Customer Reviews

Misery (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging)

5 star:		(157)
4 star:		(49)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Misery is an exceedingly good adaptation of the original novel by Stephen King. The novel features one of King's most tightly-wound, increasingly suspenseful tales, and this movie faithfully brings the novel to life on the big screen. Paul Sheldon, America's best selling writer, creator of Misery Chastain and chronicler of her romantic and human struggles and successes, has just finished writing a "serious" novel he hopes will give him the stature he desires. On his trip home with the manuscript, a fierce blizzard causes him to lose control of his car. Annie Wilkes, his number one fan, finds his car at the bottom of a hill, pulls Sheldon out of it, and takes him home to nurse back to health. As Sheldon begins to adjust to his new surroundings, he is increasingly bothered by his caregiver's erratic mood swings. He soon finds himself a virtual prisoner in her house, essentially unable to move with his two mangled legs. When Annie reads his brand new book, she is exceedingly unhappy with it. When she gets the newly published Misery Chastain novel and finds out that her beloved Misty is dead, she begins unleashing her fury on Sheldon and insisting he resurrect Misty in a new novel written especially for her. All this time, the small mountain town's husband-and-wife police force search for any sign of the missing author (albeit halfheartedly). Eventually, Sheldon realizes escape is something only he can achieve for himself.

James Caan is quite good as Paul Sheldon, but Kathy Bates simply is Annie Wilkes. Her performance as this complicated, mentally disturbed super-fan broods over this entire movie, making it the riveting thriller it is. Lauren Bacall, in what is an overlooked but rather amazing casting coup, lends her talents to the movie in the role of Sheldon's literary agent, while Richard Farnsworth and perennial King favorite Frances Sternhagen round out a truly excellent cast. King actually held out on this project until such time as it could be placed in the more than capable hands of director Rob Reiner. King had a special affection for this particular story, and he was not going to allow a second-rate adaptation of it to come to the big screen.

The suspense of this story is basically psychological in nature, but there are two scenes of far more physical suffering. The hobbling scene is memorable to say the least, and another incident toward the end introduces a little blood to the film, but overall this is a movie that all lovers of suspense and human drama can appreciate. There are a lot of bad movies based on terrific Stephen King stories and novels, but this movie captures the powerful magic of the original novel as effectively as any King movie ever has.

Finally a special edition of Misery! This has been previously released on Region 2 DVD but this is the first official Region 1 release of the special edition. Kathy Bates won a much deserved Best Actress Oscar for her performance. This is one of Stephen King's best and while there are a few humorous moments most notably through Kathy's dialogue, the horror and suspense never fizzle in any way. This is one of the best horror/suspense pictures out there and should be in any fans collection for multiple viewings. Here are the special features:

DVD Features:

Region 1

Keep Case

Widescreen - 1.85

Audio:

Dolby Digital Surround - Spanish

Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, French

Subtitles - English, Spanish - Optional

Additional Release Material:

Audio Commentaries - 1. Rob Reiner - Director

2. William Goldman - Screenwriter

Featurettes - 1. "Misery Loves Company"

2. "Marc Shaiman's Musical Misery Tour"

3. "Diagnosing Annie Wilkes"

4. "Advice for the Stalked"

5. "Profile of a Stalker"

6. "Celebrity Stalkers"

7. "Anti-Stalking Laws"

Trailers - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer

2. Original Theatrical Teaser

James Caan, Richard Farnsworth, and Kathy Bates star in this thrilling adaptation of Stephen King's excellent novel. Caan stars as Paul Sheldon, a very successful author of the "Misery Chastain" series of books. After finishing his latest installment of his series, he sets off to deliver the manuscript to his editor. Unfortunately, he encounters a terrible snowstorm, and his car slides off the road and over a cliff. He is trapped inside with numerous injuries and unable to escape.

