MovieChat Forums > The Dead Zone (1983) Discussion > 7.3?! Are you guys nuts?

7.3?! Are you guys nuts?

posted 16 years ago by danielbaird-1
121 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS AHEAD!

I know there's already a thread for "I didn't like it" but it was created about 4 years ago so you'll excuse me for starting another one.

I just watched this on TV tonight and thought it was terrible. It had a nice concept: guy wakes from coma to find he can tell the future etc. The whole concept was pulled off without any drama or drive though.

Basically all that happened in the movie was the main character ended up going from situation to situation using his powers until he was forced to save the future and kill a senator. This wasn't really a story. A story is when characters change, situations change, there is friction. Where was the friction in this story? There was none. They tried to add a little drama with the ex-girlfriend subplot but that never worked as you never truly care for their relationship or for the main character.

Christopher Walken's character is just so unsympathetic. You don't care for him. When his doctor says his powers will eventually kill him, you don't care. When you know he can't be with the woman he loves, you don't care. When he dies at the end, you don't care.

The events in the film were held together with coincidences and sometimes didn't even matter. At the start he helps the police track down a killer (who, coincidentally is one of the policemen) but what purpose does this have? None. It's just there for the sake of it, like the rest of the film. What purpose does the part of the movie have where he's helping the child to learn? None.

The point is, events happen in the story, but the characters never change, so there is no story, just a series of events. Usually in a proper story the events create change. Not here though.

Oh and there were a few plotholes / major coincidences / face palm moment going on:
- His ex-girlfriend ends up being one of the Senators aides and just so happens to end up at his door. Yeah right.
- They hold a parade for the senator RIGHT OUTSIDE HIS HOUSE, just so he can shake the senators hand and move the film forward.
- He gets shot by an old woman early on, the old woman then gets killed. He shook the old womans hand earlier though, surely he'd have seen her getting killed and thus would have known he was going to get shot?
- He tells his doctor that he can see into the future and thus can change the future. He then asks the doctor if he could go back in time and kill Hitler, would he do it? The doctor doesn't put two and two together and think "maybe he's thinking of killing someone."

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] sifort2012 13 years ago

i rated this a 10, i rally cant understand what the op is moaning about, this is one of my fav horror films ever made. best stephen king adaption as well, imo.

[–] mkivtt 12 years ago

If you think this is a horror movie, I can only laugh at you.

[–] Dukeking3 13 years ago

I absolutely loved this movie!! I didn't give it a 10, but I did give it a 9 though!!I thought it was a great film. I think this might be Christopher Walken's best movie role also. Usually he's known for playing a villian or being in a movie in a supporting roll. But to me this was he's best!

[–] peaquod 13 years ago

Good/Bad script,characters,story blah,blah,blah...
How comes everyone is such an expert these days??

Personally,I sat down watched the movie and enjoyed it.
Enough said

[–] tagster 13 years ago

Just my two cents... I really like this movie! This one, and 'The Shawshank Redemption' are my favorite Stephen King adaptations. I never really got into the TV series of 'The Dead Zone' though. I enjoyed the book 'The Dead Zone' and I usually don't really care for film adaptations of books that I've read. Of course, I really love Walken, so I'm a bit biased, I guess. There are some lines of (Walken's character) Johnny Smith's that I think are priceless... like when his girlfriend (Brooke Adams) tells him he looks thinner after he wakes up, and he says: 'it's the coma diet, lose weight while you sleep' also, when Skerritt's character tells him that he should use God's gift that he's been given, and Walken says something like '...a gift?!? God put me to sleep for years, I've lost my job, lost my girl... oh yeah, GOD's been a real SPORT to me!' ...and who can forget, '...the ICE...is gonna...BREAK!'

...and nobody beats The Riz!

[–] agro_sydney 12 years ago

Saw this movie 29 years ago and loved it. Still on my mind

[–] nimstic 12 years ago

TROLL.

[–] alveari2005 12 years ago

7.3 is just about right. Good, not great movie. Fantastic performance by Christopher Walken and our usual Cronenberg atmosphere. I leave the nines and tens for true classics.

[–] toolkien 12 years ago

Who said you're supposed to care about the Walken character? The movie is pretty existential, and appeals to people on that level. If you want a bluebird landing on your shoulder, go watch a Disney movie. It's a sad movie that ends even sadder. No one won, it was just shades of losing.

To some people, he had a blessing from God. To others, he was the Devil sent from hell. He was a psychic vampire-in-reverse. And he was just a guy with S#!t for luck.

Some people are afraid of the unknown. I don't know why, and it scares me.