User reviews

1.] "The End of the Whole Mess" - Very well done. Spot on adaptation of a neat little story. Livingston's performance is perfect - heartfelt and desperate. Henry Thomas was good too.

2.] "Battleground" - When I first read this story (about 15 years ago) I thought it would make a great TV movie - not a feature film - but at the time, I didn't think the SFX of the day could pull it off. This was a pretty good effort though, and I loved the lack of dialog. Hurt is not too bad either.

3.] "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" - Not bad adaptation. This was a good short story, one I always try to read when I pick up Nightmares & Dreamscapes.

4.] "Umney's Last Case" - Not bad story, Macy's performance pulled it off. I always wondered why the chose to adapt this one though, especially over some of Kings other classics.

5.] "Autopsy Room Four" - Again, great story, but the adaptation leaves a lot to be desired, and only because of the hokey performances, especially from Richard Thomas and Greta Scacchi.

6.] "The Fifth Quarter" - Good performance from Sisto, but again, why do this story over something like "Grandma" or "The Jaunte".

7.] "The Road Virus Heads North" - The only thing they got right was the painting. Everything else, including Berringer's performance, was cheesy.

8.] "Crouch End" - This was a good story, but the adaptation did not capture the creepy feel King brought out in the narrative. The performances were OK, and it started off on the right foot, but things quickly went south after they started wandering around the empty streets. I think director Mark Haber, just couldn't put his finger on what the point of that story was.

This fares better than much of Stephen King made-for-TV adaptations, though the episodes are hit or miss:

BATTLEGROUND 8/10 - easily the best episode AND an homage to the greatest made-for-TV horror ever, "Trilogy of Terror." There's even a cameo by our friend the Zuni Doll! It goes the "no dialogue" route, and William Hurt pulls it off well. The FX are ace. Loved this one. Unfortunately, it's mostly downhill from here.

CROUCH'S END 5/10 - this is pretty awful and Claire Forlani has got to be the worst working "name" actress, but there's something eerie in it's Lovecraft-ness that I appreciated for a bit.

THE ROAD VIRUS HEADS NORTH 4/10 - Meh. It's good to see Tom Berenger and Marsha Mason working again. I guess.

UMNEY'S LAST CASE 7/10 - It has a neat noir-ish feel, mostly created by the inimitable character acting of William H. Macy.

THE END OF THE WHOLE MESS 6/10 - eh, this didn't translate too well, but it's watchable.

THE FIFTH QUARTER 7/10 - This one's sort of a heist story with great performances (Sisto, Samantha Mathis) and a surprising homoerotic subplot. Good stuff here.

AUTOPSY ROOM FOUR 4/10 - another King adaptation ruined by Richard Thomas! YOU KNOW THEY GOT A HELL OF A BAND 4/10 - I remember reading this as a youngster and finding it REALLY eerie. What's not to be scared of by evil dead rocknroll icons? Well, how about really lame evil dead rocknroll icon impersonators? This does not translate well to film.

The first episode of Dreamscapes & Nightmares was an acceptable adaption of Stephen King's short-story, but not more. The second episode contains everything what makes a short-story by Stephen King fun to read. It is not what you see so often in nowadays' horror-movies. In those, let me call them modern, horror movies there's a lot of shockers and blood, but the episode "Crouch End" doesn't need that. Like the short-story it creates an atmosphere of horror, which neither the protagonists, nor the viewers can escape from. And this "all-around-horror-atmosphere" is what's missing in so many horror movies, but in not one of Stephen King's stories/novels and particularly not in the episode "Crouch End". Because of that, this is a show worth watching for everyone who loves the atmosphere and feeling Stephen King creates in his pieces of art! I'm very curious, if the following episodes are an exceptional adaption of Stephen King's style of writing, because this one definitely is!

Just to avoid any possible confusion, the above summary of Nightmares and Dreamscapes is a compliment. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen Hollywood completely decimate and almost sacrilegiously destroy King's brilliant writing. Needful Things and The Runningman are the worst of these atrocities, although they are far from the only ones. The remake of Carrie... the sequel that has nothing to do with King's novel... The Lawnmower Man (Which King sued to be disassociated from)... Christine... among others.

This mini-series, however, does justice to King's works, and treats them with the respect that they deserve. The acting is incredible. I can hardly believe that they were able to get William H. Macy, William Hurt and the majority of the other actors and actresses that they did manage to get for the project. Each is casted perfectly for their role, from the well-known stars to the little known gems. The direction is smart and clean; the set designs stunning; the animation (Battleground) superb, and the adaptations flawless. Each episode perfectly embodies the story from which it was based off of, and I cannot find any flaws in their translation into this mini-series.

