Twilight Zone: The Movie

TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (15)

D: John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante & George Miller

Warner Bros. (Steven Spielberg & John Landis)

US 1983

101 mins

Fantasy/Horror

W: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Richard Matheson, Josh Rogan & Rod Serling [based on the TV series created by Rod Serling]

DP: Steven Larner, Allen Davieu & John Hora

Ed: Malcolm Campbell, Tina Hirsch, Michael Kahn & Howard E. Smith

Mus: Jerry Goldsmith

Dan Aykroyd (Passenger), Albert Brooks (Car Driver), Vic Morrow (Bill Connor), Scatman Crothers (Mr. Bloom), Kathleen Quinlan (Helen Foley), Jeremy Licht (Anthony), Kevin McCarthy (Uncle Walt), John Lithgow (John Valentine)

Four different directors each deliver their own tribute to Rod Serling's 1960's TV series, all in the supernatural style but of varying quality, with George Miller's final segment the standout epsiode and Steven Spielberg's surprisingly weakest.

The film begins and ends with a wraparound story in which a truck driver tells these four spooky stories to his passenger.

The first segment, "Time Out", directed by John Landis sees a racist bigot travel back in time to Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, it ends abruptly due to a tragic on-set accident which caused the death of its star Vic Morrow and two child actors.

The second and worst segment, "Kick The Can", directed by Spielberg, is a schmaltzy, tepid fable which sees the residents of a nursing home gifted the magic of youth for an evening.

Things improve with Joe Dante's third story, "It's A Good Life", in which a woman helps a young boy with telekinetic powers, driving him home to his parents who are controlled by him and finding that she's unable to leave.

George Miller's fourth is a remake of a TV episode, "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet" where a manic airline passenger is convinced that a gremlin creature on the wing of the plane is going to cause it to crash.

The fourth quarter alone makes it worth sitting through the rest, but the wonders of modern DVD technology makes it able to skip through the also-rans just to tune into the superior episode, which has become much imitated and parodied.

Rating the film is difficult, since all the chapters are of varying quality (Wraparound 6/10; Time Out 5/10; Kick The Can 4/10; It's A Good Life 6/10; Nightmare At 20,000 Feet 7/10)

6/10