Rating: 
Summary: Good Interpretation of the Ray Bradbury Novel
Review: Ray Bradbury is a Midwesterner. Many of his novels and short stories capture the flavor of the Midwest so well that it may be difficult for those who have grown up elsewhere to understand the feel of his stories, if not the meaning of the stories themselves. Such is the case for "Something Wicked this Way Comes."Our story is set in a turn-of-the-century small town in Illinois. The time of year is autumn, a season often poetically exploited by Bradbury. Cooger and Dark's Pandemonium Carnival breezes into small-town Illinois one dark and dreary October day, and suddenly the waning day became even more dark than usual. Thirteen year old Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade, best friends through thick and thin, are witness to the eerie arrival of a carnival set up but moments after the carnival train arrives. The over-quick setup of the carnival is but one sign of the weirdness to come, as one person after another succumbs to the temptations presented by the carnival. In one case, a woman longs for lost beauty. In another, a man longs for lost love. Another man longs for a lost leg. The list is long, and while useful to establish the nature of the carnival, risks diluting the principal theme of the story. At first only Will and Jim recognize the evil intent behind the carnival. It is not long before Mr. Dark discovers that Will and Jim have recognized the true nature of the carnival, and then actively seeks to capture the boys and neutralize them. Will and Jim are suddenly on the run for their lives. Fortunately Jim's dad Charles Halloway, played by Jason Robards, is convinced of the nature of the carnival by the boys and helps the boys survive and overcome the evil of the carnival. The story was originally released in 1962, significantly predating the much more serious and bloody Stephen King novel "Needful Things," which pursued a similar approach in that the townspeople were tempted by their wants and succumbed, though in the latter novel accepting temptation generated further evil. In "Something Wicked" accepting temptation leads to loss, but generally only personal loss. The story is focused on the two boys, which makes the story better for teenagers, though I am very fond of the book and the movie even now. Also, the story is set in rural Illinois, and autumn in the Midwest and Northeast have a feel very that can be a bit eerie, but difficult to understand unless you grew up in places where the leaves turn color and die in the fall as Halloween approaches, and there is a feeling of mystery in the air. You might observe that this movie was not filmed in Illinois, which should have been obvious given that Illinois is generally flat throughout most of the state. The movie was created in 1983 at a time when special effects technology was advancing quite rapidly. The special effects in the movie are now dated somewhat, which detracts further from the movie. In spite of the flaws in the movie, the feel of the book is still there. When the movie starts with the view of the locomotive coming down the tracks, dark and vaguely foreboding, the tone of the movie is established. Blowing leaves, dark colors and minor musical keys are used to enhance the feeling of the movie, which is more a dark fantasy than a horror story. The movie allows a boy's viewpoint to explore the nature of life and temptation, which allows for more gasps and awe than we would feel as adults. I recommend this movie for those who have enjoyed Bradbury in print, and are looking for a dark fantasy that approaches, but just misses the mark of real horror.
Rating:
Summary: somthing cool this way comes!
Review: This is one of a few movies that is just perfect to watch on a Halloween night, even with the kids, it is rated PG, so maybe for the very young it might be too scary. Its not anthing horrifying but it dose entertain, Jonathan Pryce's perfromance as the evil Mr.Dark is perfect.
Rating: 
Summary: An Okay Movie
Review: I have to admit that I haven't read the Ray Bradbury novel, so when I'm judging this film, I'm basing it on the film itself (which is what most people would be doing anyway). This film is okay. It's not over the top scary, and it's not boring. There was an obvious attempt to make the people around the boys have deeper characters so you can understand why they suffer the fates they do. Unfortunately, they are very two-dimensional and you neither feel sadness or glee over what happens to them.
One thing I found strange about this film was the tarantulas scene (the one where the green mist follows the boys home and suddenly there are tarantulas in the one boy's room). Has anyone noticed that the boys seem older in that scene? It looks like they must have hit puberty because their voices are deeper and they are obviously taller/larger. I wonder if they filmed that scene a year or so later to make the film even more disturbing? It certainly stands out like a sore thumb, especially when the scenes before and after show the boys with their pre-pubescent voices and heights.
Overall, this is a movie that you'd probably want to rent first before going ahead and buying it.
One more thing - it's too bad that Anchor Bay didn't include a 'making of' featurette. I noticed when looking on the IMDB for information about the film that there was a 'making of' featurette shown on TV back when the film was first released.
Rating: 
Summary: Unsatisfied.
Review: For a Disney film of the early 1980s, this is unusually "scary." For kids I mean. To have a character like Mr. Dark, who is the devil in all but name, is provocative, and lifts this movie out of the category of mundane. Ultimately, though, this is still a kids' movie. There's a predictable selection of lovable small town characters, including a cranky schoolteacher, a cheap merchant and a friendly barber. The characters are drawn far too shallowly for this otherwise spookily enjoyable film to really satisfy an adult crowd. There's an endless supply of moments in which our pint-sized heroes make big eyes at yet another shocking revelation, and not quite enough of Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce filling their characters with personality and meaning.
