NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

SincereFinest disgusting, overrated, pointless

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

bsmith5552 "The Dead Zone" is an adaptation of yet another eerie Stephan King novel. The story, ably directed by David Cronenberg, is told in episodic form with five separate but linked stories involving the trials and tribulations of Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken).Johnny is an English teacher happy in his job and engaged to a fellow teacher, Sarah Brocknell (Brooke Adams). One day while driving home, Johnny is involved in a traffic accident that leaves him comatose for five years.When he awakes, Johnny discovers his lost five years, and under the care of Dr. Sam Weizak (Herbert Lom), begins the long road back. He is heart broken to learn that Sarah has gotten married and has a young son. One day he makes hand contact with his nurse (Chappelle Jaffe) and is overwhelmed by the feeling that her young daughter is in danger in a house fire. He manages to convince the nurse to call for help.Later, now aware of his psychic abilities and following his recovery. Johnny is approached by Sheriff Bannerman (Tom Skerritt) who asks for his assistance in finding the Castle Rock serial killer. He examines the body of the latest victim and has a vision of the crime and the identity of the killer.Now earning his living as a tutor, Johnny is approached by hard line millionaire Roger Stuart (Anthony Zerbe) to tutor his son who shuns contact with others. After winning the boy over, Johnny discovers that the boy is in danger by drowning during a hockey game. Johnny warns Stuart who reluctantly allows the boy to miss the game thereby saving his life.As luck would have it, Johnny's house is directly across the street from a political dais for senatorial and presidential hopeful Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen). Stillson has his own agenda and will go to any ends to achieve his goals. While shaking hands with the candidate, Johnny through his psychic powers learns what might happen if Stillson becomes president. He then decides to take necessary action and....An intriguing movie with a surprise twist at the film's climax. The performances are uniformly great. Walken has never been better than in the lead role as he tries to deal with his "gift". Brooke Adams is suitably sweet as the heroine who still loves the hero. Herbert Lom makes a convincing therapist who learns a long lost secret from one of Johnny's visions. Tom Skerritt, Anthony Zerbe and Martin Sheen play their roles with conviction. Collenn Dewhurst has nice little bit as the deranged mother of the serial killer. Others of note in the cast include Nicholas Campbell as Deputy Sheriff Dodd and Sean Sullivan and Jackie Burroughs as Johnny's parents.One has to wonder, in view of the Stillson character, how Johnny would have reacted to a certain presidential candidate in 2016.

kosoubani The film lacks depth even without leaving out the metaphysics of destiny and fate. It only goes as far as treating the subject of predicting the future and whether or not to interfere to change the future. The film's problem is that it is not concerned with the "how", or the method, at all. The protagonist manages to save the life of his student from drowning in a frozen pond while missing the opportunity to save the lives of his teammates. Why? Because he was focused on preventing the one person from playing and not preventing the match from being played on thin ice. In the case of the candidate running for the Senate seat, he felt that the candidate's political career must end. The psychic had a vision that the candidate will one day start a nuclear war. Instead of trying to expose the candidate, and demanding public comments and commitments on nuclear weapons. Instead of trying to go to the people in order to prevent him from winning elections, he decides to go it alone. He carries his rifle and tries to assassinate the candidate during a campaign stop. The film makes it possible to understand why the protagonist resorts to this dangerous mode of thinking. Due to his psychic abilities, he was feared, and therefore isolated. He felt lonely and confined. This has resulted in a skewed and exaggerated view of himself, and an erratic problem solving process. The film has successfully created what is essentially a terrorist out of a caring and talented teacher. There are millions of people in the world who are isolated in the same way, and what society needs is not to turn them into murderers and terrorists. The film did not try to emphasize that bad solutions are not solutions at all.

sharky_55 This is low key sci-fi thriller that doesn't know what it wants to be. The ominous opening credits are foreboding and suggest a quiet horror underneath the small snow-covered town of Castle Rock. Cronenberg seems to be the best director to handle this sort of premise, but the result is rather lame and restricted. There's none of that grotesque power that he is known for - the early effects involving Johnny being literally transported into a burning house and that open-jawed bloody corpse of the murderer policeman have a little promise, but even that is censored, and we don't actually see the act itself. Gunshot wounds materialise with an obvious unmistakable bloodiness on bodies like some B-movie, sex becomes unbuttoning the top two buttons and dry hugging, and Psycho-inspired sound effects pipe up whenever he has one of his horrifying visions. It's all very unconvincing. There's so many moments that seem to threaten the horror and seriousness of this movie, but it seems the script is unaware of this. The romance sideplot starts off corny as you like with the girl running back and a kiss in the rain. After 5 years, where it seems logical that this sort of love would subside, it pricks up again, and for a moment her husband is non-existent. And in the final moment, she weeps unashamedly and they reconcile again...even though from any rational perspective it just seems like he's tried to assassinate a politician. This ending could very well be a comedy skit, but the soundtrack and Walken's morbid whispers of the future seem determined to make it dark and grim and tragic. Martin Sheen's presidential candidate is the most hammy and over-the-top character of them all, saying "Hallelujah" and celebrating a nuclear holocaust, and the way he holds up a child as a shield...but I'm sure the intention is not to make the viewer burst out laughing. The dialogue at times betrays itself and makes it very clear that this is a Stephen King adaptation. God forbid Sarah move on with her life: she is referred to as someone who has turned her back upon Johnny and 'cleaves' onto another man like some hell spawn. The officer's mother refers to Johnny's abilities as though he has struck a deal with the devil from hell itself. The creaky house is bathed in green light as if to enhance its supernatural atmosphere. There's a little junior rainman character that speaks cryptically and much more advanced than his age suggests...this mystery of course goes nowhere. They recite Edgar Allen Poe as if this is something they just do everyday for fun. This might have worked if the world created wasn't so fake and facile with all its super serious yet hilarious horror visions...unfortunately there's nothing fresh or tense about this movie at all.

PimpinAinttEasy The Dead Zone is the fourth Cronenberg movie that I've watched over the last 6 months.It has some of the typical Cronenberg conjurations - Over the top background music. Cheesy villains. Gross make up and special effects. And sinister and grotesque looking characters.I wished Walken's character was darker. He was too much of a goody two shoes. Brooke Adams looked gorgeous. But her character wasn't that well developed. Same with the shy kid whose father seeks Walken's help. I was really wondering what the characters motivations were.Martin Sheen looked like he was having a lot of fun. Sheen has played some great villains like in this film and The Incident.There is a scene inside a large dirty tunnel which reminded me of The Third Man. I liked the way the scene where Sheen activates a nuclear bomb was framed. Sheen's menacing bodyguard stands between him and his general. There is a shield with a hawk behind the bodyguard. It was worthy of Kubrick.Anyway, Walken's one dimensional character sort of ruined the film. I have not read the book by Stephen King.(4/10)