The Girl - A Review

5 Stars - Exceptional

So we see the first of two films about Alfred Hitchcock that will be out in the near future. I highly doubt, however, that Hitchcock will have as negative a view towards him as a person as this did. I also doubt it will be this good.

The film is based on Tippi Hedren's testimony about what Alfred Hitchcock did to her due to his misguided and obsessive love for her. How much truth there are in these claims is a point of large controversy, but it is irrelevant if it actually happened or not, it makes for a very interesting story and characters and that's what matters.

The performances are very powerful, with Toby Jones making a magnificent Hitchcock, and Sienna Miller really captivating and relateable as Hedren. Topped off by a first class supporting cast, this is something of a must see.

You Will Be Disturbed

In short, a brilliant little T.V. Movie, watch it if you can find it.

"The Once and Future King"... Merlin - an Overview

So, the other day Merlin came to an end. As such it seems as good a time as any to tell my opinions on it.

I'll start by saying that I enjoyed Merlin overall, and thought it was entertaining, though it wasn't without it's flaws.

The story is a retelling of the Arthurian Legends told from the point of view of Merlin, who in this version is a young man and of a similar age to Arthur. Merlin journeys to Camelot and is taken in by Gaius, the court physician, who very quickly becomes aware of Merlin's immense magic and warns him that he must keep it a secret as magic has been outlawed by Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father and the current king of Camelot. Merlin soon finds himself in Arthur's service and meets within caves deep beneath the castle, Kilgharrah, the last of the dragons; the dragon informs Merlin that his destiny is to protect Arthur and help him build a kingdom where magic can be seen as a force for good once again. Then the first two series or so follow a basic pattern every episode, bad person with magic turns up to Camelot and tries to kill Arthur, Merlin stops them with sneaky uses of magic. Some important exceptions as that they rescue a young druid boy named Mordred; Arthur falls in love with Gwenivere, a serving girl in the castle; they meet Morgause, the half sister of Morgana, ward of King Uther and Merlin sets Kilgharrah free and learns from his long absent father that he is a dragon lord and as such can control and summon the great dragon. Series two ended with Morgana being taken away by Morgause. Morgana returned at the beginning of series three and a new type of predictable story occurred, Morgana being secretly evil and doing evil things and looking at the camera now and again to remind the audience at home how evil she is... However along the way that series had some important developments, like they met Gwaine and Percival and Elian, Gwen's brother, who, along with Lancelot, who they met earlier in the show, would later become knights. Upon the discovery that Morgana is evil and a sorceress and that she was secretly Uther's daughter, she was banished from Camelot and set out to claim the throne she felt rightfully hers and planted a mole in Camelot in the shape of Agravaine, Arthur's Uncle, who does is secretly evil and does evil things and looks at the camera now and again to remind the audience at home how evil he is... Uther is killed, which makes Arthur king, and gives Merlin more hope that magic will return to Camelot. Ultimately Agravaine and Morgana are defeated, though Morgana is still a threat and Arthur, who has pulled the sword from the stone, is safe as king and now marries Gwenivere. The final series then sees Arthur give a now grown Mordred entrance into the knights of the round table, which causes Merlin much grief as he has forseen Arthur's death at Mordred's hand. What follows should be an epic mounting of tension until something finally snaps and the prediction comes true, and some of it is... but also you get a bit where Gwen is possessed by Morgana and starts doing secretly evil things and looks at the camera now to remind the audience at home how evil she is... fortunately this gets fixed, and they get back to the actual plot, where Mordred leaves Arthur's side upon an old druid friend of his being killed, and he and Morgana mount a war against Arthur. Arthur is mortally wounded and must be transported by Merlin to Avalon, it is here that Arthur finally discovers that Merlin is a sorcerer and slowly comes to terms with this news, however Arthur dies because Merlin didn't think to use his dragon friend to fly them to Avalon. However Kilgharrah tells Merlin that Arthur is The Once and Future King and one day he shall rise again. However, hundreds, if not thousands, of years later as an aged Merlin walks past the lake of Avalon there is no sign of Arthur rising. The End.

So yeah, there are a few problems with Merlin, chief amongst these being it's amount of recycled, predictable plots especially the secret evil person within Camelot one... Another flaw is that it could never seem to find a consistent tone, it often managed some good drama and as a result whenever it fell back to slapstick humour whilst the soundtrack was practically just playing wah wah wah, it could be somewhat frustrating as you couldn't tell if the show was trying to be serious or not.

