Stephen King - One More Reason Not to Hit Him with a Van

[JCM]

I didn't know Stephen King created the Shawshank Redemption. I've never read anything of his (not a fan of horror), but I love that movie so maybe I should check out his books.

He doesn't just do horror, go with the Richard Bachman books if you want less horror and the Shawshank, Green Mile stuff.[/quote]Stephen King's non-horror stuff is pretty much great, here are some good flicks based on his non-horror stuff, for example-

-Stand by me - Based on "The body"
-Hearts in Atlantis - Based on a "Hearts in Atlantis" short collection
-Green Mile - Based on the Green mile mini-series (where Stephen King sold cheap monthly parts of the books as he was writing it)
-The Running Man (with Schwarzenegger) - Based on the Running Man novel King wrote under the Richard Bachman name, to test if his stories sold well under a different name (they did)
-Apt Pupil - Bryan Singers best flick comes from King's novel of the same name.
-Dolores Claiborne - based on King's Dolores Claiborne meganovel, which had no chapters, paragraphs, but was just one continuous monologue
-The Shawkshank Redemption - based on the novella "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption"
-Desperation - Based on the book with the same name
-Dreamcatcher - Shitty movie based on the book with the same name
-Secret Window - Based on King's short story "Secret Window, Secret Garden"


Unlike most writers, King doesnt ask anything but that his name appear in the credits, thus most non-King fans watch shitloads of tv shows, movies and series based on his stuff and dont know its his.

Its a bit sad, because the Stephen King has written more damn good stuff and influenced books, movies and tv series than any other writer, ever.

Edit:
His books-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King_bibliography
His short stories - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_fiction_by_Stephen_King
Movies/tv shows/comics based of his stuff- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_based_on_Stephen_King_works

 

[Shegokigo]

Apt Pupil is one of my favorite underrated films ever, no question.

 

[Espy]

Apt Pupil is one of my favorite underrated films ever, no question.

Ah... I remember when Brian Singer made good films...

 

[JCM]

Apt Pupil is one of my favorite underrated films ever, no question.

Ah... I remember when Brian Singer made good films...[/quote]His first three flicks were cinematic perfection (Public Access, Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil), which had people calling him the next Kubrick.

Then he did two Xmen flicks, a shitty superman-yet-again-its-kryptonite! flick and Valkarie. [STRIKE]At least his direct-to-dvd "Trick 'r Treat" was awesome[/STRIKE] (EDIT: Oh wait, that wasnt his)

 

[Frank]

Valkyrie wasn't terrible....it just suffered with it's cast I think, most of which are fantastic actors mind you, it just seemed a film that could have used more unknown people in the rolls.

 

[Shegokigo]

Valkyrie would have been a fantastic film sans Cruise.

 

[Espy]

Is Valkyrie even worth seeing?

 

[Bowielee]

Valkyrie would have been a fantastic film sans Cruise.

I haven't seen the film solely because Tom Cruise is in it. I just can't stand him, the only film I really thought he was excellent in was A Few Good Men.

 

[Shegokigo]

In all honesty he really takes some decent films and runs them into the ground. Some great movies would have been better with a different actor: Mission Impossible/s, Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky, The Last Samurai, Interview with a Vampire. All would have been elevated to a higher status easily without him.

 

[Shannow]

Cruise is actually a great actor, his off screen antics are another matter.

 

[ThatGrinningIdiot!]

I can't imagine Lestat without seeing Tom Cruise's face portraying him, that's how impressed I am with his acting ability in Interview with the Vampire. His personality, I find is generally arrogant and obstinate, and at times: peculiar.

 

[Kitty Sinatra]

I didn't know Stephen King created the Shawshank Redemption. I've never read anything of his (not a fan of horror), but I love that movie so maybe I should check out his books.

He doesn't just do horror, go with the Richard Bachman books if you want less horror and the Shawshank, Green Mile stuff.[/QUOTE]

And a 4pack of short novels called Different Seasons. one of these was turned into the movie Stand By Me way back when.

 

[Silver Jelly]

Vanilla Sky

Have you watched the spanish original? (Abre los ojos)
It has no Cruise, but I can't really say the original actor is better. Because he isn't, Cruise is a pretty good actor. But he isn't Tom Cruise, with his Cruise Face and Cruise smile all over the picture.

 

[Frank]

Cruise is actually a great actor, his off screen antics are another matter.

I agree wholeheartidly. He can be amazing. I just think that Valkyrie called for less STARPOWAHSELLSTICKETS and a little more subtlety.