I find it ironic that some of the upcoming episodes don't feature stories from the actual collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes, although I suppose that they mean the title as a general one, as opposed to a specific one. At any rate, they were all well chosen, and I hope that more adaptations of King's work fall under this level of care and craftsmanship. I don't even mean novels specifically. I hope that ALL of his stories are likewise adapted as such, although I would indeed love seeing more adaptations of his short stories done this way (Especially "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" and "In the Death Room").

There are honestly no words that can adequately describe how awful that episode was. First of all that episode was not set in London at all, in no way. I've been to London many times and it does not look like it did in that episode, it was so SO obviously some back lot somewhere in America. and maybe if you've never been to England you'd have thought it was fine but contrary to popular belief we are not all called " Archie " and say "bloody" every 5 words.

That was set in the modern day i'm assuming, to be honest there are no red phone boxes anymore. And just because they randomly placed some doesn't make it anymore like England.

And what was with that old mans accent??! seriously one minute it was cockney then the next it was some kind of Yorkshire! There was no purpose for basically anything that happened, the giant cat i think it was, offering the women a cigarette or a "fag" was so pointless and stupid and what the hell was with the ending really? A giant tentacle monster thing came out of the ground and took her husband away ( and turned him into a cat i think?). it made no sense what so ever! AND then the old man said something like " Oh no its happened again"? if something like that had happened before people would know.

I am a huge Stephen King fan but if I were him, I would not have put my name to that at all, i'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say maybe it makes a better book than it does programme and I can only hope that next weeks one is better.

Warner do Brasil released on DVD the following episodes:

1) "Campo de Batalha" ("Battleground"): In Dallas, the hit man Jason Renshaw (William Hurt) breaks in the headquarter of a toys company and kills Hans Morris, the manufacturer and owner of the company. He returns to his fancy apartment in San Francisco, and later he receives a package of toys with soldiers, helicopters and heavy weapon. Suddenly he is attacked by the commando, and he tries to survive.

"Battleground" is a very silly and naive episode, without dialogs and with the character performed by William Hurt being attacked by toys. The explosions and shootout on the fortieth floor of the elegant building do not bother any neighbor. My vote is six.

2) "Crouch End": The career devoted Lonnie Freeman (Eion Bailey) and his wife Doris Freeman (Claire Forlani) are in London in honeymoon. Loonie receives a message from the important client Squales inviting the young couple to have dinner with him in his house at Crouch End. While going to the dinner party, Doris is advised by the cab driver to return from Crouch End, which would be a thin spot in another dimension. Lonnie does not accept the non-sense explanation and have a weird experience with Doris.

"Crouch End" seems to be a bad homage to "Twilight Zone". The mysterious story has a great atmosphere, but an absolutely disappointing conclusion. My vote is six.

3) "O Último Caso de Umney" ("Umney's Last Case"): In 1938 in Los Angeles, Clyde Umney (William H. Macy) is a divorce private eye successful with women. On the weirdest day of his life, he sees his world turning upside-down when he discovers that he is a character of a series of novels made-up by the writer Sam Landry. Sam is grieving the loss of his son and wants to swap position with Clyde.

"Umney's Last Case" has a stylish noir production and an original story (I believe this show was produced before "Stranger than Fiction"). I liked the whole story, but the conclusion is abrupt and seems that the original intention could be to be continued. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Nightmares & Dreamscapes Vol.1 – Pesadelos e Paisagens Noturnas" ("Nightmares & Dreamscapes Vol.1 – Nightmares and Nocturne Landscapes")

The beginning of this film held my interest because William Hurt,(John Renshaw),"Body Heat", makes a bad mistake with a CEO of a large Toy Manufacturing Company. Apparently, John Renshaw is a sort of high class hit man and paid very well for his services, because his apartment suite is out of this world with a large indoor pool and more than the comforts of the average person. As John sits back and has a nice cocktail and enjoys having accomplished one of his tasks, he is taken by surprise and his entire life is completely changed. John becomes trapped in his own world and almost feels like he has been in an actual battlefield. Great story by Stephen King and I look forward to more of this Mini-Series.

