comment #1

Jay T. says ...

About what I expected... so many movies like this start off great but don't really go anywhere nearly as cool.

comment #2

actionman says ...

what about the ending?

comment #3

Reedyb says ...

I thought that ending was a major statement that even Jeff might like.

comment #4

ZayTonday says ...

Come on Wells, this movie was AWESOME.. It took some balls to end it the way Darabont did too, and Stephen King reportedly wishes he came up with that ending for the book. Darabont made a genuinely scary horror movie that has one of the best horror film endings I've seen, right up there with the ending of the international (read: non-US) ending of The Descent.

comment #5

le corbeau says ...

The cast was really what sold me off of this. I've liked some of them in the past but it just seems like every overexposed actor who has no surprises left in him or her... the 2007 equivalent of a low-budget 70s disaster movie cast (Christopher George! Linda Purl! Earl Holliman! Jack Elam! And E.G. Marshall as The President!)

comment #6

rocco says ...

Speaking of good beginnings...I watched '28 Weeks Later' last night...of course the whole thing turns into one big mess by the end, but I was absolutely SPELLBOUND by the opening scene...what a choice by Robert Carlyle...really gut-wrenching.

comment #7

scooterzz says ...

i wish darabont had stuck to the book...i really hated this ending....and, of course king is tub-thumping it...he's got a piece of the action...he even did the press-conference (that's not happened often)....
but sometimes one of the regular brainiacs on this site can post something that will change my opinion....ah, hope.....it's what keeps the interwebs busy.......

comment #8

OddDuck says ...

hey delbomber, I too dug the beginning of 28 weeks later. and yes, unfortunately it definitely loses focus and becomes a little silly towards the end. the thing with the helicopter?!? that belonged in a much worse movie and was sort of an insult to the tone and vibe of the "28" franchise.

comment #9

Edward Havens says ...

The ending is fantastic. I can see why a lot of people will hate the ending, but Darabont not only stays true to the spirit of King's message (never give up hope, no matter how bad things get), he takes it several steps further. I don't think King would go out of his way to praise something that isn't praiseworthy, and he is totally correct when he says anyone who gives up the ending should be strung up by their balls and batted about like a pinata.

Someday down the road, Wells and others will revisit the film and discover they weren't seeing it for what it was, but seeing it through the eyes of that era, and they'll get sucked in to the story, and they'll see it for the genius work that some of us today already know it is.

comment #10

scooterzz says ...

sorry, havens... he doesn't at all stay true to king's message....

---SPOILER---SPOILER---SPOILER---SPOILER---SPOILER

the amiguity of king's ending leaves the promise of hope...the film's ending is just the most hopeless, desolate, barren thing imaginable...and (jftr) king will do anything for a buck....

comment #11

Reedyb says ...

No, but there was no real hope in King's ending. Just a trip into hopelessness. The Darabont ending takes it further. That's the only difference is that one ends later than the other. And then irony takes hold of the situation.

comment #12

Mike Ock says ...

The first act was tough to sit through. The acting and even the special effects were not very good, but acts 2 and 3 KILLED. The ending was amazing. Take THAT Coen Brothers!!

This was a solid little horror movie.*

* For all the intellectuals who come on here who didn't think No Country For Old Men was a thriller, what I meant to say was, "The Mist is a thinking man's scare piece, filled with subtext, and social commentary.

comment #13

Dirty Harry says ...

Great insight MgMax.

I thought THE MIST was dreadful and way too long. Awful dialogue, worse acting, and some of the most contrived conflict I've seen in a long time.

It wasn't until the end that it decides to be a real movie as opposed to just another Sci-Fi Channel film, but Tom Jane didn't have the chops to pull it off and the tone didn't fit with 120 minutes of schlock that proceeded it.

28 Weeks Later is far from perfect (and nearly ruined by that FUCKING SHAKY-CAM!), but it kicks this Sci-Fi Channel movie's ass all over the place.

comment #14

alan says ...

I thought the ending as a concept could have worked, but in actuality it did not. Lots of snickering and "WTF?" type comments in my theater. I was with the movie all the way up until then, because it had some very effective eerie/creepy moments, but I really disliked the ending in a big way. And I'm a guy who loves downbeat/ironic conclusions, when they have a point or meaning in the larger context. I admired the balls to do it, but I just didn't think it worked. I could possibly be convinced otherwise with a good argument and repeat viewings, though.

comment #15

Bilge says ...

THE MIST might have worked a bit better for me if anybody in it behaved remotely like they came from Planet Earth.

comment #16

Edward Havens says ...

There was hope in King's ending.

(Spoilers, only if you haven't bothered to read one of King's best stories over the twenty six years)

At the end of King's story, David, Billy, Amanda and one of the other survivors are in a room at an abandoned hotel room. They're dialing through their radio, trying to find any signal that might still be broadcasting. They think they hear something that might be coming from Cleveland, and they decide to go for it in the morning.

