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Laughable adaptation of Stephen King's best-seller, the story follows a little girl (Drew Barrymore in her E.T. days) with telekinetic powers and her father, who are on the run from government agents. One of them is a brutal Indian assassin (George C. Scott), who wants Barrymore for his own special purposes. She has the power to start fire and create tremendous heat when she's angry. She uses these powers to get away from many of the agents.The large cast (Art Carney, Louise Fletcher, Martin Sheen and Heather Locklear) are badly wasted here. Barrymore and Scott are okay, but it doesn't help the film stay afloat. The special effects are okay, but are outdated now. If I were you, I'd read the book instead. You'll probably be better off imagining what's going on, instead of watching mediocre production values and wooden acting.
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Based on Anthony Burgess' classic novel, "A Clockwork Orange" is one of Stanley Kubrick's best films. Malcolm McDowell plays the lead role of Alex, a young punk, who spends his nights beating and raping people. He indulges in Beethoven and young women, and detests drunks and bums. Eventually, his gang betrays him to the police and he spends a couple of years in prison. Near the end of his prison term, some doctors use him for experiments, which force him to watch violent movies, while strapped to a chair with his eyes forced open. Alex gains a new reflex, which makes him become sick every time he wishes to do violent things. He is let out into society, but is cast out by his parents. Forced to live on the streets, he runs into old enemies, who wish to get even in the worst ways possible.At the time this was released, it was a little to strong for some people to stomach and is still potent today. Kubrick makes good use of the camera, showing in bizarre ways the violent underworld of Alex. McDowell's performance is amazing. First, you loath Alex. Then, you feal sorry for him when he cannot defend himself against the people who hate him. The film shows that, in the end, it's the state that is much crueler than Alex. This is not an enjoyable experiance, but certainly an interesting one. The graphic scenes of violence are right up there with The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover. Like Blue Velvet, this is a word of warning on how bad violence is, and should be watched very closely, so that you can get the message of the film. A true Kubrick masterpiece, A Clockwork Orange will stand out in your mind, long after you've seen it.
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An embarrassingly bad rip-off of the much better The Last Detail, the film follows two navy officers, one a young recruit (William McNamara) and the other, a gruff senior officer (Tom Berenger, who has seen much better roles), when they are assigned to escort an army prisoner to appointed prison. However, the prisoner turns out to be (oh darn!) a woman (Beverly Hillbillies Erika Eleniak). She spends the whole movie trying to escape these two, but keeps meeting up with strange characters (including director-actor Dennis Hopper, as a perverted underwear salesman), who makes it seem safer being with the two officers.The film is said to be a comedy, but there are very few laughs. Berenger and McNamara try and pull off Laurel and Hardy, but are nowhere near as good as those two (and Laurel and Hardy were unique in their own strange way). Adding to this miserable comedy are a lot of bad sexist jokes (both ways) and too many weird characters from the Hopper department. Basically, all I want to say is rent The Last Detail if you want better actors and better humor.
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Yet another film based on a Stephen King short story, this one's even more stupid than the above-mentioned Firestarter. The "plot" centers on a couple, who become trapped in a small Nebraska town, run by religious fanatic children, who killed all the adults. The children sacrifice many of their kind to a supposed god, living in the corn. The acting is nothing special (unless you care to see an early appearance by Terminator's" Linda Hamilton as the wife) and the special effects seem more appropriate for a 1950's B movie. There isn't much to offer the "slasher" film lovers, since you don't see much gore and blood. Once again, Hollywood fails to bring a good Stephen King story to the screen without the usual Hollywood cliches.
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