Review of Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) by Philip P — 15 Aug 2017

While I enjoy the idea of this picture and approve of the choice of Twilight zone regular burgess Meredith as the stand-in for Rod Serling can't say I enjoyed it too much on the whole. the four vignettes are fine but the idea to do modern twist on existing episodes of the twilight zone pretty much sabotages any hope of this movie being worth the time of more seasoned twilight zone fans, reducing the movie to high-quality fanfiction rather than high concept science-fiction morality tales. But it still serves as a good trip down memory lane and does a good job of communicating the spirit of the original series. And I know the sensibilities of studios filmmakers and movie fans may have been a little different in the 80s but the idea to not go black and white is kind of baffling.

I'm watching this for the first time many years after its original release but I only can imagine that this probably played a little better before Nick at night, DVD box sets and Netflix existed when it wasn't possible to have seen these episodes they're attempting to breathe new life into dozens of times over. And the narrative bookends with Dan Aykroyd doing automotive themed comedy routines seems really out of place but I guess served as good material for trailers and TV spot for the film.

Out of the four vignettes I'd say the Spielberg one is disappointingly the weakest but the movie does close on a strong note in with the George Miller segment that stars John Lithgow.

If you're a diehard hard fan and have never seen The twilight zone movie I'd say it's worth at least one watch and if you're not as familiar with the show it serves as a good spark notes version of the original series but if you're looking for more fully realized versions of the idea of a modern twilight zone you're better off watching a season of black mirror instead.