All and all it was more faithful to the book than I was expecting. Lots of events, characters, deaths, etc. are all present. The dialogue between all the walkers in the first half or so is natural. They call each other fags, talk about their dicks, I'm going to wish for ten naked ladies, etc. There's a theme or brotherhood between our white main character and our black main character that feels pretty forced. They have a conversation that ends with some version of "you my brother" three times at least. The score tries too hard too often to evoke an emotion response. You can't prop up everything that happens with music.
The ending is different from the book and it's not an improvement. The general premise I thought was kinda interesting and with a different edit it might have worked but what we got is just sluggish in execution. Mark Hamil sucks. The Major has more dialogue and more appearances than in the book and the film gets nothing out of it. He's like 15% of an antagonist. The character would have worked better as a mythical figure we only see twice rather than a guy that runs his mouth every 20 minutes.
There's a couple stories the walkers tell each other in the book I would have liked here (last year's walker died right after winning, how gruesome the win itself was) but what we really needed was practical effects with more of the gore. CGI heavy gunshots and blood, even when done well, lack weight.
The specific ending of
altruistic black man kills evil white man that is also the physical representation of the state
is whatever. Some version of that shows up so often these days I don't even take off points for it.
edit - last thing, two lards were ahead of me in line for concessions. They had their tickets pre-purchased. Their bill for snacks was 40 fucking dollars. I was shocked. Their jogging pants didn't scream out "millionaire" either.
Yeah, movie snacks and food is highway robbery. Why would I pay $10 for a large coke when I can walk across the street and get the same thing for $1.98.
$7 for a box of candy when across the street it's $2.99.
That's exactly why I bring my own snacks in the wife's Marry Poppins purse. The only thing that fucking purse is good for.
Yeah, movie snacks and food is highway robbery. Why would I pay $10 for a large coke when I can walk across the street and get the same thing for $1.98.
$7 for a box of candy when across the street it's $2.99.
That's exactly why I bring my own snacks in the wife's Marry Poppins purse. The only thing that fucking purse is good for.
I remember we used to go to eckerds before going to see a movie at the dollar cinema, and they used to run specials where it was like two candies or three candies for a buck or something. My stepmom would throw it all in her purse. We might get a big popcorn and everybody gets a soda, but this was also when video games in the arcade at the theater were only 25 cents.
I haven't bought a candy bar and I don't know how long, I don't even want to know what the hell they cost.
I remember we used to go to eckerds before going to see a movie at the dollar cinema, and they used to run specials where it was like two candies or three candies for a buck or something. My stepmom would throw it all in her purse. We might get a big popcorn and everybody gets a soda, but this was also when video games in the arcade at the theater were only 25 cents.
I haven't bought a candy bar and I don't know how long, I don't even want to know what the hell they cost.
One of my best childhood memories was going to the local movie theater and BX (lived on base) when arcades were all the rage and playing MERCS and playing with random kids on the 4 player Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. Each player would put about 8 quarters on the dash and if you ran out of lives. Grab a quarter. Great times.
One of my best childhood memories was going to the local movie theater and BX (lived on base) when arcades were all the rage and playing MERCS and playing with random kids on the 4 player Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. Each player would put about 8 quarters on the dash and if you ran out of lives. Grab a quarter. Great times.
It was going to birthday parties at the roller rink that had a massive arcade, or having a birthday party at the mall. The one we had did a combo deal with the pizza place in the food court. Was pizza and any kid at the birthday party got so many tokens but every dollar was worth eight tokens versus four, so you saved up prior to knowing somebody was going to have a party. $10 would let you play all night on top of whatever package the host paid for.
I know I've talked about this in the past, but we beat so many arcade games. Gone are those days and it's unfortunate because kids now will never experience anything like that. Diamond Fucking Jim's...
I remember as a kid being in amazement when the intro to the TMNT game played in the arcade. Seeing what was effectively a cartoon you watched in video game form was nuts, especially when video games at home were just 8bit pixel fests.
One of my best childhood memories was going to the local movie theater and BX (lived on base) when arcades were all the rage and playing MERCS and playing with random kids on the 4 player Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. Each player would put about 8 quarters on the dash and if you ran out of lives. Grab a quarter. Great times.
I liked this. Captured most of the feel of the book.
I only found out afterward that Mark Hamill plays the Major. Guess I wasn't paying attention.
Didn't mind the twist at the end too much, the one thing I kind of wish they had done was make the ending more ambiguous. Fade to back, gunshot, roll credits. I know Hollywood doesn't like to do that, but it's more in line with the ending of the book. Does Garraty live? Die? Or is his sanity permanently shattered? Who knows.
I haven't read the book. A friend told me about this book like... 30 years ago or more, and I didn't believe him that SK wrote a book about people walking. How is this just not watching a cross country team workout?
I haven't read the book. A friend told me about this book like... 30 years ago or more, and I didn't believe him that SK wrote a book about people walking. How is this just not watching a cross country team workout?
I watched this and Weapons back to back. This was decidedly mid, but better than Weapons which starts off good but falls off a cliff halfway through. This is your standard revenge porn, noble black guy/kill evil whitey movie. Been done a thousand times by the jews in Hollywood.