 

[Denbrought]

Vanilla Sky

Have you watched the spanish original? (Abre los ojos)
It has no Cruise, but I can't really say the original actor is better. Because he isn't, Cruise is a pretty good actor. But he isn't Tom Cruise, with his Cruise Face and Cruise smile all over the picture.[/QUOTE]

Abre los ojos is so so so so so much better. It seems that every good spanish movie (and there's few of these) that gets a hollywood adaptation always gets a crappy one. Same thing happened with REC / Quarantine.

 

[Silver Jelly]

Vanilla Sky

Have you watched the spanish original? (Abre los ojos)
It has no Cruise, but I can't really say the original actor is better. Because he isn't, Cruise is a pretty good actor. But he isn't Tom Cruise, with his Cruise Face and Cruise smile all over the picture.[/QUOTE]

Abre los ojos is so so so so so much better. It seems that every good spanish movie (and there's few of these) that gets a hollywood adaptation always gets a crappy one. Same thing happened with REC / Quarantine.[/QUOTE]

And it's really a "version/plagiarism/unofficially inspired by" of a story by one of my favourite authors! (I won't say wich one because it would spoil the ending of both the movie and the novel)

 

[Espy]

I didn't know Stephen King created the Shawshank Redemption. I've never read anything of his (not a fan of horror), but I love that movie so maybe I should check out his books.

He doesn't just do horror, go with the Richard Bachman books if you want less horror and the Shawshank, Green Mile stuff.[/QUOTE]

And a 4pack of short novels called Different Seasons. one of these was turned into the movie Stand By Me way back when.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, forgot out Different Seasons. Very good stuff.

 

[JCM]

Vanilla Sky

Have you watched the spanish original? (Abre los ojos)
It has no Cruise, but I can't really say the original actor is better. Because he isn't, Cruise is a pretty good actor. But he isn't Tom Cruise, with his Cruise Face and Cruise smile all over the picture.[/QUOTE]Pretty much this.

And the same applies to any recent Hollywood remake of Spanish movies, especially you %$^# REC remake.

 

[Bowielee]

I didn't know Stephen King created the Shawshank Redemption. I've never read anything of his (not a fan of horror), but I love that movie so maybe I should check out his books.

He doesn't just do horror, go with the Richard Bachman books if you want less horror and the Shawshank, Green Mile stuff.[/quote]

And a 4pack of short novels called Different Seasons. one of these was turned into the movie Stand By Me way back when.[/quote]

Yeah, forgot out Different Seasons. Very good stuff.[/quote]

I'd also classify the Tommyknockers as more sci-fi than horror. Though it suffers from the plague of many King stories, as it has great story and terrible ending. Still not as terrible as the ending of The Stand. I swear that man just decides "well, I've crafted a wonderful novel here, but I'm bored with writing this mother fucker, what can I pull straight out of my ass for an ending?"

 

[JCM]

I didn't know Stephen King created the Shawshank Redemption. I've never read anything of his (not a fan of horror), but I love that movie so maybe I should check out his books.

He doesn't just do horror, go with the Richard Bachman books if you want less horror and the Shawshank, Green Mile stuff.[/quote]

And a 4pack of short novels called Different Seasons. one of these was turned into the movie Stand By Me way back when.[/quote]

Yeah, forgot out Different Seasons. Very good stuff.[/quote]

I'd also classify the Tommyknockers as more sci-fi than horror. Though it suffers from the plague of many King stories, as it has great story and terrible ending. Still not as terrible as the ending of The Stand. I swear that man just decides "well, I've crafted a wonderful novel here, but I'm bored with writing this mother fucker, what can I pull straight out of my ass for an ending?"[/QUOTE]*sniff*

That pretty much describes the latter part of IT.

 

[Shegokigo]

Yeah I completely disagree. Every scene, of every Cruise movie I mentioned, has him doing the exact same facial features/movements, exact same voice tones, exact same mannerisms. Basically saying "I'm Tom Cruise, I'm in this movie, so it's the best movie ever made cause I say so", in his every word/movement.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I didn't know Stephen King created the Shawshank Redemption. I've never read anything of his (not a fan of horror), but I love that movie so maybe I should check out his books.