But, despite these and a few other minor flaws, like why does Sir Percival never wear sleeves?, I still found the show to be ultimately a good entertaining watch, particularly from series 3 onwards, where it started to actually have a continuing plot and was bringing a bit more dignity to some of the best stories of folklore in existence.

Because Sir Leon never gets enough credit

Merlin (Colin Morgan): Merlin is the central character of the show, and he starts out okay, but he's so bumbling and dopey that it seems hard to believe he'll become the wise old wizard of legend. That said as the show started to take itself more seriously and Colin Morgan improved as an actor the character became stronger, with a determined resolve and many skills at his disposal. Also developing a strong relationship with Arthur, which is more what you would expect from the two.

Arthur Pendragon (Bradley James): Bradley James is actually a pretty good King Arthur, he started out brash and pompous, but along the way learned humility and what it means to be a great king. It was a pretty good character arc and he did well to give the character dignity as far as was possible.

Morgana Pendragon (Katie McGrath): So Morgana went from being a whiny snob who thought her problems were more important than everyone else's to being basically Rita Repulsa who thought her problems were more important than everyone else's. She was meant to be intimidating and demented when she went evil, but I was always just kind of laughing at how silly it was, I mean come on, she sits around in a giant throne in an abandoned castle between evil missions...

Gwenivere (Angel Coulby): Pretty much my only quibble here is that Gwenivere was played by a black actress... this isn't meant as a racist thing, just that in the sort of time this was set there probably wouldn't be any black people in England, and they certainly wouldn't be allowed to marry royalty if they were. But other than that, she was an okay Gwenivere, though I didn't really see that much chemistry between her and Bradley James... maybe I'm just being overly critical.

Gaius (Richard Wilson): Brining something more of a comic touch, Richard Wilson plays Merlin's mentor and chief father figure for the show and it must be said he does it quite well, giving the role a bit of dignity and nuance, though the one thing he could never get me to believe was his wigs...

Kilgharrah, The Great Dragon (John Hurt): You know how you make a dragon awesome? Give him the voice of John Hurt. The great dragon (whose full name I only know from the Merlin wiki, I usually just call him The John Hurt Dragon) is a very good character, acting as the Merlin figure to Merlin... if you get what I mean... The voice of John Hurt really gives the role a power and epicness that it needed to not become boring.

Uther Pendragon (Anthony Head): He was a good constant threat to Merlin for the first few series, and they took him out of the show at the right time to give Arthur his time as king. Not really a lot to say about the character, but Anthony Head did as good a job as you would expect from a seasoned veteran like him.

In short, an entertaining, but flawed, show, I'd say worth a watch, but you can pretty much skip the first two series.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - A Review

4 Stars - Pretty Decent

So it took me a while to get around to seeing the Hobbit, and I must say I rather liked it. I had some problems with it... but overall a pretty good film.

The Hobbit is a wonderful little book, and there's the first problem, it's a little book... not really enough for three films, which leads to a fair bit of stuff not in the book being added. Some of which works, like Radagast the Brown and a meeting at Rivendel between Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel and Elrond, which are setting up Gandalf's quest to fight the necromancer later in the story. However the addition of the Pale Orc as a rival for Thorin feels a bit unneeded.

Acting wise this is a strong cast, with wonderful performances from Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Andy Serkis and loads of others.

The film looks beautiful, with vast sweeping landscapes and impressive sets, however, I saw it in the 3D 48fps version, which made things look a bit more like sets and made any fast movements look like they were fast forward... so I'd like to see it in 2D.

The final thing worth mentioning is the score, which is very nice, with the Misty Mountain song the Dwarves sing underscoring several high action moments and a few musical call backs to Lord Of The Rings here and there.

Just Look How Pretty It Is

In short, a pretty good film, but some things could have been better.

The Muppets Christmas Carol - A Review

5 Stars - Brilliant

I realise this is my second review of  a Christmas Carol in less than a week. But it's the Muppets, what do you want from me?

So of course this is a film everyone loves and everyone watches every year, in fact for many this is the best Christmas Carol film, and for me it is a very close second.

So we see Michael Caine as Scrooge, Kermit the Frog as Bob Cratchit, The Great Gonzo as Charles Dickens, Miss Piggy as Emily Cratchit, Robin the Frog as Tiny Tim, Waldorf and Statler as Jacob and Robert Marley, Fozzie Bear as Mr. Fozziwig and of course Rizzo the Rat as himself. That's without mentioning the countless others.

