[Fox2twenty]

To you maybe. It'd get about 7/10 from me - it's a solid drama, but nothing mind-blowing. I think one of its biggest faults is that it's overly sentimental. TBH, it wouldn't even trouble my top 5 King adaptations!

It's not mind blowing like Momento or anything. However, I would say it is a phenomenal sentimental movie.

 

[Fox2twenty]

The AFI list is not totally different. I have seen the top 4 though, and Godfather should out rank casablanca.

 

[Fox2twenty]

To you maybe. It'd get about 7/10 from me - it's a solid drama, but nothing mind-blowing. I think one of its biggest faults is that it's overly sentimental. TBH, it wouldn't even trouble my top 5 King adaptations!

Can I get your top 5 list of king movies?

 

[WraithApe]

Can I get your top 5 list of king movies?

Sure. 1 - The Shining, 2 - The Dead Zone, 3 - Carrie, 4 - The Mist, 5 - Christine. Hey, let's make it top 10... 6 - The Night Flier, 7 - Misery, 8 - Shawshank, 9 - Creepshow, 10 - Salem's Lot. YMMV

 

[Fox2twenty]

Sure. 1 - The Shining, 2 - The Dead Zone, 3 - Carrie, 4 - The Mist, 5 - Christine. Hey, let's make it top 10... 6 - The Night Flier, 7 - Misery, 8 - Shawshank, 9 - Creepshow, 10 - Salem's Lot. YMMV

Mm does vary. Lol

 

[castleofargh]

I suck at making a top anything list. I've been thinking about it many times, but I couldn't just give a movie name or even a song and say it's my number one forever best of the best. it's too complicated for me, I can't even do it for food when it's really simple and pretty primal, but is potato in front or behind fresh mango(from a place where they grow, not the failure of a taste that usually are imported ones in france)? so hard to elevate something as the very best without relying on some objective variable.

 

[Fox2twenty]

I suck at making a top anything list. I've been thinking about it many times, but I couldn't just give a movie name or even a song and say it's my number one forever best of the best. it's too complicated for me, I can't even do it for food when it's really simple and pretty primal, but is potato in front or behind fresh mango(from a place where they grow, not the failure of a taste that usually are imported ones in france)? so hard to elevate something as the very best without relying on some objective variable.

My favorite movies are based on how they make me feel. For me the top two are Braveheart and Inception.

 

[WraithApe]

I suck at making a top anything list. I've been thinking about it many times, but I couldn't just give a movie name or even a song and say it's my number one forever best of the best. it's too complicated for me, I can't even do it for food when it's really simple and pretty primal, but is potato in front or behind fresh mango(from a place where they grow, not the failure of a taste that usually are imported ones in france)? so hard to elevate something as the very best without relying on some objective variable.

I find it easy when the scope is very narrow - like top films from director X or writer Y, but if you asked for an ordered top 10 of all time favourite movies, then yeah, I couldn't do that either. Mangoes and potatoes... that's a tough one.

 

[Fox2twenty]

I find it easy when the scope is very narrow - like top films from director X or writer Y, but if you asked for an ordered top 10 of all time favourite movies, then yeah, I couldn't do that either. Mangoes and potatoes... that's a tough one.

Potatoes.

I guess I am opinionated.

 

[Amish]

A.I. Artificial Intelligence 10/10 (I've seen this movie many times but watched it again tonight...and its as good as ever)

 

[BunnyNamedCraig]

A.I. Artificial Intelligence 10/10 (I've seen this movie many times but watched it again tonight...and its as good as ever)

AI is super under rated in my opinion. Totally agree with you!

Sure. 1 - The Shining, 2 - The Dead Zone, 3 - Carrie, 4 - The Mist, 5 - Christine. Hey, let's make it top 10... 6 - The Night Flier, 7 - Misery, 8 - Shawshank, 9 - Creepshow, 10 - Salem's Lot. YMMV

You're outta control!! Like scary movies much? . BTW the dead zone, ill have to look that up... btw, a part of Creepshow was shot behind the house i grew up in. No joke!!

I think the reason Shawshank is so well regarded is its watchability/quality ratio. I find the writing to be natural and the camera work supports the dialogue really well. AKA the camera usually pulls in a lot and it makes it easier to watch facial expressions and emotions. This all just adds up to a Forrest Gump type feel to it (which obviously a ton of people can enjoy as well). Is it the greatest film? No ha but it checks a TON of boxes for the masses.

 

[WraithApe]

BTW the dead zone, ill have to look that up... btw, a part of Creepshow was shot behind the house i grew up in. No joke!!

Part of the appeal there is that it's Cronenberg directing and he didn't drop the ball once throughout the 80s. That's cool re: Creepshow - do you remember which story it was?

 

[BunnyNamedCraig]

Part of the appeal there is that it's Cronenberg directing and he didn't drop the ball once throughout the 80s. That's cool re: Creepshow - do you remember which story it was?

I just text my mom. when she tells me which part I will PM you. Since my family still lives there I feel more comfortable just telling one person instead of the masses. like anyone would even care but still ha.

 

[WraithApe]

I just text my mom. when she tells me which part I will PM you. Since my family still lives there I feel more comfortable just telling one person instead of the masses. like anyone would even care but still ha.

Yeah, don't sweat it - was just idle curiosity!

 

[WraithApe]

1408 - 7/10

A less well known King adaptation, despite being one of the more recent ones. This is based on a short story and centres around a cynical ghost hunter, who makes a living debunking myths by staying in allegedly haunted hotels (and surviving to tell the tale!) He receives a mysterious postcard warning him not to stay in room 1408 of the Dolphin hotel in New York and can't resist the challenge. Getting to stay there proves tricky as the room has a history the hotel would rather keep quiet and as a general rule, they keep the room un-let. Enslin (John Cusack) manages to wangle the key eventually though, and steps across the threshold of the dread chamber...

This is a particularly well-executed single location film which uses some neat narrative tricks to expand the location. It's always a challenge for an actor to have virtually no-one to play off, but Cusack does well here and the device of having him speak his thoughts into a dictaphone maintains a sense of dialogue without seeming contrived. It's one of the scarier King films out there, with some effective jump scares and an emphasis on atmosphere rather than any obvious boogeyman. As Enslin remarks in the film, hotels are naturally quite unnatural and creepy environments and so it proves here as the room takes on a dark character of its own; there are definite parallels with The Shining - most obviously in the hotel setting, but also with 1408 as a mirror image of the Overlook's 237, the central character being a writer on the edge, and the fact that both movies were filmed in large part at Elstree Studios. Unlike The Shining, 1408 doesn't really transcend the genre but it's a worthy addition to the annals of horror.

On a side note, I wonder if someone watched this and thought 'Hmm, John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson in a a King adaptation worked here, let's do it again' when they cast them both in the atrocious Cell a couple of years back - without a doubt the worst adaptation of King's work ever committed to celluloid and proof that lightning rarely strikes twice.