The movie opens with a caravan of gypsies (complete with campers, station wagons filled with belongings and small trailers) driving into a small town.
Your lead character Billy Halleck, played by Robert John Burke, is obviously wearing what the movie industry terms as a "fat-boy" or fat suit.
The witticisms exchanged between the family members is shallow, hollow and plastic. There is no feel of "family" there at all.
I won't detail the movie, scene by scene, but the courtroom scene which follows is convincing and believable, as is the "bonding" scene which comes after between Billy and the Italian "business man."
That's where the movie takes a turn for the worst.
Again, if you do not read Stephen King's books, then these points won't bother you at all. There are way too many holes in the story. There are entire scenes from the book, omitted from the theatrical work.
It has a definite "Hunchback of Notre Damme" feel to it in its "gypsies are evil, sexually promiscuous, caucasian-hating parasites" way of treating those of Romanian/Carpathian descent, as did the book, but it was the effects that kept me amazed.
When things start to go wrong in the storyline, so do they go wrong in the effects department. Nothing looked as it should. As the lead character begins to lose weight, so does the script and the effects. His "fat suits" look better as he begins to return to his real weight, but then as he begins to grow "thinner," the baaaaaad effects are back; and with a vengeance. I won't even talk about the lizard-like judge. His effects were even worse.
Good story, bad direction, horrible effects. Read the book, THEN watch the movie so you'll understand how nasty this movie was, complete with bad fat jokes, insensitive jibes and poor taste.
I like the movie, but I wanted to love it like I did the book, and just couldn't.
It gets a 5/10 from...
the Fiend :.
Your lead character Billy Halleck, played by Robert John Burke, is obviously wearing what the movie industry terms as a "fat-boy" or fat suit.
The witticisms exchanged between the family members is shallow, hollow and plastic. There is no feel of "family" there at all.
I won't detail the movie, scene by scene, but the courtroom scene which follows is convincing and believable, as is the "bonding" scene which comes after between Billy and the Italian "business man."
That's where the movie takes a turn for the worst.
Again, if you do not read Stephen King's books, then these points won't bother you at all. There are way too many holes in the story. There are entire scenes from the book, omitted from the theatrical work.
It has a definite "Hunchback of Notre Damme" feel to it in its "gypsies are evil, sexually promiscuous, caucasian-hating parasites" way of treating those of Romanian/Carpathian descent, as did the book, but it was the effects that kept me amazed.
When things start to go wrong in the storyline, so do they go wrong in the effects department. Nothing looked as it should. As the lead character begins to lose weight, so does the script and the effects. His "fat suits" look better as he begins to return to his real weight, but then as he begins to grow "thinner," the baaaaaad effects are back; and with a vengeance. I won't even talk about the lizard-like judge. His effects were even worse.
Good story, bad direction, horrible effects. Read the book, THEN watch the movie so you'll understand how nasty this movie was, complete with bad fat jokes, insensitive jibes and poor taste.
I like the movie, but I wanted to love it like I did the book, and just couldn't.
It gets a 5/10 from...
the Fiend :.