This film is just joyous, one that always brings a smile to your face no matter how often you watch it.

Charles Dickens wasn't blue and furry...

In short, a magnificent film. Merry Christmas.

Mickey's Christmas Carol - A Review

5 Stars - Classic

We all know the story of a Christmas Carol, Miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge gets visited by ghosts and changes his ways, it's a story we've seen far too many times to count. But how many of you remember how you were introduced to this classic story? For me it was Mickey's Christmas Carol, With Scrooge McDuck playing his name sake.

This is short, sweet and to the point, and it is extremely memorable for it's jokes, colourful characters and for bringing a Christmas Carol to children all over the world. It's one I watch every year, and always will.

Here's Your Nightmares For The Next Few Nights Kids...

In short, my first Christmas Carol and it'll always have a place as my favourite Christmas Carol

Jack Reacher - A Review

4 Stars - Pretty Good.

People of the world marvel as Tom Cruise plays a character famed for being 6 foot 5...

Jack Reacher is an entertaining film with a decent mystery, solid action, enjoyable characters and funny comedy. I went in expecting something that would just be a bit silly and enjoyably bad, what I got was a film that really took itself seriously and actually had me somewhat invested in the story and characters.

Tom Cruise always makes for a good badass, and he's in top form here, beating guys up, doing stellar detective work and cracking off some great one liners. Werner Herzog plays a memorable and intimidating villain, although he's sadly not in the film much and I would have liked to see a bit more from him.

and once I'm done with you, I'll go make films that will confuse your brain

In short, a solid, entertaining film. Worth a watch.

Gremlins - A Review

4 Stars - Corny, but fun.

Ah Gremlins, a horror-comedy Christmas classic. This is one of those films you could probably watch every year around Christmas time and never get sick of.

The plot is simple enough, there's a cute little Mogwai named gizmo, but due to water spillage and feeding after midnight there's soon an army of Gremlins running riot.

The acting is really, really bland, so you don't care much for the humans. But let's face it we came here for the Gremlins; and they deliver entertainment in spades. There is so much energy in every single one of the Gremlins, whether they're messing with the electrics, playing poker at the bar or watching Snow White at the cinema. It's clear a lot of work was put into these puppets and it pays off.

This guy always makes me laugh

In short, a really fun film, definitely one to watch.

"Made In America" - The Sopranos - An Overview

The Sopranos tells the story of Italian American Tony Soprano, Mob boss of New Jersey. It delves into his personal and professional life and the problems caused by both of them. Being a HBO drama it doesn't pull any punches with what it will show and do. No character is truly safe and just about anything can happen. As a result it is a very good show.

It has a large cast of characters, especially since every time someone within the mob is killed someone else will take their place. At times it can be hard to remember everyone when so many characters show up, but ultimately the important ones are all very memorable, especially Johnny Sack, Bobby Bacalla and Uncle Junior, just to name a few.

Overall I would say that the best series of the show is series four, as the conflicts were interesting, the drama was intense and it moved forward in a lot of ways that seemed somewhat lost in the final two series. That isn't to say the final two series were bad, just that it peaked at number four.

My favourite overall episode is the series four episode Whoever Did This due to the culmination of a lot of plot threads and an interesting look into Tony's relationship with his nephew Christopher. Another episode of particular note is the series five episode The Test Dream where roughly twenty minutes or so of the episode is an elongated dream sequence, which is done to spectacular effect.

In short, I'd say this is well worth a watch. Definitely one of the most influential shows on modern T.V. drama.

Sightseers - A Review

4.5 Stars - deliciously dark

Sightseers tells the story of a couple on a caravan holiday, seeing the sights of Yorkshire; The Tram Museum, The Pencil Museum, the load stones... oh and they kill some people... that too.

This film is very good, a lot of funny moments, and horrifying gore delivered in actually fairly scary manners. The performances are down to earth and realistic and the editing and use of music really brings the murders to life, if that's the correct phrase for it.

Pretty Much Sums It Up

In short, worth a watch if you're into British dark comedy.

Seven Psychopaths - A Review

5 Stars - Amazing

A new dark comedy written and directed by Martin McDonagh, starring Colin Farell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken and Woody Harrelson with supporting roles by Tom Waits, Zeljko Ivanek and Michael Stuhlbarg. What more do you need?

This film is funny, dark, emotional and clever. The writing is excellent, further proving that Martin McDonagh is one of the most interesting writers going at the moment.

