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The Dead Zone

The Dead Zone

List Price: $14.99
Your Price: $11.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of my favorite
Review: This is not your typical Stephen King nightmare flicks. It is more thought provoking and Christopher Walken does an outstanding job of a man revived from a prolonged coma with a special ability. Even if you don't like Stephen King movies you will like this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best thrillers of all time
Review: Christopher Walken has never been better, and for those of you who might have only seen him playing his now stock-in-trade creepy weirdoes, check this out. He should have won an academy award for this brilliant performance (all the performances are good, including Martin Sheen who plays blustery and phony because the character he's playing is a deeply-disturbed, dishonest man). Michael Kamen also should have won an Oscar for his brilliant score. In contrast to many of today's horror films (and films in general) in which emotion is replaced with aloof irony, this film -- in addition to making the hairs stand up on the back of your neck -- bravely explores emotional and moral dilemmas encountered by decent people. The story takes you by surprise despite a premise you've seen before (a psychic debating whether or not to alter the future). One of the best things about this movie is the filmmakers' courage in sticking to the book's tough, heart-wrenching ending. Here, David Cronenberg is in his prime as a director, and Jeffrey Boam deserves kudos for his fantastic screenplay. A must-own DVD for people who like eerie and sophisticated thrillers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Horror at its darkest and most memorable.
Review: Christopher Walken is excellent as a man who awakens from a coma to discover he has the ability to see somebody's future just by touching them. His character is sympathetic and well-thought-out and the film is a wealth of thought-provoking, interesting ideas and truly haunting images. The darker side of the human mind and the worrying prospect of what might be just around the corner for everybody are explored wonderfully in a film which faultlessly brings the atmosphere of the unputdownable book to the screen.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of Walken's Best!
Review: This is the only Stephen King horror adaptation that I would own. Christopher Walken plays it with understated tragedy. It's one of his deepest performances. He was just beginning to age, like a fine wine, and his face tells the viewer so much. It should have earned Walken a Best Actor nomination. Though it's a little dated now, Walken simply shines, and the ending is one of the most memorable.

Martin Sheen is the weak link here. Not even Americans are dumb enough to elect a toad like this. He bellows through the film, rivaling Rod Steiger for overacting, and showing the nuances of granite. He's so over the top he's kind of entertaining. He is truly a rich man's William Shatner.

The supporting cast is highlighted by Brooke Adams' wonderful performance. Tom Skerrit (sp?) is also good as the stoic, but smart, lawman. The relationship between Adams and Walken is heartbreaking. The score is understated and haunting at times. This is one of David Cronenberg's best films.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Probably the Best Stephen King Film
Review: Probably the best translation of a Stephen King novel into film, The Dead Zone has all the suspense and shock of such modern classics as The Sixth Sense, while probing the disturbing question -- what if you could save someone from a terrible fate, but would never be appreciated for having done so, only shunned?

Christopher Walken highlights his career with the main character of this film, and Martin Sheen is at his angry best in a characterization not matched since he played the villain of The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane opposite Jodie Foster.

Highly recommended, even if you have been disappointed by some other King films.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Walken at His Best.
Review: "God's been a real sport to me". A classic line from one of Cronenberg's finest films. Walken's acting skills come of age as Johnny Smith, a school teacher who awakens from a five year coma to find that life has passed him by, now blessed (or cursed) with a rare power to see the future and perhaps change it. Superb supporting roles portrayed by Tom Skeritt, Anthony Zerbe, Herbert Lom and of course, Martin Sheen. The finest adaptation of a King story until recently surpassed by the Green Mile.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Dead Zone :The Ice Is Going To Break
Review: Many movies have been made from Stephen King's books. Most of them have been bad. The exceptions are "Christine," "Misery," and the best, "The Dead Zone." David Cronenberg, a master director of horror, quirky and sometimes over the top, directs "The Dead Zone" with a sure hand. Christopher Walken, playing mostly villains the last few years, wonderfully plays an awkward, compassionate school teacher, crippled and put in a coma by an auto wreck, then wakes, having lost his love but gaining insight into the future. This kind of thing has, frankly, been overdone in the movies, but here the story's line is so clear, the acting so good, that we forget that it is a supernatural thriller and we become involved with these all too human characters. There are some baroque touches,such as the Frank Dodd suicide, somewhat gratuitus compared to the rest of the film's images. Cronenberg's best work, I feel, is when he is not trying to be too far out, which means most of his films after this one. "The Fly" was another masterpiece and again Cronenberg was reined in a little. Cronenberg directs and gives this "quiet" horror film a savage beauty, so when the climaxes and surpizes come, they are all the more powerful. This is a great film of any genre and I think Cronenberg's best work. "The Dead Zone," will last longer than his more recent, "controversial" films such as "Crash." He has this obsession with the body and the machine and still makes movies exploring his own demons. Some of these explorations are interesting but ultimately boring for such a wonderfully talented director, one of the best in the horror or any genre. But stay with "The Dead Zone," a movie worth buying and merits repeated watchings.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic...but why did I have to buy this on VHS?
Review: This is a great film... one of walken's best performances..the best adapation of a Stephen King novel.. My favourite Cronenberg film absolutely...

But why can't I buy this film on DVD?

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not what you'd expect from Stephen King
Review: School teacher who has a car accident (Hi, Pet Sematary, again) falls into a coma, and when he awakes, he possesses a supernatural ability to predict the future at the cost of his own life as it begins to kill him, slowly. Very good movie that sort of fails to find a genre to fit into but delivers the goods with a great cast and excellent use of events to develop plot.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Cronenberg at his best ...
Review: Throw out 'Crash' and 'Naked Lunch' and all the other Cronenberg 'experiments' and sit back and watch this subtle masterpiece. Walken gives the performance of his career in this perfectly paced, meditative film. Performances all around are strong, story is compelling and the ending powerful. Solid direction and music add to the general high level. Quality filmmaking. Own this one.


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