Steineded How sad is this?

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

BA_Harrison Sometimes They Come Back is a made-for-TV adaptation of a Stephen King short story that I might have enjoyed a little more if the actors playing the bad guys hadn't laughed, jeered, whooped and hollered quite as much as they do. I get it, their characters are evil, and evil people laugh, jeer, whoop and holler, but the actors over-egg the pudding to such a degree that they prove extremely irritating whenever they are on screen.A bit more gore, a few more frights and a tighter script wouldn't have hurt either: the film is fairly light on the bloodletting and scares, while the muddled story meanders leisurely to a frustratingly gutless finale. I imagine that a large portion of the blame should go to screenwriters Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, who also gave us the dreadful Romancing the Stone sequel The Jewel of the Nile, the much derided Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, the dreadful The Beverly Hillbillies movie, and the shockingly awful 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes. Wow that's quite the résumé you have there, guys.

callanvass Jim Norman witnesses his older brother Wayne being murdered by a group of bullies as a young kid. Jim has never fully recovered from this tragedy and decides to take his family back to where it all began for a fresh start. Jim's students start dying and The Bullies come back from the dead for revenge. I loved this movie growing up. I watched it quite a few times. I'm sad to say that it doesn't have anywhere near the impact that it used to. I realize that it is a television movie, but it is only slightly above average. There isn't anything that stands out about it, really. It also has some major plot holes. It isn't fully explained, about how they have managed to suddenly appear after being dead for 27 years. We aren't given any inkling what so ever on how they have been able to return from the dead. Why did they wait 27 years to seek vengeance on Jimmy? Wouldn't they have done it far sooner? Also, why does Jim have visions in a telepathic sort of way with the hoods? It is script contrivances like that, which make me shake my head. Nothing is explained fully as I would have liked. There are plenty of flashback scenes involving the incident with Jimmy as a child, but they are delivered as mundanely as possible. The storyline could have been something riveting and chilling, but it ended up going the routine route in every way. Tim Matheson is very solid as the lead. He conveys the proper emotions when needed and I liked him a lot. Too bad he didn't have much to work with. Brooke Adams is OK as the wife, not great. Robert Rusler is a favorite character actor of mine. He's good for the most part and rather bad-ass. My only gripes is the maniacal laughter and the way he taps his unlit cigarette on his hand. They were pet peeves that irked me. The rest of the cast are decent. The finale is probably my favorite part of the movie. It is emotionally well done. Final Thoughts: I didn't dislike this movie or anything, it just doesn't hold up nearly as well from my childhood. It is a forgettable film for the most part. It is worth a look, just don't expect much5.4/10

bayardhiler As a general rule of thumb, the book or short story of which a movie is based on is almost always better than the film. Either that or in a small number of cases, the movie is just as good as the source. Very rarely do you have a movie adaptation that surpasses the original material. 1991's TV adaptation of Stephen King's "Sometimes They Come Back" is one such rarity. Now before I go on, let me just say that I love Stephen King and his style of writing, that combination of imagination, suspense, character development, and morbid humor that has become his trademark. But as this film shows, even the great Stephen King can sometimes be outdone on film. The story begins by introducing Jim Norman (played by Tim Matheson), a high school literature teacher forced to return to his hometown due to financial reasons. But the return forces Jim to relieve his darkest memory, that of his older brother being murdered by three hoods in a dark train tunnel. The hoods are killed by a passing train-partly due to Jim's actions-and since then, Jim has tried to move on with his life. But as fate would have it, certain dark souls aren't done with him and it's not long before several students go missing in his class and are each replaced by teenagers who look strangely like the hoods from Jim's past. From there, it's a fight for survival as Jim must protect his family and over come his past demons. Despite the fact that this is a TV movie, it has the feeling of being one made for the theater with its creepy atmosphere, competent acting, and good story themes. Tim Matheson does an excellent job transitioning from comedy to drama and getting lost in the character. The villains here are scary, riding around town in a supped up 50's hotrod with flames flying out the exhaust and are played to the hilt by the three actors, especially by Nicholas Sadler, who plays the leader of the pack, Vinnie Vincent. The makeup that's used for when the villains transform (you'll see) is quite spooky for being 1990's television work. But more than any of that, "Sometimes They Come Back" is able to incorporate the central theme that good will always triumph over evil and the ending may very well move some to tears. The original King story was a bit darker in its ending and how Jim deals with the three hoods who've come back and I don't think it had the same emotional feeling that this movie did. Perhaps if I had read the story before seeing this movie, I might have thought differently about it. Then again, maybe not. Either way, there's no question that "Sometimes" is a well made but sadly underrated Stephen King adaptation that deserves to be more well known than it is. You might be able to get a copy of the DVD from Amazon if they still have any. If not, don't fret because the whole movie is available on you tube. So, if you're in the mood for some spooky fun combined with a great story, "Sometimes They Come Back" is a great way to spend some time. P.S. If you find yourself teaching a class and a new student tells you he transferred from Milford, run away as fast you can to your nearest church!

lost-in-limbo Another adaptation from the Stephen King staple, but this small story is given a little more weight and probably from that gets a little too bogged down and brightly overwrought. Making it somewhat irregular in tone, mainly around the jaded flashback sequences that always inter-cut the present time. Although atmospheric (those sounds we hear which are not there) and unpleasant in parts, it could have been a much darker journey than it was. Still what we got were some solid performances, creepy imagery of our demonic thugs and their done-up car, well placed suspense and a gripping little tale of history repeating itself, but with our protagonist trying everything to make sure it doesn't. A man and his family head back to his hometown for a teaching job, but are still haunted by the childhood death of his older brother caused by a teenage gang who died at the same time in a train accident. But then the heartache comes flooding back when he is harassed in and out of the classroom by the demonic teenagers that killed his brother wanting revenge for their deaths. The plot actually at first plays around with the idea that maybe it's all in the protagonist's weary mind after the first death, but soon enough that's psychological angle is shot down when the first dead teenager makes a classroom appearance. There the tension, while basic gradually builds up as Matheson's character goes toe to toe with the vengeful dead while no one around him believes him. Robert Rusler is truly menacing as the hot-headed leader and Nicolas Sadler is devilishly sly as one of the members. In their decayed make-up, it was a ghastly sight. Tim Matheson's tormented turn is very well pitched, as he battles past events and reality as the two come together in a nightmarish ordeal. Brooke Adams' is affably good and William Sanderson also shows up a minor part. Director Tom McLaughlin (who was behind other horror efforts "One Dark Night" and "Friday the 13th Part 6") gets the most out of this TV production, as while it looks cheap and it could have been much tauter it has some stylish touches, lyrical camera-work and a hankering for numerous slow motion reactions."I can't keep running."