Customer Reviews

Riding the Bullet (Widescreen Edition)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

King does it again. He takes an everyday occurence and turns it into a frightening mind game. Imagine having to choose between dying or losing your mother. A must see for all die-hard King fans!

Every once in a while they manage to film a really good Ghost Story and they have done it with this movie. The viewer is introduced to Allan, a College kids back in the 1970's who is hitchiking to Lewiston in Maine to visit his ill mother. Allan is confronted by the ghosts of his past and present during his long lonely walk to the hospital. This movie is dark, eerie and very atmospheric and this is one film which I would have liked to have watched on the big screen. The extra feature included in this DVD is Allan's sketch book which is alone makes this movie worth watching. Bravo to all concerned with the making of this film.

Stephen King's flair for good storytelling is absolutely missing in 'Riding the Bullet' directed by Mick Garris, who fared far better in TV's 'Shining' or 'Stand.' King's original novella has potential for sure, which includes serious matters, life and death. And King must have known the topic first-hand, for the story was written after he suffered a serious injury after a traffic accident.

But Mick Garris takes things too literarily in this film. The premises are intriguing. The time is during the years of Vietnam War. The place, Maine (you can hear the name of Castlerock). One college student, obsessed with the idea of throwing his life away, realizes something important while hitchiking to his hometown, where his mother fell suddenly ill. This is a fine idea for making a road movie, and hitchiking on the two-lane road could be pretty scary.

The college student Alan Parker is played by Jonathan Jackson, who, leaving his kind-hearted friend Jessica (Erika Christensen) at college, encounters several strange drivers on the road (including one old driver played by Chiff Robertson). The most unnerving one turns out creepy guy George Staub (David Aqquette), who offers Allan a ride at night, and seems to know many things about Alan's life in the past, including the death of his father. But why?

This story could be a vintage urban legend-like weird tale, but Mick Garris fails to make good use of it, by showing things without any visual imagination. Think of this; if some 'inner self' talks to Alan, another image of Alan (played by Jackson himself) appears right next or behind him, and starts to talk to him. If Alan sees 'visions' perhaps because of hullcination or smoking weed, Alan exactly sees, say, his mother croaking like a bird. Or in another place Alan even sees a bird, picking the dead meat of some animal, and it really talks to him. They are not scary; they are downright embarrassing.

The film has good supports -- Barbara Hershey as Alan's mother, plus Matt Frewer and Nicky Katt. None of them, however, show what they can really do, for the film is too intent on showing the visions of Alan, or his gloomy outlook on life. In fact, Alan is kind of a student who draws a picture of a naked model with the Grim Reaper behind her, and does not notice the presence of Erika Christensen while she is always looking at him. Why should we care about this guy in the first place?

The film is not scary -- that's is not a problem -- but also, the film is awfully self-indlugent and doesn't know what it wants to do, like the protagonist it shows. Horror? Not exactly. Nostalgic drama, like 'Stand By Me'? Far from it. This is after all just another wasted opportunity for making a decent film out of Stephen King.

This is one wild and crazy, mixed up ride. Nearly undescribable, yet totally watchable and enjoyable. The plot(which I won't go into very far, others have done such a fine job)is simple, the atmosphere surreal. A concept that works better on paper than on film. Mick Garris does an expert job with the transformation, mixing abstract ideas with real life adventure and emotions. It has it's truly scary moments intertwined with human emotion and humor. One of the best Stephen King adaptations out there. If you want to see something a bit different and a little offbeat you will probably find this one to be well worth your time. If you want more of the same old formula horror flicks, you should probably look elsewhere.
Enjoy, and thanks for taking the time to read my review. I hope it was helpful.
Tom

A 70's hippie hitch hikes a 100 miles to see his dying mother that he has issues with and along the way must confront demons, some real some that exist only in his head.

