Written by / 8/04/2017 / No comments / , , , ,

THURSDAY REVIEW OF STEPHEN KING'S THE DARK TOWER

Year Released: 2017
Stephen King is both a popular, highly successful, bestselling author, and at the same time has a cult following: The latter derives from books like THE DARK TOWER... 

King's a rabid fan of fantasy, ranging from Narnia to the original pulpy Conan tales by Robert E. Howard, and this is his own fantastical world located in shrouded mystery far beyond ours, but not really: both locations take place on Earth, and the TOWER is what's holding our dimension together. And so, having not read the source, this review will be as short as possible, befitting what's the best thing about this adaptation...

Score: *1/2
At a sparse 90-minute runtime, director Nikolaj Arcel packs in all the action-packed elements that seem more cliché than anything else. There's a master hero, who's called The Gunslinger; a young boy sent into this man's world to learn the ropes for to protect THE DARK TOWER; and last but not least, The Dark Man i.e. The Man in Black himself, mundanely named Walter...

And while Matthew McConaughey usually brings something spontaneous and interesting to any role, here he simply struts around, a cocky, sinister hybrid of an unsuited Darth Vader and King's THE STAND TV-Miniseries' devil, Randall Flagg — an evil incarnate who looks like he'd shoot pool at the local tavern.

The scenes that should have worked fall completely flat. Like Idris Elba's Gunslinger, Roland, venturing (more like sleepwalking) with the dull kid-actor from the purgatory realm into the bustling modern New York City. Neither our or their hemisphere provides more than a few shoot-outs and a ton of cornball dialogue. Meanwhile, several wizardly types remind the boy he's got a second-sight called... THE SHINING. Well if King detested Stanley Kubrick's classic 1980 adaptation, he should hate this dreary stroll in the dark. Probably not, though. After all, an anemic, lackluster film like this makes reading the book a must
Share This Post :
Tags : , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

All Time Popular

Featured Post

RUSHING THROUGH JOHN SCHLESINGER'S 'HONKY TONK FREEWAY'

Title: HONKY TONK FREEWAY Year: 1981 Rating: **** John Schlesinger's HONKY TONK FREEWAY has two composers: Elmer Bernstein doing his usu...

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM
Movie Reviews, Interviews, Articles and Pop Culture from White Heat to Blue City

RIP ACTOR KEN HUTCHISON

TOTAL HITS

Popular Trending

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE
RANDOM QUOTE: "Powerful little things, these credit cards." Harry Morgan, Dragnet

FILM NOIR & NEO NOIR CRIME

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)HELL IS A CITY 3)ROBBERY 4)THE FEARMAKERS 5)CANYON PASSAGE 6)VIOLENT SATURDAY 7)HOT CARS 8)JUNGLE STREET 9)THE CROWDED SKY 10)THE ROARING TWENTIES 11) ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)CALCULATED RISK 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 15)HARDCORE 16)THE BREAK 17)WHITE HEAT 18)AL CAPONE 19)THE SERGEANT 20)FALLEN ANGEL 21)SHARKS' TREASURE 22)THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 23)ASH WEDNESDAY 24)THE SYSTEM 25)AIR PATROL 26)THE STONE KILLER 27)SANDS OF THE KALAHARI 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)RIOT 30)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE FAVORITE ACTORS 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)STANLEY BAKER 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)JACK NICHOLSON 6) CHARLES BRONSON 7)BURT REYNOLDS 8)WILLIAM LUCAS 9)TOM COURTENAY 10)GENE HACKMAN DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)VAL GUEST 4)STANLEY KUBRICK 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)ORSON WELLES 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)JOHN LANDIS 9)SAM PECKINPAH 10)MICHAEL WINNER

BRITISH NEW WAVE CINEMA

RARITIES AND EXPLOITATION

HAMMER HORROR & THRILLER

Popular This Month

CHARLES BRONSON CINEMA

CINEMA OF DANA ANDREWS

WESTERN GENRE REVIEWS

PEAKING INTO THE SIXTIES

KICKING IN THE EIGHTIES

TALES AND REFLECTIONS

REVVING THE SEVENTIES

Most Popular Last Year