Coventry
I should probably begin my review by stating that – in my personal humble opinion - Stephen King is the most overrated & over-hyped individual on this planet. More than 30 years ago, the genre's best directors (De Palma, Kubrick, Carpenter, Hooper…) perhaps still managed to turn his best stories into good horror movies, but since then it only became unmistakably clear that his novels are lackluster and derivative of obscure and undiscovered gems. Then there's Mick Garris, who's simply the most pathetic and clueless fan-boy of the most overrated and over-hyped individual on this planet… The only half- decent thing Garris ever did was gather together a bunch of horror director far more talented than himself and persuaded them to collaborate in the "Masters of Horror" project, but his own movies – and then particularly his King adaptations – are poor, redundant and dumb. "Bag of Bones" is probably a new low in both their careers. It's not so much that this film/mini-series is unwatchable or even terrible; it's just unbelievable mundane and unoriginal! "Bag of Bones" is just an incredibly irritating, nearly three hours (!) lasting spitfire of dreadful clichés, predictable twists and unsurprising revelations that wouldn't even impress viewers who've never seen a horror movies before in their lives! I'm 300% convinced that the novel never would have been published (and the TV-adaptation never produced) if it didn't have King's name and undeserved reputation linked to it. Any other writer undoubtedly would have been impolitely rejected if he/she presented a tale about traumatized writers, small towns with dark secrets and ongoing family curses. But hey, Stephen King wrote it so people will love it; right? Disgusting… Okay, so let's look at the fascinating plot… A novelist loses his beloved wife in a car accident and seeks for confinement in their cabin next to a lake in a remote little town. Oh please! He finds out that his wife was pregnant when she died even though he thought they couldn't have children. Yawn! His dead wife seeks supernatural contact with him via letter magnets on the fridge. Are you kidding me? He meets a beautiful woman that is much too young for his and stumbles upon an unsolved local mystery about black blues singer who vanished. Oh, how exciting! He confronts a few evil people and discovers that half of the townsfolk drowned their own kids in the lake because of a curse dating back to the 1930s. Double yawn… If you think the plot is counterfeit, wait until you see Garris' miserable attempts to frighten you! Literally dozens of fake and wannabe "jump" moments, like ghostly appearances in the bathtub, moving furniture and even an electrifying tree. As much as I like Pierce Brosnan, he's ridiculously miscast as protagonist Tom Noonan. He was nearly sixty when the film was shot, so why must he depict a role that was clearly written for a thirty-something actor? Melissa George looks yummy, but she's literally not much more than a piece of scenery. The villainous characters seemingly come straight out of "Scooby Doo" cartoon: an evil old man dressed in black and driving around in an automated wheelchair, a crazy lady that looks like a retired version of Anjelica Houston's Grand High Witch and a legal guardian who actually looks more like a child molester. What an unbelievably retarded movie
Jackson Booth-Millard
I missed the opportunity to see this TV made film the first time, I was determined to watch it the next time, because I was told it was worth watching, I like the former James Bond 007 actor, and it was based on a Stephen King work, so lots of it sounded interesting. Basically Mike Noonan (Pierce Brosnan) is a best selling author, but he and his wife Jo (Annabeth Gish) are unable to conceive children, due to his low sperm count, but tragedy strikes when while he is at a book signing she leaves and gets killed by a bus, he goes outside and she dies in his arms. He is overcome with grief, and he always said to Jo that he could not write without her, so he develops writer's block, and he starts having nightmares of his wife and their Dark Score Lake, Maine summer home, so advised by his gay brother Sid (Matt Frewer) he goes to the house. Once there Mike saves the life of six year old Kyra (Caitlin Carmichael), he meets her young widowed mother Mattie Devore (Melissa George), and in doing this he gains an enemy in her estranged father-in-law Max Devore (William Schallert), he has been gain custody of Kyra after she shot his son dead, his son was trying to drown her daughter. While this is happening Mike finally starts writing again, using a photograph of Jo for inspiration, but he cannot help but notice the strange things going on in the house, the continuing nightmares and visions, he is sure the spirit of his wife is with him, but also the ghost of a 1930's singer called Sara Tidwell (Dreamgirls' Anika Noni Rose), who has been playing her records to get his attention. Max says he will drop the custody case if Mike no longer interferes, to which he agrees, and later the old man has his assistant help him commit suicide, and at the funeral he reluctantly attends for Mattie he meets elderly Edgar White (Leslie Carlson), who knew his grandfather, but