A crafty thriller with an interesting premise. The supernatural angle, Walken's convincing performance and Cronenberg's mostly tense direction all make for a good thriller, but there is a lull in the plot half way where nothing much is happening and even though the movie picks up some steam towards the end - the overall feel of the movie is that it is good, but also that it struggles with some disjoninted pacing.
1983: First scene; Walken's character gives his class an assignment, which is to read 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'.
1999: Walken plays the Headless Horseman in Tim Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow'.
Cronenberg dilutes his style into Stephen King's in The Dead Zone, and aside from the obvious Canadian locations and ancillary cast, doesn't really have any of his trademarks (or few). Christopher Walken wakes up from a coma with an upended life and precognitive powers, and from there helps various people by preventing tragedies or solving crimes. No doubt a quirk of the novel, but it's an episodic structure that - ignoring the climax - lends itself better to a television show (so no surprise it eventually became one). Not to say the events are interconnected, but we don't exactly feel propelled through the narrative. Walken is as watchable as ever, with an able (and unhinged) assist by Martin Sheen, and the visions are well handled, but it's Cronenberg doing a generic horror film. Doing it well enough, but it doesn't create a visceral experience.
It's a good plot, but I felt that the story didn't had a good development... all the subplots didn't felt cohesive, there was a lot in little time. For time to time felt that nothing was happening, but parts of a same story not well assambled.
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Zeltaebar
A crafty thriller with an interesting premise. The supernatural angle, Walken's convincing performance and Cronenberg's mostly tense direction all make for a good thriller, but there is a lull in the plot half way where nothing much is happening and even though the movie picks up some steam towards the end - the overall feel of the movie is that it is good, but also that it struggles with some disjoninted pacing.BigRed
1983: First scene; Walken's character gives his class an assignment, which is to read 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'.1999: Walken plays the Headless Horseman in Tim Burton's 'Sleepy Hollow'.
daisyaday
Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen are excellent here.Siskoid
Cronenberg dilutes his style into Stephen King's in The Dead Zone, and aside from the obvious Canadian locations and ancillary cast, doesn't really have any of his trademarks (or few). Christopher Walken wakes up from a coma with an upended life and precognitive powers, and from there helps various people by preventing tragedies or solving crimes. No doubt a quirk of the novel, but it's an episodic structure that - ignoring the climax - lends itself better to a television show (so no surprise it eventually became one). Not to say the events are interconnected, but we don't exactly feel propelled through the narrative. Walken is as watchable as ever, with an able (and unhinged) assist by Martin Sheen, and the visions are well handled, but it's Cronenberg doing a generic horror film. Doing it well enough, but it doesn't create a visceral experience.conita_
It's a good plot, but I felt that the story didn't had a good development... all the subplots didn't felt cohesive, there was a lot in little time. For time to time felt that nothing was happening, but parts of a same story not well assambled.