Well, I have to say that this film really didn't work for me. Directed by David Cronenberg in 1983, it was the wrong director, the wrong actor, and perhaps made in the wrong era. Christopher Walken is too quirky from the get go due to his personal style to make this guy seem like someone who becomes quirky.
Plot: Walken, about to marry Brooke Adams and happy to teach school, gets into an accident, is in a coma for three years, and comes to as a person inhabiting the Dead Zone. He has the ability to see the future, which turns out to be a curse most of the time. The movie was too episodic for my taste. And Walken never is believable as the everyman. I did like the fact it was made in Niagara on the Lake, one of my favorite places though. But the setting can only take you so far. I was bored rather than scared. Critics from VULTURE see this as one of the best King films. To me STAND BY ME, CARRIE and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION are the top three. What do you think?
11 comments:
Most of Stephen King's works haven't done well on the Big Screen. The latest failure is THE DARK TOWER. The remake of IT opens this Fall and I expect it to flop, too.
What I think is: from the minute Trump became a serious candidate for President, the one thing that came to mind (other than The Emperor's New Clothes, of course), was THE DEAD ZONE. To me, Trump was Greg Stillson, the kind of unhinged, empty inside, psychopath who could easily start a nuclear war out of his own insecurities.
Nothing that has happened since that moment has reassured me that I was overreacting.
As for the movie version, it's been so long since I've seen it that I can't remember all the nuances, but as a rule Walken is generally too quirky.
Those three are good. I would also add on Misery and The Shining-Kubricks not the made for TV one.
Nice choice, Patti.
THE SHINING would be four. I have trouble with Kathy Bates' performance. She makes it comical for me.
"THE ICE IS GONNA` BREAK", one of Walkens best ever delivered lines and quite funny actually. As for the best King adaptation, well i think the recent remake of CARRIE with Chloe Grace Moretz was marvelous and even better than the original. BTW, Cronenbergs best film ?, VIDEODROME, its in a different league of brilliance all by itself.
I remember watching it and thinking it was pretty slow.
I honestly don't remember if I've seen the movie, which might speak to its lack of memorability, but I loved the book. Back in the early 1980s and working for a local bookstore at the time, I was (and remain) a pro football fan. I'd begun reading The Dead Zone during playoff season, and on a Sunday afternoon I kept turning off the TV to read a chapter here and another there between various game segments because I couldn't wait to find out what happened next (in the book more than in the game).
I have to agree that Jeff Meyerson has not overreacted. Trump is scum, and of the radioactive variety at that.
I would have included the mini series 11/22/63 which I thought better than the book.
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