The performances are brilliant, with particular note going to Sam Rockwell, for a ridiculously fun and yet a little scary performance; Christopher Walken for an emotionally charged character and Tom Waits, who despite being a relatively small role, really sticks in the mind.

If this doesn't sell you on the film nothing will...

In short, just about the best comedy of the year, a must see.

Alex Cross - A Review

2 - Awful, but funny

Well I've not read the books this is based on, but I doubt they can be as stupid as this film.

The action is lazy and poorly shot, the acting is mediocre, the plot is dull, and yet I found it hilarious once it got to the second half. Everything just got really over the top and silly and I couldn't stop laughing.

But yeah the film sucks. No-one in it seems to care really.

Why am I in this?

In short, don't watch this.

Rise Of The Guardians - A Review

4.5 Stars - Awesome

So you take Santa, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy, The Sand Man and Jack Frost, make them into heroes and have them fight the Boogeyman, what you get is awesome.

This is a very good film, it takes itself seriously and doesn't talk down to the audience. The characters are well developed and entertaining, and you want the heroes to win, whilst enjoying the villain's evil moments.

Also this is an absolutely beautiful film, with wonderful visuals and a lot of care put into making every moment look perfect.

I'll be providing your children's nightmares for the evening...

In short, a very good film, well worth seeing.

Gambit - A Review

3.5 Stars - Fun

Gambit is a remake of an comedy from the 60s, which I have not seen, so I won't be comparing it in any way. This remake is scripted by the Coen Brothers, and while it is pretty funny, it lacks the usual dark edge their films have.

In the middle of the film there's a wonderful section of farce in a hotel with Colin Firth sneaking around with no trousers. It's a shame there wasn't more of that kind of thing, as the rest of the film couldn't quite match up to it.

Performance wise, it's strong enough, no-one is bad certainly. The highlights are a couple of supporting cast members, namely Stanley Tucci and Julian Rhind Tutt.

You can just feel the eyes rolling...

In short, I'd say worth a watch, but maybe one to wait for TV for.

Silver Linings Playbook - A Review

1.5 Stars - Bad

Silver Linings Playbook is a film that tries to talk about serious mental illness and attempts at dealing with it. It isn't very good at it. I sensed that the writer had very little understanding of it's subject matter, and didn't get across anything of what was going on in the main characters' heads. Instead it seems to many times treat it as a joke, and this ruins any sympathy you might try and have for them.

The acting is okay, nothing really special, certainly not worth all the oscar buzz it's been getting.

To Think, I Could Be Watching The Hunger Games Right Now...

In short, not a very good film, I really didn't like it.

Singing In The Rain - A Review

5 Stars - Glorious

I feel somewhat ashamed that it has taken me twenty one years of living to get around to watching Singing In The Rain. It's one of the all time classic films and it's easy to see why. This film is fun, colourful and energetic with a whole lot of heart.

The main appeal of this film is, to me at least, the performances from Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds. They all give it everything they have, with Gene Kelly dancing through pneumonia to produce the perfect tap-dancing in the 'Singing In The Rain' scene and Debbie Reynolds, who wasn't a dancer, dancing till her feet bled for 'Good Morning' and Donald O'Connor hurling himself through the scenery in 'Make 'Em Laugh'. No one does anything by halves and it shows.

Also, Aunt Harriet from Batman is in it, what more do you need?

Few Scenes Are This Perfect

In short, a brilliant film, worth all the praise everyone lavishes on it.

Macbeth - 2010

So you take Macbeth and you set it in Soviet Russia with Macbeth as basically Stalin. Then you cast Patrick Stewart as Macbeth and Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth. What do you get? An incredible version of Macbeth.

Performance wise this is a very strong piece, Stewart's Macbeth is perfect, starting out uncertain and ambitious growing to confidence but ultimately a weak mental state. He gives meaning to every word and is always fascinating to watch.

Kate Fleetwood is wonderful as Lady Macbeth, she is cruel and manipulative, but loses her composure the more Macbeth grows self reliant. This gives creedance to her fall into madness which is tricky thing to pull off.

For once the weird sisters were really good, powerful and intimidating, without going for the typical haggard crone stereotype. Also casting them as nurses gave it a really weird association in your mind, people who are meant to look after you causing the ultimate downfall of a kingdom.

