As a constant reader of Stephen King, I’ve seen many adaptations of his work. Regardless of if it’s a movie released in theaters or on television, I usually try to see it. And usually, I’m disappointed with the exception of just a few instances. The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile being two examples of the good ones. I read the original novella this is based on in the early 90’s right after it was released and I’m pretty sure I was in front of my TV the night this aired. Of course I have zero recollection for 90% of this film. The Langoliers was shown in two parts on ABC TV and it received great ratings. It didn’t fare as well with critics. Now I see why that is and if it wasn’t for the fact that I am a Stephen King fan this would have been a fairly dismal experience.
A little inside tip: if you want to see almost the same story and save yourself nearly two and a half hours in run time just go check out the Twilight Zone episode titled The Odyssey of Flight 33. But since I can’t hang my hat on that suggestion alone, let’s talk about The Langoliers for a few minutes anyway. The Langoliers is directed by Tom Holland who also directed Fright Night and the first Child’s Play film. Starring in the ensemble cast is Patricia Wettig (City Slickers and Thirtysomething) is Laurel Stevenson a woman who is headed to Boston to meet a man after answering a personal ad. Dean Stockwell (Quantum Leap and Blue Velvet) is Bob Jenkins a writer of mystery books. David Morse (The Green Mile and Disturbia) is pilot Brian Engle who after hearing his ex-wife has died is now just a passenger on the flight to Boston. Playing blind passenger Dinah is Kate Maberly (Finding Neverland and The Secret Garden) a young telepath who is traveling to Boston for surgery that may give her some or all of her sight back.
Also of note here is Bronson Pinchot (Perfect Strangers and Risky Business) who plays business man Craig Toomey. Pinchot steals just about every scene he is in even though he plays both the comic relief as well and the antagonist in the film. Now what is The Langoliers about? Well, all the people I mentioned as well as a few others all board a red eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston. Half way through the flight most of the passengers on the plane seems to have disappeared. The group that's left must figure out what happened to the rest of the passengers and crew, luckily they have Brian to fly and land the plane. Once they land in Bangor Maine, they think they will get some answers but no such luck.
Whatever happened to them while on the plane has also happened to everyone around the world. The airport is deserted. What happened to them? How do they fix it? And just what are The Langoliers? More of a psychological character study of what do people do in strange and terrifying situations. The good get better and the bad, well, they get worse. The Langoliers isn’t for everyone, in fact anyone that isn't a King fan will probably have a hard time liking this two part miniseries. As it is, I liked it being a slow burn science fiction mystery even if the ending is a huge mess with some of the worst CGI I have ever seen. So I will give this two and a half aurora borealis-esses out of five as this proves once again that not everything Stephen King writes needs to be made into a movie. Or should be.
As you rightly point out, both you and I posting about Stephen King airport movies on the same day. Just the most recent example of our synchronicity. (Many miles away, something crawls to the surface...). But unlike THE NIGHT FLIER, I actually DID watch this when it was originally broadcast because, believe it or don't, I had just recently listened to the audiobook of THE LANGOLIERS story and quite liked it. Unlike you, I did remember the TV movie/mini-series and I remember it as utter garbage!!!! Yes, for all the reasons you cited. However, in the last year or so, I just rewatched it (masochistic urge, most likely made me pick up the DVD). And yes, it was STILL pretty awful. However, I didn't HATE it like I did back then. Maybe I'm mellower in my old OLD age but it was just watchable. And I new to expect the abyssmal CGI (which was even really back back when it was made). Couldn't recommend it by any means, of course, but all you say is true and it's kinda compelling like a car wreck. Even though, I'm actually never compelling to slow down and look at a car wreck because, when you're a serial killer, car wrecks are kinda boring to you somehow. Now where did I put my meat cleaver????
ReplyDeleteSurface of a dark Scottish Loch? Or just my balloon knot? Meat cleaver? When did you stop using ice picks?
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