Salem's Lot - The Miniseries
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Movie Reviews of Salem's Lot - The Miniseries
Movie Review: Not Entirely Faithful to the Book.
Summary: 3 Stars
I just finished watching The 2004 Salem's Lot miniseries remake and I liked the book which I thought was superb and I liked the 1979 movie which I watched on DVD a few months ago and while this remake is probably closer to the book they still changed alot of things so it's not entirely faithful to Stephen King's book. The acting was very good from Rob Lowe as Ben Mears and Samantha Mathis as Susan Norton though I think they made Susan a little too whiney! The rest of the cast was very good too, including Donald Sutherland as Straker and Rutger Hauer as Barlow and I liked the acting by James Cromwell as Father Callahan but despie his great acting I just don't like what they did to this character and I wonder if the director, producer and writers of this version have ever read Stephen King's Dark Tower series in which the author reprised the Father Callahan character, if they had then they wouldn't have done what they did to the character in this movie. Oh, sure they got it right that he was an alcoholic but they ruined the character by turning him into some kind of freak and I also don't like what they did to Ben Mears at the end of the movie either and I didn't really like how they made Mark Petrie into such a punk! In the book and 1979 movie Mark was a nice kid who you had sympathy for but he was such a punk in this movie and I couldn't really warm up to this character. For example, in this movie they had it where Mark and his friends Danny and Ralphie Glick were the passengers who angered the crazy bus driver who threw them off the bus but in the book it was some other kids who the bus driver had it in for and though I don't remember the names of those kids in the book I know that it wasn't Mark, Ralphie and Danny. Now, I'm not a diehard purist where a movie has to be exactly like the book to the letter but it would have been nice if they hadn't deviated from the book so much and I hope that Stephen King will authorize someone to do a remake that will get the story right. I give the book 5 stars, the 1979 movie adaptation 4 stars and this remake 3 stars but if they hadn't completely changed Father Callahan so much and ruined this character I would have given this 4 stars but I have nothing against the actor who played him, James Cromwell is a suberb actor but unfortunately the character he played was disappointing and just way off! BTW: Donald Sutherland (Straker) and Rutger Hauer (Barlow) appeared in another movie in which Hauer played a vampire, it was the 1992 theatrical movie Buffy The Vampire Slayer, though Sutherland played a good guy in that movie. Also James Cromwell's wife, actress Julie Cobb was in the 1979 movie adaptation of Salem's Lot. She played Bonnie Sawyer.Movie Review: Vampyres in our very town if we look around....
Summary: 3 Stars
A very long movie that has confusion written all over it due to the shifting of time from present to past...now where have i seen that before? I know i haven't read Stephen King's noval yet so that might have something to do with my early confusion but come on, give us some hints man....i know there is some narration at the beginning but that didn't help me one bit with all the little subplots going on. The main plot you wonder? When Rob Lowe was a little kid, he took a dare into the house and witness something that change his life forever. He comes back years later and you see him throw a Priest out the window, who happen to be working on Thanksgiving day giving out food to the homeless and hungry. Did it had anything to do with what happen when he was a little kid? Watch and see :o)
I will admit that even tho one can get confused from the very start while watching this movie as all the things is happening so fast around the many characters in this town, u get a sense that the director is losing his direction but it does work well because it adds suspense and the scenes are quite scary in a weird way. I didn't get bored one bit so that says alot too, especially since i seen so many crappy vampyre movies including some of the best like Blade and Interview with a Vampyre, my two all-time favorites for this genre.
I like to say to Rob Lowe, your acting was quite convincing as Ben Mears, the protagonist but you are no David Soul ..don't give up on us baby, don't make the wrong seem right, the future isn't just one night, its written in the moonlight, painted on the stars, we can't change ours .....ooohhh laa la la la la la la so don't give up on us i know, we can still come through...
Sorry for getting carried away a little bit there but watching this movie makes you wonder why evil make us do things we normally don't do...tempation you say? that's it as sin will doom us all if we continue to allow temptation to get the better of us. Then again, this movie is no different from the town that we live in...just look around with open eyes and you will clearly see what i am talking about. Just make sure you lock your doors before you go to sleep.
If your into scary vamprye movies or have read the noval, you might want to check out this installment of Salem's lot but don't be surprise if you are lost from the very start, as was I. Just be prepared to be scared for weeks after you watch it. Thanks alot guys...like i really need this now!