Fortunately for Paul, Annie Wilkes (Bates) comes along and pries his car door open with a crowbar and frees him. Annie takes Paul to her house to nurse him back to health. As Paul is beginning to convalesce, Annie reveals that she is his "number one fan", and has read every book in the Misery series several times over. She also has authgraphed pictures of Paul throughout her house. At first, Paul is flattered by Annie's kindness, but he also suspects something is wrong with this good samaritan.

Annie also managed to retrieve Paul's manuscript from the wreckage, and she begs Paul to let her read it. After a while, he relents. But after reading it, Annie goes completely nuts because Paul has killed off Misery. Paul now realizes that Annie is insane and the only way for him to survive is to give in to her wishes and write a new novel which brings Misery back to life.

Meanwhile, the local sheriff (Farnsworth) has become aware of Paul's disappearance and has begun an investigation into his whereabouts.

Paul continues to work on his new novel and as he writes, he's realizing that he's creating his best work yet. However, he still has Annie to deal with. He's continually locked up in his room, but he does manage to unlock his door by using a paper clip in the lock. He discovers many things about Annie, including her scrapbook, which has newpaper clippings implicating her in a hospital baby death scandal.

Unfortunately for Paul, Annie figures out that he has been out of his room, and she takes measures to ensure he won't leave again, courtesy of a piece of wood and a large sledgehammer. Will Paul be able to escape? Will the sheriff uncover the truth about Annie before its too late?

This is an excellent movie. The plot is thrilling and will keep you on edge throughout the movie. James Caan and Richard Farnsworth give solid performances, but Kathy Bates is truly the star of this film. Her portrayal of the obsessed "number one fan" is impeccable. She won the Academy Award for her performance in this movie. I highly recommend this thrilling and suspenseful film. Watch and see how one person's admiration of another can turn into a fatal obsession.

Misery is one of the best in the horror/suspense genre. I have to say I don't think I've seen a better movie that was based off of a book. Usually the book is so good and the movie is sub par, but this one is the exception.

The story begins as writer Paul Sheldon(James Cann)crashes in car while driving in a blizzard. He awakes from being unconscious to find himself in the home and care of a very obsessed fan(Kathy Bates). As he gets better he begins to realize his caretaker has no intention on letting him go anywhere.

Exceptional thriller which anyone would enjoy. I completely recommend Misery especially if you are a Steven King fan.

This 2-disc bundle is an interesting edition in the sense that you get the movie twice, on Blu AND on DVD.


DISC ONE

The Blu-ray disc has the movie only in beautiful 1080p Blu resolution, of course, and featuring DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround sound plus French and Spanish audio tracks and English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.

Disc one is why I bought THIS Misery - I already have a DVD edition - and, at this price, I'm glad I did it. Misery's Blu treatment is nothing short of spectacular. Since I was able to compare the 2 versions, with the DVD and the Blu playing simultaneously, it was easy to see the difference. It's not only Blu's higher resolution that reveals more detail - James Caan's 5 o'clock shade anyone? - but the colors are brighter and the picture overall is crisper. Same for the sound. The lossless (uncompressed) audio is a big plus even on a movie like this where most of the sound is dialog and creepy music.


DISC TWO

Is the 'curious' one, featuring the entire movie as a DVD and a relative large number of featurettes. I call it 'curious' because there is no mention on the back of the box of the movie's duplicate on the second disc - a mistake?

Anyways, besides the movie there's the obligatory 'this is how we made this and we had so much fun making it' featurette, named 'Misery Loves Company'. We get to hear from James Caan, the always lovely and talented Kathy Bates, director Rob Reiner and so on.

In addition, there is a SERIES of featurettes discussing 'stalking' which I will list because they are fun to watch:

- Advice for the Stalked
- Profile of a Stalker
- Celebrity Stalkers
- Anti-Stalking Laws

This is interesting because Annie (Kathy Bates) is not really a stalker. She is sick and she is Sheldon's (Caan) biggest fan but she's not stalking him, she only takes advantage of an opportunity.

Also good is the "Diagnosing Annie Wilkes" featurette where a psychiatrist explains that Annie was:

- psychotic
- bi-polar
- delusional
- paranoid
- abused as a child

and a few more other defects that I can't remember now.



