The only film that Stephen King directed himself, "Maximum Overdrive" tells the story of a group of strangers who get trapped at a gas station when all the machines on Earth come to life and start killing everybody. Mike Flanagan's ambitious and challenging adaptation of King's sequel to "The Shining" has the unenviable task of finding common ground between the original novel and Kubrick's loose adaptation. Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as a wrongly accused man, forced to fight for his life against colorful superpowered murderers for the benefit of a live studio audience. And it's that engrossing journey that makes "Gerald's Game" one of the best King adaptations. "Dolores Claiborne" is a gripping and overwhelming melodrama, dipped in New England macabre, and it warrants another look from audiences who seem largely to have forgotten it. }); It starts well, but the movie loses focus for most of the second act before picking up again with a genuinely explosive climactic battle. } Israel credits information he relayed with helping it defeat Syria in a 1967 war. Even with all those caveats we felt one particular film deserved a quasi-official, honorable mention. The best King stories scare so many of us that we all feel connected, and even the worst are usually pretty fun. Stephen King's tale of a young couple trapped in a town overrun by homicidal kids is a great idea for a movie, but Fritz Kiersch's adaptation wanders aimlessly in search of scares, and the over-the-top supernatural finale is unintentionally hilarious. The concept was already outdated by the time "Cell" (barely) came to theaters -- we all know everyone would be texting nowadays -- but the film's weak characters, laughable mythology and bizarre finale are the real reasons why this adaptation flops. jQuery(document).ready(function() { You'd think Stephen King's short story about industrial workers fighting killer rats would make for an entertaining creature feature, but "Graveyard Shift" dawdles too long and doesn't get to the icky good stuff until closer to the end, and there isn't enough drama to keep us engaged until then. It's an effective media satire and a ripping sci-fi thriller. Timothy Hutton plays a novelist almost-but-not-entirely like Stephen King, who wrote under a pseudonym, had that pseudonym exposed, and publicly "killed" his alter ego. But it also dives into the tragic love story between Cohen and his wife Nadia, to whom he is forced to lie to maintain his cover. It's a disappointing conclusion to the instant classic "Chapter One.". "Firestarter" was a great role for Barrymore, but Scott's performance as a Native American is bizarre and inappropriate. Kubrick's camera glides down hallways, not so much filming as spying, and captures unthinkable moments that stick in your throat. A warped and wicked tale, with a boss soundtrack, excellent performances, and some of the best practical visual effects around. Darabont famously changed the ending of King's story into something even more shocking, but the new finale isn't just a mind-blower. A few days prior to his execution, he penned this poignant letter to his wife and family, knowing that it would be his last. Israel has long sought to repatriate Cohen for burial from Syria, with which it remains technically at war. Sadly, like his character, he can't quite get away with it. This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. It's not terrible; it's just dull. Robert John Burke stars as a corrupt, heavyset lawyer who uses his mob connections to stay out of jail after he accidentally hits an old gypsy with his car. Only one Stephen King adaptation has ever won an Academy Award, and it's Rob Reiner's "Misery." var isMobile1 = _isMobile(); Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia seem like the perfect married couple. It's too absurd to take seriously, but if you get on this film's bonkers wavelength, it's undeniably amusing. The second film in Stephen King and George A. Romero's horror franchise, this time directed by Michael Gornick, is more of a mixed bag than the original, with the conventional vengeful statue yarn "Old Chief Wooden Head" completely failing to pass muster. Still, Nadia, who wept during the interview, said the renewed interest in her husband more than a half-century after his death was a good thing. var lengthTitle = 90; yq('.magnifyPic'+value.id).css({background: "url(/images/articlepiclightbox/enlarge-over.png)"}); Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall are stuck at the Overlook Hotel throughout the summer, and madness takes hold, possibly (but not necessarily) urged on by supernatural forces. It's one of the better horror movies about the insidious power of temptation. Nadia said she was “not impressed” when she first saw pictures of Sacha Baron Cohen, wearing Borat’s famous man-thong. Cheesy and lurid, with very questionable visual effects and storytelling choices, but at least Mick Garris' film is never boring. "Sometimes, dead is better." It would be the biggest gift and compensation of our lives,” Nadia said. The plot gets bizarre, and eventually flies off the rails, but "In the Tall Grass" stays riveting regardless.In the Tall Grass (2019) A little boy calls for help inside a field of grass, prompting a brother and sister to search for him and get hopelessly lost inside a verdant labyrinth of violence and fear. Sacha Baron Cohen-led series debuted Friday on Netflix, (Warning: This post contains spoilers from Netflix limited series “The Spy.”). My oldest brother is author Sami Michael. Max von Sydow opens up a knick-knack store in Castle Rock, Maine, where every customer finds exactly what they desire, and all it ever costs them is a little favor. var str; Scott Hicks's coming-of-age film is slight, frequently to a fault, but the performances by Yelchin and Hopkins (and Hope Davis as Yelchin's self-obsessed mother) are so rich and excellent that "Hearts in Atlantis" makes a strong impression anyway. "The Green Mile" is a handsome but bloated production, told in broad strokes with mixed but often impressive results. Horror comics of yore in "Creepshow," a collection of violent short stories presented as colorfully and dynamically as possible. yq('.magnifyPic'+value.id).css('display', 'block'); imgCredit = yq(value).children().find('.citv_credit').html() || yq(value).children().find('.ya_citv_credit').html(); “I would not let him add comedy to this role, because