La maldición gitana

I saw this movie on TV a few years back. I'd read the book before seeing the movie, and I've read the book a second time recently, after seeing the movie. And I think I can safely say that 'Thinner' is a decent attempt, but doesn't live up to the book.

The movie is based on Stephen King's 'Thinner'. It is based around an obese small-town lawyer, Billy Halleck (Robert Burke), who has a curse put on him by a gypsy (Michael Constantine), after running over his daughter with his car. Halleck leaves his wife (Lucinda Jenny) and daughter (Joie Lenz), to find the gypsy and get the curse that is steadily making him thin reversed, before it is too late.

Like another reviewer said, this movie seems really TV movie-ish. The only actor I recognize in this movie is the typecasted Joe Mantegna. The rest I've never heard of before or since this movie. For the most part the movie is faithful to the book. But, it lacks much of the vivid detail of the book. Also, the main character is far more tame in the movie. Though, as I said, most of the actors I've never heard of before or since, they do a very good job in this movie. After seeing the movie, I can't picture anyone else playing the roles they did. And the make-up effects are amazing.

Overall, a decent movie. Could've better captured the spirit of the book. You could find a worse way to spend two hours.

Rating: 7/10

From what I've heard, this is a fairly faithful adaption of the Stephen King story of the same name, but I've never read the book myself. The plot is decent, but somewhat ridiculous... and the pacing is awful. I was bored for most of the other half of this movie, despite it only being about 90 minutes long. The acting varies, but it's mostly bad... Kari Wuhrer displays a particularly obvious lack of talent, and Robert John Burke proves that he doesn't have the charisma or talent to carry a movie. Actually, Joe Mantegna pretty much steals the show, and every scene that doesn't involve him has you bored and wanting to see him again. The humor in the film is actually surprisingly good. There are some pretty good exchanges of dialog, and, as a nice variation from the typical King film-adaption, most of the laughs are intentional(though there are a few parts which still seem lame and make you laugh, as opposed to seeming scary and frighten you). The special effects vary, but for the most part, they are quite good. The films gore and violence may be a little over the top, and is definitely extreme, though there isn't terribly much of it in the film(but when there is, it's very graphic), but it didn't bother me as much as I had expected, from hearing it described by someone who has seen the film. Since I haven't really seen any other films by the director, Tom Holland, I can't say if fans of him will like this film. One thing that the fans of King will surely enjoy is that he himself has a role in this, and a pretty easily recognizable one, at that(not the typical somewhere-in-the-immediate-background cameo that writers/directors typically have). All in all, fairly enjoyable horror, but not something that you'll want to see many times. I recommend it to big fans of Stephen King, huge fans of the various actors, and people who just enjoy watching somewhat uneven films just for the heck of it. 5/10

Alright people, what's up with all the negative reviews for this flick? Coming from a horror fan, I loved Thinner...simple as that. Working from a story by Stephen King, this is Tom Holland's return to kick-ass horror. Billy Halleck is a very overweight attorney who is cursed by a Gypsy after an unfortunate automobile accident. That's the set-up for this cautionary tale about accepting guilt. Greg Cannom's (Bram Stoker's Dracula) make-up is superb, the guy has two academy awards for Christ's sake. So lighten up. Joe Mantegna is hilarious as Ritchie the Hammer and Robert John Burke is intense ("I'm being ERASED!"). There might be a little hammy acting here and there, but what would a horror movie be without that? The story is just superb and the line between good and evil is very blurry here. Having no good guy makes it a very interesting film and a little more realistic. It's a perfect thriller in the Tales From the Crypt vein.

I didn't know what to expect from "Thinner". Firstly when I saw it in the "What's On TV" magazine I thought of it as a serious horror film, that sounded quite eerie. You know, a man slowly getting thinner and thinner, and then of course it's Stephen King which is never a bad thing, and then it had 4 stars and so i thought that this film could have potential! But then I look at IMDb's rating and it's very below average so I was wary. Thankfully I was relieved when I turned it on and the first thing I saw was this clearly slim man in a ridiculous fat suit and I laughed.

