Steven King movies and books; the good, bad and mediocre

POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Tuesday, April 26, 2005 20:35
VIEWED: 5900
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CHRISISALL

Friday, April 22, 2005 6:48 PM

I'm with our President (but probably for very different reasons), Firestarter is a good movie!
It's also my favourite SK book. I liked The Stand as a book, but the mini-series missed by just enough to suck IMHO.
Needful Things was a really good flick, too.

All right, I ain't gonna list 'em all by myself. Let's bandy it about for a while, if you've a mind to.

Pyrokinetic Chrisisall

MANWITHPEZ

Friday, April 22, 2005 7:04 PM

Come on! Number one has to be The Shawshank Redemption, followed closely/tied by Stand By Me. Throw The Green Mile in there too.

I might be the only one, but I enjoyed Sleepwalkers. I definitely liked Storm of the Century. I also liked Pet Semetary, the original Salem's Lot,Creepshow, and I did like Firestarter as well, but its been awhile since I've seen it. I did like The Dead Zone as well...the movie and the show. I'd have to say Carrie is my favorite of the adapted horror.

I've already mentioned The Lawnmower Man and Dreamcatcher as abominations elsewhere, so I won't get into it here. But, Maximum Overdrive...Maximum crap! Rose Red...Bored Viewer. And, I know I'm gonna get mauled for this, but I did not like The Shining. I liked the miniseries better. Much better representation of the novel, which is one of the few books that scared the crap out of me. I'm also not a huge fan of IT, because it was so inconsistent. The kids were much better in their roles than the adults were.

I haven't seen the remake of Salem's Lot...I'd like to though. I've heard of an animated The Eyes of The Dragon in the works, but that's been going around for awhile. No Dark Tower novels have been adapted, and I hope they never do. Leave it alone! Hoping Desperation and The Talisman are good, the pictures for Desperation look great! The Talisman (not one of my favorite novels) has been in development hell for like 15 years.

And, looking forward like hell to King's new book in October. The Colorado Kid, I think its called, but its a crime pulp novel, a genre that I love!

Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."

THESOMNAMBULIST

Friday, April 22, 2005 7:21 PM

As Manwithpez said.
Shawshank, Stand by Me, and Green Mile.... I would however put the Shinning very high up, as my cousin was hairdresser for that film :)

Sadly I think there are more missies than hits when it comes to Stephen King adaptations - but I'm no expert on his books, I've read only a few not enough to make any kind of comparison.

I wait to see what the rest say and reccommend.

The
Somnambulist

www.cirqus.com

MANWITHPEZ

Friday, April 22, 2005 7:23 PM

Whoops! Forgot about Misery! How could I forget Kathy Bates's turn as Annie Wilkes! I even enjoyed James Caan in that movie, though he tends to get overlooked a lot.

Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."

CHRISISALL

Friday, April 22, 2005 7:29 PM

The first three films you list are great, just not in the genre I think of when I think of SK is all.
I also liked Sleepwalkers.
But here's something; When Pyro starts flaming the Feds in X2, all I could think was "homage to Firestarter? Charlie would blow him away".ha ha ha

Cracked like a china plate in a shooting gallery Chrisisall

STARPILOTGRAINGER

Friday, April 22, 2005 7:41 PM

Books:
Really liked The Dark Tower that I've read so far (just finished Wolves of the Calla), The Stand, Firestarter, and Dead Zone. From a Buick 8 had a niftiness to it too, but not on the same level.

Movies:
Firestarter movie wasn't bad... I liked The Stand Mini a lot - could have been better, but for what it was, it was pretty good. Dead Zone TV show is excellent, even though they've changed a lot, they've actually improved on it, IMHO, and the Dead Zone movie was a fairly good adaptation in that it kept close to the book.

Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
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GONZAI

Friday, April 22, 2005 8:31 PM

The Shining is a pretty sore subject 'round my house - neither the book nor the film did anything for me, but my mother hated the movie with such a passion that she decided she hates Stephen King, across the board, no exceptions. It's taken me years of prodding (and convenient silence) to get her to watch Dead Zone, Stand By Me and Shawshank, and of course, she loved them until she found out the source. Ack.

Another Sleepwalkers fan here, although in my case it's mostly because, let's face it Brian Krause is just adorable Love The Stand, book and film; Storm of the Century; with 'It', the movie wasn't much but the book still rocks. And though I've neither read nor watched it, Alan Tudyk is in 'Hearts in Atlantis' so it's definitely on my to-do list.

"I'm not a control freak. I'm a control enthusiast." - Joss Whedon

CHRISISALL

Friday, April 22, 2005 8:44 PM

Gonzai, didn't you find The Stand to be very watered down for TV? It came close for me, a source of some frustration lemme tell ya. All that time invested to see the edge trimmed off here and there...IMHO.

Needed to be an 'R' Chrisisall

MRSKBORG

Friday, April 22, 2005 9:41 PM

The best adaptations of his books for me anyway are Misery, The Green Mile, Salem's Lot mini, IT mini and the Stand was not too bad. Needfull Things was reasonable too. Carrie was really good, but not that awfull remake mini series thing, that was bloomin awful.

I pretty much like all his books, although my personal favourites are The Dark Half, Christine, Misery, IT, The Stand, hell, I like all of them, I have a difficult time ranking them i any kind of order cos he's just such a great writer.

"This movie may be a beautiful butterfly, but I loved that damn caterpillar." Joss Whedon.

PHOEBE

Friday, April 22, 2005 11:10 PM

Woot! The perfect thread for me. Sadly I'm going to sleep now so I'll leave with a brief parting comment before writing an essay.

The Desperation photographs aren't impressing me at all. First of all, the wolf is trying to get THROUGH the bars to David - when the wolf never tried to kill David, just to stop him from leaving, which is an entirely different thing to trying to get INTO the cell.

Secondly - hello? Cynthia's hair is NORMAL!

Third - Is it just me who feels weird about the guy who played Jack in The Shining (TV version, not movie), playing Steve? I can't wrap my head around it.

Fourth - I'm very, very, VERY concerned about this being a TV movie. I'm not saying that the violence is all the substance Desperation has, but the violence/gore/graphicness is what made it all the more powerful. With it being a TV movie, some of it HAS to be toned down... and the set photos look *okay* but the quality of some of them worries me just a tad. Regardless, I'll watch it, but as an avid Desperation fan, I'm hoping it's a good enough quality.

Finally, has anyone read Desperation/The Regulators who's willing to compare? Because I was mightily confused by them. When The Regulators was published, was King actually trying to pass himself off as Bachman? Because, what with the same underlying plot and almost exact (but twisted) characters used in both books, somehow I don't see how anyone could miss the similarities...

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