The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

The Mist Blu-ray Sept 16

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I'm glad I didn't cave and buy the DVD

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Great news! This must mean, that the "Weinstein" is "back"?

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Nice! I really hope the black and white version is included here

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Excellent......I've been wanting to watch this one. Maybe now that Weinstein is (supposedly) on the same page as the rest of the studios, perhaps "Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair' is a possibility.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

I caved because the Two-Disc Collector's Edition contained the black-and-white version of the movie. Until I see that the forthcoming Blu-ray Disc includes both versions, I won't regret that choice. That said, I certainly hope it does, and I'll be buying this release regardless, as that is how much I enjoyed this film.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Sold! I waited on this one too!

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Weinstein to Release First Theatrical Blu-ray with 'The Mist' | High-Def Digest

2-disc release with both color and black & white versions in HD.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Looks like you don't have to worry!

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Yes, that is indeed excellent news! Murphy's Law dictates that the black-and-white version wouldn't have been included if I hadn't bought the Collector's Edition SD DVD though. Oh, well, this film was that good, IMHO.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

What movies did Weinstein release on HD DVD? I know they put out Clerks II but what else did they release?

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Weinstein HD-DVD releases:

Black Christmas (2006)
Harsh Times
Feast
Lucky Number Slevin
Pulse
The Matador
Scary Movie 4
Wolf Creek

Genius released

School for Scoundrels
Derailed

- Walter.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Thanks, Walter!

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Good to see Weinstein finally getting back into the HD game... I just hope they release their Dragon Dynasty stuff this time around.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Glad I held out. As a horror fan that is pretty jaded by most newer horror films, this one really stood out to me.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Sorry to vent, guys...
I don't mind dark endings or films but this was needless and pointless. I get that Darabont was going for the cynical "Night Of the Living Dead" ending, but that's not the way the original was. A cheap, manipulative way to wring emotion out of the audience that is neither telegraphed nor earned. A cop-out. Imagine if at the end of "The Shawshank Redemption" Morgan Freeman's character "Red" had been killed right before he meets up again with Tim Robbins's character? Would absolutely suck and pretty much negate the preceding 2 hours of movie, yes? Sure, it would have been HEAVY and SAD and TRAGIC but simply wrong for the film and story it was in. Well, as someone who has been a fan of the novella "The Mist" for years, I'm amazed that King let this kinda major story change fly. Maybe that van clipping him by the side of the road really did send him into the dark. A shame. Up until the ending I was absolutely loving it. I had heard that the ending was different but never imagined it would happen the way it did. As a recent new father, it pissed me off even more. Lazy, manipulative film-making 101. A cheap, tasteless ending for a good film and for a novella that deserved much better.

Thanks, Frank. From now on, I'll just re-read the story and not rewatch the film again. I'm GLAD the movie tanked at the box office. It deserved to IMHO...


On the plus side, the B+W version looked excellent.




(Sorry, one of my all time fave stories by King ruined IMHO and me being a new father really being bothered by the ending....)

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Psst...Dave...it made $53 million worldwide on an $18 million budget. Even if advertising was 1/2 of the budget (making the total cost $27 million), the movie still made money.

Source: Box Office Mojo

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Come on Dave, tell us how you really feel.

Having just watched this movie again last weekend, my opinion is the opposite of Dave's. I had no problem with it at all (granted, I'm not a father yet). I never read the novella either, but I believe that King went on record to say that he thinks Darabont's ending was, in his opinion, much better than his own. I just went on Wikipedia to check what the ending of the Novella was and I just don't think that would have worked for me in this film. Not only was the ending in the film appropiately brutal, but it gave a nice twist ending as well.
Warning Spoiler! Click to show In a way also, the ending was telegraphed when Draydon told his son
Warning Spoiler! Click to show

You really can't compare this film with "Shawshank" either. Other than having characters stuck in a shitty situation, these are completely different stories with different themes. "The Mist" was a all out horror story while "Shawshank" had the theme of perseverence of the human spirit. You are correct that the ending you describe for Shawshank would have negated the two previous hours based on the theme of the story. I think a "happier" ending for "The Mist" would have done the same.