I pretty much laughed all the way through. There's no denying that "Thinner" (unintentially or not) is a very funny film. You only have to look at the man and laugh at those incredible hamster-type cheeks! The fat suit is hilariously bad, not a patch on the one that Eddie Murphey wears in "The Nutty Professor". The man's facial expressions also had me rolling down the aisles (well, 'the sitting room') in every shot his eyes were wide and gleaming like he's just seen a massive slice of cake! His smile was also hideous. He looked like "The Joker" out of "Batman". Even when he's eventually thin, he still wears those awful eyes and smile. The guy's a slug.

The special make-up effects are very special indeed. A film like "Thinner" relies on the make-up effects. That's what made David Cronenberg's "The Fly" so amazing. Yet, the effects on "Thinner" are almost as bad as the fat effects. One man has terrible rubber boils over his face and his hand looks like a dinosaur stump. The 'thin' effects are also quite horrendous too. Thanks to "Thinner's" visuals you're always sure of a laugh. I can't tell if we're meant to be taking this film seriously or not.

And then there's the awful screenplay that always seems to fight for the chance to see Mr.Lawyer literally stuffing his face with food. Though, it doesn't help that all the actors are terrible, with the gypsy looking like 'Grandad' out of "Mrs Brown's Boys" only with hair more luscious. Every character is a stereotype and the actor's seem to live up to that. No one asks questions like, "Why have you bought home a pie?" They just accept that and eat it.

In all seriousness, "Thinner" could have been a horror classic rather than a horror cult classic. It could've been a chilling fable of greed and the price you pay for it. Instead we get a hugely entertaining film that offers no scares what so ever. "Thinner" is a hard film to rate because critically it's awful, but then again I had a ball watching this film and would happily watch it again. "Thinner" never bores, and the ending is actually pretty good. For guaranteed laughs, don't miss "Thinner".

This engaging adaptation of the novel, which Stephen King wrote under his Richard Bachman pseudonym, stars the under-rated Robert John Burke ("RoboCop 3") as Billy Halleck. Billy is a lawyer in Maine who happens to be grossly overweight. After he accidentally runs down an elderly Gypsy woman, his judge (John Horton, "The Shawshank Redemption") and police chief (Daniel von Bargen, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?") friends conspire to help Billy avoid any punishment. This infuriates the old womans' even more ancient father (Michael Constantine, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"), who places one of those old-fashioned Gypsy curses on Billy. Stroking Billy's cheek, he utters one word: "Thinner". Soon, Billy is rapidly losing weight, which he enjoys at first, until he realizes that he really is going to waste away to nothing unless something is done.

Just personally speaking, this viewer has a blast with this particular King story. Yes, it's unrelentingly downbeat, but I didn't mind that so much. And it's true: other than Billy's daughter Linda (Bethany Joy Lenz, 'Pearson'), there isn't a single character in the story that's particularly sympathetic. Still, this viewer found it refreshing that so many of the characters here turn out to be such a-holes. It's a highly entertaining tale, well told by co-screenwriter and director Tom Holland ("Fright Night", "Child's Play"). And it's fortunately not completely without a sense of humor, although the humor tends towards the dark.

There's wonderful music by Daniel Licht, but the real marvel of the movie is the astonishing, convincing makeup effects (supervised by Oscar winner Greg Cannom) that transform the thin Burke into an obese man. There's also a gem of a supporting performance by the always entertaining Joe Mantegna ('Criminal Minds') as a mafia man whom Billy had successfully defended in court. Therefore, the mobster feels indebted to the lawyer, and is more than willing to help Billy in his quest to convince the ancient Gypsy to remove the curse. The supporting cast is solid right down the line, with Lucinda Jenney ("Thelma & Louise") as Billy's possibly unfaithful wife (the script tries to leave this aspect as ambiguous as possible), Sam Freed ('Kate & Allie') as a doctor friend, the intoxicatingly sexy Kari Wuhrer ("Eight Legged Freaks") as Constantines' great granddaughter, Elizabeth Franz ("School Ties") in a bravura turn as the judges' distraught wife, and Peter Maloney ("The Thing") as an information provider. Director Hollands' son Josh plays Frank Spurton; King has his usual cameo (playing a pharmacist). What is a real laugh is the fact that actress Irma St. Paule ("Twelve Monkeys"), as the accident victim, actually looks OLDER than Constantine!

Good gloomy fun, but it won't be to all "tastes", especially the ending.

Eight out of 10.