The Soviet setting is very interesting, giving everything a very unique look that stays in the mind. The location of Welbeck Abbey lends many creepy and echoing locations which really gives it a regal and at the same time dirty feel, perfect for Macbeth.

This is my favourite version of Macbeth, very inventive and cool, and full of great performances. I can find very little wrong with it, other than maybe the scene in England is a bit dull, but it always is no matter what production it is.

In short, a brilliant Macbeth, definitely worth a watch.

Rust and Bone - A Review

4 Stars - good, but unusual

De Rouille Et D'os (or Rust and Bone in English) is a French film about a woman who loses her legs and a man who is trying to be a father, but isn't very good at it and the relationship the two of them have.

The film is very good, but it is weird, a little dull in places, but ultimately entertaining for it's deep characters and terrific performances. Also one of the most upsetting scenes I've seen in a film for a long while.

Not an awful lot to say other than it is a good film, if you don't mind a bit of reading with your film it's worth a watch.

Marion Cotillard and a killer whale. Your argument is invalid.

In short, a good film, if a little weird.

The 5 Best and Worst Stephen King Adaptations

Consider this something of an epilogue to Stephen King Month if you like, I've seen some shockingly bad films in my foolhardy theme month, but some good ones too, so here's the cream of the crop. Bare in mind this is just out of the 31 I reviewed for Stephen King Month.

I'll start with my least favourite, because that just makes sense to me...

5. It

This is pretty awful, However I mainly include it on the list because of the sheer number of people who say they are scared of it. It isn't remotely scary. The only point in its favour is that it gets Tim Curry points.

4. The Tommyknockers

The perfect example of the bad Stephen King miniseries, three long hours of bad acting, 90s special effects and lousy scripts. 

3. Salem's Lot (2004)

I guess they at least tried with this one, but the updated modern setting and changes they made to the characters, especially Father Callahan, kind of ruined it.

2. Firestarter

This one just sucks plain and simple, bad acting, bad writing, bad effects. Hell it made a film with George C. Scott and Martin Sheen as villains boring.

1. The Stand

While this is probably technically better than Firestarter, this one pissed me off a lot more because the book is so good. Also it is six hours long, which is just horrific to sit through.

Now onto my favourite. Bare in mind some I like more might not be technically as good...

5. Apt Pupil/Needful Things

So I'm cheating and doing two here, but I wanted to include my favourite new discovery (Apt Pupil) and my favourite book (Needful Things)

4. The Shawshank Redemption

If I didn't include this I'd feel wrong. Truly the most iconic film on this list. Everyone loves it and it is easy to see why.

3. The Shining (1980)

A bit of a masterpiece, with wonderful acting, cinematography and scary noise.

2. The Green Mile

Quite possibly the most accurate adaptation of a book I've ever seen, Magnificent in every way.

1. Misery

That wonderful rarity of an adaptation that surpasses the source material. My favourite Stephen King film.

Stephen King Month: The Shining (1980)

5 Stars - Terrific

At long last Stephen King Month is come to a close, do I regret it? A little... Will I ever attempt another theme month? Probably... though not Stephen King again, as there aren't enough films and miniseries left. So to finish let's look at The Shining again, this time the film, that has been brought out at the cinema for a limited period of time, restored to it's original cut that has not previously been available in the UK at all.

I've already described the plot of the book in my review of the miniseries, so I needn't do it again. But basically, family trapped in haunted hotel by snow, father goes crazy.

This film is wonderful, it has haunting imagery, wonderful cinematography that really captures the isolated, empty feel of the hotel. Most of all, though, this film is loud, everything echoes and the music never really let's you rest always unnerving you and making you not sure of what might happen next. Strangely though, I prefer the cut I had previously seen without the extra 24 minutes of footage, it felt somewhat tighter and more menacing, that's not to say this version isn't also great, probably just when you're used to something it can be weird to see it another way, I'm sure the more times I saw this cut the more I would like it.

As an adaptation it hits and it misses. Many elements of the book have been left out or changed, but a few scenes are word for word the same dialogue out of the book. Ultimately though this is more of an example of the book being a diving board for the director to take his own meanings from it and put them on the screen. You ask most people about the Shining and this is what they'll talk about, and that's fine, it's a very good film.

Never Overlook The Past

In short, a great book and a great film. Well worth a watch and read.

Argo - A Review

5 Stars - Awesome

A story so crazy it can only be true. Argo tells the story of a C.I.A. agent who comes up with an idea of pretending to be on a film location shoot to rescue six Americans trapped in Iran following a terrorist attack on their embassy.

