Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

nebk Nightmares & Dreamscapes is a collection of 8 made for TV episodes based on a collection of short stories by Stephen King. The title is slightly misleading since not all of the episodes are based on the stories from the book of the same name. Overall the episodes vary from very good to just plain bad. As always there are problems with adapting King's work for the TV screen. Even if we allow for the changes that have to be made, some of the stories lack all the components that made them a good story whilst others have added padding in order to get them to the 45 minute mark or so. The best segment is Battleground. It is the opening episode and is the best of the lot due partly to the acting ability of William Hurt who plays an assassin being pursued by a group of miniature toy soldier as he killed their creator. Given that this is a TV episode the effects of the soldiers and their weapons are actually very well done. Another great thing about this episode is that William Hurt does not have any dialogue, so everything is expressed through physical acting. Alas this is not true of the next episode. The second episode is Crouch End is on the opposite side of the spectrum and is probably the worst of the lot. The acting is average at best and the effects are way below par. It's in tradition of H. P. Lovecraft, and is about a couple who gets lost in a London suburb and enters into a parallel dimension where strange things lurk. Quite a forgettable telling of the story. The third story is Umney's Last Case and it is about a fictional private detective from the 1930's and the author who created him (both played by William H. Macy). The author decided to switch places with the character he created as he is sick of his real life since he lost his son in a tragic accident whilst the detective has numerous affairs and never experiences any loss, grief or unhappiness. An OK story but slightly extended for the TV so it looses momentum and feels forced at times. Still worth watching. The fourth story is The End Of The Whole Mess and it's about a documentary film maker telling a story about how his brother and him managed to kill all of humanity by using a drug that they introduced into the atmosphere in order to try and bring an end to war and conflict. The super genius brother discovered a chemical compound that has a calming effect on anyone who is exposed to it. The enhanced compound however also has a horrible side effect of giving everyone fast acting Alzheimer's. Overall an average story. I preferred reading it. The fifth story is The Road Virus Heads North, and is about a writer (Tom Berenger) who buys a painting at a yard sale and ends up being pursued by the figure in the painting. Whilst the story itself is good, the TV adaptation is not great at all. When I was reading it, the story was engrossing, when I was watching it I couldn't wait for it to be over. The next story is called The Fifth Quarter and it's about a criminal who vows to go straight upon being released from prison but a dying friend gives him a quarter of a map that leads to 3 and a half million dollars. He wants to provide for his family and goes on to try and get the other pieces of the map from three other criminals. They are obviously not just going to hand over their map segments. Overall a good story with decent acting.The seventh story is Autopsy Room Four and is about a man who finds himself on the autopsy table whilst he is still alive but completely paralyzed due to a snake bite. And no one seems to notice. Most of the story is about him trying to alert the morgue staff before they start cutting into him. The morgue staff is paying more attention to flirting and arguing amongst themselves. Some suspense so overall an O.K story. The final story is called You know they've got a hell of a band and it's about a couple who gets lost taking back roads and ends up in an idyllic looking town called Rock N Roll Heaven. Some of the inhabitants are not that friendly and soon the two protagonists are being chased by dead rock stars including Janis Joplin, Buddy Holly, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison and others. They want them to stay for the concert...and never ever leave. An enjoyable story for rock and roll fans. Overall the collection is worth watching if you are a fan of Stephen King's work and want to check it out, just don't expect anything too spectacular, although there are stories which are good and keep more or less true to the story on which they are based. I would rate it between 5-6.

