepared to only watch a couple episodes at a time every now and then because every episode is so much like the last it gets tiring fast, and it's pretty good. Very smart and witty. the intelligence level is one of the shows good points. Others are the acting stars, Archie and Nero. Both great actors and very fun to watch bicker with each other.

I won't go off on it too much because it seems that a lot of people on here agree with me and have already said most of it better.

I watched the special features on DVD, and seeing the conversation with Frank Darabont and Stephen King shocked me. To see that King also liked the ending didn't surprise me a whole lot, it was actually pretty King-esquire, what bothered me was hearing Frank reveal that not only did he insist on the ending being not changed in the slightest, he actually took a smaller budget and less time to film just so he could implement this horrific ending.

I believe what Darabont did to the ending was not only in bad taste, but an insult to movie fans. An ending like that isn't just bad, it's a slap in the face. It's like saying, "here, THIS (SLAP!) is what you get for driving to a theatre and paying $40.00 for three movie tickets, $12.00 for a small popcorn, investing two hours of your life, getting to know lots of characters, coming to care about them, and oh yeah, supporting me and my family. (SLAP!) one more time. Have a nice day."

And to those people who like the movie and think the only reason we hate it is because "we don't want to admit a movie affected us this much...?" To you I say this: This movie DIDN'T affect me, I didn't even watch most of it. Luckily I was warned by a caring friend about the ending and watched parts of it on his DVD. The whole movie theatre thing was hypothetical to prove a point. From what I have seen of it, the movie itself didn't look very good either.

Something is wrong with Stephen King lately, and I think he's lost his mind. First this, and now he actually let Eli Roth get hired to make Cell into a movie. The same Eli Roth whom he once said he didn't like because his movies were tasteless violence with no substance? Really Stephen? I just don't know about him and his projects anymore. I just don't know. I may stop being a fan.

This is not as good as IT or the Stand, but it's definitely better than the Kubrick version of Kings story. I mean all around. The old version is such a joke it's hard to watch. It's supposed to be about a guy SPIRALING INTO madness, but Nicholson seems really weird and creepy right from the first second. He's there in a job interview, with this huge creepy smile on his face the ENTIRE time, not only would I not put this man in charge of my five star hotel for the winter, I'd have security follow him out of the building. Then the guy who interviews him actually says outright "well, you seem like a normal guy to me..." No he doesn't! I could go on down the list on how Kubricks version is a bad movie by ANY standards, but this is a review of the NEW one.

The story drags on a bit, there should have been more stuff going on throughout the middle, but other than that it's great! Weber is good in this, contrary to what some people on here are saying, I suspect they are being unfairly critical because they are Kubrick lovers and are comparing this movie to that one. It just shouldn't be done. King PURPOSELY made this one different, and anyone who likes that waste of Jack Nicholsons talent doesn't know good movies anyways, so you shouldn't listen to a word they say.

This is not the best King mini-series out there, but it's really good, and any True fan of King will love this.

I don't mind some changes in a remake, or an adaptation, like locations or times, but when you MAKE THE LEAD CHARACTER DIE AT THE END, I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT.

See, King kills off main characters A LOT. But in the original book and movie of Salems Lot the main guy and kid live at the end, now that is practically a miracle for him, so for them to change that was ludicrous and absurd. Totally crossed the line with that move, and it's too bad too because other than that this version would have been good. Not great, like IT, but good. And tieing off lose ends does not equal killing people in my book. "Ohhh, we have to tie off that cahracters story, peope will wonder what happened to him after this. So let's kill him of course!" There is an infinite number of ways to tie off a "loose end" without killing them.

With King adaptations I say, if he didn't kill them, then by god let them live, he sure as hell kills enough other people.

For King fans I would NOT recommend this movie. If you're just a random person who likes vampire movies, as long as you don't mind the STAR of a movie dying (I can't stand it in ANY movie), this is OK. For King fans just looking for a good King mini-series they haven't seen, or haven't seen for a long time, I recommend IT, Rose Red, or Golden Years.

There is Tommyknockers and the new Shining, which is a MILLION times better than the old one by the way, even without Jack Nicholson, both good but main guys die at end. It seems more appropriate in these films though, especially The Shining.

This is one of the best movies ever made, even though they changed it a lot from the book. The changes are quite big, way too big for Stephen King. He can not stand changes being made to his stories. Obviously, they have both been out for sooo long I doubt it's possible for a hardcore fan of the book to NOT have seen the movie, or vica versa. So I won't even go into comparisons. But for movie fans who are not that familiar with Stephen King and are just looking for a good scary movie, I would definitely recommend this as a truly great horror film.

Now it's true the book is better in a lot of ways, but worse i some ways too. There is more to the story that is missing in the movie, but there is also a lot more crap that doesn't need to be there. Pages and pages of useless stuff about characters not relative to the story and things like that. The movie is a lot more streamlined, with just the essentials.

It is three hours long, not even long enough for me, but if you don't like long movies that might be a problem. It was made for TV so it's actually not too bad for kids either. I first saw it when I was like 8 or something.

The ending seems a little cheesy, special effects wise, to the adult, though kids don't seem to notice anything wrong with it. It's kind of simple for all the build up, because there was basically no way to put the real ending in it.

It's a great story about childhood, and fears, and how things come back to haunt you when you are older and have forgotten all about them. Traumas that were blocked from memory. But these things can come back, yes indeedy they come back, sometimes they come back.

The firs half is the best, like others have said. The child actors are great. Jonathan Brandis plays Bill Denbrough, the kind-of-main character. Brandis later committed suicide sadly. He was a great actor with some good roles (though not enough of them) in movies and TV shows, and the movie is worth watching just to see him. But the second half is great too!

This show started out REALLY good. Just how I remembered it. Duncan and Tessa own and run an antique shop, in an American city, I think Seattle. Richie is introduced in the first couple minutes of episode one, and Duncan drives a bad ass 1950s Thunderbird that he parks in the alley outside the antique shop.

So I'm watching the episodes on the season one DVD set, and they are introducing an entire supporting cast, with special guest stars that have recurring roles. I'm getting to know all these people, like the cop who knows Duncans secret, the slightly annoying, but endearing reporter who doesn't know anything but is suspicious of Duncan...etc. I'm getting to know and love these characters, then all of the sudden, out of nowhere in around the tenth episode, they just pick up and move the whole show to god awful France. It's like, Tess gets some job offer there, and even Richie is like "Wait a minute, we're not talking about picking up and leaving are we? I mean you guys have lives here, and a huge investment. Right?" But that is exactly what they do. Just like that.

The actual production of the show moved there too. So now you have a cast ENTIRELY made up of horrible French actors. Richie is the ONLY American left on the show. Then you have French film crews, cameramen, directors, special effects people, etc. All VERY bad at their jobs. Not to mention the fact that now you have to deal with strong, intolerable French accents from, you guessed it, EVERY person on the show except Richie. And of course, Duncan has an accent, but at least it's supposed to be a Scottish one, even though you can TOTALLY tell he's English and not Scottish.

After around the tenth episode, this show turns into a cheesy French film. And a bad one. Which reminds me, how come it doesn't seem the slightest bit odd to any of these other Highlander fans that French people, in France, would be speaking English ALL the time. Even to each other, when no Americans are around. This is one of the problems I have with ANY movie or TV show taking place in a foreign land. If you're going to watch a foreign film that's one thing. But do it right, get a GOOD one, with a foreign language and subtitles.

Do not watch Highlander the series, except for the first ten or so episodes.