As usual with Aint It Cool News -- this is just pure fun. Ambush Bug (Mark L. Miller) has decided to celebrate Joyland and Under The Dome TV series with a series of "
glances back at some of the best and not so best works of Stephe King!"
Retro-review: THE SHINING (1980)
Retro-review: THE DEAD ZONE (1983)
Retro-review: CHILDREN OF THE CORN (1984)
Retro-review: MISERY (1990)
Retro-review: SLEEPWALKERS (1992)
Short Cuts Short Film Review: SURVIVOR TYPE (2012)
Book review: JOYLAND (2013)
UNDER THE DOME Episodes 1-2 (2013)
And finally…MUCH MORE SHINING!
I admit that my favorite reviews are of the really bad movies! Here are a few of my favorite lines:
About Children of the Corn, "For me, CHILDREN OF THE CORN is a prime example of why trying to expand a fifteen page short story into a feature-length film tends to be a bad idea." YES!
And, more about Children of the Corn --
CHILDREN OF THE CORN is a movie that would be great for a “Mystery Science Theater 300”-style riffing session, from its awkward opening (overlaid with a voice-over narration supplied by Job—clearly added after test screenings, since Job’s narration only pops up once more early on in the film to helpfully describe details that the filmmakers obviously felt would confuse the audience) to the mind-blowingly awful special effects of the film’s climax.
About Sleepwalkers, Ambush Bug really held back, in my opinion, writing, "The story ends up being pretty simple." And, "One of the weirder King outings, this one boasted to be the first ever King story written directly for the screen and though it does carry with is a lot of King-isms, I can’t qualify this one as one of King’s strongest efforts." Not one of King's strongest efforts? Talk about understatement!
About Under The Dome, "The first episode does everything right by introducing the overall conflict (the dome) and peppering in smaller conflicts as well. This is the type of storytelling that was perfected with LOST as the overall mystery is the thread that inches along for the season or two or six, while there seems to be some kind of plot movement by incorporating smaller arcs along the way. It’s TV serial storytelling 101 and hits all the beats nicely."
And with this note about Under The Dome, I agree wholeheartedly:
the overall mystery is intriguing and at this point, the dome could be anything from aliens to top secret government tech. Here’s hoping that the solution resolves itself better than LOST did (and isn’t as prolonged as that series ended up being), but as far as openers are concerned, it’s promising enough to have me interested.
Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of the article, there is some fun youtube there!
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