Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

paulclaassen I remember watching this as a kid and I thought it was really awesome. Having watched it now as an adult, I realized how many plot flaws there are in the film. It is also not credible. Sure, it is fantasy after all, but the real-life events in this film are not plausible. I also found the film too drawn out at times. Drew Barrymore was very good though. Despite all the flaws, lots of action and special effects ensures an entertaining movie.

javi-y-se-acabo Stephen King might one of the most well known writers nowadays, and he usually has some kind of obsession with paranormal events, in this case affecting a young little girl and his father, who are trying to run away from some evil government forces that want to capture them to do experiments.The story is great, the two main characters are well written and are easy to connect with. And during the first half of the movie it flowed well and all. But around the half of the movie, it stops and gets slower and somehow, more boring. It still keeps the interest during some tense moments but it goes down a lot from the great start. Drew Barrymore as the little girl, Charlie was fantastic and her performance really makes you care about what could happen to her or her dad, Andy, played by David Keith.The visual effects, although they weren't perfect, were great for the not-so-high budget this movie had. The scenes with the young Drew Barrymore using her telekinetic powers were great and interesting to watch. And the atmosphere is created in part thanks to the great electronic score by Tangerine Dream.I would recommend this movie to any Stephen King, as I'm sure they would enjoy it a lot.

destinylives52 Manny's Movie Musings: "Firestarter" adapts Stephen King's book of the same name, and stars Drew Barrymore playing the title role and David Keith as her protective father. Both father and daughter have super powers (Barrymore can set almost anything on fire) due to a government experiment, and now they are hunted down for more experimentation and ultimate disposal. My most memorable, movie moment of "Firestarter" is the scene when Barrymore walks out of a burning barn, ready to kill and burn everything and everyone she sees — a little girl with an adorable face but with the power of the devil. Although "Firestarter" has the feel of a movie of the week and has several shenanigans (e.g., the bad guys make the laughably bad assumption that Keith has lost his powers and therefore doesn't need that much supervision), overall it is very entertaining (mostly due to Barrymore's adorable portrayal of her character), and the part when Barrymore goes off on the bad guys is very satisfying.Mannysmemorablemoviemoments

loomis78-815-989034 The Government is running a secret facility known as 'The Shop'. The man in charge is Captain Hollister (Sheen) who oversees drug experiments on human guinea pigs. Andrew Mcgee (Keith) meets Vicky (Heather Locklear) while going there and the experiments go south quick. Andrew can control things with his mind and make people do things against their will. It drains him terribly when he does it, but he has a power the government is interested in. When the couple has a kid named Charlie (Barrymore) they discover she has the ability to start fires just by thinking about it. Captain Hollister sees Charlie as a terrific weapon to be used but Andrew takes his daughter on the lamb wanting simply to be left alone. They use their powers only when they half to. This makes up the first half of the movie. The second half has the two captured at The Shop. Once separated, they work on Charlie to win her over. Hollister's most deviant agent is John Rainbird (Scott) a Native American who poses as a janitor and wins over Charlie's trust. Eventually Andrew hatches an escape plan and a fiery conclusion ensues. Hollywood was desperate for Stephen King stories in the mid 1980's seeing it as box office gold even if the movie wasn't very good. This probably explains the first class treatment this film got with a huge Hollywood cast filling out the bill even in small roles. No doubt King's novel must have been interesting, but something was lost in the translation to the screen. Not only is this not scary in the slightest, it's not even very interesting. Sheen overacts terribly in spots and even though George C. Scott is a terrific actor, you must wonder why he was cast as a Native American in this evil role. To Scott's credit, he is the only menace or feeling of evil in the film with his impure desire to destroy Charlie in the end. This overlong movie suffers pacing problems and inconsistent acting from young Drew Barrymore who is impressive in one scene and terrible in the next. At one time Director John Carpenter was picked to direct this picture but Universal was unhappy with his box office results on "The Thing" and yanked the job away from him. Carpenter would have delivered a more interesting film than this one turned out to be. It shows you what Universal knows.