The film is terrific, really drawing on the tensions and emotions created by this situation. It has a great attention to detail as displayed by a section at the end where you see several real life images compared to the film to see how well the recreated it.

The performances are top notch from all the cast, probably the most entertaining performances come from John Goodman and Alan Arkin as the two hollywood types with the incredible catchphrase of Argo fuck yourself.

I'm in a good movie this year?

In short, an absolutely great film, go see it.

Stephen King Month: The Stand

1.5 Stars - Awful

Now we're going way back to one of King's earliest books, a sprawling epic that was so long the original version had to cut out a large amount of material, it wasn't until several years later that it was published in its original uncut version. This is The Stand.

The Stand tells the story of a world wiped out by a plague, with only a small percentage of the population surviving. They start to have dreams, dreams of a sweet old woman by the name of Mother Abigail and dreams of a dark man wandering the world in worn down cowboy boots, named Randall Flagg. The people begin to split into two groups, those who side with Mother Abigail and those who side with Flagg. The forces of good and evil are set up on opposite ends of the country, ready to do battle with one another for the future of the world.

The book is an absolute masterpiece, taking its time to play out all the stories that develop and giving birth to King's most iconic villain, Randall Flagg, who would later play an important part in The Dark Tower series.

The miniseries however is atrocious, the characters are poorly acted, the script is nothing to shout about, the effects are lousy and it is really long and boring at six hours of sheer dross.

As an adaptation it is pretty bad, because even at six hours this is too big a story to do justice to in other media. Flagg is turned into a literal devil, which looks stupid. Characters are left out entirely or not as fleshed out as they should be. Despite this however I do kind of respect them for trying.

First Came The Days Of The Plague...

In short, an incredible book, an awful miniseries, skip this one unless you're some stupid guy who decides to watch a Stephen King film every day in October or something...

Stephen King Month: Salem's Lot (2004)

2 Stars - A Bit Crap

Once more we delve back into Stephen King's first small town story 'Salem's Lot, this time in the form of the 2004 miniseries, where they modernised the setting and changed some things... but I'll get into that.

I've already explained the story of this one in my other 'Salem's Lot review, but basically small Maine Town with Vampires.

This miniseries isn't all that good, the story drags and the supporting characters, the very thing that makes the book so good, aren't interesting to watch and so whenever they're on you just think where's the story? The acting is actually fairly decent with notable actors like James Cromwell, Andre Braugher and Rutger Hauer it would be hard not to be, but the best actors don't get that many scenes, in fact I think Hauer has all of about three...

As an adaptation it isn't very good, the modernisation feels forced as they all miraculously seem to forget that they're in a time where mobile phones could help out in a lot of situations and it doesn't contribute anything to the way they tell the story. The biggest change they made is the one most guaranteed to annoy fans of the book and once again it's what they do to father Callahan, who just can't seem to catch a break in these things. They had kept a faithful and true to the character interpretation of him right up until the end where he suddenly gets turned into a badguy, which is such a change from the book that it is inexcusable. There are also little changes made here and there, like when a guy falls where he thought there would be stairs in this he lands on a table saw, as opposed to the much more gruesome wooden spikes on the ground in the book.

Words Are His Power

In short, an annoying miniseries, give it a miss

Stephen King Month: The Mist

4.5 Stars - Good

Let's talk about Frank Darabont, a terrific director who has a great track record with directing Stephen King works, so far he has directed The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and today's offering, The Mist, based on the novella collected in Skeleton Crew. He also owns the film rights to The Long Walk, another of the Bachman books, I really hope he makes it soon.

The mist tells the story of a group of people who get trapped in a supermarket by a mysterious mist filled with otherworldly creatures. As time goes by people's fears start to get the better of them and they give into paranoia and start to turn on one another. The question begins to be raised of which is more monstrous, the creatures in The Mist, or the people trapped in the building?

The film is very good, really capturing the terror of what it would be to get trapped by something you can't fight against and can't really see. The performances are all strong enough to carry across this film and the only gripe I really have with it is that the CGI creatures can look a bit goofy.

As an adaptation it is another rare example where it surpasses the book in some ways. For one it removes the scene where the main character sleeps with a woman in the store, which feels a bit out of place given how close he clearly is to his wife and son and of course it changes the ending to something far more depressing than the book, and it is so much better that way.

Welcome Aboard. Enjoy The Ride.

In short, a really good film, well worth a watch.