In the motel room, David and the others still have hope that some semblance of a normal society is still out there. Keep hope alive, even when everything looks hopeless. It's a nice ending.

Darabont's ending, much more downbeat, gets across the same message, but instead of a nice ending, he dares the viewer to remain complacent. It's a swift kick in the balls, but the message remains the same. DON'T EVER FUCKING LOSE HOPE, NO MATTER HOW BAD THINGS LOOK!

On second thought, Wells probably hates the film because the story's message could be seen as a parable for what's going on with the war in Iraq, and how the peaceniks are starting to lose hope that this thing will ever end.

comment #17

DavidF says ...

I remember hearing this on audiobook a long time ago. It has this cool "3D" sound effect and was a really well done piece of work.

I don't remember the specifics of the ending etc but I am curious to see it.

Clearly there are people who think it's genius and/or crappy and the ending is either ingenious or stupid. Nothing even remotely resembling a consensus here so I'll have to see it myself.

(P.S. I don't know how long he is in it [looks like not much, based on the trailer] but I'll watch anything Andre Braugher does. That guy should be getting Denzel-type rolls and winning Oscars, IMHO.)

comment #18

le corbeau says ...

I heard that audio production too, it was cool to listen to but I remember a big disappointment when giant bugs started coming out of the mist. I thought it would have been cooler to just remain a malign, mysterious mist. Which is why Stephen King has $100 million and I don't, no doubt.

comment #19

Chris Willman says ...

King was quoted as saying anyone who gave away the ending should be hanged. But (not having seen the movie) it sure looks to me like the poster/full-page-ad art gives away part of the ending.

comment #20

christian says ...

Tiptoing through the spoilers...this still sounds like perfect Thanksgiving Day fare. First King adaptation I've been excited about in years.

I love the 3-D audiobook. Amazed at how many people heard it.
And it's still to me King's creepiest story. I think the problem with movie versions is that when King nails it, he keeps it in your mind forever.

comment #21

CharlieDontSurf says ...

the ending of the novella is much more of a downer than you guys are remembering.

He thinks there may be hope in some random town but he only has enough gas to get 3/4 the way there. so he knows he'll have to fuel up...and that means going into the mist which means he'll probably be killed.

SPOILERS:

The ending was laughably bad. Jane, who has been doing everything imaginable to survive, drives them into the middle of no where. Then about 10 seconds after running out of gas they all decide to commit suicide but Jane waits for his son to wake up before blowing his brains out.

Then the whole Mist evaporating and Army showing up a minute after he kills everyone was hilarious. People were laughing in my theater. Add to this the girl from the beginning of the movie is in a truck 90 miles from where she left the market and it is one of the dumbest endings I've ever seen.

comment #22

Balthazar says ...

I'm tired of the somewhat-talented Thomas Jane playing bland action heroes. ... I want to see Thomas Jane play "Todd Parker" stuck in The Mist. THAT would be a movie. "That's what we goddamn came here to motherfuckin' do, and thats what I'm gonna fuckin' do right fuckin' now!"

comment #23

Geoff says ...

"Full fuckin' race cams. Whoo!"

I agree, where is Todd Parker?

comment #24

Dravot says ...

Mediocre, ponderous movie with truly awful CGI effects.

When that terrible ending came along (which I saw coming for the prior 1/2 hour), all I could think of was Darth Vader in REVENGE OF THE SITH clenching his fists and shouting at the heavens:

NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

comment #25

Geoff says ...

Alright, I enjoyed it. It's an extremely faithful adaptation of Stephen King...the characters and their quirks. To many people it's always better on the page.

Anyways, I was mildly creeped out because I hate bugs, so that was nice.

The ending music may have gone a little overboard. I don't know what to call it anymore...that wailing female voice that started with Gladiator?

People were laughing in my theater when that music queued up...but then again they were laughing at quite a few moments, especially the very last scene. "Just shut the fuck up" was eventually blurted out. But they were stoned teenagers in the very back row and I expected this.

I'm not sure anyone could have predicted the ending a full 30 minutes beforehand, but whatever. I heard it was bleak, and it was, but I had something completely different in mind.

comment #26

Alan Cerny says ...

I thought it was one of the singularly best horror films I've seen in the past 10 years, actually.

comment #27

christian says ...

I love Darabont but this movie tore me in half. It starts out near perfect with great tension and I thought Jane was just fine.

But then the tentatcles showed up, bad cg, bad bad bad cg and it fell from there. I enjoyed the dramatic character stuff more than the creepy crawly stuff, which King described perfectly visceral and could have been followed with a Giger or Bottin. Instead, bads CG.

The ending was ridiculous and again FUCK CG. There wasn't one creature that looked like it occupied the same frame as the actors. Again: bad bad bad phony stupid end CG now please stop it.

comment #28

Hash says ...

I have to echo the opinion that The Mist is one of the best horror films in recent...or even not-so-recent...memory.

The CG during the tenticle attack was pretty weak, but the second and third act more than made up for it.