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India Press Store - The Mist (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
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List Price: $32.95
Our Price: $16.99
Your Save: $ 15.96 ( 48% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Genius Products (TVN)
Starring: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones
Directed By: Frank Darabont
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
EAN: 0796019810579
Format: Collector's Edition
Label: Genius Products (TVN)
Manufacturer: Genius Products (TVN)
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Genius Products (TVN)
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2008-03-25
Running Time: 126
Studio: Genius Products (TVN)
Theatrical Release Date: 2007-11-21
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: horror fans and stephen king fans will both be pleased.......
Comment: what I liked most about the film was that it got better and better as it went along- the ending was a surprise. No plot details here, go rent it and enjoy.
Thomas Jane & Laurie Holden give great performances....wish they were in more movies...
actually, I give the movie 3.5 stars out of 5.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Read the book instead
Comment: Based on many other reviews, I knew this movie wasn't going to be great. But given Frank Darabont's near-perfect impressions of Shawshank and Green Mile, I figured I should at least give it a shot. Turns out I was unprepared for what is truly an awful Stephen King adaptation.
To be fair, making a good horror film is difficult. It's even harder to make a good horror film based on a book that was so lovingly-crafted. The book is full of such vivid people, monsters, and events, that your imagination will sculpt images no film can possibly re-create. And the sheer terror and suspense with which King describes the coming of the mist and particularly the ill-fated expedition to the pharmacy simply do not lend themselves to the film medium. That isn't to say that Darabont couldn't have done worlds better, but ultimately, this is a movie that just should not have been made.
Many people will say that King is simply bizarre or weird or will use some other pejorative. That is naive. There is a heart and warmth to his writing that was captured so well by the Shawshank and Green Mile films. This film has none of that.
Most offensive to me was the ending, and for multiple reasons. First, it is badly shocking. Darabont even admits in the commentary that it is partly for shock value. I don't claim to be a Stephen King expert, but I've read a good 10-15 of his books, and this is one ending I can tell you he would never write. Yes, the end scenario is alluded to within the book. But from what I know about David Drayton, I would assert that he is incapable of such an act. Second, Stanley Kubrick took some big liberties with The Shining, but where he transformed the original King story into a strong work of film that can stand alone, Darabont butchered the original text with his overuse of artistic license. King outwardly claims to have "liked" the ending, but I wonder what he really thought. I will admit that the book's ending would not work in a movie. But that is just another reason this story should have been left alone.
There were things I enjoyed. I thought the monsters were tremendous. Their appearances were not far from what I imagined whilst reading the book. Credit must be given to the special effects team. However, it seems that special effects are what Hollywood really excels at these days, so good monsters are to be expected.
We know that Frank Darabont is capable of directing moving, worthwhile films. He must have seen that The Mist would be a dud. Why in the world would he choose to go through with it? The DVD extras explain that the budget was indeed meager. And why did Paramount Pictures back out? Dimension Films wound up being the studio, a company that brought us such forgettable dreck as the Scream trilogy and all eight incarnations of Hellraiser. This movie is definitely their cup of tea.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Realistic People; Unrealistic Menace
Comment: The realism of the people and small-town settings portrayed here draws us in and bands us together with the party trapped in a grocery store, waiting out the coming of whatever ferocity is in the surrounding mist. The camera work and lighting puts us right in the faces of the frightened, beleaguered shoppers. I felt as if I were walking directly behind the store manager, peering over his shoulder as he circulates around the store, whispering counsel, quelling rising tempers, helping to plan escape. Toby Jones does a brilliant job in this part, a total departure from his role as Truman Capote in "Infamous."
All the actors turn in compelling, realistic performances as each in turn gets spotlighted in the beam of whatever improvised light the shoppers devise when night falls and their power is cut.
However, I can't be quite as enthusiastic about the creatures that strike out of the mist. Sometimes these artifacts, with their improbably akimbo limbs and their almost human, craning, questioning faces - even seem to be vaguely comical. With all the advances that have been made in fabrication and CG effects in recent years, these menacing arthropods still didn't seem to match the frightening realism of the attackers in decades-old movies such as "Them."
Still, the movie is worth watching. It will take you out of yourself into that store-under-siege.
Not all of the bonus material on the DVD is as worthwhile though. The Director's commentary is a little flat and uninformative and you can skip it unless you have a lot of extra time. It will be enough to listen to the Director's chat with Stephen King, from whose early short story/novella this picture was drawn. And you can also listen to just the commentary accompanying the movie's outtakes to get enough of an idea of the budget techniques used to create the effects in this film.
Customer Rating:
Summary: DARABONT HAS KING SIZED ONIONS
Comment: very good horror show , with conviction . what an excellent ensemble . well above average script , acting , directing , etc . no shock considering king and darabont's two pevious collaborations "the shawshank redemption" and "the green mile" . flawless ? no , but better than 85 percent of what passes for horror .
Customer Rating:
Summary: This was AWFUL!!!!! I want my two hours back!!
Comment: This was the WORST movie I have EVER seen. I kept watching it thinking it would get better if I was just patient. It did not. The ending was miserable and a perfect fit to a wasted movie experience. Save yourself the time and money and rent/buy a movie that is worth it.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Writer-director Frank Darabont, who showcased the softer side of Stephen King in his film adaptations of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, turns to darker material for The Mist, his latest King adaptation about a group of ordinary townspeople trapped in a supermarket by a mysterious fogbank. Thomas Jane is top-billed as a Maine illustrator who attempts to calm the frightened shoppers, but his job is cut out for him from the get-go, first by the discovery of malevolent creatures lurking in the mist, and then by the mad mutterings of Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), a local eccentric who calls for Old Testament-style sacrifices to appease the supernatural forces. Darabont delivers monster movie thrills and understated social commentary with equal skill, and he's well supported by his cast (which includes Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, William Sadler and Jeffrey DeMunn) and the vivid special effects by KNB EFX, which effectively mix CGI with models and stop-motion animation (the terrific monsters were designed by legendary comic book artist Bernie Wrightson). And for those curious about how the novella's downbeat ending has translated to film, suffice it to say that Darabont's conclusion is at once different and more unsettling than King's. --Paul Gaita
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