lyrafowlpotter
I'm going to let you know right off the bat, the less you know about this TV movie, the better, you might want to stop reading this review now. I first viewed it without knowing anything about it, and I was better for it. I was 11yrs the first time shortly after it aired, and back then, the effects were considered pretty decent for a television film at the time, some of them are laughably bad now, but in a way, this adds to the entertainment value. The movie spellbound me as a child, and I have watched it upwards of 9x's since then, not once have I been bored by it, though I cannot guarantee most people will feel the same, in fact, I doubt that they will.Some of the acting in this is terrible, and no I am not talking about Bronson Pinchot, in fact, he is quite pitch perfect, over-the- top scenery chewing, scene stealer that actually elevates the film. The rest of the acting ranges from good(David Morse, Mark Lindsay Chapman, Patricia Wettig, and Dean Stockwell) to downright terrible (Kate Maberly who was previously amazing in "The Secret Garden", Kimber Riddle, Christopher Collet), and just OK (Frankie Feisman, and everyone else, save one.), and then you have Bronson Pinchot, whom is in his own universe really, literally and figuratively. The premise to this whole mini-series, and the novella(I have read it twice), is both intriguing, and silly. Certainly time travel has never quite been present this way before, and it is very intriguing to watch it unfold. See how it effects each character, and surprisingly, this adaptation is almost completely faithful, save some minor details about characters. Practically all the scenes and dialog are in tact from the novella, but what make this adaptation a miss for some people, again, really comes down to the acting. It really takes this from being a serious movie, in to the realm of pure camp by the third act, but then it ends up being quite serious again for the last 40 minutes, you could say it is wildly inconsistent in tone, but given the material, it is consistent with it. If the acting was more consistent, and better people had been cast in the roles of Bethany and Albert especially, the movie would have been so much better. Casting Bronson Pinchot was a stroke of genius, and the film is largely carried on is tiny shoulders, every scene he is in is electric, and well, crazy. The character of Craig Toomy is intriguing because, well, he is a terrible person, and not because he was abused, and in his mind, still is, no it is because he chooses to treat others based on that abuse. This is a man whom has lost all touch with reality by this point, and most people whom are abused, unfortunately, tend to lose touch with some aspect of reality, but it's not out of your control(I speak from experience), what makes this story so interesting, is no matter how campy it is, it is a very well-done analysis on abuse and what happens when you do not deal with past traumas. Like all King stories, however, Toomy is not the only one dealing with past demons, the others just do a much better job of handling them.There is endless entertainment here, from the mystery aspects, to the camp aspects, to the time travel, to the langoliers themselves(as silly as the CGI looks now, I actually felt they were, stylistically anyway, accurate to the book), it is never a dull movie, unless you are off- put by the uneven acting, and cannot accept it as a camp classic.God Bless ~Amy
Sensei_Rebel
Normally we'd never be friends with random people on a plane, but these 10 were forced into it and ended up showing we can actually become just as attached to each other given an extreme situation. Good leads to evil, evil leads to good. It's very hard for people to understand how the two are related and need each other. Toomy was considered evil by everyone except the girl he murdered. She understood he had been abused by his father verbally his entire childhood. In the end, the movie shows we can bond with anybody in the right circumstances and even understand and forgive why they would want to murder us.I think the way this story broke down societal boundaries was more important than the sci-fi element, and the touching and emotional element was the main thing all along. People can fall in love all of a sudden in such a situation and cut through all the BS humans deal with from day to day. The Langoliers is a sci-fi story about literally getting stuck in the past by about 15 minutes. Human beings waste so much time not enjoying life the way they really want to, and these passengers were stuck in the past and finally got their wish to enjoy the moment. This movie is about love and the ability to bond being right in front of you and all you have to do is grab it (but you never do it the easy way in real life do you?), and it's also about everyone having a purpose to serve, even the abused Toomy who couldn't stand reality anymore.Normally we'd never be friends with random people on a plane, but these 10 were forced into it and ended up showing we can actually become just as attached to each other given an extreme situation. Good leads to evil, evil leads to good. It's very hard for people to understand how the two are related and need each other. Toomy was considered evil by everyone except the girl he murdered. She understood he had been abused by his father verbally his entire childhood. In the end, the movie shows we can bond with anybody in the right circumstances and even understand and forgive why they would want to murder us.I think the way this story broke down societal boundaries was more important than the sci-fi element, and the touching and emotional element was the main thing all along. People can fall in love all of a sudden in such a situation and cut through all the BS humans deal with from day to day. The Langoliers is a sci-fi story about literally getting stuck in the past by about 15 minutes. Human beings waste so much time not enjoying life the way they really want to, and these passengers were stuck in the past and finally got their wish to enjoy the moment. This movie is about love and the ability to bond being right in front of you and all you have to do is grab it (but you never do it the easy way in real life do you?), and it's also about everyone having a purpose to serve, even the abused Toomy who couldn't stand reality anymore.By the way, the guy who played the Captain slso starred in Dancer In the Dark and 12 Monkeys, two other really great emotional movies.
djk-930-38279
I love this movie so much! All of the sci-fi and mystery of it is exactly what I love in books and movies. In this feature, I first saw it on TV and then I read the book. The book is very good as well, but it gives out much more information, describes things in more detail, which in some ways is good, but for me, when it comes to the gore with Mr. Toomey, I would rather not know so much. So in that case, watching the movie is much more preferred than reading it in the book.I gave this movie a 9 because I love it so much, but I just have one problem with it. There was some especially terrible acting, mostly by Christopher Collet who played Albert Kaussner. In many instances, he would overact his lines, and/or his lines were just written very poorly for him. I think for the most part though, the other main characters did pretty well. Not the best acting, but it was good.
