One wonders if TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE would have received more critical praise if the horrible helicopter accident on the set of director John Landis's segment had never occurred. The violent and tragic deaths of actor Vic Morrow, six-year old Renee Chen and seven-year old My-Ca Le (usually referred to as "the two Vietnamese children") understandably overshadowed the movie itself, as well as enveloping Landis's segment with a perpetual black cloud of doom. Only someone who knew nothing about the accident could possibly watch the segment without feeling queasy.
However, if one can be objective and separate what happened on the set and what wound up on screen, TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE is, overall, pretty good. It opens with a bang. A prologue, written and directed by Landis and starring Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks, is a funny, subtly eerie slice-of-life dialog-driven scene, that takes a sudden and admirably ZONE-ish twist into the macabre. I think the fact that the movie surprisingly opens with CCR's "Midnight Special" on the soundtrack is also a brilliant touch.
Landis's actual segment is untitled, and is far better than most critics have suggested, featuring a strong performance by Vic Morrow and a creative, if not a tad heavy-handed approach to the subject of racism. The segment is intense and unsettling, well-written and imaginatively directed. It is also the only segment of the four that is not based upon an original episode.
"Kick the Can," co-producer Steven Spielberg's segment, is as sickeningly sweet as its reputed to be. It has its moments during the first few scenes, and Scatman Crothers, as always, is a pleasure to watch. But as soon as the old folks turn into kids, it becomes a gag-inducing cute-fest.
Director Joe Dante's segment, "It's a Good Life," is much better. It captures Dante at a weird time in his career, as he was coming off such adult schlock as PIRANHA and THE HOWLING and moving into more kid friendly territory like GREMLINS and EXPLORERS. The first two-thirds of the segment is great, featuring Dante's much-missed sardonic humor, and terrific performances from such genre vets as Kevin McCarthy and William Schallert. Unfortunately, Spielberg's influence bleeds into the segment, and the final moments are even more sugary than "Kick the Can".
The final segment, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," is directed by George Miller (creator of MAD MAX) and is one of the greatest horror-thriller sequences ever committed to celluloid. The creepy story (a terrified air traveler sees something out on the wing of the airliner he's on but cannot get anyone to believe him), mixed with Miller's claustrophobic and kinetic direction makes the segment almost unbearably intense and frightneing, to the point where one feels exhausted when it ends. John Lithgow's performance as the passenger is one of his best.
Overall, TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE must be considered something of a disappointment. An excellent segment, a decent one, a misfire from a master filmmaker and a solid segment overshadowed by the death of its actors while filming, it isn't exactly a recipe for a great movie-going experience. But there are enough good moments on the way to the final segment to make it worth sitting through.
However, if one can be objective and separate what happened on the set and what wound up on screen, TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE is, overall, pretty good. It opens with a bang. A prologue, written and directed by Landis and starring Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks, is a funny, subtly eerie slice-of-life dialog-driven scene, that takes a sudden and admirably ZONE-ish twist into the macabre. I think the fact that the movie surprisingly opens with CCR's "Midnight Special" on the soundtrack is also a brilliant touch.
Landis's actual segment is untitled, and is far better than most critics have suggested, featuring a strong performance by Vic Morrow and a creative, if not a tad heavy-handed approach to the subject of racism. The segment is intense and unsettling, well-written and imaginatively directed. It is also the only segment of the four that is not based upon an original episode.
"Kick the Can," co-producer Steven Spielberg's segment, is as sickeningly sweet as its reputed to be. It has its moments during the first few scenes, and Scatman Crothers, as always, is a pleasure to watch. But as soon as the old folks turn into kids, it becomes a gag-inducing cute-fest.
Director Joe Dante's segment, "It's a Good Life," is much better. It captures Dante at a weird time in his career, as he was coming off such adult schlock as PIRANHA and THE HOWLING and moving into more kid friendly territory like GREMLINS and EXPLORERS. The first two-thirds of the segment is great, featuring Dante's much-missed sardonic humor, and terrific performances from such genre vets as Kevin McCarthy and William Schallert. Unfortunately, Spielberg's influence bleeds into the segment, and the final moments are even more sugary than "Kick the Can".
The final segment, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," is directed by George Miller (creator of MAD MAX) and is one of the greatest horror-thriller sequences ever committed to celluloid. The creepy story (a terrified air traveler sees something out on the wing of the airliner he's on but cannot get anyone to believe him), mixed with Miller's claustrophobic and kinetic direction makes the segment almost unbearably intense and frightneing, to the point where one feels exhausted when it ends. John Lithgow's performance as the passenger is one of his best.
Overall, TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE must be considered something of a disappointment. An excellent segment, a decent one, a misfire from a master filmmaker and a solid segment overshadowed by the death of its actors while filming, it isn't exactly a recipe for a great movie-going experience. But there are enough good moments on the way to the final segment to make it worth sitting through.