Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Sam Panico The unabridged version of the stand is 1,152 pages. How do you film that? How do you capture everything? This 1994 miniseries - originally airing from May 8 - 12 of that year - made a valiant effort.It's nearly impossible to get in every character from the book, but that doesn't mean that these guys didn't try. With a screenplay by King, Mick Garris stepped into the director's chair, armed with a huge cast that does a great job of capturing their roles.The hard part of The Stand is that there's more than one hero and multiple casts to follow. I guess Stu Redman (Gary Sinise) would be the main hero, but you could also argue that the deaf and mute Nick Andros (Rob Lowe, who is deaf in his right ear) is the hero. Or maybe singer Larry Underwood is. When you're reading the book, you can determine who the protagonist you like best is, you can also see them as you want in your mind. With a film, it's not so simple.As Captain Trips, a weaponized flu virus, sweeps across America, the end of the world takes shape and Mother Abagail Freemantle (Ruby Dee) gathers the forces of good against Randall Flagg and his followers. Flagg, otherwise known as the Walkin' Dude, the Dark Man, the Ageless Stranger, the Man in Black and the Hardcase (as well as Walter Padick, Nyarlathotep, Rudin Filaro and a ton of other names), is the villain of more than one King story. He shows up in The Dark Tower, Hearts in Atlantis and The Eyes of the Dragon. His character goes all the way back to a poem that King wrote in 1969.Amongst his forces are the bonkers crazy Nadine Cross (Laura San Giacomo), criminal rat eater Lloyd Henreid (Miguel Ferrer), the explosive loving Trashcan Man (Max Headroom himself, Matt Frewer, who has appeared in more King adaptions than anyone else), the Rat Man and so many more. But the good guys also have Judge Ferris (Ossie Davis), the worst dressed heroine ever in Frannie (Molly Ringwald), her wannabe boyfriend and potential traitor Harold (Parker Lewis Can't Lose star Corin Nemec), simple-minded Tom Cullen (Bill Fagerbakke, Dauber from TV's Coach), wise Glen Bateman (TV legend Ray Walston, who was also Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and many, many more.This is a film packed with stars, even in small roles, like Ed Harris as General Starkey, Kathy Bates as Rae Flowers, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as a man proclaiming the end of the world and King, Sam Raimi, Tom Holland and John Landis show up in cameos. Even Joe Bob Briggs is in this!The four parts, The Plague, The Dreams, The Betrayal and The Stand, tell as much of the story as possible. I was kind of let down by the casting of Flagg, but it's hard to find anyone to live up to the ultimate evil that he's presented as in the book.The fact that the film was finished is a testament to the production team. With 460 script pages that were shot across 100 days in 6 states, that meant that the final project is nearly 8 hours long. They had to figure out how to dress 95 shooting locations on their budget, including a cornfield and a decimated Las Vegas.I hope however they remake this, they make sure to get better outfits for Frannie. I realize that this mini-series is 24 years old, but her fashion taste has not aged like a fine wine. Every single time she appears, her sartorial splendor - or lack thereof - takes me out of the movie!

doctirderp ill keep it short. the first episode is great. good pacing, suspense, and good backstory to give you information. however, after the first episode, the rest of the 3 episodes are slow, terribly paced, and the things people do just don't make any damn sense.i want you to know the ending, i really do. if anything, just to prevent you from wasting your time. a maniac, who seems out of place the entire series, tries to set off an explosion but some weird spirit of an old prophet stops him. it doesn't make sense as you read it here, and it makes even less sense in the context of the film. also, consider the prophet told 4 of the characters to go to the town to stop the bomb going off...but it was worthless, they didn't do anything. a whole episode about some epic journey, where many of them even died, just for some stupid spirit voice to stop a maniac who just randomly decided to bomb the city. its terrible, absolutely terrible.

kg-57040 This is one of Stephen King's most epic stories, there are others, but this one is probably one of the first. It is the forever-told story of the battle of good versus evil but without CGI, gimmicks and unrelatable characters. This story frightens you to the core because of how real everything seems to be. It could in fact happen tomorrow, to all of us, any of us. King is not an overly religious man, from what I have read but his ability to tell stories with religion deeply ingrained, amazes me. He does it from a standpoint rarely seen, if at all, and doesn't force the reader/watcher to believe any one thing but to just, think, perhaps deeper than they ever have before. However, don't be put off by the 'deepness' of it all, it's got enough comedy, action and adventure to still be an 'easy to watch' film with mates on a Friday night.

