The Mist

[TomVeil]

I wasn't a HUGE fan of the ending of the book, so we'll see.

Maximum Overdrive was awesome. Where else can a vending machine kill somebody by shooting soda in their nuts?

[capone0]

Anyone see it. Not that good.

[drexah]

i saw it. not really sure what to think, i just keep telling my friends it was "interesting" it was basically laugh out loud bad at some points, sort of scary, gorey, disturbing, weird, dumb. definitely not that good but i guess it was worth seeing high with a few friends. the first half of the movie the entire theatre was like talking/laughing/making fun of it then the 2nd half it was like completely silent. seriously LOL at some of this movie. the acting was pretty terrible imo. as others have said the cgi was pretty [censored] and just the whole story/explanation was poor too, it was like an even worse version of war of the worlds. seriously wtf were those things? i'm still laughing when i think of the line "they tried to open a window...but opened a door..." me and my buddies were making fun of it pretty bad afterwards. definitely a pretty interesting ending.

[badatmath]

I just saw this today. I thought most of the monster scenes were pretty awesome, but there was nothing scary about it. Also, it got super predictable which was disappointing.

[Cueballmania]

I saw it last night. Having not read the novel, I just knew what I saw from the previews. I'm also not a huge fan of horror movies and such. I found the movie entertaining. Sure the acting wasn't perfect, but it was an interesting story. Also, I loved the ending.

[Iron Tigran]

Saw it Friday. Was OK, until the terrible ending.

Below is a too-long blog/rant I wrote that night. tl;dr, etc.

So, I go to see The Mist tonight. Got in for free (thanks Robledo). When I was 19 or so, I worked at the movie theater where The Mist was playing. We saw 30 Days of Night there a few weeks back (decent movie).

I know it's a bad sign when we walk in and see some tots lined up behind the row we want. Selfishly, I am concerned these tykes will be yammering throughout the movie, and as Mr. Upstanding Citizen, I am upset that parents would bring their kids to see a move with, as one review listed themes of: horror, violence, coarse language, not suitable for young children. (http://www.canada.com/globaltv/globa...86&k=74607)

After sitting down, I hear a few more kids, and although I have seen kids in movies too "adult" for them before (and yes, you parents might tell me you know what is appropriate for your kids; fine, whatever; when I hear a voice that must belong to a child around 7 years old in a rated R movie, someone has [censored] up) it always pisses me off a bit. God forbid we let kids be kids for a few years. We have to take them to movies themed for older people, we have to dress up little girls like runway models. We must expose them to every element of grown-up life.

So, the hatred of lameass humanity began to rise within me. (That is, many humans are lameasses, not all humanity... but most! ;-)

The movie begins, most of the crowd pipes down, and the first "moment" occurs: during a storm, a tree crashes through the main character's upstairs window. Genius chick behind me feels the need to say, "That would suck."

Eloquent in its brevity.

A recurring theme begins: the couple behind me occasionally make obvious, not incorrect, but CLEARLY [censored] AUDIBLE comments about the action going on. OK, this is not the commentary track on a DVD, peeps. STFU, or at least whisper it to each other.

Here and there, kids will say typical kid stuff, "Mommy...Mommy...Mommy."

"What happened?!" - This was asked by some precious kid after what was supposed to be the movie's most difficult and troubling sequence. Predictable laughter was the result; not exactly what the Director had in mind?

Etc. etc.

So, back to the movie itself. I was liking it a bit more than I "should have." It was not some amazing work of horror, or insight into the breakdown of society when confronted with crisis. But it had enough of both things, done well enough, to keep me into it. The movie was cruising home with a "6/10" rating from me.

Now, back to the antics of the moviegoers. Halfway or so through the movie, and some teenage female voice rings through the theater: Marquis?! Marquis?!

I guess Marquis had been separated from his (?) companions, and they were thoughtfully searching for him. Now, three teenage girls come through the theater's left rear door, loudly laughing and talking to themselves. A few irritated patrons serenaded them with loud "shhh!s" and "shut up!s." Our fiercely independent girls were not to be silenced in their display of solidarity and grrl power, however, and retorted with their own "shut up!s." One woman in the crowd had the comeback, "I'll kick your ass."

One of the girls them posed a riddle, "Are you gonna pay for my ticket?!"

I suppose she was implying that her purchase of an $8 movie ticket conferred on her the right to act as if the entire theater showing this movie was now her personal space to do within what she liked. Naturally I would dispute this claim, but as the ruckus died down, there was no need (yet!) for me to go into John Matrix Mode (Matrix was Schwarzenegger's character in Commando, and in the DirectTV info is described as a "human killing machine").

In fact, after that, and not counting the already mentioned adorable question "What happened?" there was little noise to object to. But, one thing I saw plenty of were people flipping open their phones to check the time, look at text messages, etc (and yes, at least two distinct ringtones were heard during the movie; needless to say, this should be a ticketable offense). Now, if they are just checking the time or looking at text messages, what could I possibly whine about? Well, I am in a dark room. The illumination in the room is coming from the screen. And yet, from time to time, a small flash of light comes on below the screen, distracting me. and it happens maybe 10 times or more during the movie.

OK, so I am a whiny bitch. Fine. But either wait for the movie to end, or how about HOLD THE [censored] PHONE IN YOUR LAP AND LOOK DOWN AT IT, AND NOW NO ONE BEHIND YOU HAS TO SEE YOUR SCREEN LIGHT UP!?!?!?!

Rocket [censored] science, no??

So, that just about concludes my irritations with the audience. As always, in my experience, the clear majority were basically silent when appropriate, just maybe 10 or so knobheads did their best to make the movie a less than enjoyable experience (as for the yapping kids, I blame the parents, not the kids).

Question to the idiots: why not rent a movie at home, then you can scream and laugh all you like, and eat all sorts of yummy food and not be morons in public?! Just a helpful suggestion, so no one can say all I did was cry and not offer positive solutions.

As for the movie. So, again, it's cruising home with a "6/10," because the good stuff in the movie was not good enough, and the bad stuff wasn't too lame.

Then, the ending...

In the commercial, one blurb says something like "The most shocking ending ever," or something close to it. No, sorry Slapnuts, it is not a shocking ending. For one, the ending actually has a lot in common with a pretty old story by... [censored] SHAKESPEARE. Yeah, really shocking there.

Also, the ending seems to want to make things seem even more terrible, but to me, it just takes the easy way out. "Oh, let's really freak out the audience and blow their minds with this ending which is totally badass and unthinkable."

Uh, no, you took a situation that is full of hopelessness and dread, and made it a punchline. Good job. If any of you see The Mist, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts. If you totally disagree, cool, I just want some feedback.

Final rating: 3/10 (and I am being a bit generous)

Oh, wait, we do get to see The Sherminator from American Pie gruesomely killed. So, 3.5/10.