I thought we should just commit to who [Eli] is and not worry about what usually [Sacha] is perceived as,” he said. Jonathan Jackson stars as a death-obsessed college student who hitchhikes home to visit his sick mother and encounters a grim specter of death along the way. The six-part biopic depicts Eli as lavishing money and attention on potential Syrian sources — including at an orgy that he orchestrates at his swanky Damascus apartment to entrap a top military general. The sequels to King's work rarely have anything to do with the source material, so they're all disqualified (even though some, like Larry Cohen's prescient anti-fascist monster drama "A Return to Salem's Lot," are genuinely interesting). "The Dead Zone" is sometimes horrifying, but it's mostly a potent Cassandra-esque tragedy, about a man with the power to change the future but who loses himself in the process. Kevin James to Star in Netflix NASCAR Comedy Series 'The Crew', Ryan Murphy Sets 'A Chorus Line' Miniseries, Halston Biopic Starring Ewan McGregor at Netflix, ‘Queer Eye: We’re in Japan!’ Gets Premiere Date From Netflix – Watch the Teaser (Video), ‘Wonder Woman’ Director Patty Jenkins Signs Multi-Year Overall TV Deal With Netflix, Kevin James to Star in Netflix NASCAR Comedy Series ‘The Crew’. Nadia Cohen, widow of legendary Israeli spy, speaks to Arutz Sheva on grief - and on the state's failures to locate her husband's body. They're plotting to suck the life force out of virginal Mädchen Amick, and their one weakness is actual house cats, which leads to one hilarious feline moment after another. "Apt Pupil" is impossible to watch without drawing disturbing parallels. Another well-constructed film, made increasingly uncomfortable by context. Sacha Baron Cohen-led limited series “The Spy” — which comes out today on Netflix — tells the true story of how famed Israeli Mossad agent Eli Cohen went undercover in 1960s Syria. yq('.magnifyPic'+value.id).mouseout(function(){ Brian De Palma's screen version of King's debut novel stars Sissy Spacek as the abused title character, Piper Laurie as her abusive zealot of a mother, and a cast of cruel young actors who take turns destroying Carrie's life. When a young girl with "the shining" calls out for help, he's dragged back into the supernatural nightmares he tried to leave behind. David Koepp's adaptation of "Secret Window, Secret Garden" is relatively slick and suspenseful, but it's difficult to watch a film about Depp threatening his wife and losing his mind without mentally sidestepping into some unsettling and distracting territory. The role was an unusual one for Sacha Baron Cohen, who is better known for fictional comic characters such as bumbling Kazakh reporter Borat. But the real danger builds inside their shelter, as Marcia Gay Harden assembles an Old Testament cult that demands sacrifices. TitleTrimmed = imgTitle.substring(0, 90); "The Shawshank Redemption" is one of the great dramas of the 1990s. “He was charming and irresistible. Where does “Doctor Sleep” place among the many big-screen adaptations of the horror master’s work? Stephen King famously disapproved of Kubrick's adaptation of "The Shining," but let's agree to disagree. With a winning cast and a pitch-perfect 1950s soundtrack, this story of a group of kids hiking to find a dead body and becoming young men in the process helped inform how elegiac pop cinema would become in the ensuing years, and with good cause. jQuery(".artImageLightbox").colorbox({rel:'group3', transition:"none", width:"980px", height:"551px"}); if(typeof isMobile !== 'undefined' && isMobile) { We also cut King some slack and removed "The Lawnmower Man" from our watch list, since he fought to have his own name removed from the film and won. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Stephen King and George A. Romero pay homage to the outlandish and ironic E.C. “The Spy” is full of suspense, and Raff makes us acutely aware that every moment could be Cohen’s last as his Syrian alter ego, Kamel Amin Thabet. “Everyday we were looking at Sacha Baron Cohen naked for the first time in front of the camera, without a larger than life character,” he said. In April, with Russian intervention, Syria returned the remains of an Israeli soldier killed fighting there in 1982. Eli Cohen’s daughter Sophie told Channel 12 she had never heard this report before and called on the government to release all the information it has. Raff also described witnessing Sacha Baron Cohen transform into Eli Cohen in a way we’ve never seen him do for any other role. The young cast is impeccable, and Bill Skarsgard somehow gives Tim Curry's Pennywise, from the beloved 1990 TV mini-series, a run for his money. Cohen fue reclutado por el Mossad en 1960 y enviado a la Argentina, donde se hizo pasar por un empresario sirio exiliado llamado Kamel Amin Tabet. Nadia, widow of Israeli spy Eli Cohen, reacts during an interview with Reuters in Herzliya, Israel Oct. 6, 2019. Tom Holland's film is a nasty piece of work that plays more like a cruel joke than a feature film. This story of a group of loser kids who fend off an impossibly evil demon clown captures all the wonder and terror of youth, and then repeatedly bursts into surprising and shocking scares. I was born in Iraq into an educated family. ', tap here to see other videos from our team. TitleTrimmed = imgTitle; Directed by Vincenzo Natali, who previously made a simple geometric shape seem terrifying in "Cube," this adaptation of a novella by King and his son, Joe Hill, excels at transforming everyday vegetation into the stuff of nightmares. Almost as infectious as the alien fungus that starts growing on King himself (who isn't a great actor, but is a hoot as the ill-fated farmer who stumbles onto a meteorite). HERZLIYA — A Netflix drama about Israeli spy Eli Cohen, who infiltrated the Syrian government in the 1960s and was later executed, has received a mixed review from his widow. “That idea of your father, your husband, being put on a pedestal, but you just want to a hug your father who is not there anymore — it was very moving.”, Also Read: Ryan Murphy Sets 'A Chorus Line' Miniseries, Halston Biopic Starring Ewan McGregor at Netflix. TitleTrimmed += "..."; Read more about cookies here. Fortunately, the slime monster short "The Raft" makes up for it, and road-trip ghost story "The Hitch-Hiker" concludes "Creepshow 2" on an amusingly grim note. } We lived in a very beautiful area.