There's a thing that happens with British actors, where they all get old and respectable, and people forget they were in crap like Toys, or cool experimental stuff back in their day. Richard Harris and Ian McKellan have that cache.

This sounds like an incredible story… for South Korea to adapt. There's romance, a comically mad villain, a monster movie production, and a grand, climactic escape.

For a second I was ready to pat China on the back. I would love if dirty laundry got aired this way. Give everyone a 30 second block to turn their phones off - after that, fair game.

You can get a taste of that in 13 Ghosts, actually. Family man filled with rage and such.

Good point - as for black characters, it's Mother Abigail and a crazy Times Square homeless guy.

That's literally the only line that's stuck with me. I think the series re-aired on SciFi (or whatever it was at the time) and they used that heavily in the marketing to make it creepier than it was.

Why is Mick Garris not more maligned? Is he too irrelevant now? He helped turn Masters of Horror, Sleepwalkers, and The Shining miniseries, as well as this, into boring, droll, cheap-looking flotsam. Of course these all had their high points (Masters of Horror wavered in quality incredibly) but overall, bland and…

The miniseries has huge systemic problems, but I might have enjoyed it more if it were at least pulpy and sexy and bloody. Anything to break the monotony.

Sure, it's disingenuous and dishonest and cheapens the whole enterprise, but it sure did perk me up while I was slogging through this thing. Any bit of weirdness to drown the blandness was exciting to me, especially as someone who never read the book.

That's a great example, but it worked better as a satire in that it could be confused for the real thing. NBK did it a tad differently. The laughtracks are supposed to sting because they're so out of place. There are no jokes. It's just pain. I don't love the movie, but I do find that part of the movie nihilistically…

Red also grows as a character which is a key reason he's NOT a magical negro. Andy stays static - people eventually learn to come around to his wisdom, mostly. That's more in line with the stereotype.

You win some, you lose some.

There were a series of movies in the 90s that seriously took her sexiness as a given. Strange Days specifically makes her out to be some sort of sex goddess that no man can turn down.

Though, an upbeat ending is more counter-cultural or subversive in the sense that movies about criminals almost unanimously end with them being shot to death or left to rot in prison. Scarface had the traditional "bad man gets it" ending too, and maybe Stone wanted to do something different.

The sitcom thing was particularly great, because I can't remember anyone as aggressively lampooning and pissing all over the idealism of sitcoms before then. It also is a joke that has a really obvious punchline: This is NOT the perfect sitcom family, and neither is yours.

Red: "Heading down south of the border, I decided to stop in a bar for a drink at a bar, and ended up in the strip club next door, The Titty Twister…."

The hug worked. Just the hug. Thanks for that, Frank.

This film decidedly feels like a brother to Stand By Me, so it's interesting to read Reiner had involvement.

Having the authorities arrest Andy (having followed Red) as he's cleaning up his boat would be fucking painful to watch.

I agree. The studio chose wisely (for maybe the wrong reason). That part makes me feel warm just thinking about it.