MovieChat Forums > The Tommyknockers (1993) Discussion > Is this the worse Stephen king movie eve...

Is this the worse Stephen king movie ever?


Would you say this perhaps were the worse stephen king movie ever? I cant believe this got as much as 5.0 whilst classics like christine & carrie are only a couple thousand notches above.

I can only think of 2 other examples which might be considered below average.
(IT, Lawnmowerman).

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IT was awesome. Tommyknockers fully sucked on the scare-factor scale... it was entertaining though.

Official Website: www.earlyorke.com

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I cant get the 'rubber alien' scene out of my mind and I always think of l.a law because of central character.

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i like IT
but that one stephen king movie with all those AC/DC songs was pretty bad, haha
but cool at the same time

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Actually, I forgot the stand.

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wors movie, especially if you've read the book

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Yeah, the book is much better. By definition the worse SK movie probably has to be lawnmowerman because I read king didnt want any association with it. I thought it was okay though.

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The reason King demanded to have his name
removed from Lawnmower man, was because it
wasn't actually based on the short story.

The film's original script, written by director
Brett Leonard and producer Gimel Everett, was titled
Cyber God and had nothing to do with Stephen King.
New Line held the film rights to Stephen King's short story,
and decided to combine Cyber God with some very minor elements
of King's story. The resulting film, originally titled
Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man, differed so much from the
source material that King sued the filmmakers to remove his
name from the title. After two court rulings in King's favor,
New Line still did not comply and initially released the home
video version as Stephen King's The Lawnmower Man.
A third ruling granted the author $10,000 per day in compensation
and all profits derived from sales until his name was removed.
On King's official web-page, it is not listed among the films
based on his work. The film was released in Japan under the
title Virtual Wars.

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Berenandluthien1, the movie with all those AC/DC songs you're thinking of is Maximum Overdrive.

>Insert Signature Here<

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i didnt see the movie but i liked it a lot
i guess the movie must suck a lot.
but i think that the worst one is the second story of creepshow 2 or the lawnmover man

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King had nothing to do with the teleplay so dont blam him if the movie sucks the book is good

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i didnt see the movie but i liked it a lot
lolwut


"Who are you, and how did you get in here?"
"I'm the locksmith... and I'm the locksmith."

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maximum overdrive is the best king movie

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No, the worst Stephen King movie adaptation has to be "Needful Things."

"The Langoliers" is next, and then "The Tommyknockers."






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I like to make fun of people who make fun of other people.

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If you think Needful Things is the worst, you have no taste. There are by far worse adaptations than Needful Things.

Two wrongs don't make a left hand turn.

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Hey Bob no reason 2 be a prick. Needful Things IS the worst adaptation. That book had so many characters, sub-plots, and back story, they adapted it into a 100 minute pos that held maybe 10% of the books characters. The atmosphere from the book to film was different even. The book was a very dark satirical comedy almost, the movie took itself waaay to serious. Not the worst MOVIE that has been based off of Stephen King's works, but it was adapted very, very, very poorly.

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Not by far is this the worst. Tommyknockers wasn't that bad. About average for a King adaptation.

There have been many, many bottom-of-the-barrel bad ones far more deserving of your scorn than this one.

Sleepwalkers, Sometimes They Come Back (and its dreadful sequels), Thinner. Just off the top of my head, those were far, far worse. I'm already thinking of a few more...

The Night Flyer.
That one with the rats in the basement... terrible!

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^ I can't remember any of those but sure i've seen them at some point.

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Rats in the basement would be "The Graveyard Shift" man that sucked.
Anyway my fav King movie adaption would be "The Stand" worst is this one.

ARH!, SHarK!

(shark attack 3 MEGALODON)

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The Tommyknockers and The Langoliers are the only two Stephen King based mini-series by ABC that are bad. The Langoliers has this beat, though, because at least it was a faithful adaptation and is basically a cooler story. Still, both were executed rather badly.

* * * *


OK, so what's the speed of dark?

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And how can anyone hate a movie with Balki Bartokomous in it?

Two wrongs don't make a left hand turn.

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Agreed. Bronson Pinchot's (Perfect Stranger's Balki) portrayal of the selfish business man is reason enough to watch the otherwise poorly executed movie The Langoliers. For some reason I always saw Tom Hanks in that story (while reading the book many years ago).

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To whoever said it is not that bad, has clearly never read the book IT. The book takes place in the end of the fifties, not 1960. They were different ages, the guys screwed the girl, they didn't hug her. The whole plot was screwed just to make a made for tv movie.

Is there a chemical in X that makes you dance like a prick?

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[deleted]

So the reason you hate it is because it changes minor things (years it is set and ages) and to appease the censors the boys hugged Bev instead of a gang-bang?

Wow, real strong argument there.

--
If I cannot smoke cigars in heaven, I shall not go!

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I think it comes close



I Worship The Goddess Amber Tamblyn


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Let's recap.....

-The aliens came back to life.
-They changed the ending all together to make it a "everyone lives happily ever after" one.
-The acting was terrible.

