Movie Review: The Mist

I will start by saying, I am not a Frank Darabont fan. Do I like Shawshank Redemption?  Yes. It's pretty good.  It doesn't make my heart flutter.  Something about Tim Robbins maybe. Everything he has done since just does nothing for me.  I loved the pilot episode for The Walking Dead. It was great. But it was like a cheesy B-movie without an ending. On tv, a great promise for what is to come.  And what was to come was shit.  Lots of it.  (Why didn't they stay closer to the books on that one?)

I listen to the slashFilm podcast every week and those guys are big fans of The Mist. Especially David Chen. I don't necessarily put much weight into that, but I did want to at least give it a chance because of this.

The movie hits pretty much every trope of a 'we're all stuck together' story.  The tough guy who really isn't that tough when shit hits the fan, the level headed female empowerment chick, the nerdy guy who really is useful after all, the old person with an attitude, the guy who is just too smart to believe any of this is real, the religious freak... and the hero.  Who is usually mild-mannered, but rises to action when needed.  This movie has it all.  And these tropes seem to be magnified here, particularly the religious freak. It also has some really good moments.  But it also has some really awful dialogue. And mediocre acting.  I do like Thomas Jane and Toby Jones, but they are the lone bright spots in the cast.  What I did like about it was how it kept surprising me.  I knew when shit started happening what the cause was, but it definitely kept you in the dark exactly what was in the mist, and why.  The reason is sort of lame, but they more or less just needed a reason and explained it away quickly.  What really got me was the ending.  I was impressed that they were willing to pull no punches and go balls out.  I'm not going to ruin it, but everyone that has seen the film will know what I'm talking about.  It's not a big action scene.  In fact, you don't even see the moment - you just hear it.  But it is pretty powerful stuff.  And I guess it made up for all the bad dialogue and acting up to that point.