also he knew Max in their younger years. He confesses to Mike that in the 1930's he, Mike's grandfather and a few other young men assisted Max in brutally raping Sara Tidwell, and her daughter Keisha was drowned, and it was moments before her death that she cursed the men and their descendants that they would all go mad in the future and drown their own daughters, and after dying they buried her body in the woods. Mike tells the story to Mattie, and she comes up with the theory that Jo may have been pregnant, she investigated the Dark Score curse and believed that with the bloodline connection there is a possibility he too would turn crazy and drown a daughter they may have had, and then suddenly Mattie is shot through the face and dies in his arms, her dying words were for him to care for Kyra. He gets the young girl in the car to get away, chased by Mattie's killers, only escaping when a storm causes a sign to fall on their car, back at the lake home he consoles the child putting her to bed, but then Max's spirit appears and tell him to fulfil the curse and drown her, Mattie's spirit also appears to thwart him. Finding clues left by Jo in his office Mike is directed to unearth the bodies of Sara and Keisha, douse them with lye and end the curse, he identifies the graves under in the tree shaped like a woman, the haunted tree (Sara) tries to stop him, but the opposite spirit (Jo) distracts her, so Mike is able to finish dissolving the bones, Sara's spirit is settled and the tree goes back to normal, and he says his final goodbye to Jo. Returning to the house he finds Kyra in the bathtub, and Max's assistant is there to attack and attempt to kill them, he manages to kill her, and Mattie's spirit appears to tell her daughter she is safe with Mike who will take care of her, and the next morning he announces he will adopt Kyra and raise her like his own child. Also starring David Sheftell as Young Max Devore, Gary Levert as Deputy George Footman and Jason Priestley as Marty. Brosnan does pretty well as the struggling writing straining after the death of his wife and trying to find a way to move forward while combatting demons - inner and demonic, for a television made production the story is actually surprisingly engaging, with the plots of a dark curse and spirits twinned with custody battles and human traumas it all adds up to an entertaining horror thriller drama. Very good!
Claudio Carvalho
The bestseller writer Mike Noonan (Pierce Brosnan) is autographing his new release in a bookstore and his beloved wife, the painter Jo Noonan (Annabeth Gish), goes to a store on the other side of the street to buy a pregnant test. When she is crossing the street back to the bookstore, a bus run over her and she does not survive. Mike grieves the loss of his wife and decides to go to the house by the Dark Score Lake, in Maine, that he had inherited from his grandfather and Jo had spent a long time repairing it. Mike starts to drink and suspects that Jo might have betrayed him since his sperm counting indicates that he is sterile. In the isolated house, Mike has nightmares and believes that Jo is trying to contact him. He also has daydreams and ghostly visions with the jazz singer Sara Tidwell (Anika Noni Rose) in a local fair in 1939. Mike stumbles in the town with Mattie (Melissa George) and her daughter Kyra Devore (Caitlin Carmichael) and he discovers that the powerful and mean Max Devore (William Schallert) is disputing the custody of his granddaughter Kyra with Mattie. Further he discovers that there is a curse in Dark Score Lake due a despicable action of Max in 1939. Mike decides to help Mattie against Max and to investigate further the mysterious curse."Bag of Bones" is a dark tale of evilness and curse in a town in Maine. The supernatural story is very well constructed along 157 minutes running time and is a combination of drama, thriller and horror. I did not read the novel by Stephen King but I liked this TV mini-series. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Saco de Ossos" ("Bag of Bones")
Neil Welch
Writer Mike Noonan, trying to overcome writer's block following the accidental death of his wife, falls in with some oddnesses on going to the old family lake house.I read Bag Of Bones on publication (the first novel after Stephen King's near-fatal accident, it was touted untruthfully as his final novel - this turned out to be inspired press in tieing the predicament of the main character to the personal circumstances of the author. I thoroughly enjoyed it: time constraints have prevented me from re-reading, so much of the detail of the novel has slipped from my memory. This miniseries therefore arrives fairly fresh and I shan't be comparing it to the book.It's OK. There is nothing exceptionally good about it, nor anything exceptionally bad - it is simply a generic ghost story, mildly horrific, but with most of the scares coming from sudden shock moments. I can't warn viewers away from it: neither can I recommend it.Director Mick Garris has had a lot of stabs at directing Stephen King stories - at least 7 by my count - and at best they have been adequate. Would that he could take a leaf out of Frank Darabont's book, with a success rate of 3 out of 3 so far.