It's the worst Stephen King movie I've seen by far, and one of the worst movies I've seen overall (even though it was a mini-series)

Also, please don't get me wrong as a troll or something of that sort either (The Tommyknockers was one of my favorite Stephen King books, and I've read about half the stuff he's written so far.....at least), and I really I don't throw the "worst movie" phrase around lightly).

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I'm sorry, but have you ever seen Maximum Overdrive? That is by FAR the worst King movie.

Two wrongs don't make a left hand turn.

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Mangler, Lawnmower Man & the sequels of Children of the Corn (though not really King, but based on characters)
Tommknockers is very entertaining and not that bad.

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Personally, I was somewhat disappointed in Tommyknockers. It was going right along and then, like the Alfred Hitckcock movie The Birds, it just ended. The cast was good; it was the script, especially the non-ending, that needed work.

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[deleted]

My vote goes to Dreamcatcher.

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Tommyknockers, Dreamcatcher, IT (after I read the book), Maximum Overdrive, Riding the Bullet, Night Flyer, Desperation... the list goes on. They're all equally bad. Unfortunately, SK never got luck with book adaptations to movies or tv. I just recently watched Desperation and after that I read the book again just to wash away the memories of that crap tv adaptation (SK is not a good screenwriter).

Every once in a while there is talented people like Kubrick, Carpenter or Darabont involved with his adaptations, but that's rare.

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<Tommyknockers, Dreamcatcher, IT (after I read the book), Maximum Overdrive, Riding the Bullet, Night Flyer, Desperation... the list goes on. They're all equally bad.>

I agree with your selections of Riding the Bullet, and Tommyknockers, however, I thought that Dreamcatcher and IT were actually pretty good. I haven't seen the other films yet, so I can't comment on them.
My main complaint with Tommyknockers was, as I indicated before, the pointless ending.
You didn't mention them, but Christine and Pet Sematary were both all right, just nothing to write home about.
Have you seen The Stand yet?

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Yes, I have. It's pretty cool, but not as good as the book. The script has a lot of problems to me but it worth a watch.

Christine and Pet Sem. are, like you said, all right. They're not great, but at least they're much better than the ones I listed.

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HEY! The stand kicked ass! Tommyknockers sucked. It was pretty good, and maximum overdrive blew (but was good in lame roger corman way)

David Lynch is the man! Oh yeah and watch Twin Peaks TV series!

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'Salem's lot is by far the worst movie (one of his best books though)

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Excepting the films Darabont has been involved with, Salem's Lot is probably 1 of the best films based on a SK book.

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It's hard to say which is the worse SK film as so many fall far short of his books. So to select the better films is easier.

Top of the pile would have to be THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, DOLORES CLAIBORNE, THE GREEN MILE and STAND BY ME. Followed closely by APT PUPIL and MISERY. I'd also say, except for the ending (which is saying a lot!) CUJO was a pretty good film and DEAD ZONE as well. I liked THE STAND well enough, but maybe it's only because it is my favorite SK novel.

THE SHINING is a great film but, as the title implies (Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining"), it strays from the novel way too much to suit the director's vision not the author's.

If forced to pick one, and having just seen THE TOMMYKNOCKERS again, I'd probably have to say it is the worse SK film. I remember enjoying the book very much and this film effort was particularly disappointing.

SK's stories have always been oddly difficult, and in most cases failures, to bring to the screen. In most cases it is probably due to the time constraints of typical movies. SK's characters need the time to flesh out that only the written word seems to provide. Because without the character development, and empathy they evoke, the story flattens out. That's why, in most instances, the TV mini-series work pretty well, but then they too suffer from lack of big money production. A sad trade-off.


~LjM
Step on it! And don't spare the atoms!

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'Salem's lot is by far the worst movie (one of his best books though) ... I understand that Salem's Lot deviated quite a bit from the book and can be viewed as a bad adaptation of the source material, but it is a damned fine movie in it's own right and certainly better than The Tommyknockers, Graveyard Shift, Maximum Overdrive, Sleepwalkers, and other true King stinkers. The old mini-series is still good, creepy, and effective. It has a great performance by James Mason as Mr. Straker to boot, and genuinely creepy vampire scenes that hold up better than the trash that comes out today and has dominated/ruined the vampire genre over the last fifteen years. And TNT did a new miniseries of Salem's Lot starring Rob Lowe that was closer to the book, but was really bad as well. Oddly enough, the ABC mini-series of The Shining, while still pretty good, paled in comparison to Kubrick's The Shining even though it followed the book very closely. Go figure. In the movie medium, it's all about how well the director crafts his tale on screen and how effectively he uses the tools at his disposal. A good director can make a great film even if it deviates, where as a bad director can take a great script and ruin it. That original mini-series of Salem's Lot is great.

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I'm surprised no one has mentionned "Storm of the century" as a good adaptation.

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I'm surprised no one has mentionned "Storm of the century" as a good adaptation. >>> Storm of the Century was actually written to be a mini-series first, then released as a book. That is why you won't find it mentioned in this thread. It was conceived for TV first.

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