hellraiser7 "The Stand" is my favorite book from the author and favorite books in general. I remember when I heard about a mini series for The Stand was coming out, you can imagine my excitement. Seeing it then didn't disappoint me, and I still think it hold pretty well today; granted it's not perfect but I feel for what they were able to do, it does well.The story just like in the book is great, what I really liked about it is that in a strange way it's kinda a modern day fantasy epic, which I thought was cool since that's territory the fantasy genre doesn't tackle much for some reason. But most importantly that this is a Christian story, but in a good way where it's not preachy or heavy handed buy rather suttle.I really like some of the business with the virus in the first and second part of the series. The way it plays out is terrifying and plausible if an outbreak ever occurred making everything go straight to hell; it's sort of reminiscent of the book/TV miniseries "Day of the Triffids" as well as the film "28 Days Latter".However to me what was more interesting were the supernatural and Christian elements. I even like how in some places there are some parallels to the biblical stories. Most of the business with the virus and the survivors is pretty much part of Revelations. Las Vegas is pretty much Sodom and Gomorah and Bolder, Colorado is Bethlaham. You name it's there.The themes are also there without slapping you over the head like love, faith, redemption, transcendence, standing up against evil and sacrifice.The characters are great and I really like the cast which consists of experienced actors that work. And part of what made the story stand out is in the amount of depth and story arc around them which made me actually care even sad when one or few of them die.Gary Sinise is solid as Stu Redmen, I sort of imagined this actor in that role. I like that he's a blue collar man of the country whom is smart and has quiet charisma. Even like that he doesn't like being pushed around or takes crap from anyone it shows he is more than capable of standing up for himself. Molly Ringwold (one of my favorite actresses) was solid as Frannie Goldsmith, I'll admit it was real surreal but at the same time great seeing her in something like this; it's a shame she didn't have a bit more afterward. Her character is sweet, has a certain vibrancy to her, but there is also a sense of maturity. The chemistry between both Stu and her I think is solid and you know are right for one another.Larry Underwood (Adam Stoke) is great, he's my favorite protagonist in the book. What I love about his character arc is that it's a story about redemption. His character at first seems like the least likely person to survive the apopocalise because of the amount of trouble he's gotten himself into like doing drugs, fame and money getting to his head, but what I like is deep down he's really unhappy and want's another chance. You can say in one hell of a way he got it and you see him slow go thought a transcendence as that person he was from the past slowly fade and we see he becomes a better person, from being more responsible for himself and everyone else, a family man. I always like stories like that which to me are the most fascinating, where the characters are broken in some way and they gain the most enlightenment and faith than ones that already believe and act like they have all the answers. All the other characters also go though their own transcendence as well which are also fascinating in their own way.Randall Flagg he's one of my favorite fictional villains. Yeah, I'll admit this version in the mini series is slightly different but I feel some of the persona and menace that is Randall is still intact. And for the record Randall is a recurring character in most of King's stories "Eyes of the Dragon" and the "Gunslinger" series, both which still need a visual medium adaptation.He's not the devil more like an emissary to him, but from his persona he comes pretty close. I really like how charismatic he is which makes sense since most cult leaders usually do, so it's easy to see how the disciples of evil would fall under his spell. He makes a lot of references which is part of his trademark showing how knowledgeable and smart he truly is.However what makes Randall really scary and menacing is that he is never what he presents himself. Despite that smile he puts on, you know there is something wrong with it because it's not a happy smile but looks more like a sinister sneer. And he can really turn a 180 once he drops the nice guy act, which to me is disarming and can make a villain all the more scary. Overall, I think this is a very good adaptation and one of the only mini series of Steven King I like, if you a fan or non fan I think it's worth checking out. I would love to see a revival of this, may'be as a TV series but for premium channels like "Showtime", with the great amount of depth the book has let alone the fact that two other Steven King stories have TV shows of their own "The Dead Zone" and "Under the Dome" I see no reason why not."The Stand" will keep you on your feet.Rating: 4 stars