Thursday, September 21, 2017

5 Off My Head: Uncle Stevie's 70

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It is the 70th birthday of Stephen King and old age be damned he's this year's hot "It Boy" and in more ways than one, the movie It being the year's biggest surprise hit - I think we all expected the movie to do well, but not this well. It's raking in cash over claw. (Here is my review in case you missed it.) Anyway I'm in too much of a rush just now to go back through our archives and check to see if I've done this before (it's entirely possible) but here on his 70th let's name our five favorite movie adaptations of his stories.

My 5 Favorite Stephen King Movies

-- dir. Taylor Hackford --

Carrie (1976)
-- dir. Brian DePalma --

The Mist (2007)
-- dir. Frank Darabont --

The Shining (1980)
-- dir. Stanley Kubrick --

Misery (1990)
-- dir. Rob Reiner --

And if I did a Top Ten: The Shawshank Redemption

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What are your favorite Stephen King movies?
(And would you already put It on your list?
I'm not quite there yet, but it's good.)
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12 comments:

Dougie said...

My Top 5 list of Stephen King movies:
1. Stand By Me
2. The Shawshank Redemption
3. It
4. Carrie
5. Silver Bullet

joel65913 said...

My Five:

Dolores Claiborne
Stand by Me
The Shawshank Redemption
The Green Mile
Carrie

Anonymous said...

Carrie
Misery
Shawshank Redemption
Stand By Me
The Mist

Haven't seen IT yet.

MMinDC

Pedro from Brazil said...

- Stand by Me (my favorite movie of all times)
- Carrie (in my top 10)
- Misery
- The Mist

Jason Adams said...

I knew that STAND BY ME would figure into most everybody's lists - I've weirdly never loved it like everyone else? I think I saw it too late. I don't think I saw it until my late teens and then I have only seen it maybe once since then. I have thought often of giving it another go - perhaps as a piece looking back at childhood, like King was when he wrote it, will give me a new perspective. It does seem like a movie that will shift perspective with age and experience.

Scott said...

The Shining, Shawshank, The Mist, Carrie - and then, even though it isn't a movie, I'd throw in the miniseries version of The Shining. Like you, I never quite got the love for Stand By Me. Good movie - but didn't strike me as anything amazing.

larry said...

I am so in agreement about Dolores Claibourne, one of the best films of the 90s.

Forever1267 said...

Stand By Me (Yep, see it again. It's worthy.)
The Shawshank Redemption
The Shining
Misery
Dolores Claiborne

I have pretty high hopes for Gerald's Game, which is very, very soon, I think!

Petey said...

There's a lovely anecdote about Stand By Me in a 1986 interview with the director, Rob Reiner, where he mentions: "We showed the film to Stephen King alone in a screening room, and when it was over he was pretty broken up. He excused himself for about 15 minutes. When he came back he said, `That`s the best film ever made out of anything I've written, which isn`t saying much. But you've really captured my story. It is autobiographical."

Full interview is here:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-08-17/entertainment/8603010582_1_actor-turned-director-father-film

Aquinas1220 said...

Agree with your list but at the top of mine would be "The Dead Zone"

Caliban said...

I know, technically it is not a movie, but a tv movie, but I still love "Salem's Lot"... the flowing boy behind the window will forever give me the creeps!
But well... the obvious list is Carrie, Shining, Misery, Dolores, Pet's Cemetary...
Best wishes from Germany!

Anonymous said...

Am I the only one that doesn't get the Carrie love? Maybe I saw it too late, but I thought it was so 70s in everything-and not in a good way. I thought the direction was terrible. The split screens took me right out of the story repeatedly. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were amazing, but that's about it.