Movie Maniac added 1 item to Terror Blurbs! Part II (An Ever-Expanding List) list
Plot: The small town of Castle Rock is quickly turned into the devil's playground after the arrival of the mysterious shopkeeper, Leland Gaunt.
Not a film to partake of if you're looking for a solid representation of the somewhat large and unwieldy novel it's based on. Departing from the stranger (and at time darkly comedic) elements of the source material, this rendition leans more into a traditional take of devilish mischief and predation visited upon the weak-willed. However, despite some inspired casting, the film feels a bit disjointed with its thin characters, its touch-and-go plotting, and a strange disjointedness. Ultimately, you feel like you've watched vignettes or excerpts that belong in a bigger story. If it were adapting all the events in the novel it might be understandable but it becomes almost unforgivable given that the story was considerably condensed for this cinematic interpretation. Not a total loss but nothing exceptional resides here.
2 years ago
Movie Maniac added 1 item to Terror Blurbs! Part II (An Ever-Expanding List) list
Plot: After a signal spurs the bulk of people into a series of violent mental and physical changes, a group of survivors treks across what remains in a bid to find others.
There certainly is a lot of promise in the concept of Cell. Moments show glimmers of something that could of been a breath of fresh air, even. Alas, despite this not being a zombie movie outright, it is riddled with tropes of the genre. Moments seem unearned, plot elements seem to pop out of nowhere, and a profoundly cheap look renders some moments outright wince-inducing. Not to mention, the movie is riddled with inadvertent comedy. You don't need a big budget to get an interesting premise across but you do need good character work, invested acting, and a spark of creative juice. Cell lacks all that and more. It goes without saying that someone looking for a decent adaptation of the book won't really get that here but they also won't get something that stands on its own merits.
2 years ago
Movie Maniac added The Lost Boys (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital) [4K UHD] to owned list
2 years ago