Frankly Dave, with all due respect, I'm surprised that you would say something like that. Spewing such venom on a film (that you admit you were really into) because you found the ending to be contrary to your tastes. I see similiar sentiments from time to time on this forum (for example in the AVP2 thread, there was a big bone of contention because
Warning Spoiler! Click to show like you're now "allowed" to do that.) I feel sometimes sentiments like that are the reason that Hollywood does not like to take risks and present daring story choices. You're obviously perfectly free to express your opinion, of course, but I must say, you're above comment seems a bit unwarranted to me.

I think "The Mist" was the best horror film to come out of Hollywood since 2004's "Dawn of the Dead"

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

REALLY well said, Will, and I agree with you in all regards.

The Mist is my favorite horror movie in a very long time and having watched the Blu-Ray this past weekend, I was quite pleaed with the a/v quality.

I think it's a msterpiece through and through. LOVED the ending, it's appropriate for the movie--at least for my money. Very painful and bothersome.

I love that a horror film was able to provoke that rection in me again ... it's been far too long.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Funny about King's comment about Darabont's ending being better than his own. I'm a huge King fan and find little to complain about, but one of my dear friends from college used to say "Man, King can create a 98% compelling narrative but he needs to learn how to end his stories better." She'd be smiling now, I'm sure.

I haven't watched the film yet, and to be honest I don't remember the book all that well either, so I'm looking forward to screening this on Friday on BD and the re-reading the book (I have it somewhere) and posting my thoughts.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

Gotcha Will,

and last nite I was pretty peeved. (also have been working 60-70 hour weeks for the last 6 weeks and am beat and was REALLY looking forward to finally watching this as because of our baby, we haven't been to the movies in forever)
It's also a story that I loved and reread many times over the years. I understand having a bit of a different ending but a completely opposite one?
Also when a fave story or book of yours is radically changed it can be very irritating, (hence the unusal venom from me late last nite)
For example, I saw Kubrick's The Shining when I was 12 having never read the book and loved it. I had a few friends (older) and relatives who had read the book first and HATED the film, I mean HATED it because of the change regarding Dick Hallorhan's fate. Later after reading the book, I saw their point even if I didn't have the same pissed reaction. With "The Mist", I did in regards to the fate of the people in the car.

Well, just IMHO, King made the wrong choice and should've kept the original ending or not one that was just so "Oooh, how IRONIC!"
Smacks of cheap manipulation and laziness IMHO.


JUST in my little opinion...

.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

I get what you're trying to say. You have all this affection for the book over the years and the film goes with a radically different ending (especially with you being a new father, something you could never want to imagine having to do.) But I guess one has to distance themselves from a book a bit while watching a film and judge what works within a film. Take "Jaws" for example. If you read that book and loved it should Spielberg have kept the ending of the book where the shark simply drowns at the end, or gone with the different but more exciting and theatrical ending that we all know now. Another example, say "Jurassic Park", would I have loved to see a film that followed closely to the book? sure, I love the book and have read it several times. The film ended up being radically different from the book in many ways. But the film worked fine for me anyway.

I guess the ending of "The Mist" did not work for you, and that's fine. For me, having seen it a couple of times, I can't imagine what would have been more effective for me given the situation that they were in.

I still think it was refreshing to see a film pull no punches like that. In most cases a film is altered from its source material to make it more upbeat, more crowd pleasing. In this case it was the opposite. I'm surprised the studio even allowed that ending to be used. Was that the reason, it didn't do better at the box office? possibly. I just happen to think the ending of King's story would likely have been a letdown after the horrific two hours that preceeded it.

