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The movie is actually fine for what it is and a decent enough adaptation of the book. it's just one of those movies that everyone forgets about, along with Dead Zone.
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Sep 3, 2013 17:03
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Darko posted:The movie is actually fine for what it is and a decent enough adaptation of the book. it's just one of those movies that everyone forgets about, along with Dead Zone. The SNL parody is more memorable. And better acted.
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Sep 3, 2013 17:45
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Darko posted:The movie is actually fine for what it is and a decent enough adaptation of the book. it's just one of those movies that everyone forgets about, along with Dead Zone. Speaking of, I had no idea Cronenberg directed Dead Zone. Which begs the question of which notable horror directors had the chance to direct SK adaptations. So far I got Kubrick - The Shining Carpenter - Christine Cronenberg - Dead Zone Romero - Creepshow, Tales From The Darkside The Movie, The Dark Half Darabont - Shawshank Redemption, The Green MIle, The Mist De Palma - Carrie (although De Palma's not really a horror directer per se) Garris - a bunch of crappy made-for-tv versions King - Maximum Overdrive  Anyone I miss?
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Sep 3, 2013 18:00
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ruddiger posted:Speaking of, I had no idea Cronenberg directed Dead Zone. Which begs the question of which notable horror directors had the chance to direct SK adaptations. So far I got You missed Tobe Hooper you did 'salem's Lot. Hooper is famous for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the orignal of course), and Poltergeist. That said the rumor about Poltergeist is it was ghost directed by Spielberg.
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Sep 3, 2013 18:36
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Spielberg has actually been dead for 20 years. Now his ghost just wanders from studio to studio giving bad advice.
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Sep 3, 2013 18:56
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Hooper also did the movie for The Mangler.
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Sep 3, 2013 19:22
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I finished Joyland the other day, and I have conflicted feelings about it. I liked the novel, but the whole murder and ghost story feels so tacked on. It is like King wanted to write a book about carnies and a young men mending his broken heart over the summer, and the rest was added because he wanted 288 pages. The book would have been better if longer (King just couldn't flesh out the last 3rd of the book in under 300 pagers), or he should of made it into a novella (in spirit of the Different Seasons) that ended the story on Labor Day. My biggest confusion is why is this a Hard Case Crime novel? I thought the series was suppose to be a tribute to old-school hardboiled crime novels? There was nothing noirish or hardboiled about this. Edit: Despite claims of the 'Funhouse of Fear' there is not a single real moment of tension in the whole book. Also for those who read the book Google Joyland and look at the different covers. There is one that gives away way too much. Still I can honestly say I like this book. nate fisher fucked around with this message at 19:43 on Sep 3, 2013 |
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Sep 3, 2013 19:36
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nate fisher posted:My biggest confusion is why is this a Hard Case Crime novel? I thought the series was suppose to be a tribute to old-school hardboiled crime novels? There was nothing noirish or hardboiled about this. Does it confuse you more to know that he's now writing (or has completed) a book he calls his 'first real hard-boiled crime novel' called Mr. Mercedes, which (from what I know) is going through his normal publisher? Also, he's got another novel he's halfway through writing called Revival. No idea what it's about, but the name makes me think of cults, which would be cool. But he says the main character is a terrible guitarist, so maybe it has something to do with CCR.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:11
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nate fisher posted:I finished Joyland the other day, and I have conflicted feelings about it. I liked the novel, but the whole murder and ghost story feels so tacked on. It is like King wanted to write a book about carnies and a young men mending his broken heart over the summer, and the rest was added because he wanted 288 pages. The book would have been better if longer (King just couldn't flesh out the last 3rd of the book in under 300 pagers), or he should of made it into a novella (in spirit of the Different Seasons) that ended the story on Labor Day. I know that King has a fondness for 'pulp fiction' and has some sort of ties/connection to the guy who runs hard case crimes. King is really quite passionate about the format and what Hard Case Crimes is trying to do, even if writing hard boiled noir books aren't really in his wheel house. King really gets a kick out of playing with new formats and methods of releasing content. I don't know who approached who in the matter, but the two got to talking, and came to an arrangement of sorts. The Colorado Kid sold A LOT of books for Hard Case Crimes. A lot of people had no idea the imprint even existed until King put a book out on it. I would argue that to some degree, King puts out "Hard Case Crime" books as a way to help out a publisher doing something he really supports and believes in. At the same time, I think Hard Case Crimes allows King to put out smaller books, stuff that his main publisher might not be as excited about as they would an 800 page doorstop. Colorado Kid, for example, is more of King pondering and playing around with an unusual situation. The book isn't particularly impressive and disappointed a lot of fans. I think Joyland is a wonderful book, but the mystery aspect seems a little bit tacked on. It being rather different than King's normal work (Though I think Joyland is on par with stuff like The Body and Shawshank)which makes it perfect for a small, independent publisher of modern and reprinted pulp fiction.