enw With its companion piece MASTERS OF HORROR, NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES can only be seen as the absolute nadir of the genre that began so auspiciously with THE TWILIGHT ZONE and THE OUTER LIMITS.Of course, part of the problem is that it does nothing to be of any interest to a comparatively adult audience, instead aiming at TEN-YEAR-OLDS, who are only able to count body-bags, and scarcely that. And so grossness is king, and King is grossness.Stephen King is simply illiterate – in general he has the aptitude for storytelling of Bart Simpson. Since he cannot read his sole inspiration is the movies.True, the cinema is not such a bad place to start, since it has generally escaped the onslaught of "Realism". But these films are only the rumor, not the thing, and if you want to WRITE, you have to dig deeper.Of course, only PICKMAN had monsters as close acquaintances. But even so, it should be clear to any undergraduate that vampires are not Dracula and Lugosi.At least AUTOPSY ROOM FOUR is a clear indication of what is wrong. One can almost imagine this pathetic dolt sitting as his desk trying to come up with something SCARY.Not, mind you, trying to describe accurately the horror of the system of which he is an integral part, making the stupid stupider, but trying to come up with a scary story for his little nephew. Suppose, you were paralyzed, and people thought you were dead and started to cut you open like they do at those autopsy things! Wouldn't that be gross? And that, boys and girls, is the story.What about characterization? Oh yes, he's one of these suits, who never really appreciated life, you know, and now it's too late, right? And he's shouting – well, they can't actually hear him, you know – he's saying that he's going to sue the hospital, but he's not such a big shot anymore, you see, lying there (or is it laying, I can never remember) and all. And he's thinking: Oh no please, please don't cut me and this is terrible, lying (or laying) like that – now, wouldn't that be a great story? You know I read somewhere that a snake bite can do that, I think it was that great medical authority Agatha Christie. What was the name of that snake again, oh yeah, a BOOMSLANG – has quite a ring to it, doesn't it.Let's make it a PERUVIAN BOOMSLANG! Sure, Steve, that's great – except that BOOMSLANG is Afrikaans, you moron! But how can you really tell that the target audience is children, and not simply mental defects? It's easy: There's no sex.Well, there is, but it's the kind glimpsed through a crack in the door to our parent's bedroom. Modern filmmakers are really big on the erotic aspects of the genre, the monster, the female victim, the chase.But unlike UNIVERSAL and LEWTON they have no idea what's going on. All that's really left is the giggling outside the SM club and the Fascist credo that people with sexual preferences are intrinsically evil.In spite of a certain discrepancy in size, King Kong knew exactly what to do with Fay Wray. Freddy Krueger can only kill her.And since there's no real titillation in that, he has to torture her first – not in any way that might excite her, you understand, since that would upset our puritan sentiments. And so, horror and romanticism become simply unpleasantness and the grooming of psychopaths.Our hero, you see, is a rubber fetishist, and can only get a boner if someone touches him you know down there with you know – rubber gloves (giggle). And that's what they use in autopsies, and that's how they discover that he is, in fact, you know.Obviously, this is the author at the height of his inspirational powers. Too bad, they cut it out, since it might have upset the FIVE-YEAR-OLDS watching the show!

sternn01 1.] "The End of the Whole Mess" - Very well done. Spot on adaptation of a neat little story. Livingston's performance is perfect - heartfelt and desperate. Henry Thomas was good too. 2.] "Battleground" - When I first read this story (about 15 years ago) I thought it would make a great TV movie - not a feature film - but at the time, I didn't think the SFX of the day could pull it off. This was a pretty good effort though, and I loved the lack of dialog. Hurt is not too bad either. 3.] "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" - Not bad adaptation. This was a good short story, one I always try to read when I pick up Nightmares & Dreamscapes. 4.] "Umney's Last Case" - Not bad story, Macy's performance pulled it off. I always wondered why the chose to adapt this one though, especially over some of Kings other classics. 5.] "Autopsy Room Four" - Again, great story, but the adaptation leaves a lot to be desired, and only because of the hokey performances, especially from Richard Thomas and Greta Scacchi. 6.] "The Fifth Quarter" - Good performance from Sisto, but again, why do this story over something like "Grandma" or "The Jaunte". 7.] "The Road Virus Heads North" - The only thing they got right was the painting. Everything else, including Berringer's performance, was cheesy. 8.] "Crouch End" - This was a good story, but the adaptation did not capture the creepy feel King brought out in the narrative. The performances were OK, and it started off on the right foot, but things quickly went south after they started wandering around the empty streets. I think director Mark Haber, just couldn't put his finger on what the point of that story was.

HowieLong The first week was fabulous: Battleground had absolutely no dialogue which was a risky proposition, and I'm glad TNT took a chance on it. William Hurt was very good as the rock hard killer who completely breaks down when confronted by a box of toy soldiers. The direction is very slick for a television show, the music was a bit on the nose but overall this was a great show to start the series off with.Crouch End is so far the creepiest of the episodes, it has the most horror elements in it so far and contains a lot of themes that Stephen King writes about a lot: the girl with the claw hand, Lovecraftian imagery and of course a messed up cat! The look of this film was amazing. It will tick a lot of people off though because there really is no story other than two people lost and seeing weird stuff, but the director did a great job of making it look and feel spooky.Umney's is a hard story to follow, and like Crouch End, is open to interpretation, which also will tick a lot of people off. There was quite a deviation from the original story that King fans will not like, but William H. Macy does a very nice job playing dual roles.End of the Whole Mess left me feeling empty: I feel like my emotions were manipulated all over the place to feel sorry for these characters when they brought it all upon themselves.I look forward to week 3!