Ten passengers wake up during the flight from Los Angeles to Boston and realize that all the other passengers, including the crew, disappeared. Everything is fine with the plane, they are on the right course and, fortunately, one of them is a pilot. But soon they discover that the unexplained disappearance of their companions is the smallest problem they have.
The adaptation of King's story "The Langoliers" was done as a three hours long film, broadcast as a mini-series of two ninety-minute episodes. This mysterious SF drama has a very interesting premise, excellent characterization, and a good atmosphere, and the first "episode" promises a great movie. The second "episodes" keeps these qualities, but unfortunately also introduces some new, completely unnecessary ones, which have severely lowered the level of the film. I could forgive unconvincing reactions of the characters in certain situations, as well as a few pathetic scenes but CGI, that is so bad it will make you laugh in disbelief, I can not. If these CGI scenes were necessary for the development of the story, and if the technology of that time and the budget did not allow them to do them properly, that might have somewhat mitigated my reaction. But these scenes are not only unnecessary, they are also completely uncalled for, and they would spoil the film even if they were made at the level of today's multi-million blockbusters, so the film is tainted and corrupted without any need. If it had stayed a psychological SF drama, "The Langoliers" would be a strong eighth, but with this tragicomic attempt of CGI horror, I really can not rate it higher than
6/10
The adaptation of King's story "The Langoliers" was done as a three hours long film, broadcast as a mini-series of two ninety-minute episodes. This mysterious SF drama has a very interesting premise, excellent characterization, and a good atmosphere, and the first "episode" promises a great movie. The second "episodes" keeps these qualities, but unfortunately also introduces some new, completely unnecessary ones, which have severely lowered the level of the film. I could forgive unconvincing reactions of the characters in certain situations, as well as a few pathetic scenes but CGI, that is so bad it will make you laugh in disbelief, I can not. If these CGI scenes were necessary for the development of the story, and if the technology of that time and the budget did not allow them to do them properly, that might have somewhat mitigated my reaction. But these scenes are not only unnecessary, they are also completely uncalled for, and they would spoil the film even if they were made at the level of today's multi-million blockbusters, so the film is tainted and corrupted without any need. If it had stayed a psychological SF drama, "The Langoliers" would be a strong eighth, but with this tragicomic attempt of CGI horror, I really can not rate it higher than
6/10