Rating: 
Summary: the BEST!!!
Review: the langoliers is the best movie ever! the only downside is that the special FX are poor. If you are into blood and gore, this movie isn't for you, instead get pet sematary or the shining.
Rating: 
Summary: Big Disappointment
Review: The Story: The premise is that the past does not just go away as we move into the future, it is actively destroyed or eaten up by creature called langoliers. In the movie, the cast has either stopped moving forward or the langoliers have started moving too fast; either way, instead of just eating up the past as we move through time, the langoliers and their ongoing demolition are catching up to the main characters.I never read Stephen King's short story upon which this is based, but this is a very weak movie. The premise could have gone somewhere, but the movie didn't. The dialog is very weak, the special effects are weak, and most of the acting is weak. I got the impression I was watching a rehearsal, and that the actors did not believe in what they were doing. "The Stand" was better in every aspect.
Rating: 
Summary: Will there be a sequel??
Review: This movie was the GREATEST movie of all time. The most FUNNIEST of the characters was none other than Craig Toomey. The way he said that time is short,the way he was ripping paper on the plane, and that he said that HE was going to tell others what was important. As well as the "meeting" on the runway at Bangor Airport when he crazily said "I LOST $43 Million Dollars1,and I did it delibarately!" But what this review is about whether there is going to be a sequel to Langoliers. Here is MY prediction of a sequel: The funerals of Don Gaffney,Nick Hopewell,Dinah Bellman,and yes even the psychopath banker Craig Toomey are held in where else?,Boston,Mass. The characters still goes as follows: Captain Brian Engle is still going to his ex-wives funeral,Don Gaffney's grandaugther is going to Don's funeral,Laurel Stevenson is going to the funeral of Dinah,Don,and Nick,Albert Kaussner and Bethany Simms are now married and are going to the funeral of Dinah,Don,and Nick,Bob Jenkins is not only going to the funerals of Don,Nick,and Dinah, but he is going to write a novel of his previous trip on AP #29,Rudy Warwick who is also going to said funeral (and hopes that there is plenty of food at that funeral),Craig Toomey's unmentioned brother Greg has 3 things on his mind:1,Going to the funeral of Craig 2,Finish what his brother started (attend that important meeting in Boston at 9:00) and 3,Makes sure he dosen't suffer the same fate as his brother,Nick's father is going to his son's funeral since he found out about the disaster of flight 29 in a England paper,and last but not least,an unknown mercenary who ISN'T among the 10 survivors of flight 29 who is just going to Boston to get away fom the stresses of L.A. But he also has the psychic powers of Dinah,and his vacation turns into a all fought out battle for the lives of the 9 NEW passengers of AP Flight 58 and for time against the Langoliers who now want to eat more than just lazy boys and girls and the past. Same goes as follows:Time rip (now caused by a brutal t storm before the 2nd trip to Boston,not an auora borealias) sleeping people survive,awake people die,Brian takes over as new pilot AGAIN as the 2 pilots of aP 58 are the only ones that die,fuel of past works with plane of the present but takes longer to join time stream,and Brian puts plane on autopilot before decreasing pressure. See the battle for time and life of 10 NEW passangers aboard AP Flight 58 in:Return Of The Langoliers:Saving The Past,Present,and Future. Tell me if you think that there is going to be a sequel and if you have a same or different prediction of a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: ENTERTANING, AND A GREAT PLOT! ... but...
Review: Most of this movie was great. Very entertaining and captivating plot, interesting characters, and the film itself sucks-you-in after 10 minutes or so of watching it. I loved all those qualities about it (cuz we all know they're hard to find in films) ... BUT the one thing that set me down from it, and made me rate it as 4 instead of 5 stars is ... the whole movie u wait to see these creatures "The Langoliers" ... and they are finaly shown in the end ... AND THEY ARE NOTHING BUT HORRIBLE SPEACIAL EFFECTS! Other than the cheep monters in the end, the movie has a VERY interesting idea (cuz King wrote the great plot, its not his fault the monsters sucked) and is very entertaining and is definetly worth watching!
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting idea...
Review: Covered in poor acting and bad special effects. That aside, this is an interesting film. I can forgive the acting and special effects because the story is good science fiction (in an introductory way). My main problem with this movie is the character development. It has a running time equal to Storm of the Century, without the character depth. They are totally one-dimensional, and I found myself bored waiting for the end of the movie. All in all, it's worth the ... cost for a few hours of entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting But....
