Image provided by themoviedb.org, trailer courtesy of youtube.com

More time was spent turning the 400-page-script into a 4-hour-movie. The film could have been shaved down to 2 hours, and still be too long.

My Rating –
Directed by Craig R. Baxley
Starring Carson Manning, Tim Daly, Colm Feore, Debrah Farentino
Book by Stephen King
Screenplay by Stephen King
Original Music by Gary Chang
Runtime – 240 mins.

Trying to incorporate every minuscule detail into a movie only bores the audience and forces you to see the movie again. Apart from the many tedious scenes, shoddy accents, overly fake looking snow and crappy acting, this film is epic to diehard King fans.

Compared to films such as “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile,” although based on the writings by Steven King, they were made properly; given to a proper director (in this case being Frank Darabont and having his team do the screenplay, production and direction. Steven King is a great storyteller, having written classics such as Misery, The Stand and Pet Cemetery, but he is not a great movie maker.

Storm of the Century includes actors such as Colm Feore (seen in “Paycheck” and “The Chronicles of Riddick”) playing the evil and insidious Andre Linoge; Tim Daley (from” Wings” and “Private Practice”) playing the good small-town constable, Mike Anderson; and Jeffery DeMunn (of “The Walking Dead” and “The Green Mile”) playing the typical and small minded town mayor, Robbie Beals.

The film tells the tale of how evil can affect a small, snowy Maine town and its group of small-minded people. King likes to portray a good vs. evil story, similar to that of “The Stand” and “Stand by Me,” however he might have gone overboard using “Storm of the Century.”

When a devastating blizzard approaches the Maine town of Little Tall Island, combined with the unusual and sudden death of a town local, the people are forced to listen to Constable Anderson. When a suspect for the murder of an elderly woman is apprehended, there is something amiss with him; unusual insight into people’s dark secrets and the ability to control people thoughts.

One can only imagine the chaos that will result with Linoge and a group of frightened people during a blizzard. Using the local’s dark secrets to control them and drive them to suicide and even murder, Lenoge always leaves his clear message after every event, “give me what I want and I’ll go away.” The rest of the film involves the battle between Linoge, who must convince the town he has the power to destroy, and Anderson. This may be difficult for Anderson because the town, where everyone claims to know each other, the film makes it apparent that nobody knows anything about each other.

Image provided by nnm.ru

Although some of this film is repetitious, and about 30 minutes of the movie involves shots of clocks, it does keep you on the edge of your seat. The 4-hour-movie length is a bit of a damper, however. It was also very shocking to find out what Linoge really wants – not something that you would think of.

I won’t tell what it is, but finding out sends a shiver down your spine. I enjoyed the character of Linoge, being just as icy as the storm was; he makes your neck hair stand up. Overall, the direction and production of the film needs work, but the story is one that you will never forget. Being Steven King’s strong suit – storytelling – he is clearly not a very good producer or movie maker.