From: raburng@prism.CS.ORST.EDU (raburn greg alan)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: Sleepwalkers - SPOILERS
Date: 12 Apr 92 23:41:52 GMT
Organization: Oregon State University, Computer Science Dept.


_Sleepwalkers_:  The movie was bad.  Bad bad bad bad bad.  Ugh, it was bad.
It redefines the meaning of badness.  Well maybe not that bad, but lordy
it wasn't good.  (previous dialog inspired by a poorly remembered Bloom County
strip).

In article <1992Apr10.144707.20805@acsu.buffalo.edu> v062nm65@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Chris J. Randall) writes:
>	The acting, in general, was decent.  Unfortunately, they spent no time

The acting was horrible.  This was my first observation.

>	The effects were good, and in some cases, outstanding.  Granted, they
>weren't up to T-2 standards (what is?), but some things were very eye-catching. 
The "morphing" effects were excellent.  The "dimming" effects were good.  The
blood and gore makeup sucked.  Dried blood is not bright red! It tends to 
darken and turn more brownish. (I know the blood was dry because the mother
touched her son's face and it didn't smear or get on her hands).

>	I'm not sure what Stephen King wanted this to be billed as.  From what
>I've seen and heard, this is just supposed to be horror.  The crowd didn't take
>it as such.  There was more laughter in that theatre than I've heard in movies
>labeled as "comedies."  There are so many moments when we weren't supposed to
>laugh, but the whole thing was so ridiculous, we couldn't help it.  I mena when

Same here.  People in our theater were laughing, talking, and generally making
fun of the movie in general. (I heard at least one, "Pshaw! And may monkeys
fly out my butt!")
The "incestuous" scenes resulted in their intended purpose of making the
audience go, "Ewww!" but it didn't bother me.  I was merely disgusted at this
blatent attempt to repulse the audience for no apparent reason.  Perhaps it
would've effected me more if the mother had actually looked old enough to be
the boy's mother (maybe they age differently, who knows?).i

I also was glad I didn't have to pay money to see this movie.

There were so many variations on the Sleepwalker idea that King could've done
to make a better story.  Here's my one of my own ideas:

	I'm given the impression from the film that the female can't suck
life-force directly, but must have it transferred to her by the male
sleepwalker somehow, so...
	I thought it would've been an interesting twist if, during the
"almost" love scene at the cemetary, if we discovered that the girl was a
Sleepwalker too, surprising Charles and herself (like during the kissing 
scene:  she freaks him out by accidentally sucking out some of HIS life-force).
We can explain that she'd been adopted by her current parents after her
real parents died in some unexplained fire (spontaneous combustion, hmmm?).
	The mother is at first elated at having found another Sleepwalker
like them, but is finally overcome by jealousy of this "other woman."  As the
girl begins to develop her newfound powers and cope with the idea that she
now has to kill people to feed, she finds that she must defend herself from
the evil mother (a "catfight" if you will.  Oops, can't let bad humor like
that enter THIS movie).
	During the huge fight between these powerful, near-indestructible
creatures, many innocent people are killed when they try to interfere (making
sure that none are killed by vegetables), including Charles.  The mother
finally wins, but as she bemoans the fact that she has killed her only son
(uh oh, _Grifters_ flashback!), she is set upon by cats and burns to a crisp.
	Tragic.  Moving.  And yet it will still contain plenty of violence.

>	At least we got to see previews of Lethal Weapon 3 (Looks Great), Alien
>3 (Looks Great), and Batman Returns (Looks Great, but I don't know...).  Hmmm. 
>I do believe that I'm going to be going to the movies quite a bit this
>summer...                                       :)

Lethal Weapon 3 did look great in the previews, but that movie is going to
have a hard time convincing me that the two main characters still have jobs
after Lethal Weapon 2!

I'm psyched for Batman Returns (which probably means I'll be disappointed),
but the character of Catwoman might blow it for me.  I like Michelle Pfeiffer,
but she doesn't come off as a very convincing villain in the previews (and her
costume looks awful).  DeVito looks to have made a good transformation into
the bizarre character of the the Penguin, a persona which looks to be totally
unlike any he's ever played.  Perhaps he'll make my list of the top most
versitile actors (Sean Connery.  Robert DeNiro.  Jack Nicholson.  I added Jack 
Nicholson to the list after I saw Batman I).
-- 
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-- "Legs" Raburn

"There were no flies on Frank that morning - after all why not?" - J. Lennon