I'm swapped with you on this one--read the book but not seen this movie.
Stephen King is my all-time favorite author. I've read all of his stuff once--and most twice! He's at his peak when writing about writers or academics--character types he can personally identify with. In The Dead Zone novel, John Smith is basically a King archetype--a guy who just wants to be a teacher but has this great power thrust upon him. Hmm...King after the success of Carrie?! The outlandish politician is very Trump-ish, though King treats him (understandably) as sort of "something that could never really happen in the real world". Oops.
I watched Batman Returns so many times as a kid that Christopher Walken will never not be Max Schreck to me (hahaha).
I agree that most King book-to-movie adaptations are poor. The best one might be The Green Mile. That one really captures the essence of the book. I also really enjoyed Gerald's Game (Netflix) & Doctor Sleep. I'm a bit outlier on Kubrick's The Shining, however, in that it is just too darn weird for me. Nicholson: stupendous. But everything else? I side with King.
I think what makes King so hard to port to the big screen is that his prowess is all about getting into the heads of characters (much internal dialogue). Good luck portraying that in a visual medium. I remember that for the 11/22/63 miniseries they had to invent characters just so the main character wasn't talking to himself every episode!
I didn't mind the Flanagan ones (Gerald's Game, Doctor Sleep), I thought they were actually alright. Some of the best King adaptations; they mixed regular people with spookies the way King does.
But I don't think any movie version gets to the emotion of King books. Which is part of what I love about them.
This is a good, smart adaptation, though. Not emotional, just professionally done. I think you'd enjoy the acting in it.
I liked the recent one with two old fuddy-duddy literary profs. You know, the kind who would probably diss authors like King. And it turns out... they have some really unusual eating habits...
I'm swapped with you on this one--read the book but not seen this movie.
Stephen King is my all-time favorite author. I've read all of his stuff once--and most twice! He's at his peak when writing about writers or academics--character types he can personally identify with. In The Dead Zone novel, John Smith is basically a King archetype--a guy who just wants to be a teacher but has this great power thrust upon him. Hmm...King after the success of Carrie?! The outlandish politician is very Trump-ish, though King treats him (understandably) as sort of "something that could never really happen in the real world". Oops.
I watched Batman Returns so many times as a kid that Christopher Walken will never not be Max Schreck to me (hahaha).
I agree that most King book-to-movie adaptations are poor. The best one might be The Green Mile. That one really captures the essence of the book. I also really enjoyed Gerald's Game (Netflix) & Doctor Sleep. I'm a bit outlier on Kubrick's The Shining, however, in that it is just too darn weird for me. Nicholson: stupendous. But everything else? I side with King.
I think what makes King so hard to port to the big screen is that his prowess is all about getting into the heads of characters (much internal dialogue). Good luck portraying that in a visual medium. I remember that for the 11/22/63 miniseries they had to invent characters just so the main character wasn't talking to himself every episode!
Great comment!
I didn't mind the Flanagan ones (Gerald's Game, Doctor Sleep), I thought they were actually alright. Some of the best King adaptations; they mixed regular people with spookies the way King does.
But I don't think any movie version gets to the emotion of King books. Which is part of what I love about them.
This is a good, smart adaptation, though. Not emotional, just professionally done. I think you'd enjoy the acting in it.
Oh, and on the "writers and academics" thing...
I liked the recent one with two old fuddy-duddy literary profs. You know, the kind who would probably diss authors like King. And it turns out... they have some really unusual eating habits...