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Stephen King's The Stand

Stephen King's The Stand

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good movie, good music, epic feel...but read the book
Review: This is a LONG movie...be warned. I also recommend you read the book The Stand first, or you might get lost, or find some characters and situations underdeveloped. I like to think of the book as the real deal, and this movie as a "clipped" version, telling the story's highlights. It's an 8 hour highlight reel. It looks pretty but has some claustrophobic low-budget cinematography. The acting and casting are good (I HATE their Frannie, though.) You'll like it more if you already know the story, weird as that sounds. The story is more religious than gory, but it's not PREACHY religious like many other terrible movies. It could have used more budget to make a spookier post-apocalypse world.

The DVD has some decent features, like production notes, commentary (haven't gotten that feature to work yet), some photos and the like. I wish it had some of the AWESOME bluegrass soundtrack on it. I mean, it's one of the best movie tracks I've ever heard.

Overall, I rank the movie ***, not exceptionally great or a must see (if it was "real" I'd give it more), and an extra * for the surprising amount of DVD features (considering this was made for TV.)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Stand
Review: I have yet to see the DVD version, but did watch the mini-series on TV. I have read The Stand, both the abridged and unabridged versions, numerous times. While I usually find that the movie doesn't measure up to the book, I thought that this mini-series was very well done. I think The Stand ranks right up there as my favorite Stephen King story, though Salem's Lot was the book that got me hooked on Stephen King. I suppose it helped that I was living in North Berwick, ME, when I read the book. There is a house in town, right on the main drag, that *looked* to be haunted when I first saw it, and I later found out that it was reputed by the locals to be haunted. It was a run down, decrepit, and scary-looking Victorian. According to an article in the Portland Press Herald, King was living in N. Berwick when he wrote Salem's Lot, and based the Marsden House on that very house! I was disappointed to learn, a few years after moving from N. Berwick to Mass., that the house had been fixed up, painted PINK, and turned into elderly housing! A perfectly good haunted house gone to "waste". 8^) A year or so ago, I read that Salem's Lot was actually based on *another* town, and the house was based on a completely different house, but who knows? I guess it shows that legends are already surfacing about King even during his lifetime!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A classic King, that's all I can say.
Review: The first time I saw, or even heard of, The Stand was when it was on television as a made-for-TV-movie in 1994. I was intrigued, but my dad wouldn't let me watch the second part, The Betrayal and The Stand. I was 10 years old at the time. My mom had a paperback copy of the book, which I tried to read, but I got yelled at. Eventually, I forgot all about it except for certain characters, like Nick Andros and Tom Cullen. Recently, I was browsing at the video store and saw it on the shelf. I grabbed it, checked it out, and spent six hours watching it. I couldn't not finish it, even though I put the last tape in at 12:30 a.m. This movie has such an awesome premise, King did an amazing job with the original novel, and with the screenplay. There's not much else I can say that hasn't already been said, so I'll leave it at that. Even for a 10 year old kid who loves horror movies, this movie has an outstanding hold. I am now 17, and after seven years of having forgotten it, I remember why I was so intrigued.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I don't know about you guys..
Review: ...but I liked this movie. I agree though that some of the dialogue was retarded, but the story was pretty good. It's a creepy, scary movie. It's one of my favorites!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Understand Stephen, understand his ending.
Review: There have been many references in these reviews to how the movie failed to live up to the book. Some things are too obvious to waste time saying, but if you must, go ahead. A movie is merely a spectator sport, a GOOD book is interactive. While reading the book, if you did not jump the first time you heard a sneeze, you were not paying attention! A movie never involves you to that degree. With regards to his ending, it is entirely consistant with what seems to be his moral compass at that time. Go back to Fire Starter, The Dead Zone, Salem's Lot, and you will see the same theme: Evil is everywhere. Good can overcome Evil, but Good must be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. When I read the book the first time it seemed that the death of Larry and the guys was their answer to the question "How far will you go?" Answer: All the way. Perhaps Mr. King's Methodist upbringing? Just a guess. This view seemed to change with Christine: some Evil is so great that nothing will vanquish it.
The edited version of the book is a classic. The unabridged version displays the need for discipline in an author's life. The movie is enjoyable on it's own terms.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Avoid this like the plague
Review: The book, The Stand, is one of Stephen King's best books. This movie, on the other hand, is a joke. It contains some of the worst, most unrealistic acting I have ever seen. Please, do yourself a favor and read the book first if you plan to watch this stinker of a film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The best of Stephen King. By Daniel F. Khouri
Review: This is Stephen King at his best; the story goes around the possibility of a military airborne virus. Now unlike other movies, in this one every one dies... King try's to mix between the Bible's revelations, and movie fiction. It may surprise you, but in my opinion he succeeds. I am a big fan of Stephen King, and I have read most of his novels, well the Stand was his best in writing, and now on film. If you are looking for something that is religious, and fiction, you came to the rite place. I would give the acting three stars out of five, the production a four, and the script a five. Enjoy.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good Book
Review: Notice i said good book! the DVD doesnt do the book justice! skip it and just read the book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: M-O-O-N That spells GREAT!!!
Review: I usually don't like movies that are dry and long but, I surprisingly enjoyed "The Stand". When I first got the movie I was like this is going to be painful to watch because it had 4 tapes to tell the entire story. I thought I was going to hate it but, it turned out to be one of Stephen Kings best.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: not worth spending almost 6 hours to watch
Review: "laws yes" this movie kept going and going and going. The Stand takes a theme, viral fallout, which is absolutely bursting with the potential for an engrossing storyline and a phenominal set and never manages to reach any of it. The Stand is filled with so much fluff that doesn't advance the storyline that it becomes difficult to remain interested. Some of the special effects are also very cheesy, such as the "hand of god" and the ghost of mother abigail which appears in the maternity ward (more of a bust. why would a ghost be cut off directly below the shoulders in a straight line?). Stephen King himself manages to drag this movie down even further by giving himself an acting role in which he displays the poorest acting I've seen since Steven Seagal arrived in Hollywood. Apparently Stephen is either completely oblivious to the fact that his acting is horrendous or he's so obsessed with appearing in movies he doesn't care. There are also numerous contradictions and inconsistancies. After the fallout, for example, when the people in FreeZone have congregated, they continue to eat reasonably well. Steaks, vegetables, etc. I'm assuming that a month after the fallout, the food in the grocery stores would have spoiled as well as food in people's homes. And so if all food has spoiled and 99% of America is dead, where is this food coming from? Farmers are dead, distributors are dead, yet this merry crew is eating like it's a Thanksgiving jamboree. Also, the virus is supposed to come on gradually mimicking a bad flu. Yet they keep finding bodies in the most inconceivable places. Who goes to a diner when you have a flu? As for the set, it's breathtakingly beautiful in its rural splendor. Unfortunately, natural, scenic splendor does little to add to the macabre mood that should befit a viral fallout that's killed 99% of the population. When I rented this movie, all 4 tapes (2 tapes for Part 1, 2 for Part 2), it was actually in the horror section with a horror sticker on it. There was nothing remotely frightening about this film other than the general topic it was addressing. I also felt it was unnecessarily riddled with Christian connotations. It wasn't so much about good vs evil as King purports but about God vs Satan, with constant references to the Bible and religious this and religious that. It seemed like a Billy Graham sponsored film. The ending was perhaps the biggest copout of all. As a previous reviewer said, the men from the FreeZone pointlessly travelled to Vegas only to have a mysterious hand of God end the whole ordeal. Someone as acclaimed as Stephen King using the most amateurish of devices, deux ex machina, to end a story.


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