He doesn't just do horror, go with the Richard Bachman books if you want less horror and the Shawshank, Green Mile stuff.[/quote]

And a 4pack of short novels called Different Seasons. one of these was turned into the movie Stand By Me way back when.[/quote]

Yeah, forgot out Different Seasons. Very good stuff.[/quote]

I'd also classify the Tommyknockers as more sci-fi than horror. Though it suffers from the plague of many King stories, as it has great story and terrible ending. Still not as terrible as the ending of The Stand. I swear that man just decides "well, I've crafted a wonderful novel here, but I'm bored with writing this mother fucker, what can I pull straight out of my ass for an ending?"[/QUOTE]*sniff*

That pretty much describes the latter part of IT.[/QUOTE]

I felt that way about The Stand, but It's (wow, that's the first time I've wrestled with whether or not to put an apostrophe after "it" in a long time) ending felt perfectly crafted for all it was leading up to through the book. The epilogue was a little cheesy, but the actually climax underground--I know it got weird, but it never felt like it was being pulled out of his ass. It fit with that IT was totally beyond them, in ways they couldn't imagine and apparently neither could the narrative.

Unless you're talking about the bit of kiddy sex in the pipe. I won't defend that... but IT is my favorite King novel.

 

[Twitch]

I was really enjoying reading King, I had read about eight of his novels in a row and I picked up a little book called dreamcatcher. I put it down about 1/2 way through and shelved my King books. I haven't looked at them since.

 

[Shegokigo]

Weird, I thought "The Stand" ended precisely how it should have.

 

[Hailey Knight]

The "ending" was fine; the climax in Randall Flagg's town...

Spoiler

Bringing the characters to there for them to accomplish nothing, having no damn reason to go because there never was a way for them to succeed anyway, and then bring in the deus ex machina hand of God to set off the pyro's nuclear bomb. What a waste.

 

[Kitty Sinatra]

I couldn't tell you what I thought of the Stand's ending. I never made it that far. Damn thing suffered from rambling, as far as I'm concerned.

I miss the shorter novels King wrote. Stuff like the Dead Zone and Firestarter, the Long Walk and Running Man. Well, his old stuff, really. Stephen King is like the rock band Rush, only Rush got shorter and boring while King got longer and boring.

 

[JCM]

Yeah I completely disagree. Every scene, of every Cruise movie I mentioned, has him doing the exact same facial features/movements, exact same voice tones, exact same mannerisms. Basically saying "I'm Tom Cruise, I'm in this movie, so it's the best movie ever made cause I say so", in his every word/movement.

His best movies are the ones he managed to slightly improve on that, Jerry Maguire and Magnolia.

Besides that, he pretty much belongs with the Nicholas Cage and Keanu Reeves acting school.

 

[Kitty Sinatra]

Yeah I completely disagree. Every scene, of every Cruise movie I mentioned, has him doing the exact same facial features/movements, exact same voice tones, exact same mannerisms. Basically saying "I'm Tom Cruise, I'm in this movie, so it's the best movie ever made cause I say so", in his every word/movement.

His best movies are the ones he managed to slightly improve on that, Jerry Maguire and Magnolia.[/QUOTE]
I'm sorry but I gotta ask: How do you forget Rain Man?

 

[Bowielee]

Unless you're talking about the bit of kiddy sex in the pipe. I won't defend that... but IT is my favorite King novel.

It wasn't until probably the 3rd time reading the book to understand what was going on in that scene.

Pennywise was able to distort their perceptions because they were children, and having sex made them adults (shakey logic, I know) so they were able to find their way out.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Unless you're talking about the bit of kiddy sex in the pipe. I won't defend that... but IT is my favorite King novel.

It wasn't until probably the 3rd time reading the book to understand what was going on in that scene.

Pennywise was able to distort their perceptions because they were children, and having sex made them adults (shakey logic, I know) so they were able to find their way out.[/QUOTE]

I know why it was necessary to happen. It was not necessary to go through it for four detailed pages.

Grue: Have you read Cell? That's shorter than the big ones, and pretty awesome.

 

[Kitty Sinatra]

No, I haven't read it. Haven't read anything new by King in ages. Mostly because I've already read a significant number by him and there's so many other authors out there. But also because Wolves of the Calla turned me off not just that series, but the author, too. I just don't care to read anything more by him.

 

[Espy]

Cell is very good. VERY good. I'm halfway through Under the Dome and it's fantastic as well. A little heavy on the "hur-hur conservatives r bad!" (but subtlety has never been his thing) but it's very good.

 

[Shegokigo]

I own Cell and it really was a fantastic novel. Now let's just hope they don't cast Tom Cruise in the film version.

 

[Null]

Couldn't be worse than The Cell with Jessica Lopez.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I own Cell and it really was a fantastic novel. Now let's just hope they don't cast Tom Cruise in the film version.

They won't, because it's gonna be a goddamn TV movie instead of a real movie. :/