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Sep 4, 2013 00:36
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Am I the only person who liked Colorado Kid?
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Sep 4, 2013 19:24
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oldpainless posted:Am I the only person who liked Colorado Kid? Yes.
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Sep 4, 2013 19:30
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Just under a quarter of the way through Salem's Lot. I finally got to read it for longer than ten minutes last night. Enjoying it immensely so far. The scene with the movers(Royal Snow and his buddy 'less-jazzy-name-man') putting the box in the basement was brilliantly tense. Very intrigued by Barlow despite his absence, mainly due to stuff from The Dark Tower I guess.
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Sep 5, 2013 02:54
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oldpainless posted:Am I the only person who liked Colorado Kid? I've read it 3 times and I could barely describe it. Forgettable would be my word.
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Sep 5, 2013 13:22
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BIG CITY LAWYER posted:I've read it 3 times and I could barely describe it. Forgettable would be my word. Jeffrey Demunn's voice was pure silk. That's all I remember. Also I guess there's a TV show now?
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Sep 5, 2013 13:40
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BIG CITY LAWYER posted:I've read it 3 times and I could barely describe it. Forgettable would be my word. Hardly bad though if you read it three times?
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Sep 5, 2013 14:14
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Maybe each time he picked it up he forgot he had read it before.
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Sep 5, 2013 14:28
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rypakal posted:Also I guess there's a TV show now?
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Sep 5, 2013 15:04
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oldpainless posted:Am I the only person who liked Colorado Kid? It wasn't bad. I think I liked it more than blockade billy, but it wasn't really all that great either. I don't remember much beyond the basic premise. It reads like a thought experiment, like "here is an interesting idea" and King bats it around for a couple hundred pages and that is that. I get that the idea is that not every mystery gets solved, and it's interesting enough, but it's just not as satisfying as other things he has written. I also think based on the publisher and cover, people developed some expectations, and found themselves a little disappointed that what they got wasn't a throwback to mid-century pulp fiction.
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Sep 5, 2013 19:22
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I'm hearing good things about Joyland. Any goon reports?
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Sep 5, 2013 20:31
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WattsvilleBlues posted:I'm hearing good things about Joyland. Any goon reports? I thought it was great but as an avid king fan and and a worker in the amusement business I'm a little bias. It reads effortlessly and subject matter was fine for me (obviously). The murder part did feel a little tacked on but I didn't consider it the main storyline anyway. King has a way of making you feel like those little coincidences in life are not coincidences and you are not alone in feeling that way. This book does a good job of that.
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Sep 6, 2013 00:11
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Franchescanado posted:I finished Firestarter a few days ago. It started slow, and I felt like I wasn't going to like it. There were a few scenes that were awesome, especially the drug trial, but the whole concept was hokey. Then something happened near a hundred pages and I was won over. It's not his best, and it's a step down from The Dead Zone, but it's still a good read. Firestarter is the one King book I started but was never able to finish. I actually like his early stuff, like Carrie, The Gunslinger, and The Dead Zone--they feel freer and less genre-bound, like they could go in any direction. But Firestarter just rubbed me the wrong way. Like it's great that King was able to come up with so many evocative and creative ways to describe an unbearable headache, but a nonstop series of these descriptions did not make for enjoyable reading. Then he got to The Shop, which came across like a tenth-rate James Bond villain/X-Men ripoff. I picked it up several times over the course of a couple years, but just couldn't stick with it, and eventually gave up.
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Sep 6, 2013 00:36
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Fascist Funk posted:Firestarter is the one King book I started but was never able to finish. I actually like his early stuff, like Carrie, The Gunslinger, and The Dead Zone--they feel freer and less genre-bound, like they could go in any direction. But Firestarter just rubbed me the wrong way. Like it's great that King was able to come up with so many evocative and creative ways to describe an unbearable headache, but a nonstop series of these descriptions did not make for enjoyable reading. It has a low point, somewhere near the middle, where nothing really happens for like 75-100 pages. It happens shortly after Charlie and her dad are captured and taken to the Shop Once you get past that it's awesome.
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Sep 6, 2013 00:42
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Fascist Funk posted:Firestarter is the one King book I started but was never able to finish. The Dark Half, for me.