David Arquette did a good job as a bad guy demon, but the movie has a series of flashbacks that mislead the story and offer nothing to the end. It gets annoying trying to figure out what is actually happening and what is just the main character fantasizing. It grows tiresome.

RIDING THE BULLET was written by Stephen King after his tragic near-death experience, and the preoccupation with death and the tenuousness of life are evidenced in this somewhat creepy but ultimately vacuous movie. Director Mick Garris (Sleepwalkers, The Tommyknockers) gives us some occasionally frightening vistas to view, but the horror seems vague and unfocused. Jonathan Jackson tries gamely in his challenging role but he doesn't have the passion to convey his fear of death; Barbara Hershey is marvelous as his mother, but she's not given enough screen time; David Arquette is on target as the embodiment of death who gives Jackson his final ride; and Cliff Robertson brings grace to his role as a dying man Jackson meets along the way.
Ultimately, RIDING THE BULLET becomes more of a psychological treatise on death and not the horror film it could have been.

Riding the Bullet is watchable because you never know where it's going to go or where it is taking you. It's about a college student obsessed with death. On his birthday he's in the tub considering slitting his wrist with a razor. Then his friends jump in the bathroom throwing a surprise party and he accidently cuts his wrist. After he gets out of the hospital his g/f gives him tickets to go see a concert wih his friends. He then gets a call that his mom had a stroke and he decides to hitch a ride to go see her instead.

When trying to get there one weird and nightmarish thing happens after another. He finally hitches a ride with someone who's tombstone he just saw at the cemetary. He freaks when he realizes that he's the ghost of someone who died in a car accident years ago. The driver is played by David Arquette and he gives him a choice to choose to die or for his mother to die. So he's forced to come face to face to if he wants to live or die. This is a movie that can be often silly and not involve you that well in what is going on. I mean often the main guy sees another version of himself that gives him advice. Is it supposed to be his conscience or what ? and how is it that David Arquette sees him too ? We never learn that. Still the movie does keep your attention and keep you at the edge of your seat waiting to see what his choice will be. The ending is probably superior to the whole movie though because that's where most the heart is. It has a nice sentimental ending that you don't see coming at all. David Arquette turns out to be surprisingly some-what creepy in the role although I did get flaskbacks of him in 1-800-At&t commercials. I know now that is scary lol.

Alan (Jonathan Jackson) is a young college student. He is an artist. The only problem is he was visited by the death reaper. When he has a naked lady model before him in art class, he draws the grim reaper behind her. That night while he is in the bathtub, he is visited by the reaper again and it drives him to pick up the razor and slit his wrist, but a surprise party of friends invade his privacy and save his life.
He survived, but his life is still in the macabre. He has a twin conscience that speaks to him. He has flashbacks of his childhood and visions of himself of what could happen to him.
Alan receives a call that his mom (Barbara Hershey) has had a stroke. So he decides to hitch-hike to Lewiston. Every driver he comes across is a strange occurrence and he must risk his life and being alone on a lonely road in the woods at night is dangerous too.
This is truly a Stephen King nightmare.
Best Line: "...seems like the longer you live, the more God wants to kick you in the ass" said by Cliff Robertson in the film.

This film is steeped in all things King, a bit of nostalgia with some black humor and gore thrown into the mix, heck there is even a talking bird. What Mick Garris achieves here is a nice mix of all the above without any of it being to heavy handed or dark. Garris's screenplay is much more effective than the King short and Jonathan Jackson's performance is impressive throughout. The tone shifts might be a little awkward for some but I found this to be a ride worth taking. Be warned of the dangers of hitchhiking on a 2 lane highway, nothing is what it appears especially those oncoming headlights. Good renter for most, and a worthy buy for King fanatics.

This is a good scary movie up until the last part.
I liked it up until the main character made a crappy unethical decision... ruined the whole movie, sadly, it's probably the decision most would make.

Other than that, I thought it was a pretty good book to movie translation. I read this short story a while back but from what I remember, this movie had the same effect.