Bot_feeder Been watching a lot of Cronenberg lately. Great director!My opinion of Stephen King is not quite as high, but this is a pretty good story.My litmus test came toward the end of the movie. I decided what I want is a clever twist at the very end, not the mundane ending that it appeared headed toward.It delivered.

bsmith5552 "The Dead Zone" is an adaptation of yet another eerie Stephan King novel. The story, ably directed by David Cronenberg, is told in episodic form with five separate but linked stories involving the trials and tribulations of Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken).Johnny is an English teacher happy in his job and engaged to a fellow teacher, Sarah Brocknell (Brooke Adams). One day while driving home, Johnny is involved in a traffic accident that leaves him comatose for five years.When he awakes, Johnny discovers his lost five years, and under the care of Dr. Sam Weizak (Herbert Lom), begins the long road back. He is heart broken to learn that Sarah has gotten married and has a young son. One day he makes hand contact with his nurse (Chappelle Jaffe) and is overwhelmed by the feeling that her young daughter is in danger in a house fire. He manages to convince the nurse to call for help.Later, now aware of his psychic abilities and following his recovery. Johnny is approached by Sheriff Bannerman (Tom Skerritt) who asks for his assistance in finding the Castle Rock serial killer. He examines the body of the latest victim and has a vision of the crime and the identity of the killer.Now earning his living as a tutor, Johnny is approached by hard line millionaire Roger Stuart (Anthony Zerbe) to tutor his son who shuns contact with others. After winning the boy over, Johnny discovers that the boy is in danger by drowning during a hockey game. Johnny warns Stuart who reluctantly allows the boy to miss the game thereby saving his life.As luck would have it, Johnny's house is directly across the street from a political dais for senatorial and presidential hopeful Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen). Stillson has his own agenda and will go to any ends to achieve his goals. While shaking hands with the candidate, Johnny through his psychic powers learns what might happen if Stillson becomes president. He then decides to take necessary action and....An intriguing movie with a surprise twist at the film's climax. The performances are uniformly great. Walken has never been better than in the lead role as he tries to deal with his "gift". Brooke Adams is suitably sweet as the heroine who still loves the hero. Herbert Lom makes a convincing therapist who learns a long lost secret from one of Johnny's visions. Tom Skerritt, Anthony Zerbe and Martin Sheen play their roles with conviction. Collenn Dewhurst has nice little bit as the deranged mother of the serial killer. Others of note in the cast include Nicholas Campbell as Deputy Sheriff Dodd and Sean Sullivan and Jackie Burroughs as Johnny's parents.One has to wonder, in view of the Stillson character, how Johnny would have reacted to a certain presidential candidate in 2016.

kosoubani The film lacks depth even without leaving out the metaphysics of destiny and fate. It only goes as far as treating the subject of predicting the future and whether or not to interfere to change the future. The film's problem is that it is not concerned with the "how", or the method, at all. The protagonist manages to save the life of his student from drowning in a frozen pond while missing the opportunity to save the lives of his teammates. Why? Because he was focused on preventing the one person from playing and not preventing the match from being played on thin ice. In the case of the candidate running for the Senate seat, he felt that the candidate's political career must end. The psychic had a vision that the candidate will one day start a nuclear war. Instead of trying to expose the candidate, and demanding public comments and commitments on nuclear weapons. Instead of trying to go to the people in order to prevent him from winning elections, he decides to go it alone. He carries his rifle and tries to assassinate the candidate during a campaign stop. The film makes it possible to understand why the protagonist resorts to this dangerous mode of thinking. Due to his psychic abilities, he was feared, and therefore isolated. He felt lonely and confined. This has resulted in a skewed and exaggerated view of himself, and an erratic problem solving process. The film has successfully created what is essentially a terrorist out of a caring and talented teacher. There are millions of people in the world who are isolated in the same way, and what society needs is not to turn them into murderers and terrorists. The film did not try to emphasize that bad solutions are not solutions at all.

Leofwine_draca This is Christopher Walken's film, really. He stands head and shoulders above all the other actors on screen at all times. Why? Well, Walken looks like he really has travelled to the brink of death, with his pale features and disturbing limp. Blighted by visions of death, Walken is coldly compelling and chilling in his role. Cronenberg has a habit of casting slightly weird/creepy leading men – think Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons, Jeff Goldblum – and Walken is among the best of the bunch. He does get able support from an OTT Martin Sheen as the corrupt politician, and his doctor is played by none other than Herbert Lom. It's great to see Lom back on the screen and he's as good as he ever was. Brooke Adams, from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, is Walken's love interest here.The entire film is realistic and tends to be disturbing rather than horrifying, which is what you come to expect with Cronenberg's work (check out DEAD RINGERS if you like this man's style). One of the best King adaptations, but also, one of the best films dealing with psychic phenomena, it's clear that this influenced later movies like FINAL DESTINATION. I'm usually not too keen on these psychic link films, because really I find the topic a bit limited in scope. There are only so many times you can show somebody having a vision or something. THE DEAD ZONE goes beyond that and is a film which is actually better than the book (in my opinion, of course). If you're at all interested in psychological horror (be warned, there are some gruesome scenes involving a serial killer as well) then look out for this one because it's a cracker with one hell of a twist ending.