THE MOVIE

I love Stephen King, I've read a lot of his work and watched nearly all King-inspired movies but I'm not his biggest fan. While a fan, I am objective enough to admit that not all of the King movies are great and some are quite terrible. It's not the case with Misery. Thanks to Kathy Bates (Oscar for best actress) incredible performance, Caan's showing that he can act and inspired work from director Reiner and photography wizard Sonnenfeld, Misery is one of those few movies that you can watch again and again and never get tired of it. I do watch it every couple of years and, thanks to the Blu edition now, I will enjoy watching the movie even more.



RATING THIS EDITION

This Misery earns high grades for the Blu version. While inside a cheap plastic case - the kind that has holes cut in it to save a few pennies - the 2 discs feature enough quality and content to qualify this as the best Misery so far:

- superior Blu rendering of the movie
- unexpected second copy as a DVD
- interesting, informative, actually watchable featurettes
- reasonable price

The 5 stars are well earned.

In my opinion The Shining is the greatest of all Stephen King adaptations and then Misery. There are actually a lot of similarities between Misery and The Shining. There both about writers, in secluded locations, who are deserted at some point due to a snow storm. They both have characters that aren't all there mentally and we are witness to their descent into madness and loss of reality. Both Bates and Nicholson have a way with tools, whether it be an axe or a sledge hammer, and with these tools they have cut and hobbled their way into our memories and into film history.

Kathy Bates is the star of this film and deserves her Oscar win as the at times lovable Annie Wilkes, the obsessed fan of author Paul Sheldon played by James Caan. Annie goes from saving Paul to keeping him hostage for her own agenda. The "shining" beacon of this film is without a doubt Kathy Bates who for me is one of the most memorable and witty villains of modern horror film up there with Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. With that said Caan is there like a dance partner for Bates every step of the way, he is like John Stockton to her Karl Malone always ready to assist her in enhancing the dark comedy throughout with his reactions by facial expression or perfect delivery of his lines. Caan's non verbal reactions to Annie's tirades are priceless and only enhance her dialouge. Pay attention to Caan's facial expressions during the scene when Annie explains about "chapter plays" and don't call them cliffhangers.

So getting back to the king and queen of horror, I had an idea, what if Bate's character Annie Wilkes had rescued/kidnapped Jack Nicholson's character Jack Torrance and what would that dialouge be like. I think it would go something like this:

JACK: "Annie, let me explain something to you. Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you're breaking my concentration. You're distracting me. And it will then take me time to get back to where I was. You understand?"
ANNIE: "Understand? UNDERSTAND? I will tell you "what I understand!" I go out of my way for you! I do everything to try and make you happy. I feed you, I clean you, I dress you, and what thanks do I get? "Oh, you bought the wrong paper, Annie, I can't write on this paper, Annie!" Well, I'll get your stupid paper but you just better start showing me a little appreciation around here, Mr. MAN!"
JACK: "Now, we're going to make a new rule. When you come in here and you hear me typing
[types]
or whether you DON'T hear me typing, or whatever the F you hear me doing; when I'm in here, it means that I am working, THAT means don't come in. Now, do you think you can handle that?"
ANNIE: "I thought you were good Jack... but you're not good. You're just another lying ol' dirty birdy."

Just a thought, forgive me for prattling away and making everything all oogy, here's the dvd features.

COLLECTOR'S EDITION DVD FEATURES:
(A reviewer listed them above but in case they got lost in the review shuffle here they are again)
First if your like me and like a nice pristine transfer and good sound the dvd is a definite and worthwhile upgrade. The picture quality far surpassed the older version on dvd and I own both. Also on the sound there was no Dolby Digital 5.1 on the old version and on the Collector's edition there is.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Audio Commnt by Rob Reiner and screenwriter William Goldman
Misery loves company featurette, Marc Shaiman's musical Misery tour featurette
Diagnosing Annie Wilkes featurette, Advice for stalked feature, profile of a stalker feature, celebrity stalker feature and anti stalking laws feature.

