The Stand (DVD, 2001, Special Edition; Sensormatic Security Tag)

Based upon the bestseller of the same name by Stephen King, "The Stand," is a chilling depiction of a world where chemical and biological weapons are accidentally released into the public.
After "superflu" wipes out more than 90 percent of the earth's population, the survivors fight the ultimate battle of good vs. evil. Featuring strong performances by Gary Sinise, Rob Lowe, Molly Ringwald and Jamey Sheridan as Randall Flagg in a performance that actually made me like the devil. The film begins when a biological weapon is accidentally exposed to the masses. The viewer watches the decimation of hundreds of people set to Blue Oyster Cult's "Don't Fear the Reaper," and a powerful sequence that demonstrate the talent of both the director and cinematographer. The screen play was penned by King and follows the novel closely. Of all of the King books that have been filmed, this is one of my favorites (including "The Green Mile" and "The Shawshank Redemption."
From the first scene to the last, this movie captures the book without losing any major events. Although this was made for tv, it is a good movie and an asset to any Stephen King fan.

After seeing this movie on television for the first time, I went right out and got the novel so I could read it. I don't know which is better, the book or the movie. This is the ultimate story of good versus evil. Each actor makes you believe in his or her character so deeply they feel like personal friends of yours. I especially loved Gary Sinise's portrayal of good ole boy "Stu Redman" and Molly Ringwald's role as "Franny Goldsmith." The cast is stellar, including such actors as Rob Lowe, Ossie Davis, Kareem Abdul-Jabar, and Ruby Dee. The make up artists did an amazing job turning her into a 100 year old woman. The special effects at times can be cheesy but I recall the first time I saw this movie, I was a bit frightened of "the dark man." I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who likes "world is ending" stories or just a good drama depicting how people relate to each other in unique situations. It might seem a little long, but it is well worth it in the end.

It is very tough to give this movie an overall grade, since there are many aspects that go so far and above what you would expect from a television miniseries, and in particular what you would expect from a Stephen King television miniseries. On the other hand, there are numerous aspects of this film that not only dissapoint, but drag this film below any comparison to the best of his feature film adaptations.


The good: The Casting - Period. While there are one or two choices that fans of the book personally pick out as being inapporpriate for a given character, those involved with the casting of this film did an incredible job.

The best acting in this miniseries generally revolve around performances from Gary Sinise (who's next film after "The Stand" was his oscar-nominated performance in "Forrest Gump") to Ray Walston, to Rob Lowe (who now commands some degree of respect as an actor, almost *all* of that respect stemming from turning in a strong performance in a difficult role noone thought he could pull off back in '94) to great supporting performances from Muguel Ferrer and Matt Frewer.

There are some notably weak acting performances, however, that kind of stand in stark contrast to the great ones. Molly Ringwald takes first place in this category by a comfortable margin. Corin Nemec follows this up with a shaky acting peformance in what was easily one of the most powerfully-written characters in the original story.

What hurts this movie is the simple fact that, while having gobs of screentime that ABC was willing to give King back in the early ninties, this kind of story can *only* be given its due in a creatively less-restricting medium - which would essentially equate to a cable station willing to pump in the kind of money that an epic story like this would take. The commercial breaks are sometimes painfully obvious on dvd, and the fact that the shows tempo has to be built around those commercial breaks. The production values are sometimes startlingly bad (a common chain-link fence providing a threatening barrier for a 1 ton car?) and in particular what hurts this movie from a visual standpoint is the *very* early digital effects - most notably the "morphs" that were oh-so-popular back in the ninties. This movie also suffers from a z-grade awful final 25 minutes - the ending is just terrible in nearly every respect you can imagine.

Still, this miniseries took audiences by suprise back in '94 and is still regarded as one of the best miniseries that Stephen King has produced for ABC television.

This is one of the best movies ever written and produced. It is very long but well worth the investment of both money and time to see. After an experiment in chemical warfare goes haywire at a military facility, a single soldier and his family escape the base and unknowingly introduce the deadly virus to the masses as they travel from California to a small town in Texas. Within days, the virus spreads accross the country killing with its super flu like symptoms. Soon only a small few survivors are left to make the choice between the influences of good and evil on mortal man as desperately each side mounts up to recreate the population in their own vision. Although meant for entertainment purposes, this has a moral to it and could very likely be the way it may someday happen. A good easy to follow story told in typical Stephen King fashion. I rate it an A+ must see.

Stephen King did a fantastic job of fitting this to a mini-series format! Certain things were changed (like Rita being dropped and Nadine sort of morphing into both characters for Larry's rebirth in the tunnel), but the essence of the book is completely captured. Jamie Sheridan does a fantastic job as Flagg and no one could have possibly done better as Trashcan Man or Larry Underwood than Matt Frewer and Adam Storke, respectively.

I think the teleplay is a work of art in itself. The comedy bits are still there, as is the terror, hope, lonliness, strength, and sheer determination of the characters. I agree that Molly Ringwald did a HORRIBLE job acting this role out, but Gary Sinese, Ruby Dee, Ray Walston, and Jose Ferrer were totally believable as their characters.

The ending is very hokey. Sort of unworthy of King (meaning mostly the effects from the time Julie yells "he's got a bomb" to the time you hear Mother Abigail's voiceover saying "come on home, boys".) But the overall mini-series is brilliant and absolutely one of King's very best. Much better than Desperation, which he also did the teleplay for. (you think some of the acting in The Stand was bad, wait til you see that one.)

Oh, and Jim Fagerbakker was outstanding in the role of Tom Cullen. Hard to imagine anyone else in that now. "M-o-o-n, that spells hobby". Haha.
buy it, you'll love it.