By Geno McGahee
I was told that this movie, written by Stephen King, was fantastic. Now, King is either hot or cold…the movies that is. I do not consider Stephen King hot. He comes out with great movies like “Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile” and then turns out films like “Maximum Overdrive,” which, after watching, you would probably question his genius. Now, Storm of the Century is not a horrible film, but it is not a masterpiece by any means.
Andre Linoge (Colm Feore) arrives in town and is a mysterious man with a cane. He arrives at an old woman’s house and kills her, and then nonchalantly sits down on her chair and watches T.V. A huge snow storm is brewing and we have one dead elderly woman. The stage is set, I guess, and now we have the good guy, Mike Anderson (Tim Daly), the head of the police force. He arrests Linoge along with his deputy, “Hatch” (Casey Siemaszko), of Three O’Clock High fame. That was a great 1980s movie.
Linoge seems to know everything about the townspeople and begins to physically control them, leading to the murders and/or suicides of the townspeople. At the scene, there is a statement written: “Give me what I want and I will leave.” Well, they don’t ask him until the end of the film, after a lot of people have passed. Maybe he didn’t want anything great…like a grilled cheese, but they wait until the end of the film to ask, and sadly, he does not want a grilled cheese. That would have been so easy, and considering how King ends some of his stories and movies, it probably wasn’t out of the question.
Mediocre is probably the best way to describe this movie. It’s watchable and forgettable. Linoge is a laughable villain as he shows his fangs and tries to act calm, cool, and collected. Anderson is a character that you see in many films…nothing special. Daly plays the role very well, but it wasn’t an incredible screenplay and I was not impressed.
If you have 256 minutes to waste, then this is the film for you. Judging by the recent track record of King, he may just be running out of ideas. Don’t get your hopes up with this one. The name “King” does not always guarantee a good film.
Scared Stiff Rating: 5/10
I love this film. I wouldn’t agree that it is “forgettable” by any means, but to each his own!