Product: The Dead Zone [VHS] (1983)
Rating: 5.0
A Quirky Part for an Actor Who Is Willing to Gamble
Christopher Walken has made a career out of taking those oddball, quirky, edgy roles. Never satisfied with the easy path, he, like Harvey Keitel, takes the tricky, adventurous over the safe and sometimes more profitable parts. He often plays the role of a strange, eerie, kind of nutcase character. Always he seems to be stretching his acting muscles and evolving as an actor.The book is part of the prolific Stephen King's franchise. In "The Dead Zone," The lead character, Walken as Johnny, spends five years in a coma, and comes out of it with psychic powers. Because he can see into the past and future, and see events taking place elsewhere in the present, he is able to save lives, snare a serial killer, smoke our evildoers, and prevent catastrophes. He learns that he can not only foretell the future but change it. Almost like a comic book super hero.Herbert Lom is very good as Johnny's doctor. Walken gives an intense performance. Somehow the movie has a low budget feel to it, or could it be downscale production values? The movie is not from one of King's horror books and benefits from this fact. It deals not so much with the supernatural but the paranormal powers of a sad, believable, realistic person. It's a movie to while away some time with. There is nothing brain-wrenching here.