lathe-of-heaven To be honest, I'm not a HUGE fan of Stephen King, although I do favour a lot of his earlier stuff (right now I'm currently re-reading 'The Talisman' :) But, when the film makers get it right, or mostly right, I really do enjoy some of the movie adaptations of his stories. They don't necessarily have to be masterpieces like 'THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION' or 'THE SHINING', but I even really like some of the super cheeeeeezier ones like 'THE MANGLER' (I know... I Know...) and I also really thought that 'NIGHT SHIFT' was a lot of fun.So, without giving too much away, this movie here is basically just an old fashioned, good ol' Ghost Story. So, first and foremost, if you DON'T really like Ghost Stories in general, then there is no particular reason that you would like this one either. BUT... if you DO enjoy Ghost Stories and you don't mind ones that follow a rather older, Classic style, then in my lowly and wretched opinion, I felt that this one was done rather well.Of course, if you already like Pierce Brosnan (isn't that just THE greatest name ever for a guy...?) he does a very good job with his role. A LOT of Horror stories are based on the premise of a man who has just gone through a serious loss, so unfortunately since we are talking about a deeply traumatic experience in their life, a LOT of times the acting just doesn't come across as very real, or usually it is just flat out overdone. But, not in his case. So, since that is a big part of the story, it is a pretty dang good start that the guy here is Pierce Brosnan.Actually, that is one of THE main things about a number of Stephen King adaptations that I usually don't like at all. Many times the acting, particularly the 'Bad' guys just come across as ultra-clichéd, plastic stereotypes. But, not in the case of this film. Most everyone truly does a good job in all their roles. EXCEPT... maybe it was just me, but I really did NOT care for the mother of the little girl at all... talk about 'overdone'... But, other than that, the acting was decent. I must say that the little girl did an amazing job (she is gonna be a SUPER cutie when she gets older, mark my creepy words...)Mick Garris, who has directed a number of King adaptations does a decent job here as well. YES, as another reviewer mentioned (and this was also repeated on the Horror review site 'moria.co.nz', but I don't always agree with him - he is a very good reviewer, but if he doesn't happen to like a director, he hates ALL their films) the movie is indeed filled with jump-scares, but, I think in the context of it being a Ghost Story that that is to be expected and although he did use that a lot, I thought he did it well and it enhanced the enjoyment of the film.Some have said that they felt that since it is a 2 part Mini-Series, that it came across as REALLY padded out timewise, but I honestly did not think so. The running time of each half excluding the intro and end credits was only about an hour & 15 minutes, so it really wasn't that long. I felt that being an old fashioned Ghost Story and with where the story was set, it was kind of nice that it took the time to set the tone and location, mood, and background of the story, which again, I felt really added to the atmosphere.So, since the reviews here are SO polarized for this movie, it is REALLY going to depend on whether you genuinely like old fashioned, Classically structured Ghost Stories, and if you can kind of 'get lost' in them, easily suspending disbelief where you can just sit back and enjoy this kind of story. If so, then I think that there is a good chance that you might like it...

