Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

Looking past the accident, I can't really understand why this is not a good movie. Four brilliant directors, all given the opportunity to make Twilight Zone episodes with a movie-like budget. A number of great actors involved. How come the result is lackluster and lacking of charm? The old Twilight Zone TV-series obviously owes part of it's charm to the era it was made in, but it's also full of stories, some quite silly, that all take themselves seriously. There's twists at the end of the episodes that you some times can see from miles away, but that at other times makes you admit that it was clever. There's tons of bad episodes, but the package itself is still brilliant.Then there's this movie. The first story lacks a proper ending (something that's due to the accident), making the rest of it feel pointless. The second story is visually beautiful, but feels both predictable and rushed. I would have thought that this sort of project would bring out the best in Spielberg, but he chooses a story that's only OK, and doesn't manage to portray in a way that transcends the silly story that it is. The third film is one of the more famous TZ-episodes, and the updates done to the story mostly works. I loved this due to the special effects that were used, but the acting and the story left some to be desired. The last one, also a famous one, is probably the best of the four. Had all four of them been this interesting on a story level, the movie would have been a lot better.I would love for them to have another go at this. Especially Spielberg and Miller has proved many times what they are capable of, and I'm sure TZ (and those sort of stories) still mean a lot to them. Oh well.

Directed by: John Landis (Prologue & 'Time Out'), Steven Spielberg ('Kick the Can'), Joe Dante ('It's a Good Life') and George Miller ('Nightmare at 20,000 Feet' & Epilogue)Written by: John Landis (Prologue & 'Time Out'), George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson and Melissa Mathison ('Kick the Can'), Jerome Bixby and Richard Matheson ('It's a Good Life'), Richard Matheson ('Nightmare at 20,000 Feet') and Robert Garland (based on the series 'Twilight Zone' by Rod Serling)Starring: Vic Morrow as Bill Connor ('Time Out'), Scatman Crothers as Mr. Bloom ('Kick the Can'), Kathleen Quinlan as Helen Foley and Jeremy Licht as Anthony ('It's a Good Life), John Lithgow as John Valentine ('Nightmare at 20,000 Feet') and Dan Aykroyd as Passenger/Ambulance Driver (Prologue & Epilogue respectively)Quite the credits. We call movies that have segments that aren't connected "anthology movies". Anthology horror has been a novel concept since Rod Serling's legendary 'Twilight Zone' that ran in the late 50s and early 60s. In the 80s, the series was rebooted and a movie was made. It is a movie which we call, Twilight Zone: The Movie.This movie is notorious for the infamous helicopter crash that took the lives of Vic Morrow and two Vietnamese children (aged 6 and 7) while they were filming the end of the first segment, Time Out. One of the children and Vic Morrow was decapitated while the other child was crushed. It's a really sad event that has a stain in cinema history.I am going to divide this review into five reviews for each segment and the prologue & epilogue. First of, John Landis' 'Time Out'.TIME OUT'Time Out' is about a racist man who gets a taste of his own medicine. For example, he is sent to Nazi Germany where he is a jew. It's a very clever concept and it translates well into the screen. Vic Morrow is great as Bill Connor, who unfortunately passed away while he was filming this. Because of the unfortunate helicopter crash, this segment has an extremely anti-climactic ending. Aside from that, it is pretty good.KICK THE CANThis segment is easily the worst out of all of them. It's directed by Spielberg, how could it be bad? This time around, Spielberg really disappointed me. This segment is boring, it drags a lot and it fails to capture the bittersweet message of the original episode that this segment was based on. This segment is also the odd one out where it's light-hearted tone doesn't match with the dark and suspenseful tone of the other segments. The actors do a good job, though they are not enough to carry this segment.IT'S A GOOD LIFEJoe Dante's segment is a remake that actually improves on the original episode. Jeremy Licht and Kathleen Quinlan do a good job together and the special effects look great. The story is interesting and there are some pretty scary scenes here and there. The ending doesn't make any sense, though. It's a great segment nonetheless.NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEETThis is easily the best segment out of all of them. George Miller's direction's manic energy and suspense really go well with each other. John Lithgow is great, he's even better than William Shatner who played the lead role in the original episode. The monster is a lot scarier than the original where it looked like someone who was wearing a bear suit. There is nothing negative to say about this segment. It is terrific.PROLOGUE/EPILOGUEThese two parts really make the whole experience worth it. Dan Aykroyd's in both of them, along with Albert Brooks and John Lithgow. The prologue gets you in the mood while the epilogue gives you a vague ending that is both frustrating and satisfactory at the same time. Dan Aykroyd is terrific in both of these segments. It is really disappointing that these small portions of the movie are a lot better than the lackluster 2nd segment.Overall, Twilight Zone: The Movie is a great anthology horror movie, that's only if you skip over the 2nd segment. That segment really bogs the movie down, but the rest is great.

I'm cheating. I'm only here to review "It's a Good Life".Some background: I had already read the Jerome Bixby short story that this segment was based on, but I had not seen the original black and white Twilight Zone episode.So, yes. I love this story. The rest of the film is okay (I love the Nightmare at 20 000 feet segment as well, I might do a separate review for that) but this one was my favourite, not least because I realised the story it was based on halfway through.Anyway, it's just full of all sorts of fun things that I love. I love the cartoon house appearing on the TV screen as an exact copy of the real one just as Helen and Anthony walk in. I love the bizarre cartoon furniture and the loopy Joe Dante lighting all the way through the house (he was born to fill this segment of the Twilight Zone movie, I tells ya). I love the creepy cartoons on all the TV sets in all the rooms, just the whole way the sense of something reeeeeally off-kilter building up slowly as the story progresses I think is really well handled. I think it's the most "Twilight-Zoney" of all the four segments.And my favourite bit of all is Nancy Cartwright getting sent into Cartoonland and the way all the awful violence in cartoons suddenly takes on a new meaning. It was very unsettling and very clever. I was quite young when I saw this! So it made a big impression on me.But my favourite things of all are the sentences "I hate this house. I wish it away... I wish it all away..." and "It's not fair! You're supposed to be happy when your wishes come true!" There was something so poignant and oddly profound about that to me, and my little sisters. We taped the movie when it came on TV and watched that segment over and over again, all falling quiet as Helen finally walks into Anthony's world properly, the first person he's ever met who makes any attempt to see him as a normal little boy. The only one who tries to help.We fell in love with the movie. For us this segment of the movie is up there with Poltergiest, ET and Little Shop of Horrors as 80s stories that we still quote constantly, even though we're now in our forties...I like the fact that they changed the ending. I like the fact that he found a way for his wishes to come true and still be happy.And then there's the final shot of Helen and Anthony driving away into the weird, cartoon pink sunrise surrounded by a field of flowers all bursting into bloom spontaneously. How many Twilight Zone stories have happy endings? I think we're allowed one.

TWILIGHT ZONE- THE MOVIE is remarkably true to the spirit of the television series upon which it is based. The fact that three of the four segments are actually REMAKES of classic episodes (and are all brilliantly directed, if you ask me) goes a long way towards explaining WHY the movie's so True to its Source- but these are well-thought-out remakes as opposed to just rehashes; and the Landis episode would've made an excellent episode of the original series as well: it, too, is True to the Spirit of the Source. (The best episode of the revived teleseries itself was the William Friedkin version of Robert R. McCammon's NIGHTCRAWLERS, although it was one in a million... and there WEREN'T a million episodes, if you see what I'm saying...) Any fan of the original series will love this one.