STEPHEN KING'S MISERY
After pulling out all the stops for his 1986 monster of a novel, IT, Stephen King went in the opposite direction for his next book. While IT is epic, sprawling and supernatural, Misery is small, claustrophobic and strictly human.
Misery tells the now familiar tale of romance novelist Paul Sheldon's winter of discontent (to put it mildly), at the hands of his "number one fan" -- a crazed nurse named Annie Wilkes who rescues him from a car wreck in a freezing storm, brings him home, nurses him back to health and keeps her cockadoodie pet writer under lock and key. As Paul quickly learns how mad is his caretaker, he realizes he is a living Scheherazade whose only weapon is his storytelling. As the tagline went ...
Paul Sheldon used to write for a living. Now he's writing to stay alive.
The jacket copy refers to it as a love letter to his fans, but ... this is hardly that. The scarily plausible story is King's response to being pigeonholed by readers, an allegory about addiction and a frightening look inside the mind of obsessive readers who can't quite separate fantasy from reality. One of his best.
Three years after the novel was a literary smash, director Rob Reiner and Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) adapted Misery for the big screen. Starring Kathy Bates, who won a well-deserved Oscar, and James Caan, Misery the film was as big a success as its source material. There's not many films I've seen where I walked out of the theater saying, "Instant classic," but this was certainly one. Misery and Annie Wilkes have seeped into our culture -- mention the terms oogy, cockadoodie, or Mister Man, and most will know exactly what you are talking about.
After a number of disappointing DVD releases, Misery finally received a decent upgrade in 2007, with the release of ...
MISERY - THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION
The bonus features (which were unfortunately taken from a European DVD release from a couple years earlier) include:
Feature Commentary by Director Rob Reiner
Feature Commentary by screenwriter William Goldman
Featurette: Misery Loves Company
Featurette: Marc Shaiman's Musical Misery Tour
Original Theatrical and Teaser Trailer
While those are all quite good, the disc also has the following:
Featurette: Diagnosing Annie Wilkes
Featurette: Advice for the Stalked
Featurette: Profile of a Stalker
Featurette: Celebrity Stalkers
Featurette: Anti-Stalking Laws
Don't even bother -- these are completely unnecessary filler, offering such sage advice for the stalked: Scream, run, hang up that phone. Wow, thanks for the heads up.
If you're a King fan, this is definitely worth the upgrade.
MOVIE GRADE: A -
BONUS FEATURES: B+
It's party time at Annie Wilkes house ... let's go get hammered.
MISERY theatrical trailer
Misery tells the now familiar tale of romance novelist Paul Sheldon's winter of discontent (to put it mildly), at the hands of his "number one fan" -- a crazed nurse named Annie Wilkes who rescues him from a car wreck in a freezing storm, brings him home, nurses him back to health and keeps her cockadoodie pet writer under lock and key. As Paul quickly learns how mad is his caretaker, he realizes he is a living Scheherazade whose only weapon is his storytelling. As the tagline went ...
Paul Sheldon used to write for a living. Now he's writing to stay alive.
The jacket copy refers to it as a love letter to his fans, but ... this is hardly that. The scarily plausible story is King's response to being pigeonholed by readers, an allegory about addiction and a frightening look inside the mind of obsessive readers who can't quite separate fantasy from reality. One of his best.
Three years after the novel was a literary smash, director Rob Reiner and Oscar-winning screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) adapted Misery for the big screen. Starring Kathy Bates, who won a well-deserved Oscar, and James Caan, Misery the film was as big a success as its source material. There's not many films I've seen where I walked out of the theater saying, "Instant classic," but this was certainly one. Misery and Annie Wilkes have seeped into our culture -- mention the terms oogy, cockadoodie, or Mister Man, and most will know exactly what you are talking about.
After a number of disappointing DVD releases, Misery finally received a decent upgrade in 2007, with the release of ...
MISERY - THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION
The bonus features (which were unfortunately taken from a European DVD release from a couple years earlier) include:
Feature Commentary by Director Rob Reiner
Feature Commentary by screenwriter William Goldman
Featurette: Misery Loves Company
Featurette: Marc Shaiman's Musical Misery Tour
Original Theatrical and Teaser Trailer
While those are all quite good, the disc also has the following:
Featurette: Diagnosing Annie Wilkes
Featurette: Advice for the Stalked
Featurette: Profile of a Stalker
Featurette: Celebrity Stalkers
Featurette: Anti-Stalking Laws
Don't even bother -- these are completely unnecessary filler, offering such sage advice for the stalked: Scream, run, hang up that phone. Wow, thanks for the heads up.
If you're a King fan, this is definitely worth the upgrade.
MOVIE GRADE: A -
BONUS FEATURES: B+
It's party time at Annie Wilkes house ... let's go get hammered.
MISERY theatrical trailer
Post made: Mon, Apr 14 2008 - 00:40 AM
Category: Stephen King
Tony Scialdone said:
"Mister Man" may have become more popular with Misery, but it's been around longer than that.
Any one of those children's book characters would have been called "Mr. Man"...and together they were all "Mr. Men". I wonder whether King's kids read the same books that my little sister read? =)
Mon, Apr 14 2008 - 02:08 AM