Twilight Zone The Movie! It is in my honest opinion that when Hollywood decides that to revive a television series with a theatrical release hasn't really paid off in the history of the medium. Not to say that some of them haven't been at the least good. I for one think this one was a great feat. It brought back the greatness of the show and also the cheesiness that went with it. The show ended in 1964 and this film wasn't released until 1983, almost 20 years later and it was as if the show was never taken off the air. Now I wasn't even born til 13 years after the shows cancellation but I still watched it alot as a kid and it scared the crap outta me at times. Some certain episodes wouldn't even have been able to go on the air today considering how uptight the world has gotten with this politically correct bullshit.
The film is cut into 4 segments and end up being like individual episodes of the show. Each segment is directed by a different person and 2 of those people are huge names in the horror genre (John Landis and Joe Dante) and 1 has made alot of big films (Steven Spielberg) and the fourth is a sci-fi legend (George Miller). Each tale is completely different but really ooze the essence of the original show. Since all segments are done by a different guy that also means that the acting and the style of each is gonna be different. I do have my personal favorite segment and it is segment 3 and a close second is segment 4. The first 2 are still good but I find them a bit inferior to the last 2.
I think the effects are done really well. Mostly in a stop motion or practical and makeup style, which of course was the way it was done then. Computer generated effects were actually in their infancy at this time. Some films had used it already and you will understand why it wasn't widely used when I say the names of them...The Last Starfighter and Tron come to mind. Both are very good in their own right but the effects were far from good. The stop motion effects in the Twilight Zone movie are really kind of cool and bring up memories, for me at least, of Ray Harryhausen. Now if you do not know who he is then I have to say shame on you to the extreme. Go out right now and pick up a few films and those are Clash of the Titans (1981), Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) and Jason and The Argonauts (1963). Those are just for starters. Harryhausen did the effects for those films, so what I am trying to say is without this man we wouldn't have the modern effects that everybody either loves or hates. Neat how I got sidetracked yet again!
Just check it out if you have any interest in the Twilight Zone TV series, either of them, the original that ended in 64 or the revival in 1985, which wouldn't have been possible without this film. It also has some X-files type of things going on as well so if you like that show watch it. But for anyone that looks at the cast list and wants to see a good Dan Akroyd film, this isn't it. He is in it maybe 5 minutes, but I can tell you one thing about his limited screen time and that is it's awesome.
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