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The Dead Zone
(directed by David Cronenberg, 1983)
***Movie selected by KasperKristensen***
Odd. The Dead Zone seems to have a positive reputation based on what I'm seeing online. But I came away from it underwhelmed.
The story concerns a schoolteacher who seems to have everything going for him -- mainly, a girlfriend who's crazy about him. He tells her he's gonna marry her one day... later that night, he gets into a car accident and goes into a coma. Five years later, he wakes up and his girl is gone. She has married someone else. Understandably, she could not wait for him - she had to move on with her life. The schoolteacher, Johnny (Christopher Walken), soon realizes that he can see the future whenever he touches somebody.
While watching this movie was somewhat enjoyable and I really loved Christopher Walken's character, I found the movie too simple, too depressing, too silly at times and it had a mediocre vibe. Is it because it's a 1980's movie? I don't know. It's got that creepy Stephen King vibe (who wrote the book the movie is based on) but it just didn't feel strong and smart. There's an incredibly hokey moment in which Christopher Walken's character gets picked apart on television by news reporters regarding his psychic ability and we see his mother, who's watching it on TV, get so upset that she appears to have a heart attack. Some other moments were bloody and disturbing. Most of all, though, I felt the movie was a great big downer. How tragic that someone would go into a coma for five years, lose the love of their life, then get this power that basically destroys their own future and happiness once they wake up.
I had read the book its based on, also called The Dead Zone, years ago, but never saw the movie until now. I remember liking the book a lot. From what I can remember, there's been some changes between the book version and the movie, but I'm not sure that I'm right. I've still got the book and I'm tempted to re-read it (although, I'm sure that feeling will pass soon).
Martin Sheen appears in the third half of the movie as a senator who's had a vision of himself becoming the president -- unfortunately for him, Christopher Walken has also had a vision of him basically destroying the world once he becomes president. So, you get to see Christopher Walken go after some tiger blood in this movie. The movie ends successfully for what it is but in my opinion The Dead Zone could have had more complexity and more realism and more sophistication than it did. Maybe being simple worked for most people with this movie, and I can see the charm bracelet it's wearing, but I thought this movie was too easy and lacking warmth and happiness and solid entertainment. It's hard for me to describe why I feel this way when it seems hard to point out big flaws... it's just too plain. It's not edgy, it's not rich, it's bleak and dismal and it made me sad. It feels cheap -- like a cheap horror film not really fleshed out. It shocked me that David Cronenberg made this movie. Christopher Walken was good, though -- but his character seemed too thin. What else was there to Johnny besides his love for the girl he lost, his caring attitude towards others and his psychic gift? A movie involving psychic phenomena just needs a lot of depth, I think, than standard, acceptable traits like caring for others. What if Johnny didn't care sometimes?
(directed by David Cronenberg, 1983)
***Movie selected by KasperKristensen***
Odd. The Dead Zone seems to have a positive reputation based on what I'm seeing online. But I came away from it underwhelmed.
The story concerns a schoolteacher who seems to have everything going for him -- mainly, a girlfriend who's crazy about him. He tells her he's gonna marry her one day... later that night, he gets into a car accident and goes into a coma. Five years later, he wakes up and his girl is gone. She has married someone else. Understandably, she could not wait for him - she had to move on with her life. The schoolteacher, Johnny (Christopher Walken), soon realizes that he can see the future whenever he touches somebody.
While watching this movie was somewhat enjoyable and I really loved Christopher Walken's character, I found the movie too simple, too depressing, too silly at times and it had a mediocre vibe. Is it because it's a 1980's movie? I don't know. It's got that creepy Stephen King vibe (who wrote the book the movie is based on) but it just didn't feel strong and smart. There's an incredibly hokey moment in which Christopher Walken's character gets picked apart on television by news reporters regarding his psychic ability and we see his mother, who's watching it on TV, get so upset that she appears to have a heart attack. Some other moments were bloody and disturbing. Most of all, though, I felt the movie was a great big downer. How tragic that someone would go into a coma for five years, lose the love of their life, then get this power that basically destroys their own future and happiness once they wake up.
I had read the book its based on, also called The Dead Zone, years ago, but never saw the movie until now. I remember liking the book a lot. From what I can remember, there's been some changes between the book version and the movie, but I'm not sure that I'm right. I've still got the book and I'm tempted to re-read it (although, I'm sure that feeling will pass soon).
Martin Sheen appears in the third half of the movie as a senator who's had a vision of himself becoming the president -- unfortunately for him, Christopher Walken has also had a vision of him basically destroying the world once he becomes president. So, you get to see Christopher Walken go after some tiger blood in this movie. The movie ends successfully for what it is but in my opinion The Dead Zone could have had more complexity and more realism and more sophistication than it did. Maybe being simple worked for most people with this movie, and I can see the charm bracelet it's wearing, but I thought this movie was too easy and lacking warmth and happiness and solid entertainment. It's hard for me to describe why I feel this way when it seems hard to point out big flaws... it's just too plain. It's not edgy, it's not rich, it's bleak and dismal and it made me sad. It feels cheap -- like a cheap horror film not really fleshed out. It shocked me that David Cronenberg made this movie. Christopher Walken was good, though -- but his character seemed too thin. What else was there to Johnny besides his love for the girl he lost, his caring attitude towards others and his psychic gift? A movie involving psychic phenomena just needs a lot of depth, I think, than standard, acceptable traits like caring for others. What if Johnny didn't care sometimes?