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List Price: $14.95 | | Label: Genius Products (TVN)
Salesrank: 4520
Released: March 25, 2008 |
| Our Price: $5.14 |
| Used Price: $2.23 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A mysterious mist, thick with blood-thirsty creatures, descends on a small town, where a group of people holes up in a grocery store to fight for their lives.
Description of The Mist:
Writer-director Frank Darabont, who showcased the softer side of Stephen King in his film adaptations of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, turns to darker material for The Mist, his latest King adaptation about a group of ordinary townspeople trapped in a supermarket by a mysterious fogbank. Thomas Jane is top-billed as a Maine illustrator who attempts to calm the frightened shoppers, but his job is cut out for him from the get-go, first by the discovery of malevolent creatures lurking in the mist, and then by the mad mutterings of Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), a local eccentric who calls for Old Testament-style sacrifices to appease the supernatural forces. Darabont delivers monster movie thrills and understated social commentary with equal skill, and he's well supported by his cast (which includes Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, William Sadler and Jeffrey DeMunn) and the vivid special effects by KNB EFX, which effectively mix CGI with models and stop-motion animation (the terrific monsters were designed by legendary comic book artist Bernie Wrightson). And for those curious about how the novella's downbeat ending has translated to film, suffice it to say that Darabont's conclusion is at once different and more unsettling than King's. --Paul Gaita
The Mist Reviews:
Worst Ending I've Ever Seen 
2009-11-09 - This movie was a five-star icky bug right until that disgusting bummer ending. I've never been more mad at a movie in my life.
When it comes to bummer endings, I thought The Ruins had it in the bag. However, after seeing this piece of trash, I can see why Mr. King gave a big fat blurb for the book version of The Ruins.
The whole movie, right until the end was great. Lots of mystery, plenty of icky bugs, and a sort-of explanation of why it might be happening. Then there are the actions of the people trapped in the store. The religious fanatic who whips everyone into a religious frenzy was a big nod to Lord Of The Flies and how it is handled by the heroes is one of the best scenes in the movie.
However, it all boils down to the payoff, the ending. This is where the movie gets 90% of its rating. As I said at the beginning, it was five stars up until that scene in the SUV as they are sitting out of gas. Maybe there were alternative endings and I happened to get the bad one. Or, maybe it was always intended to be this way. I don't even know if the original short story ended that way as I'm not a big fan of Mr. King's books. All I can say is that the less than five minute ending scene ruined what was a top-notch icky bug.
Some people like bummer endings. More power to them. As far as I'm concerned, I got ripped off. Not recommended at all.
Another Beer Would Have Been Better 
2009-10-31 - The Mist is another example of extraordinary special effects talent mismatched with horrid direction and writing. Were it not for special effects one would think one was having an out-of-joint conversation with a schizophrenic. The truly ponderable thing about this movie is how a ninth-grade film class, apparently, came by the big money to produce it.
Improvement over DVD, but not perfect 
2009-10-27 - I won't review the movie; if you want a review, go to imdb. That being said, I saw this in theaters, purchased the 2-disc collectors DVD when it was released, and now that I've gone Blu-ray, am replacing that DVD. So I guess I like this movie.
In upconversion, the DVD suffered from haloing; where bright whites tended to unnaturally bleed into adjacent colors. Like when a person is backlit with a bright light, but is not dark from the front, the edges of that person would glow. I found this extremely distracting. The Blu-ray solves this problem, but the graininess in darker scenes is about the same. Scenes are sharper, but when they're in the back of the store, for example, the shadows are still full of grain.
I'm glad I replaced the DVD, but am a little disappointed in the grainy artifacts that still exist in the transfer.
Excellent old fashioned bug monster movie. Quite scary.
2009-10-27 - Watching the movie I felt like a little kid watching "The Crawling Eye" for the first time. It's not Oscar material of course, but it's great within the horror genre. Some of the characterizations and dialogue isn't great, but who cares? It's a horror movie and the best one of it's type, i've seen, in quite a while.
enjoyable
2009-10-19 - For me, I really am not interested in Stephen King novels or movies based on them, but I dug this one.
Based on the 1980's tale, a New England town is enveloped by terror and confusion when a bizarre mist covers everything. Inside are bizarre creatures and a group of people taking refuge in a supermarket have to figure everything out and survive. Is this the end of the world or a phenomena caused by a military experiment gone wrong -- or on purpose? It's not just about the monsters in the mist. It's mainly about the people and what can happen when they are scared and losing their composure.
There was too much Mrs. Carmody, though, the lady who believes that she's a vessel of God and that she knows all the answers. She's got it all wrong, especially when she is speaking to God and saying that she wants to "earn" her place at His side by works she does. As the Bible states, it is not of works so nobody can boast and claim "I got here but what I did." It's Jesus' sacrifice that was the only acceptable payment for sin. It's grace; something we didn't deserve.
Even commentary on a deleted scene mentioned that they cut out more featuring her because people "got her" and didn't need as much.
The special effects were reasonable with the limited budget. The worst were the tentacles in the loading dock, which just seemed unfinished in some way. I liked the great Frances Sternhagen killing that giant bug with the spray and a flame; check out her doing it in the special effects.
I thought the ending was just awesome. The father killed his son and the three other passengers rather than let them face death from the monsters. Then, he stepped out into the mist, calling for the monsters to get him. However, the mist started to dissipate and military vehicles all came into view...along with rescued people.
I wonder what I would have thought if the trucks with saved folks contained all those who were left behind in the supermarket? I think that might have made it even cooler.
The father did keep his promise to his son, who asked him to never let the monsters get him...but it was in a horrible way, ultimately, since if he just waited a couple more minutes everyone would have been fine and his promise would still have been kept, of course.
With everything witnessed ... especially the absolutely huge monster at the end ... they all must have thought the mist was unending and they just gave up. I think I would have wanted to wait until I was starving or the monsters were right outside the window.
Still, it was good to see something different in a movie; a depressing but awesome finale; and Mr. King approved of it and that's good to know.
4 stars from me.
