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The Mist
Topic Started: Dec 3 2007, 04:27 PM (274 Views)
Black Tiger
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Just saw The Mist and it's 95% a good modern-day monster movie. A group of rural townsfolk are besieged inside a local supermarket superstore enveloped in the Mist, where mysterious creatures live - hungry creatures.

Based on a Stephen King short story, it is directed/produced/written by Frank Darabont (director of the Shawshank Redemption) and stars Thomas Jane (the recent Punisher), Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden. Familiar old-timers include Buck Taylor and Frances Sternhagen.

Most of the film is a really good monster movie - monsters both from without and within.
The problem for me was the ending didn't work. To be fair, King's short story had no ending. Kinder reviewers would say the story was left "open-ended". Either that or he just couldn't come up with an ending (kind of like how you felt when "The Birds" was originally released).

I applaud the attempt to create a needed ending for the film, but this one didn't have the foggiest notion as to how to conclude this otherwise well-told scary story.

Forecast: Cloudy
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Inspector Carr
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I liked the story when I read it and I even owned the dramatization of the story on CD.....a couple a years back......
"Life is a Crapshoot however you need a pair of dice to participate"
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Greypilgrim
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"Zarkov to Flash Gordon....Come in Flash!"
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Inspector Carr
Dec 3 2007, 04:32 PM
I liked the story when I read it and I even owned the dramatization of the story on CD.....a couple a years back......

You, too?? :lol:

I have the cassette tape recording and read the story just befoe I bought it some time back.

The dramatization is really creepy.

Better than most OTR shows.
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Black Tiger
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I read the story when it first came out also and liked it very much. I always thought it could be made into a first-rate horror film. Unfortunately, the newly written ending nearly kills it.
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Inspector Carr
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That's too bad...the ending in the original story was perfect...open ended .... speaking of King, I always wished someone would have filmed (as a short or Tales from the crypt type episode) of his Salems lot sequel that appeared in Nightshift called Jerusalems Lot I believe...
"Life is a Crapshoot however you need a pair of dice to participate"
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riddlerider
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Black Tiger
Dec 3 2007, 04:40 PM
I read the story when it first came out also and liked it very much. I always thought it could be made into a first-rate horror film. Unfortunately, the newly written ending nearly kills it.

The newly written ending absolutely killed it, for me. Of course, I was annoyed with the movie long before that point. I saw it primarily as yet another metaphor for secular society's (and the creative community's) disdain for organized religion, particularly Christian fundamentalism. The characterization of Marcia Gay Harden's Bible-thumping fanatic was too facile for my tastes; it's become way too easy for Hollywood to paint people of faith with such a broad brush.

But I had other problems with the movie, not the least of which were its frequent lapses of logic and inattention to detail. I found these especially egregious coming from a director of Frank Darabont's ability. For example, at no time are the male characters shown shaving, and it would be reasonable to assume that men in fear of losing their lives momentarily aren't particularly concerned with their grooming. Yet, after several days in the store, they're still clean-shaven. That's a minor example, I admit, and one that I'd easily forgive had I found the rest of the movie compelling. But once a filmmaker has lost you, that's the kind of stuff you tend to pick up on.


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Greypilgrim
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Well, look what they did to Christine. They changed it around so much it was hardly recognizable as the original story any more.

The only really good adaptations of Stephen King, I think, are The Langoliers and The Green Mile.

Lots of other movies were close, but these two came closer to the mark.
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AndyFish
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Also a favorite story of mine.
I will see the movie and simply walk out with five minutes left-- essentially keeping King's original ending. :)
Andy
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Inspector Carr
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I liked The Stand as well as the New version of Salem's Lot with Rob Lowe
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