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Twilight Zone - The Movie
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Editorial Reviews:
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Four short horrorific tales are anthologized in this film as a tributeto rod serling and his popular tv series.
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A highly anticipated release for fantasy fans in the summer of 1983, Twilight Zone: The Movie presents three adaptations of classic episodes (and one original story) from Rod Serling's anthology series by a quartet of the biggest directors in Hollywood. With Stephen Spielberg (also the film's co-producer), John Landis, George Miller (The Road Warrior, Happy Feet), and Joe Dante behind the camera for this portmanteau feature, one might expect Serling's episodes to positively gleam with star power, but the truth is that Twilight Zone: The Movie is a hit-and-miss affair. Landis opens with an amusing nod to the original series' pop-culture appeal with Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks riffing on their favorite episodes before a hair-raising shock finale; unfortunately, his second offering is a bland morality plan about racial tolerance that will forever be overshadowed by the accident that claimed the lives of star Vic Morrow and two child actors during shooting. Spielberg's take on George Clayton Johnson's "Kick the Can" looks lovely and is well performed by its cast (especially Scatman Crothers), but it struggles to bear up under the weight of treacley sentiment so common to the director's films at the time. Dante's version of Jerome Bixby's "It's A Good Life" (about a boy with monstrous powers) is rife with his trademark energy and black humor (and his cast of regular players, including Kevin McCarthy and William Schallert, strike the right balance of terror and comedy). But it's Miller's revamp of Richard Matheson's legendary "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" that delivers the biggest payoff, thanks to John Lithgow's super-charged turn as a nervous airline passenger who's convinced he's seen a monster tampering with the plane's wing. Burgess Meredith (himself a veteran of the original TZ) provides narration; the widescreen DVD features no extras save for the original trailer and a remastered digital transfer. --Paul Gaita
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Twilight Zone - The Movie
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User Comments About Twilight Zone - The Movie
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Too Affectionate and Sentimental
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And Spielberg picks a story with adorable little tykes and codgers. Think of all the Zone scripts that screamed for a big screen, big budget treatment. Lithgow's performance was so good that he SHOULD have been nominated for a Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards. A condensed version of Burgess Meredith as the librian who survives the world-ending nuclear holocaust.
Joe Dante has fun with his tale but his sappy endingfar different than the original TV version.could've been directed by Spielberg. The comeuppance of bigot Vic Morrow get repititious andhonestlyproblematic when you consider that the US soldier is lumped with the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Spielberg's choice is the lamest: cute elderly people get to become cute little kids for a night. Not what it should have been. Only the last time, my personal favorite of all Twilight Zone episodes (the original starred William Shatner, hilariously lampooned in the second ACE VENTURE movie), reaches the Zone. "The Martians Have Landed on Maple Street". But since THE TWILIGHT ZONE was tainted by the tragedy of Vic Morrow's death, Lithgow was nominated for his six minutes of standing around in TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (you forgot he was even in that, right).
John Lithgow is brilliant as a spazzing passenger in Richard Matheson's "Nightmare at Thirty Thousand Feet." George Miller (THE ROAD WARRIOR) does an awesome job of putting you in the plane by filming the sequence with a handheld camera. This is THE TWILIGHT ZONE, people, not THE GOONIES. Any otherworldly wonder is lost under a heavy flow of Speilberg syrup. The scandal, the trial, and the resulting publicity cast a dark shadow on what is otherwise a harmlessly sentimental trip into the Twilight Zone. But Landis' contribution to the tales, an original story not from the Zone canon, isn't up to Rod Serling standards.
Such is Hollywood. "To Serve Man". The opening with Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks is pure John Landis, more of the same laugh/fright effect that worked so well in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. TWILIGHT ZONE - THE MOVIE made headlines long before it opened when actor Vic Morrow and two Asian child actors were killed in a horrific accident during filming. Well, he was.
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It requires multiple viewings. I also suggest you buy "The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic" because the 800 plus page book is a P-E-R-F-E-C-T companion to the DVD. "It's a Good Life" has so many in-jokes it is not funny. Both are available on Amazon. Watch for star cameos, named of towns and references to the original show. Very difficult to do and I admire that. He doesn't start calm and build.
The gremlin in "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" was far better than the one depicted on the TV version and John Lithgow starts at paranoid and rakes it up. The behind-the-scenes stuff is fun. And in some cases, an improvement. Spielberg took his time and did this one with love. You'll learn about the behind-the-scenes filming and that means far more than casual vieweing. It doesn't make the original series look better or worse. The movie that was long overdue.
"Kick the Can" is superbly filmed.
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I tip my hat to the following directors; John Landis, Stephen Speilberg, Joe Dante, George Miller. A FANTASIC AND STRANGE MOVIE.
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Still Hold Up As A Every Good Movie, Twilight Zone"The Movie"
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So pick up the Twilight Zone"The Movie" & catch a mind ride to the otherside, It's fun trip'enjoy.Great movie fun. It's just one of four short stories. Well you just have to find out for yourself. The Twilight Zone"The Movie" is more than fun, it's a trip into a world of the mind & you'll see thing that will trick your thoughts.Four short stories into the otherside, the best one in the story of the older poeple,finding they never need to grow old & learn to keep their youth in their hearts. Another is about a man & his fear of flying & thing go mad in his mind or are they real.
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I recall watching this when I was a kid and I blame that darned gremlin ripping the plane apart to be my reason for hating to travel by aviation. For a movie to be good it doesn't have to have gore. The first story about the racist having to suffer the lives of those who he discriminated make you think outside the box about racism. The third installment is just weird but exciting as cartoon elements are weaved into reality by a adolescent. This film is a fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and I tend to believe that it is done in such a format that most ages can watch it.
If a film can make you think differently about a situation then the writer director has accomplished a great job.
This movie pays great homage to the TV show produced by Rod Sterling.
Even to this day the gremlin and plane creep me out.
Twilight Zone the movie is very underrated in my opinion.
I suggest, buy this, but do note there is not one drop of blood in this film, and although I am a gore hound, this collection is still worth the buy.
The final tale, although it doesn't show a drop of blood is scary as hell.
GET OVER IT.
I have read reviews saying that people are disappointed because there was no gore, or disappointed because the transfer wasn't to their standards.
The second is a light hearted tale where the elderly have a second chance at being young again, this segment is suitable for all ages.
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