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Sep 6, 2013 02:07
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Should I be excited for Dr. Sleep? Because I'm not.
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Sep 6, 2013 03:14
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crankdatbatman posted:Should I be excited for Dr. Sleep? Because I'm not. No, despite what the description says, nobody on the planet has been long awaiting the sequel to the Shining.
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Sep 6, 2013 04:18
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oldpainless posted:Maybe each time he picked it up he forgot he had read it before. Ha! No. I knew I had read it before, but anytime I would come across it I would have to try hard to remember most of the stuff that happened. I knew the general premise, but I forgot the majority of the plot. It wasn't *bad* and I will probably read it again, but it just doesn't stick in my mind very well. Glad to see I'm not the only one with this experience!
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Sep 6, 2013 04:35
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BIG CITY LAWYER posted:Ha! No. I knew I had read it before, but anytime I would come across it I would have to try hard to remember most of the stuff that happened. I knew the general premise, but I forgot the majority of the plot. It wasn't *bad* and I will probably read it again, but it just doesn't stick in my mind very well. Glad to see I'm not the only one with this experience! Yeah, if I put a book down in the middle I can't come back to where I stopped. Mostly because I've lost the bookmark. That's all different now with the kindle, I read snippets of books all over the place. My only experience with this King was Tommyknockers, which I put down for over a year before I finally slogged. The second time through I'm not sure what put me off the first time. And I've never given Gerald's Game a second chance because I find his whole rapegirl trilogy offensive in general, but at least Rose Madder and Dolores have other things going for them. I've also not read some of his post DT work (Duma/Lisey) because they just never pulled me in.
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Sep 6, 2013 04:41
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Fascist Funk posted:Firestarter is the one King book I started but was never able to finish. I actually like his early stuff, like Carrie, The Gunslinger, and The Dead Zone--they feel freer and less genre-bound, like they could go in any direction. But Firestarter just rubbed me the wrong way. Like it's great that King was able to come up with so many evocative and creative ways to describe an unbearable headache, but a nonstop series of these descriptions did not make for enjoyable reading. ConfusedUs posted:It has a low point, somewhere near the middle, where nothing really happens for like 75-100 pages. It happens shortly after Charlie and her dad are captured and taken to the Shop It starts off decent, then gets really good after the airport scenes. After they get captured it does slog again, but then when Rainbird gets involved and starts his whole plot, it gets awesome again. You really are missing out on some awesome action sequences. Really, the headache thing is there, but it dies out after the farm scene until the very end. So it's not like it's constant. Firstarter has some interesting subtext. It explores a child's fear of adults, a child fearing puberty, the lack of control parents have over their children, the lack of power to protect their children, the fear people have of conspiracies and higher powers (in this case, government), and the fear of unknown consequences to science. I'm not saying it goes deep into these subjects, but they're definitely prevalent, and the ideas overlap and bounce off each other. So you should give it a chance, headache descriptions aside.
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Sep 6, 2013 05:50
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The Berzerker posted:The Dark Half, for me. Ah, the King book where the book within a book (Alexis Machine) is much more interesting. I thought he gave away Stark way too early and should have done something similar to what he did with Secret Window, Secret Garden. For me, Duma Key. I bogged down quickly. I read the spoilers, which sounded interesting but ran out of patience with it. Still haven't gone back to it. I was worried that my erratic work schedule would mean that I would have to put down 11/22/63 until I could find a better time to read it, but it seems to be the type that I indeed can lay down for a few days.
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Sep 6, 2013 07:41
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Duma Key might be the most forgettable thing I've ever read. All I remember is that there was some running and a beach and Florida. And you can get all of that from the cover and the title.
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Sep 6, 2013 17:48
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iostream.h posted:The show is awesome and from what I recall (I remember READING the Colorado Kid, just not much more than that) the only thing the show and book share in common is that they both open with an unsolved murder from years ago. Yeah, Haven is great, and the only things it has in common with the book is the name of the town and the names of a couple side characters. And the unsolved murder, I guess, but even that is significantly different in the show. It's actually kind of odd that they even licensed the book rights, since they really didn't use any material from it. I guess they just wanted King's name and input. It's definitely worth watching in its own right, and it's fun to spot all the little allusions to King's other books in the show.
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Sep 7, 2013 16:51
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crankdatbatman posted:Should I be excited for Dr. Sleep? Because I'm not. The preview chapter was quite good and flowed really well. I'm looking forward to it now, after that.
