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Needful things (1993)

post #1 of 5
7/4/09 at 4:18am
Thread Starter 
This was one of the rare Stephen King adaptations I hadn't seen, so I gave it a whirl tonight. I liked the concept, but found the execution lacking. Casting Max Von Sydow as Satan is inspired, but he really doesn't get anything interesting to say. He's just sort of there. The same can be said about Ed Harris. It's a pity to hire such talent and give them nothing to do but move the story forward.

I read there's a 3-hour version that gets played on television from time-to-time. Has anyone hear seen that? Does it help or is it just more of the same?
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post #2 of 5
7/5/09 at 1:53pm
I thought the Max Von Sydow/Ed Harris version WAS the three hour version.

Good book, good concept, but you really can't make an exchange like this work:

"You killed my dog!"
"You broke my microwave!"
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post #3 of 5
7/5/09 at 11:42pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Syd View Post
I thought the Max Von Sydow/Ed Harris version WAS the three hour version.
Sorry, I should have been more clear: There are two versions of this film, the 2-hour theatrical cut and a 3-hour version that only gets played on television (according to IMDB - not the greatest source ever, I know).
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post #4 of 5
7/5/09 at 11:48pm
The three hour version exists, and does only play on TV. I've never seen it, and though I'd probably check it out if the chance presented itself, I'm fine with having missed it. It has a lot of subplots from the book in tact. The old ladies fighting over Elvis memorabilia, for one.

My memories of this are that despite a fucking excellent cast (Harris, Von Sydow, JT Walsh) and very solid workable source material, it never gets much beyond adequate. I recall a lot of silly Von Sydow devil lines like "I have a tendancy to turn up the heat..." and shit.
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post #5 of 5
7/20/09 at 9:33pm
I saw the three hour version one time, it was a lot better but still very lacking. It certainly wasn't an Abyss like story transformation.
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