Do all new movies suck this bad ?

Rating: 4/10 (2 September 2008)

Given the fact that I love Stephen King and own most of his movies on DVD and I also loved Darabont's "The Shawshank Redemption," (who didn't?) I had to check out this movie "The Mist." Boy, was I in for a disappointment.
King's stories are often reputed to have been butchered by screenwriters and directors, but I didn't hear anything like that about this one. Maybe someone should have. I don't think the story translates well to the screen. I think it was a short story, so maybe they could have made a 30 minute TV show about this one because this was a waste of an hour and a half of my life.
The movie opens with a family on a lake and a strange storm that brings with it a strange mist across the lake. The father takes the son into town and the mist comes into town. The rest of the film takes place pretty much in a supermarket, conveniently so the people can survive, and we witness 'human tragedy' and 'barbarism' between the shoppers. They barricade themselves in against these really corny large bugs and what not. In an obvious slam on Christianity, one horrible religious lunatic tries to take over and is killed in a coup de grace for the viewer. I wonder why they didn't make that lady a Muslim? Oh wait...that's not Hollywood! Finally, the American military is bashed because we learn that 'the mist' was an experiment gone array. Whoop dee doo. We've heard that one before.
To cap it all off, the main character is 'forced' to murder his son in the end, then the mist is gone. We never know why, but there is sad music playing and we are supposed to feel compassion but what we really feel is cheated. Cheated out of investment of time, money and emotion.
Like most modern Hollywood duds, this one falls way short. It's ashame because two amazing talents have had their names tarnished. Skip it and see the original "Dawn of the Dead." More creative and more powerful on a fraction of the budget.
Gets a bonus star for Thomas Jane though, that guy is too cool for words.
4 out of 10, kids.