Jackson Booth-Millard I missed the opportunity to see this TV made film the first time, I was determined to watch it the next time, because I was told it was worth watching, I like the former James Bond 007 actor, and it was based on a Stephen King work, so lots of it sounded interesting. Basically Mike Noonan (Pierce Brosnan) is a best selling author, but he and his wife Jo (Annabeth Gish) are unable to conceive children, due to his low sperm count, but tragedy strikes when while he is at a book signing she leaves and gets killed by a bus, he goes outside and she dies in his arms. He is overcome with grief, and he always said to Jo that he could not write without her, so he develops writer's block, and he starts having nightmares of his wife and their Dark Score Lake, Maine summer home, so advised by his gay brother Sid (Matt Frewer) he goes to the house. Once there Mike saves the life of six year old Kyra (Caitlin Carmichael), he meets her young widowed mother Mattie Devore (Melissa George), and in doing this he gains an enemy in her estranged father-in-law Max Devore (William Schallert), he has been gain custody of Kyra after she shot his son dead, his son was trying to drown her daughter. While this is happening Mike finally starts writing again, using a photograph of Jo for inspiration, but he cannot help but notice the strange things going on in the house, the continuing nightmares and visions, he is sure the spirit of his wife is with him, but also the ghost of a 1930's singer called Sara Tidwell (Dreamgirls' Anika Noni Rose), who has been playing her records to get his attention. Max says he will drop the custody case if Mike no longer interferes, to which he agrees, and later the old man has his assistant help him commit suicide, and at the funeral he reluctantly attends for Mattie he meets elderly Edgar White (Leslie Carlson), who knew his grandfather, but also he knew Max in their younger years. He confesses to Mike that in the 1930's he, Mike's grandfather and a few other young men assisted Max in brutally raping Sara Tidwell, and her daughter Keisha was drowned, and it was moments before her death that she cursed the men and their descendants that they would all go mad in the future and drown their own daughters, and after dying they buried her body in the woods. Mike tells the story to Mattie, and she comes up with the theory that Jo may have been pregnant, she investigated the Dark Score curse and believed that with the bloodline connection there is a possibility he too would turn crazy and drown a daughter they may have had, and then suddenly Mattie is shot through the face and dies in his arms, her dying words were for him to care for Kyra. He gets the young girl in the car to get away, chased by Mattie's killers, only escaping when a storm causes a sign to fall on their car, back at the lake home he consoles the child putting her to bed, but then Max's spirit appears and tell him to fulfil the curse and drown her, Mattie's spirit also appears to thwart him. Finding clues left by Jo in his office Mike is directed to unearth the bodies of Sara and Keisha, douse them with lye and end the curse, he identifies the graves under in the tree shaped like a woman, the haunted tree (Sara) tries to stop him, but the opposite spirit (Jo) distracts her, so Mike is able to finish dissolving the bones, Sara's spirit is settled and the tree goes back to normal, and he says his final goodbye to Jo. Returning to the house he finds Kyra in the bathtub, and Max's assistant is there to attack and attempt to kill them, he manages to kill her, and Mattie's spirit appears to tell her daughter she is safe with Mike who will take care of her, and the next morning he announces he will adopt Kyra and raise her like his own child. Also starring David Sheftell as Young Max Devore, Gary Levert as Deputy George Footman and Jason Priestley as Marty. Brosnan does pretty well as the struggling writing straining after the death of his wife and trying to find a way to move forward while combatting demons - inner and demonic, for a television made production the story is actually surprisingly engaging, with the plots of a dark curse and spirits twinned with custody battles and human traumas it all adds up to an entertaining horror thriller drama. Very good!

david-497-331474 I started watching this as one of the few King adaptations I'd never seen and found it surprisingly good, especially Brosnan in a role I could not really imagine him taking on.Most of the Stephen King films I have seen have been pretty good; The Stand, Salem's Lot, It and my favourite, The Langoliers. I have never read the book Bag of Bones so cannot comment on its faithfulness. But it was intriguing and quite clever how the story unfolded and kept me watching to the end.As I said, there was some rather unnecessary gore involved and some really harrowing scenes which I thought were well executed. I found the relationship between Brosnan and the little girl touching and poignant.All in all, I would watch this again. Not THAT many contemporary films I can say that about!

Neil Welch Writer Mike Noonan, trying to overcome writer's block following the accidental death of his wife, falls in with some oddnesses on going to the old family lake house.I read Bag Of Bones on publication (the first novel after Stephen King's near-fatal accident, it was touted untruthfully as his final novel - this turned out to be inspired press in tieing the predicament of the main character to the personal circumstances of the author. I thoroughly enjoyed it: time constraints have prevented me from re-reading, so much of the detail of the novel has slipped from my memory. This miniseries therefore arrives fairly fresh and I shan't be comparing it to the book.It's OK. There is nothing exceptionally good about it, nor anything exceptionally bad - it is simply a generic ghost story, mildly horrific, but with most of the scares coming from sudden shock moments. I can't warn viewers away from it: neither can I recommend it.Director Mick Garris has had a lot of stabs at directing Stephen King stories - at least 7 by my count - and at best they have been adequate. Would that he could take a leaf out of Frank Darabont's book, with a success rate of 3 out of 3 so far.