Very Underrated

[BCush1]

In my opinion the first great theatrical film of King's work. Carrie was good, and i was never a big fan of the Shining. But the Dead Zone hit a home run. Christopher Walken was fantastic as John Smith. My only complaint was that it left out the whole wheel of fortune segment. But a great film nonetheless.

The movie often gets overlooked when listed the best adaptations of King's work.

[aptpupil]

Totally agree with you. Due to circumstances largely outwith my control, "The Dead Zone" was the first SK novel I ever read, and it's what effectively turned me on to the man himself.

The movie adapatation is also a fine piece of work. Given the right role, Christopher Walken is an awesome actor, IMO.

[walkingdude]

My favourite of all Stephen King movie adaptions and a film I never get tired of watching. Christopher Walken nails the part of John Smith and David Cronenberg gives the movie enough of his trademark weirdness without taking away too much from the story. One of my favourite SK books as well.

[Bryan James]

Needed more cowbell.

BJS

[Srbo]

I`ve just seen it for the first time tonighte.

Awesome movie, Cronenberg as the director, Walken as the lead - what can go wrong there ?

The movie was done in 1983, but it`s still far better than a lot of todays` Hollywood movies.

Great flick!

[Checkman]

I agree. It's one of the King adaptations that has gone unseen by too many. In contrast to Kubrick's version of The Shining I think Cronenberg was more faithful to the spirit of King's novel.

[Agincourt Concierge]

Many people do not like this movie.....I do.... really.... I like Christopher Walken anyway..
he's so bizarre....

[Theregulator]

I have seen it so many times I know the script. Christopher Walken melts me.

[mousenmile]

I also loved the book, and the Movie, The Dead Zone. Walken was fabulous. I too dont understand how it is not more popular. It was a compeling story.

[pixiedaark]

I also think that The Dead Zone tv show was way underrated. I think it should have been on a major network like NBC. (The Dead Zone was certainly way better than any of the garbage they usually have on!) I can't believe that it got canceled after just 6 seasons! :down:

[JRLauer]

Needed more cowbell.

BJS

:rofl:

That was funny.

[Cruze]

In my opinion the first great theatrical film of King's work. Carrie was good, and i was never a big fan of the Shining. But the Dead Zone hit a home run. Christopher Walken was fantastic as John Smith. My only complaint was that it left out the whole wheel of fortune segment. But a great film nonetheless.

The movie often gets overlooked when listed the best adaptations of King's work.

Totally agree!
Loved this one!

[luckygehrig]

I actually liked the book much better than this movie. I thought it could have been much better if they had followed the book more closely. Why do directors feel the need to butcher Stephen King's stories when they make them into movies? They're popular as books for a reason. Many of the changes in this movie seemed completely unnecessary. I will give Walken credit though, he made a great Johnny Smith.

[Space Hitler]

It took me YEARS to re-appreciate this movie. When I first saw it I was amazed, but then a week later got a job at a movie theater where it was playing and saw the first ten minutes and last ten minutes so often that I was turned off to the film until....I want to say two years ago when I got it on DVD.



Still cannot watch Footloose for this reason.

[Denise Marsden]

It must be so difficult to recreate SKs books on film, the stories have a magic all their own and often find their home within each individual imagination.Casting can be difficult for the same reasons but I thought Christopher Walken brought something to the roll that added to the story in a positive way, even though he was not my imagined Johnny Smith.

[Adrian]

Whats cowbell about????
I forgott...

[foehn]

I read the posts on the “underrated” thread.

"The Dead Zone" is very, very underrated

I too feel that “The Dead Zone” movie is one of the best, if not the best adaptations of Mr. King’s works. It is true to the book and everything and everyone fit in this movie.

Further it completely captures the tone of the book: a Cassandra-ish feeling of doom. Johnny knows what is to happen, but would anyone believe him?—No. He knows he will be doomed to regretting any inaction he may take (and thus bringing on horrendous war) or he must take action, sacrificing himself and his life to the prevention of the future that he knows is certainly assured if he should not act. Talk about “damned if you do and damned if you don’t!”

This theme was also explored in another favorite book of mine: “Dune,” by Frank Herbert. In “Dune” Paul Atriedes, an un-planned for and unexpected messiah of sorts is fated to leading a holy war across the universe, whether or not he likes it. Short of killing himself very early on, no matter what he does will lead to a holy war, the war is a given. BUT, Paul does have a choice: to try to stay alive at the head of the holy warriors and thus be able to mitigate some of the war’s atrocities or he can be dead martyr to the Holy War, and thus the cause of every sort of possible atrocity in his name.

Both of the above books have movie versions, but I feel the best is “The Dead Zone.”

[AlexTuis]

Chris Walken was brillant, and he was so special with his androgyn look.

I think the lack of effects was one of the best thing for this movie.

[mr.jingles120]

the dead zone was my first book also =)

"the green mile" my second

[Trueivy]

I agree as far as the movie it was extremely underrated. What I love about the series is that it resurrected the careers of one of my my favoriite actors when I was a kid, Anthony Michael Hall. And as far as the movie WOW! It was the first Christopher Walken movie I ever saw and he's been my favorite actor ever since. I prefer the movie because it went for the tragic ending.

[armadillo]

I agree. I loved the book and the movie.

[foehn]

. . . My only complaint was that it left out the whole wheel of fortune segment. But a great film nonetheless.

The movie often gets overlooked when listed the best adaptations of King's work.

Yeah, they did leave that out, but the way the rest of the movie was written and made, everything worked for me, everything fit right for me.

Walken brought just the right kind of sympathy to the role to make me feel and think about what this guy must be acting on and feeling. I like this movie, and it is often overlooked as you said.

[whispermare]

I finished the book yesterday and loved it. I saw i can see it for free at imdb.com so ill check it out there. And if i like ill buy it. Which I probably will anyway since I have a sk movie section next to the books.

[TJLamb0518]

I havc a different view of the film than most for ....well, different reasons. I was working in a movie theater when this film came out and saw the first 10 minutes and the last ten minutes FAR too often. It doesn't matter what film it was, if it had a long run in the theater I was working in.....I got a little sick of it.


Don't even ask me about Footloose or Risky Business.