Even though 1408 wasn't the best King adaptation made, the presence of Cusack and Sam Jackson gave it that little bit more class than it should have had.
Now even though Cusack has gone by the direct to DVD route just of late, and Jackson stars in almost every film ever made since Pulp Fiction, it was always on my to watch list from the moment I heard it had been green lit.
A desperate New England artist searches for his son following the broadcast of a mysterious cell-phone signal that transforms people into rampaging maniacs.
In time, he and two other survivors attempt to find safety as society disintegrates.....
It starts off interesting enough. Almost everybody in the opening scene are talking on mobile phones, which is feasible seeing as the scene is set in an airport. Luckily for Cusack, his phone runs out of juice just as the signal reaches others phones and turns them into extras from 28 Days Later.
This opening scene is really tense, and if this was the foreshadowing the rest of the film, it could have been one of the surprise horror films of the year.
Then we leave the airport, meet Jackson (who is still in his Kingsman glasses), and the film goes downhill rapidly from there.
It's main problem is that it's lazily written (by King), and although we follow the small group of survivors as they meet other random survivors, they have no characterisation about them, apart from the odd trait, and it soon becomes as tiresome as the films lighting.
Stacey Keach has an interesting cameo, but without giving too much away, his character and his motivation just reminded me how the Martians were killed in Mars Attacks!!
Cusack and Jackson are as watchable as always, but even they struggle with the cliché riddled script, and cannot inject the much needed tension that the opening scene provided.
I haven't read the book, but I've read various sources that much of the film is very different to the source material, and the final ten minutes might be very baffling to some, as it could be very easy to lose concentration during the more boring parts of the film, of which there are many.
It's a shame, because this could really have been a good solid horror, but instead it reminds you just how great 28 days later is and just how Cusack and Jackson are so much better than this.
One of the biggest disappointments of the year.
Especially after the opening scene.
Now even though Cusack has gone by the direct to DVD route just of late, and Jackson stars in almost every film ever made since Pulp Fiction, it was always on my to watch list from the moment I heard it had been green lit.
A desperate New England artist searches for his son following the broadcast of a mysterious cell-phone signal that transforms people into rampaging maniacs.
In time, he and two other survivors attempt to find safety as society disintegrates.....
It starts off interesting enough. Almost everybody in the opening scene are talking on mobile phones, which is feasible seeing as the scene is set in an airport. Luckily for Cusack, his phone runs out of juice just as the signal reaches others phones and turns them into extras from 28 Days Later.
This opening scene is really tense, and if this was the foreshadowing the rest of the film, it could have been one of the surprise horror films of the year.
Then we leave the airport, meet Jackson (who is still in his Kingsman glasses), and the film goes downhill rapidly from there.
It's main problem is that it's lazily written (by King), and although we follow the small group of survivors as they meet other random survivors, they have no characterisation about them, apart from the odd trait, and it soon becomes as tiresome as the films lighting.
Stacey Keach has an interesting cameo, but without giving too much away, his character and his motivation just reminded me how the Martians were killed in Mars Attacks!!
Cusack and Jackson are as watchable as always, but even they struggle with the cliché riddled script, and cannot inject the much needed tension that the opening scene provided.
I haven't read the book, but I've read various sources that much of the film is very different to the source material, and the final ten minutes might be very baffling to some, as it could be very easy to lose concentration during the more boring parts of the film, of which there are many.
It's a shame, because this could really have been a good solid horror, but instead it reminds you just how great 28 days later is and just how Cusack and Jackson are so much better than this.
One of the biggest disappointments of the year.
Especially after the opening scene.