Les Langoliers

THE LANGOLIERS

As soon as I read the novella "The Langoliers" by Stephen King, I knew it would make an amazing movie. It was by far the scariest piece of writing I have ever read and I was delighted to see that it had already been made into a TV movie. It took me over a year to find a copy, but it was worth it.

People complain about the crappy computer FX and the bad acting, but if you pay attention to the amazing storyline and the logic and thinking that went into this story, you'll find that it is an enjoyable movie that will keep you glued to the screen.

A passenger plane takes off from Los Angeles and flies into disaster as a group of sleeping passengers awaken to discover that the other passengers have mysteriously vanished.

This made-for-TV movie was based on a Stephen King novella and was originally shown as a two-part miniseries on network television back in the mid 90s. The acting is about what you'd expect from a TV movie, the dialogue is slightly corny at times, and the special effects aren't great, to say the least.

However, I thought the Langoliers succeeded in doing something that you rarely see in horror films in that it successfully took that slow-building feeling of fear and dread that you get when you read a scary novel and transferred it to the screen. Generally speaking, horror movies these days tend to rely on shocks and scares, but the Langoliers is a slow-paced mystery thriller, kind of like a really creepy Twilight Zone episode, where our heroes spend much of their time trying to piece together the clues in order to solve the mystery of their predicament, all while an ominous feeling of oncoming danger just grows and grows. Overall, I thought it was pretty good. 7/10

I have to say I enjoyed this film a lot. I hadn't heard of it before but I found the film interesting. This film provides an interesting take on time travel not depicted in other time travel movies.

To be perfectly honest I did not see this as a scare film. It was not remotely frightening to me, but that did not prove to be a negative part to it. The story is brilliantly told, and the sfx weren't that bad. It was clearly an unreal format of effects, but this added to the unique structure.

Overall I enjoyed the Langoliers, a story of mystery and adventure crammed with plot twists.

This one easily could have gone the other way and been very cheesy and annoying but the casting and direction made everything work. I like all of the actors in this one. None of them are annoying and the good guys are likable. Bronson Pinchot is the only bad guy and he's pretty good, as usual. I think the acting is pretty good! The special effects towards the end leave a bit to be desired but the story is so crazy it doesn't matter too much. I had not read the King book before watching this, which made the movie better, IMO. I was really wondering what those strange approaching noises were going to be! Other reviewers have stated it is a good adaptation, so it should be enjoyable if you've read the book too. Pretty decent sci-fi flick!

I saw this on Sci-fi channel a few days before. I haven't read the book but overall the movie was great. Kate Maberly does an excellent part playing the blind girl, Dinah. I'ts a movie for people to either love or hate it, I don't know, I guess I'm one of those people that like it.