Storm of The Century

Starring: Tim Daly, Debrah Farentino, Jeffery DeMunn, & Colm Feore

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Stephen King is a great writer, but even die hard fans of his work will agree that his films are hit or miss. Storm of The Century was one of his better novels, but was made for the big screen, not some PG rated mini-series. As a small island off the coast of Maine is hit with the most devastating storm in it's history, a stranger shows up and kill a beloved fixture on the island. The strange is quickly apprehended, but continues to wreak havoc, calming that he will go away if the towns people give him what he wants. I get that this was made for TV, but the fact is that if any of King's works deserved to be a regular R rated big screen film, it was this one. Almost everything worth while is cut out or toned down. Not to mention that in order to expand the story, to cover nearly 4 and a half hours worth of time, they had to put in a lot of things that wouldn't normally make it into a screenplay. There is so much unnecessary garbage in this thing that it completely destroys the story. Tim Daly was cast in the lead and all I can say is really? Honestly, Don Knotts made a more convincing cop than he did. The one bright spot in the film was Colm Feore, playing Andre Linoge, the mysterious stranger. He really was terrific and creepy at all the right moments. Aside from Feore, Storm of The Century wreaks of television and lacks all the suspense and horror of the original story. This is a fantastic read, but as a movie, Storm of The Century really doesn't cut it. My only hope is when they eventually remake it, they do it in the way King intended it to be.