If you enjoyed playing with toy soldiers as a kid (the kind that were green and came by the hundreds in a plastic or cardboard case) , you might enjoy this plot. It brings some of the battles you played out with them to full three dimensional fluid action with a full complement of smart munitions (unlike the WWII equipment some of us played with). Special effects are now cheap enough so that the quality is up to the standards of many moves. That and the up to par performance of Bill Hurt makes it thoroughly enjoyable. Also, although I did not see the other instances of this miniseries, it seems to have a quaint retro morality play theme, much as did most of the original Twilight Zone(s) and their spin offs. I suppose that is no surprise coming from a channel that is usually Law and Order around the clock (not that there is anything wrong with that).

I do like a good horror anthology series (Tales From the Crypt is coming soon…), but this series is only half horror. The other half is not that good (thriller, action, crime, etc). All the episodes are based off of Stephen King's short stories, and the guy is not strictly a horror writer, I admit. I just wanted a show with the word "nightmares" in its title to scare me, not make me chuckle at a goofy William H. Macy performance. Only a couple episodes really stand out, one of which is the Lovecraft-inspired "Crouch End." I know… Me? Like Lovecraft? Don't act so surprised! The episode starring William Hurt as an assassin besieged by green army soldiers come to life is different because of the lack of dialogue. It's an interesting choice, and cool at first, but after a while I just wanted Hurt to at least scream an obscenity at the toys instead of grunting like a cave man. Other episodes have their own methods of storytelling that work better, like in "The End of the Whole Mess," which has the main character telling much of the story into a video camera.

Since I'm not an avid reader of King's, I don't know if there are better shorts of his that remain untapped. All I know is that half of these stories probably shouldn't have been made into a TV show. Interviews on the discs indicate that some of the original short stories were less than 10 pages long. Turning that into a 50-minute show means an awful lot of pointless filler. Most of the draw lies in the fact that each episode has some recognizable star power. That doesn't mean Jeremy Sisto, Claire Forlani, Ron Livingston, and Steven Weber never act in crap. Still, I feel safe recommending this series to King fans. They can watch "Umney's Last Case"in flesh and blood at last instead of a "Dark Tower" movie.

http://www.movieswithmark.com

Stephen King is a prolific and excellent writer but quite frequently he tends to use far more words than are really necessary. I found TNT's first two "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" episodes to accurately reflect Mr. King, at least in the too many words area. OK, there certainly weren't too many words in Combat, but I found myself falling into an "enough already stupor" around minute 35. I certainly hope Karen Black did not watch this episode or she will spend another twenty years avoiding her bathroom.

"Crouch End" put us into a quaint village, then a ratty warehouse district, then a largish downtown. I will admit to not having read Mr. King's story, but the shooting locations and the script (and frankly the acting)left me generally uninterested in this "little bit of everything" production.

/1/ Battleground had great production values and excellent cast in William Hurt. The first half was slow but it made up for when the doo-doo hit the fan later in the movie.

/2/ Crouch End is one of the few attempts at interpreting King's Lovecraftian inspired tales into a movie, and it mostly excelled at that. Great cinematography, good cast, imaginative directing and creepy special effects make this episode a perfect compliment to Battleground during the first week.

/3/ Umney's Last Case is unfortunately a victim of an over zealous writer intent on changing a lot of Stephen King's work in the original short story. Macy does a good job of trying to salvage this movie, but I would skip this story when renting the DVD.

/4/ End Of the Whole Mess will come across as slow, talky and a bit conventional to many, the writing is probably the deepest of the four aired so far, but that can't help the slow pace and melodramatic performances.

Overall, Battleground was very good . When I heard they were doing this story, I was very skeptical and thought it would be very cheesy. Props to William Hurt for conveying so much emotion in this facial features/expressions without using any words. No words and just music actually made the episode more suspenseful and dramatic. I give it a 9/10. Crouch End was just OK. The short story written in Nightmares and Dreamscapes was much better. It allowed the reader to visualize Crouch End and the other dimension and frankly, my visualizations of this foreign place were much better than what was portrayed in the episode. Also, the policemen interviewing Doris were main characters in the original written story but not here. I don't think it was adapted to screen very well. That actress that played Doris was hot though, wasn't she? I give it a 7/10.

I have to say that I loved this miniseries. I had read about TNT doing something on it last year and came into it with great anticipation. I actually went out and bought all the books so I could read the stories prior to viewing. The books are great so I advise anyone who hasn't read them to do so and there only about six dollars each. Now onto the stories, I actually liked just about every story on screen better than on paper simply because of the fantastic acting and music. Also my favorite to read and watch was The End of the Whole Mess. If your someone who likes horror movies but thinks that the same stories are told over and over this should be a nice change. I highly recommend this to all horror and Stephen King fans because your in for a ride and the stories are very faithful to the books.