Twilight Zone: The Movie
A fascinating experiment more than anything, seeing four directors and four varying styles compete for the best story, and the results are mixed. The mood is set beautifully by Landis with the opening chords of Creedance’s “Midnight Special”, and Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks have an easy, unforced chemistry as they set up the film. Then Landis drops the ball. The first full segment with Vic Morrow is very nearly a disaster, heavy-handed and haphazardly paced as it tells the story of a racist who gets his “comeuppance”. The biggest problem is that Morrow’s character comes off as just a guy who had a bad day, spouted some racial epithets, and is now forced to go thru a hell no man deserves, so the viewer has sympathy for him from the get-go. That plus the fact that Morrow takes quite a bit of abuse during the segment, and suffered a horrific death during production, causing Landis to scrap the “happy ending” and go for something more downbeat leads one to believe the film would have worked without the segment entirely. The ONLY bright spot was seeing John Larroquette pop up out of nowhere as a KKK guy. Spielberg’s segment, “Kick The Can”, certainly benefits from having the ultra-cool Scatman Crothers in the lead, and it’s directed with a LOT of emotion, but is seriously marred from some terribly written dialogue which sinks everything. Then it picks up with Dante’s segment. Anthony is a good creepy kid, you get legendary character actors like Dick Miller and Kevin McCarthy (along with Nancy “Bart Simpson” Cartwright in a rare on-screen role), a great twisted sense of humor, and best of all the super-hot Kathleen Quinlan looking as only she can look in the lead (she can be my mommy anytime). Finally, the film goes to George “Mad Max” Miller, and he hits a grand slam out of the park. The camera angles, the suspense, the FX, the atmosphere are all perfect, and THEN you have John Lithgow kicking ass and taking names as the frightened passenger who sees a monster on the wing of his plane. Lithgow is panic-stricken as all hell, and yet I STILL find myself standing and cheering him on when he goes after the creature. That Lithgow didn’t pick up a Supporting Actor nom is a bit of a surprise to me. Overall, a must-watch for any fans of the old show…
8/10