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| The familiar, beloved intro speak of series creator Rod Serling is the center of this name-heavy, atmospheric poster for Joe Dante, John Landis, George Miller and Steven Spielberg's Twilight Zone: The Movie |
Twilight Zone The Movie is an anthology homage to Rod Serling's (The Loner (1965-66), writer) classic 1959-64 science fiction/horror/fantasy TV-series of the same name, created by Rod Serling. The film consists of 4 stories, each by a different filmmaker. The original segment is the first one, written and directed by Illinoisan master filmmaker John Landis' (An American Werewolf in London (1981)). The three later are remakes of stories from the show; segment 2 by Ohioan master filmmaker Steven Spielberg (Jaws (1975)), written by Richard Matheson (Duel (1971), TV movie) and Melissa Mathison (The Indian in the Cupboard (1995)), segment 3 by great New Jerseyite filmmaker Joe Dante (Small Soldiers (1998)), written by Matheson, and segment 4 by great Australian filmmaker George Miller (Mad Max (1979)), also written by Matheson.
The movie opens with a prologue segment about two men on a long night drive with no entertainment but what they can make up by themselves. They are played by Albert Brooks (Finding Nemo (2003)) and Dan Aykroyd (The Blues Brothers (1980)).
The first segment deals with a racist who gets catapulted into various historical places where racism has been prevalent, and where he fares poorly.
The second segment is about a retirement home that gets a new resident (Scatman Crothers (The Shining (1980))), who teaches them how to play again. This segment is by no means fantasy, horror or science fiction and falls somewhat out of place in the film, although it does have a nice morale to it, and some nice, elderly actors. It is characteristic of Spielberg to direct this particular story, and a red line about playfulness as the driving component in life can be drawn from it and back to his two preceding great films, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and ahead to later Spielberg films like Hook (1991) and Catch Me If You Can (2002).
The third segment revolves around a lady who accidentally backs into a boy on a bike, and who subsequently drives him home and has dinner with his insane family. This segment deals with sanity vs. insanity, and I found it quite unnerving.
The last segment concerns a man on an airplane who's afraid of flying and begins seeing a creature outside on the wing of the plane. The man is played by John Lithgow (The World According to Garp (1982)), who turns in an amazingly anxious performance in an otherwise somewhat stale story.
While all of these stories would have most likely been amazing to watch on TV, they need to be elevated greatly to fully function on the big screen, and Twilight Zone: The Movie doesn't fully succeed in doing this. Still the film is highly enjoyable, with excellent production value and special effects and a fine score by Jerry Goldsmith (The Mummy (1999)), a mostly fine anthology largely thanks to the 'anything-can-happen' quality of the Twilight Zone universe.
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Watch an original trailer for the movie here
Cost: 10 mil. $
Box office: 42 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.2 times its cost)
[Twilight Zone: The Movie was released 24 June (North America) and runs 101 minutes. Shooting took place from July - November 1982 in California, including in Los Angeles. Tragedy struck early on in filming on Landis' segment, when pyrotechnical explosions interfered with the low-flying helicopter in the Vietnam War-set episode, causing the chopper to crash onto star actor Vic Morrow (Charlie's Angels (1978-80)), who was fleeing in the scene from the helicopter, holding two Vietnamese children. All three were killed, with Morrow and one of the two children being beheaded by the rotor blades. Amazingly the rest of the film was completed, and the segment was kept in the finished film with only the kids, - who were also working against California's child labor laws, - being left out. The film opened #4, behind holdover hits Star Wars: Episode VI - The Return of the Jedi and Superman III and fellow new release Porky's II: The Next Day, to a 6.6 mil. $ first weekend. It remained in the top 5 for one more weekend (#4), grossing 29.4 mil. $ (70 % of the total gross). The foreign numbers are regrettably not public information. Spielberg distanced himself publicly from Landis, who was prosecuted along with 4 other crew members for their involvement in the accident. The trial lasted nearly a decade but all were eventually acquitted. Landis returned with Michael Jackson: Thriller (1983, music video) and theatrically with Into the Night (1985); Spielberg with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984); Dante with Gremlins (1984) and Miller with Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Twilight Zone: The Movie is rotten at 59 % with a 5.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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