Movie Review: Better then the original.
Summary: 3 Stars
Sure, sure, a heap of fans of the original have already hit the "No" button on the "was this review helpful to you?" all because I said in the title, that this version is better then the original. All because they enjoyed the slow paced, boring old original that goes nowhere for the first 3 hours of the film... sure, they liked it when they saw it back in 1977?, back in the days before "pacing", "plots" and "entertainment" came into movie making formulas. At least this time around I managed to stay awake for the duration of the film, or wasn't reaching for the remote all the time to fast-forward through boring and useless dialog. I suppose if you where around to see the original films release, you may have felt like you where seeing something chilling come to life from a Stephen King book, but in today's society, those of you who enjoy a slow paced movie are outnumbered... and that's why this film was remade, and now, it's watchable from start to finish.
Unlike the original, I figured out what the movie was about and where it was heading fairly quickly, and could follow it the rest of the way to the end. Rob Lowe plays a writer who has come back to town, and has brought his haunting memories of when he was a child and snuck into a spooky old house and witnessed something chilling enough to haunt him for years. Now that he's back, he finds that there is some strange things happening around town, and it's all linked to that same old spooky house... so, naturally Rob feels he has to save the day. Heck, watching the original movie, I think I watched it for 3 of the 100 hours it goes for, and never picked up on any "Vampire" talk... probably cause I kept falling asleep every time I tried to watch it... but they say ya learn something new every day, so I learned that this is a vampire movie! Yey, my life is complete now.
It's a decent film/series/whatever you wanna call it, to watch once... but I don't think I will have the urge to sit through it again, at least not for a while... it's one of those films, once you've seen it, you've seen it, you think it was okay, but unless Rob Lowe makes your panties wet, then you may have no desire to ever see it again.
Movie Review: Decent adaptation, better than the first
Summary: 3 Stars
I'll have to admit, the original 'Salem's Lot TV Film by Tobe Hooper had some creepy moments. To this day, the image of the boy floating in front of Mark's window stands up there with anything produced for wide release. However, it deviated from the book significantly. The most amazing (and lame) change being that Barlow never said a word. He was just one creepy looking Nosferatu.
The biggest difference between Hooper's adaptation and Mikael Salomon's adaptation is the sense you get of the town of Jerusalem's Lot. More time is given in this recent adaptation to the various characters in the town. You get more of an impression that not only are the townspeople being slaughtered, but the town itself.
Rob Lowe does a decent job playing Ben Mears. Suitably intense and way beyond the range I expected of him. Also a standout is Robert Mammone, playing the town doctor. Andre Braugher's part is something of a throwaway, as is Sutherland's. Rutger Hauer is passably evil playing Barlow, but the character still feels short-shrifted somehow. Barlow didn't scare me at all, not like Tobe Hooper's version.
I was majorly disappointment with the character arc of Father Callahan, played well by James Cromwell, especially given the amount attention Callahan gets as a character in Stephen King's "Dark Tower" series. I realize it shouldn't mean anything in regards to this miniseries, but it irked nevertheless.
Overall, this new adaptation hits most of the right marks. It still feels like a TV movie, despite some of the special effects. Don't get rid of your old Hooper version, though. These two films are very different and each are worthwhile.
Movie Review: The latest Salem's Lot adaption
Summary: 3 Stars
Okay, bottom line:
1) Better than the 1979 version. Better casting, better acting, no Kubrick, and better effects. 1979 was a laugh-fest, this one actually made me jump a bit.
2) Not as good as the book. Too much artistic freedom in swaying from the book. There is not much benetration with the characters the way the book does. And with the recent completion of the Dark Tower Series, Father Callahan is handled completely wrong. Despite this, I still have the book I can go back to and visit if I want to get the story right.
3) Entertaining. If you've got nothing else to watch, you should catch this once. I doubt I'll ever watch it again, but I can't say that this was a complete waste of my time.
4) Not for young-ones. Make sure you put the kiddies to bed before sitting down to watch this. This is most definately not for children despite the fact that it is made for TV.
5) Didn't stick to the "rules." Despite the flaws of this movie, the biggest one is the rules. Every vampire story has their own set of rules and I don't like it when the rules are established and then later broken. It got confusing because a rule for one instance was thrown out the window for the next. If the rule doesn't apply anymore, explain why it doesn't. In the end, I just felt cheated.
Could have been better, but for a television cable series one can't complain much.