Review: I've not read the novella, but in watching this little flick stretch itself over the weak 3 hour frame it has to work in, I decided to do just that to see what King was really after. The premise that past times are cleaned up by a collection of demented metallic sharp-fanged tribbles whose dental bills must be astronomical is fascinating. And typical King. One could hold a competition for 'worst TV movie/mini-series from a King story" and this one might get a lot of votes. But it is earnest, which somewhat redeems it. Smart casting to put the reliable and skilled David Morse in the captain's chair, as he gives the movie a credence it would totally lack without him. It may be stereotypical casting to put the charming Mr. Stockwell in still another wide-eyed overdone narrator-substitute role (he really DOES overdo it here), but he's so darn likeable that it's hard to hold too much of that against him. Wettig is her usual restrained self; one can almost see her at times feeling pretty wistful not about the situation the characters are in, but about once again ending up with a role considerably beneath her skills. Pinchot is rather good, but I never cared for him, and I don't care for the way this character was written - he's probably much more complex in the novella. The rest of the cast plows thru the reasonably intelligent but oversimplified script with competence, their only fault being that they showed up to perform at all. And now on to the langoliers. MAN, with a special effects budget that went beyond mere superimposed cartoonery, these little guys coulda been the stars of the flick. As it was, they appeared too late, and the insufficient buildup to their appearance didn't help. I LIKE the idea of past time being tidily cleaned away by these toothy little destructors, and will add the idea to my small list of favorite sci fi concepts. But the very fact that I liked it made me pretty annoyed with the superficiality of the langolier performances - it was all more silly than scary. The best part, the view from the departing plane of their eating away the last of the airport and that final big chunk just falling into what I assume was supposed to be nothingness, should have been an example of what could be accomplished - that WAS a scary thought. Probably if I weren't so fond of even bad novel-to-film sci fi (that dreadful Martian Chronicles even has a couple redeeming features), I'd 1 star this. But I'm feeling generous, so will give it 3, with the proviso that one of them is for Morse.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite King miniseries
Review: For some reason, I find myself watching The Langoliers again every few months. Almost inexplicably, it has become one of my favorite Stephen King miniseries. The plot has a couple of holes big enough to consume the giant time rip that causes all the problems in the first place, and the actors overplay their characters almost to a man, but the concept of the "langoliers" themselves lends a fresh little twist to the sometimes hackneyed concept of time travel. David Morse outshines the rest of the cast in his role as Captain Engle, although Bronson Pinchot (in quite a breakout role for him at the time) is wonderful (albeit irritating) as the deranged Craig Toomey. Pinchot really goes for all the stops in making his character as noticeable and loud as possible, and he begins to learn the secrets of making your face reflect madness toward the end. The quirky Dean Stockwell is another overactor here; playing a mystery writer, he hems and haws, striking Rodin's Thinker-like poses all over the place, invigorating even his most trivial comments with a sense of dire importance. Mark Lindsey Chapman is not bad, nor is Patricia Wettig. Kate Maberly plays the young blind girl Dinah; this character has the distinction of being the most annoying character I have ever encountered. I earnestly dislike her character, which makes my fondness for this movie so surprising to me. I would be remiss if I failed to mention Stephen King's appearance; it is one of his best cameos ever, in my opinion. He plays a bank president, but his appearance can only be described as cheesy, reminding me somewhat of the character he played in Creepshow. DVD technology actually detracts from this movie somewhat; the langoliers, when they finally arrive, look much cheesier than they originally appeared on television and VHS. This does not really harm the story, though. Despite its flaws, it is a story I find fascinating. This movie is probably a little long for some people's taste, coming in at three hours; despite its length, character development actually leaves something to be desired. Some of the dialogue is rather forced, as well. Thus, I can easily see why some folks don't jump up and down praising The Langoliers, but somehow it manages to entertain and intrigue me every time I watch it. It offers an unusual twist to the done-to-death subject of time travel, and I think that is what keeps me coming back.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful, I would choose zero stars if the option was there...
Review: I saw this miniseries when it first came out on T.V. a long while ago, but last night saw some of it again on cable (my boyfriend was curious and kept flipping to it) and was reminded of how horrible this movie really is. It is incredibly cheesy, and not in a good way. I am a huge fan of Stephen King and recommend some of the other miniseries that better personify King's work such as The Stand (though it is quite long) or Storm of the Century. While these other movies are better, Stephen King's books are always much more stimulating. There are just too many things going on in a character's mind that cannot be filmed. The only saving grace of The Langoliers was Bronson Pinchot who brilliantly played a psychopath. Just to see his previously hidden capabilities was almost worth sitting through that horrid movie.
Rating:
Summary: Stephen King's pen is... is mightier than the sword!
Review: Stephen King is best known for his books of the macabre, but what some people don't know, is that he's also a master of comedy - as is the case with "The Langoliers". The book was a very complex and hilarious study of the human mind. The movie delves even deeper, showing just how funny people can be when faced with eminent destruction. Both the movie and the book ask the question, "What would you do if you fell asleep on an airplane, but everybody that was awake, died, and that one of the people on your plane is a psychopath, and another is a blind girl who can sense evil, kind of like Haley Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense", then you seek shelter in an airport, but all the carbonated drinks are flat and the food is spoiled, then you find out that these Pac-Man-like creatures ("the Langoliers") literally consume the past?" Well, what would you do? It's a tricky question, and to be honest with you, I don't know what I would do. But I can tell one thing, Bronson Pinchot (in a performance that's quite a departure from his beloved Balki Bartokomous character on the popular TV show, "Perfect Strangers") doesn't know how to answer the question either. Man, does he go crazy - and I'm not talking Riggs in "Lethal Weapon" crazy - I mean he goes REALLY crazy. You can tell that Pinchot really embraced this role for what it was and took method acting to an entirely new level. Still not convinced? After all the laughs and slapstick routines (the scene where Dean Stockwell drinks the beer in the airport is absolutely brilliant!), you are treated to a fantastic, suspenseful chase scene where the Langoliers chase the speeding plane down the runaway. Just as the plane is getting ready to takeoff the Langoliers razor-sharp teeth... Sorry, but you're going to have to watch the movie to find out how it ends. That is, if the Langoliers don't get to you first.
Rating:
Summary: The book version is definitely better...
Review: So much better, in fact, that I feel that I wouldn't have understood the film without reading it first... One of S. King's strengths is his character development, and I don't think that this was passed to the movie. Instead, the movie tried to concentrate on the story line of people 'time traveling'. Now the logic of this story never was very strong, so when you lose the character depth of it, you lose the whole deal... On top of that - the performances were very unconvincing (why does S. King insist on having a cameo in all the films made of adaptions of his books? He's a great writer, but he can't act!) except for Bronson Pinchot, who plays a perferctly neurotic Craig Toomy...
|
