The Langoliers (1995)

Something bizarre has happened abourd flight #29...a nightmare so chilling, so frightening, so unrelenting it could only come from the mind of Stephen King. Now the master storyteller of our time gives terror a new name in THE LANGOLIERS. A jet leaves on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston. But early in the flight, ten passengers awaken to a startling realization: All of the other passengers have vanished - and the ground below is only...ground. But once they manage to land the plane, the situation doesn't improve. No one is there...the air is still...the clocks have stopped...and a dread, evil presence bent on their destruction is headed straight for them. Based on the novella from the best-selling anthology Four Past Midnight, Patricia Wettig (City Slickers II), Bronson Pincho (Beverly Hills Cop), Dean Stockwell (The Player), and David Morse (The Getaway) stare into the jaws of oblivion in this nightmare from the mind of Stephen King.

Great plot

The special effects are not very good, but the plot is outstanding. I was glued to the TV from start to finish. September 11, 2008

A movie quality television release.

4.5/5 The best parts of 'The Langoliers' are the acting and the directing. This never feels like a TV show. It feels like a solid theatrical release that is at times, inspired.

This isn't perfect of course, but the only flaws that stick out like a sore thumb are a few odd lines of flat dialogue. This all adds up to about 3 or 4 minutes of drag out of a three hour release. This is important, as 'The Langoliers' is all dialogue, like a stage play. In fact, this could be made into a stage play with little effort. So the fact that the dialogue is almost entirely solid is very important. It is not the best you will ever hear in film, but it is good enough, that top level acting talent will make it great. That is, fortunately, exactly what 'The Langoliers' has in David Morse, Dean Stockwell, and particularily Bronson Pinchot, who deserved an Emmy for his performance. His character stole the show throughout, and his scenes in particular, were the most inspired here.

The directing is fantastic, though my only qualm is that airplanes land with the head pointing up, not down. Also, people have criticized the characters for standing at times too long before taking action. I offer that people really do stand around in shock when faced with a traumatising experience. It never gets drawn out too long, and someone is always there to shake the character into sense. Otherwise, the director and camera people make this feel like a theatrical release at the A level rather than some low budget TV episode. The visual representation is at times inspired at a level of 'The Shawshank Redemption', though particularily surrounding the Craig Toomy character and in portraying an empty world.

The driving point about your enjoyment of 'The Langoliers' sits squarely in the believability factor. It has a particular take on time travel that you must be able to accept, or you will start finding sillyness in the film. It doesn't need to be a true take on time travel, just a creative one IMO, and 'The Langoliers' is creative. This film manages to explain its theories rather well, so true or not, it understands the ideas it presents. Is this as good as 'The Shawshank redemption' or 'The Green Mile'? I have a very hard time making that comparison. It's in a category of its own.

In closing, Bronson Pinchot puts on one of the most fantastic acting performances I have ever seen in a motion picture. Chances are, even if this film is not in your interest, you will appreciate his performance. It's a classic. June 9, 2008

I liked it!

Most of the reviews of this film have been less than great. Maybe I'm just a dull person, but I liked it. Good for one of those nights that TV offers nothing, which is getting more frequent. May 27, 2008

A Favorite from King

I'm not a great King fan, though I've enjoyed several of his works. I originally purchased the Langoliers somewhere on sale on two VHS tapes, and I was transfixed by the idea of the jet passengers falling out of synch with time. Though I'm a real film fan, the acting in this film didn't bother me at all; I thought the plot covered up any shortcomings. This film is obviously not high-budget; I gather it was a cable miniseries to start with. The special effects are perhaps not top-notch, but so what? Did Lock Martin's rubber suit problems in The Day The Earth Stood Still ruin the film? No, of course not.

I bought this on DVD when it came out, and strangely enough, there's still the short gap when the VHS tape gap happened. It's still a keeper for me. April 8, 2008

Surprise! Pretty Cool!

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this movie. It seems a little lacking in that it is too laid back or something. Bronson Pinchot seems a weird choice, but he totally owns his character. I laughed at his great interpretation. I had read the story before and thought the movie was a pretty good adaptation. March 19, 2008

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