Rating: 
Summary: Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow
Review: What are Ray Bradbury's greatest works? No, don't answer. It's doubtful that the first baker's dozen of replies would produce two lists with the same works in the same order. My first two choices are "Dandelion Wine" and "Something Wicked This Way Comes," in that order. SWTWC was the earlier book of the two. Both achieve something that approaches uniqueness. They capture an honest-to-god slice of life as it really was in the American Midwest in an era that faded by the advent of the 1960s - a time I was fortunate enough to have experienced when I was the age of the boys on center stage in these two books. In "Dandelion Wine" one forgets all about Bradbury and starts to live his story. The eyes read but the mind is in Illinois. One sits in the summer night on the wooden swing of the front porch (people really did that once), hears the crickets chirping in the night and the steam train whistles singing their siren song as the great locomotives follow their tracks through a river valley somewhere near. In the earlier "Something Wicked," Bradbury nearly realized the same magic level of time travel. The steam whistles also sing their song, but there's a chill on the Midwestern Wind and the smell of burning autumn leaves in the air. "Something Wicked" has one more element that Bradbury no longer needed in "Dandelion Wine," the supernatural. As autumn leaves drift by their windows, two boys in Bradbury's Midwest do indeed hear the steam whistle blow, with the train bringing a fell carnival to town, one run by the Autumn People, a magical and devilish folk who thrive on other people's misery and unfulfilled desires. So far, all of this applies equally in the original book and in the film, but here the two part and travel fascinatingly different paths. With "Something Wicked," Bradbury got an opportunity to tell his story a second time and in a different manner. Both the book and the screenplay are by Bradbury, but the screenplay is anything but a film version of the book. One really would expect more than that from Bradbury, and one gets more. The central characters in the book are the two boys, Will Holloway and Jim Nightshade, who encounter evil and with help from Will's father, the janitor at the local library, conquer it and advance on their own path to maturity. In the film, Bradbury tells his story, really the same story again, but with an entirely different focus, now upon Will's father, Charles Holloway, who in this telling is the village librarian. It's a story of an aging man who at last, in confrontation with the wickedness that has come his way, must deal with his own inadequacies, conquering them as he conquers the supernatural evil, with help, of course, from the boys, who use the lessons of his experience to advance on their own path to maturity. Which is better, the book or the film? That is the question, as Hamlet said.
Rating:
Summary: Wicked and creepy ,it came my way
Review: I saw this film when it was first released, and at that time i was managing a cinema in our town, and remember so vividly wondering if the censors had fallen asleep during their watching of this film, especially as they had given it a P.G cert which in effect made it an open market for the kids.
Now i thought the film was supurb, but so sinister and creepy, in fact i recall being more un-nerved by it, than some of the then ' Horror ' films around. certainly i felt it was unsuitable for many under 12 year olds. However, for me the film has a strange enchantment even though i still feel it is so sinister, i am pleased to have added it to my film collection.
Rating:
Summary: Love Bradbury! Not so much love for screen adaptation -
Review: Something Wicked This Way Comes - staring Jason Robards and Jonathan Pryce. A screen adaptation (1983) by the author, of his own novel. The film is good only during scenes with Pryce and Robards (it's VERY good). Yet, the plot is motivated by the actions of the characters of the two boys, Will Holloway and Jim Nightshade who, were inadequately cast (it's hard to find good child actors). Along with not being shot very well (Director of Photography, Stephen H. Burum [the writer of this review simply can't tolerate the day-for-night scenes.]), it seems 10 to 18 pages of the original script are missing from the final cut (the whole Tom Fury, B-Story). Much of the special effects scenes are cut in such a way as to reveal they simply didn't work and had to be cut out all together &/or "cut around." Much to my dismay, the story simply falls apart. Somehow, a beautiful script ended up as a film that, "...had to be saved." That's Hollywood...
Rating:
Summary: Bradbury's Best, and Disney's Too
Review: I was never a great fan of Ray Bradbury's writings, but I loved
Something Wicked This Way Comes and looked for the movie on DVD regularly until it was issued. The movie does full justice to
the book, and the special effects, while not spectacular (and
probably not intended to be) bring the story to life in a way
not often achieved. The basic theme is selling one's soul to
the devil, not very original in the abstract, but Bradbury's treatment of the theme, and Disney's rendering of it in terrifying color, bring the story orders of magnitude beyond
the ordinary. The lightning, a key element of the story, is,
alas, a bit phony in the strokes, but the white-lighting of the
landscape by the flashes are very realistic. As a lover of
thunderstorms, I count this movie worthwhile for that alone.
Not having re-read the book for many years, I had to watch the
movie more than once to get a full grip on the plot details. I would have liked more special features than just the theater trailer, but you can't have everything, and this disc comes with
wide-screen and full-screen versions.
Rating:
Summary: Yikes!
Review: How much of what you hold dearest would you be willing sacrifice for your fondest wish? But then that wish goes awry...
Rating:
Summary: You won't REGRET it...
Review: Probably the best work of art on regret. Many reviewers focus on the proprieter of Dark's Carnival tempting people with desire, but notice that almost all of the temptations are offers to "go back" to some 'Golden Days' of a person's past and lose the future you stand upon. The crippled ex-athelete regains his atheleticism, the father the chance to relive a humiliating expereince, the teacher her lost youthful beauty...All of us wrestle with regrets (by comparison Jacob had it easy), which impede our lives. This film illustrates that battle metaphorically. Oh, it also has great dialogue and some spooky performances.
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