This is a must for any horror fan to add to their collection. It is already a classic and is the type of horror that gives you that warm, glad to be inside, tucked into bed feeling if you can avoid getting hobbled.
A great watch for Halloween. Enjoy!

You all know what the movie is about, so I won't rehash it here. This film has been released on DVD before, but that was back when MGM owned themselves and put out poor DVD product. Now (circa 2007) that Fox owns MGM, they are re-releasing a number of MGM titles in much better quality. This is a prime example. MGM had released this important film in letterboxed only format - no 16:9 anamorphic enhancement for widescreen TVs. No bonuses either. Fox has now delivered a superb 16:9 transfer that totally blows away the older disc. The bonuses are plenty, entertaining, and informative. The packaging is nice too, and looks like a hardcover book.
It is easy to recommend purchasing this disc by Fox. I own a Blu-ray player, but DVD is still my main squeeze. And with quality like this, why not?

On October 2nd, 2007, MGM released Misery - Collector's Edition on DVD. This DVD edition features a newly remastered video and audio. It has been said that this is a brand new never before released on DVD print of the film. The film is presented in its orignal aspect ratio of 1.85:1, a fullscreen version is not offered on this edition. This edition features 2 audio commentaries, both are bland and don't offer much in the way of info. There are many silent spots and isn't really worth the listen. It also features 7 featurettes, only one worth actully checking out. The 'Misery Loves Company' featurette talks to the actors and filmmakers about how this film came to be. Other features on this disc are 2 theatrical trailers. Personally I feel they skimped on the bonus material and had they given this release a little more time then it would have been a much better release. But I would recommend picking this up if you own the previous edition based on the updated video & audio alone.

So many of Kings stories are turned into really bad movies that when it's done right like The Dead Zone, Misery and The Shawshank Redemption( I know there are some other good ones)you wonder what went wrong with the others. This is a high tension thriller that will keep you on the edge from beginning to end! Bates is incredible in her role as the Nut from Hell!

Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is a very successful writer of romance and thriller novels, one snowy night he crashes his car and a lonely woman named Annie (Kathy Bates) rescues him and provides shelter for him. She happens to be Sheldon's biggest fan and would do anything to be with him as her wish has come true, even though she's a bit on the psychoctic side as she wants him to do a novel based on her wish-fulfillments and wants to keep him as her personal prisoner.

A twisted and brilliant modern horror thriller classic that is quite faithful to Stephen King's suspense novel and is adapted by William Goldman and directed by Rob Reiner. The film co-stars legendary Lauren Becall, this movie is one of the greatest cinematic horror and psychological thrillers ever! in fact, Ms. Bates got an oscar for best actress for the memorable role of Annie. This is a truly unforgettable movie with such disturbing moments like the sledgehammer sequence, great acting and dark atmosphere.

This Collector's Edition DVD contains excellent picture and sound with fine extras like two audio commentaries, 7 featurettes, teaser and trailer which makes this a true must own for fans of horror and thrillers cause this one is a winner all the way.

Also recommended: "Black Christmas (1975)", "Funny Games", "The Shining (1980)", "Psycho (1960)", "Psycho II", "Audition", "Deep Red", "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", "Psycho III", "Vertigo", "Rear Window", "Basic Instinct", "Rope", "Nightmare (1981 a.k.a. Nightmare in a Damaged Brain)", "Secret Window", "The Hitcher (1986)", "Halloween", "Wolf Creek", "Mother's Day", "Perfect Blue", "Silent Night Deadly Night", "Dead Ringers", "Dolores Calaborne", "Hostel 1 & 2", "Manhunter", "Silence of the Lambs", "Saw Quadrilogy", "Pin", "May", "The Others", "Macabre (1980)", "When a Stranger Calls (1978)", "Scream", "Opera", "Hannibal", "Red Dragon", "Hannibal Rising", "Sleepaway Camp", "Dressed to Kill" and "Original Sin".