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Sep 8, 2013 03:41
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Was feeling quite brave reading Salem's Lot at night time, then I got to the scene where Mike is staying at Matt's, and Matt hears the voice whispering "let me in". So now I can only read it in full light during the day. I'm 22 years old for goodness sake.
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Sep 8, 2013 03:50
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EmmyOk posted:Was feeling quite brave reading Salem's Lot at night time, then I got to the scene where Mike is staying at Matt's, and Matt hears the voice whispering "let me in". So now I can only read it in full light during the day. I'm 22 years old for goodness sake. Whenever someone asks me what my favorite Stephen King book is, I have a variety of responses. I say it can depend on my mood or what I'm looking for in a book at the time, how different themes impact or different plots interact with my personal fears. Or I just say Salem's Lot. It's got some of the best prose he's ever written, is genuinely frightening in several places, and more atmospheric than almost any other thing he has done. Apart from the Sexism problem (which is equally a problem in most of his works) it's practically flawless. The first paragraph of The Lot (III) is astoundingly beautiful.
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Sep 8, 2013 16:11
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EmmyOk posted:Was feeling quite brave reading Salem's Lot at night time, then I got to the scene where Mike is staying at Matt's, and Matt hears the voice whispering "let me in". So now I can only read it in full light during the day. I'm 22 years old for goodness sake. I always find it kind of funny when I see King's genre described as "horror." I've read a ton of his books and tend to enjoy his writing, but his plots are always so outlandish that I just find them interesting rather than scary. The two times I can remember getting the heebie-jeebies while reading a King book are Pet Semetary when there's a throwaway line about a hand coming out from under the bed, and when Mike Noonan listens to the voice recorder "oh Mike, oh Mike" in Bag of Bones. If I had to vote for the scariest thing he's ever written, I would say "Crouch End" from Nightmares & Dreamscapes. He starts with that feeling of trying to make one's way around a foreign city, which is pretty universal, and segues into a situation where things are mostly normal but just a little bit "off." Even when poo poo starts hitting the fan, he does a brilliant job keeping the horror offscreen in such a way that it's infinitely more terrifying. Then there's the ending, which is totally  .I don't think I found the story super scary while reading it, but there was a period afterward where I was walking around my neighborhood at night a lot to deal with insomnia, and I kept getting genuinely unnerved that I was going to slip into an alternate dimension.
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Sep 8, 2013 17:05
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I remember one time I read Salem's Lot (it may have been the second time I read it), and for some reason the bit where Susan comes back as a vampire really got to me. Just the idea of a sweet girl like her being this eternal and immortal thing scared the hell out of me. Basically Salem's Lot is a wonderful book. I kind of want to give it another go, but at the same time I just watched John Carpenter's adaptation of Christine and I have the urge to give that a go. He did a good job, I thought, and I really like his score.
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Sep 8, 2013 17:43
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While we're on the subject of scary parts of Stephen King, I submit the following part of It. Mike Hanlon's dad Will's story about the Black Spot. The building being set alight, the occupants and the attackers flee, and there in the darkness, lit by the glow of the fire, is an enormous bird, grabbing people in its talons, suspended by balloons on its outstretched wings... I read It about 5 years ago and talking about this scene with a guy in work the other day gave me goosebumps. It was one of those parts of the novel that sent chills down my spine and I don't think I'll ever forget it. One of the things that disturbed me the most about this was that the scene with Mike Hanlon getting chased by the giant bird earlier in the book didn't really do much for me, suspense-wise. But when the later scene at the Black Spot with his father is described... holy moley, it made the latter all the more creepy. WattsvilleBlues fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Sep 9, 2013 |
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Sep 8, 2013 22:46
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I still think the only time a Stephen King book shocked me was in The Long Walk, when Barkovitch rips his throat out. The image of it is kind of shocking, and it seemingly comes from nowhere. Definitely gave me a jolt. Desperation I feel could have had a scary moment, but it wasn't done well. When tak starts decaying in the police man's body, I feel like the scene could have gotten more grotesque. Maybe even not give the character point of view chapters so you never know where he is or what he's thinking. However, King kind of ruined the suspense and the chance at actually being terrifying by his need to flesh out his story and keep the reader informed with tak's motivation and thought process. Desperation had a lot of blown potential in my opinion.
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Sep 9, 2013 03:36
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I seriously loving hate Ann Norton, she's almost as bad as Tony's mother in The Sopranos
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Sep 9, 2013 04:34
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The Tunnel todash monster/centipede sequence found in book 7. Great pacing and very suspenseful, even if the characters had plot armour and would be fine.
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Sep 9, 2013 13:29
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