This is truly the worst film I have ever seen. A promising start, in which the four main protagonists are shown to have meta-physical powers of perception, sets the movie up to be a light but enjoyable Sixth Sense-style supernatural thriller. The locations are also very well selected, with the snowy log cabin in keeping with the kind of isolated Americana familiar from Misery.
Unfortunately that is where the positives end. The rest of the film is an absolutely dreadful cocktail of over-acting, hackneyed plot-lines, a terrible script and woeful action scenes. It is hard to decide which is worse, the nauseating flashback scenes to our four heroes as children, the awful lines like "I want to kick some ass" and "let's lock and load" that populate the action scenes, or the bizarre fight between two monsters that arrives with absolutely no explanation at the film's "finale".
The whole experience is like death by a thousand cliches, the pain not alleviated by some token gestures to post-modernity. The killer alien infection that supplies the film's basic narrative is known as Ripley "after that broad in the Alien movies" - incidentally, Morgan Freeman should never, ever be asked to say the word "broad" again.) The unkindest cut of all is the presence of such a strong cast, and particularly Morgan Freeman, in what was so self-evidently a doomed cinematic endeavour. I'm not a great Stephen King fan but Freeman's name on the billboard is enough to make me watch a movie. Never again - his personal brand is tainted. Perhaps he is a victim of Lawrence Kasdan's butchery in the cutting room, but I doubt it. If this script had landed on his doormat with a plateful of roast potatoes and carrots it couldn't have smelt any more like a turkey.
I have heard it said that it is difficult to fit the complexities of King's dense prose into a two hour feature film, and that may well be true. But there is a solution - don't bother. Leave it on the page where the story is better served. Avoid like the plague.
Unfortunately that is where the positives end. The rest of the film is an absolutely dreadful cocktail of over-acting, hackneyed plot-lines, a terrible script and woeful action scenes. It is hard to decide which is worse, the nauseating flashback scenes to our four heroes as children, the awful lines like "I want to kick some ass" and "let's lock and load" that populate the action scenes, or the bizarre fight between two monsters that arrives with absolutely no explanation at the film's "finale".
The whole experience is like death by a thousand cliches, the pain not alleviated by some token gestures to post-modernity. The killer alien infection that supplies the film's basic narrative is known as Ripley "after that broad in the Alien movies" - incidentally, Morgan Freeman should never, ever be asked to say the word "broad" again.) The unkindest cut of all is the presence of such a strong cast, and particularly Morgan Freeman, in what was so self-evidently a doomed cinematic endeavour. I'm not a great Stephen King fan but Freeman's name on the billboard is enough to make me watch a movie. Never again - his personal brand is tainted. Perhaps he is a victim of Lawrence Kasdan's butchery in the cutting room, but I doubt it. If this script had landed on his doormat with a plateful of roast potatoes and carrots it couldn't have smelt any more like a turkey.
I have heard it said that it is difficult to fit the complexities of King's dense prose into a two hour feature film, and that may well be true. But there is a solution - don't bother. Leave it on the page where the story is better served. Avoid like the plague.