I don't know if you watched the color or the B&W version. If you did watch it in color, I would suggest giving it another chance with the B&W version once the movie ending has "sunk in" for you a bit more, since you said you were pretty into it up until the end.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

I hear ya Will. And now with some distance I will be much more objective.
It was weird. After all these years of reading the story, I got to know and like these characters. It just felt like "WHAT?!?!?!? NO!"
And I agree about JAWS, thought the film was a big improvement over the book.

And I did watch the B+W version. Looked great.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

WARNING! spoliers ahead and don't know how to activate spoiler tags!

















Watched it again with the wife tonite objectively and still think that the ending ruins the story.
These reviewers pretty much sums up my feeling...

http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-11-...sation-nation/

"...All this would be disappointing, but not infuriating, if the film's ending weren't so unforgivably bad. Darabont abruptly abandons his master's text in the movie's final minutes, sending Drayton and his little boy a plot twist that wouldn't be fair to reveal, but which is so distasteful and untrue to all that's come before it as to be a slap in the face to characters and audience alike. The last word in King's story was "hope," and while Darabont certainly has the right to head in the opposite direction—in our own monster-filled world, happy endings are harder than ever to buy—he does so in a manner that's both pretentious and cruel. The Mist made me want to scream, but for all the wrong reasons."


Cruel, pretentious ending ruins King creature-feature. :: The Memphis Flyer :: Film Reviews :: Film

"Unsatisfied with King's open-ended conclusion, The Mist tacks on an extreme ending (which I won't give away, though I'm tempted), more worthy of an ironic Eli Roth horror movie than the middling creature-feature The Mist actually is. There's something smug, pretentious, and self-congratulatory about the utter pessimism and cruelty of the ending. It might have worked in a better, more severe movie, but it angered me here because I didn't think the movie earned it. Or maybe even because the movie — or at least its actors — actually earned better..."

Interesting in the choice of language in the second review that was exactly the same as mine. It didn't "earn" the ending. And forgetting the "cruelty" of the ending, what about the plausibility?

I'll try to explain. If you knew you were running out of gas, wouldn't you look for some possible shelter? Some place to at least TRY to bolt to from the car to get some sanctuary? A motel? A gas station? A house? Something? You would just run out of gas in the middle of the road with absoluetly nothing around? (Yes, I know the mist itself makes things tricky to see but come ON...)
Secondly, after the gas runs out, you and three other adults would take just one minute to make and accept this monumental decision? One minute? The human instinct for survival is much greater than that IMHO. How did they know that in 6 or 8 hours, something wouldn't have changed? Maybe the mist would have cleared, (like it miraculously did 2 minutes later in what would have been a ridiculous deus ex machina) or some help would have come by. Wouldn't you have waited a little while? A few hours if not a day or so?
If the father really wanted to be a hero, he would have left the gun with the others and tried to make a run for it, to find ANYTHING that could help them with perhaps explicit orders that if he didn't make it back to maybe continue with their one minute of consideration decision.
And then when the decision is reached and the kid wakes up and stares directly at the father, he continues?!?!?!? What are you kidding me?!?!? Nominate the dad for the worst and cruelest dad of the year award. The last thing your son sees on earth is his father pointing a gun at him?!?!? (Now, my wife argued that maybe this was to show that the father and the people in the car weren't much different, better than the Ms. Carmody flock in the market.) Fine. But to properly do that, you should show the father's weaknesses and moral whatevers EARLIER in the film. In the novella, the father sleeps with the woman because he thinks he'll never see his wife again so it gives him a wee bit of a shade of grey, (also makes the line that Marcia Gay says, "Get the whore too!" make some sense) but the father was depicted as a straight up, natural leader, heroic even. Admirable.

ummm, didn't buy the ending being at ALL plausible. Neither did the wife who had no faithfulness to the novella the way I did. And then the pretentious "Baraka" music, (yes, same piece and similar slo-mo footage IS in "Baraka") to underline the IRONY and HEAVINESS of what happens. Ugh. Sorry. JUST imho. It's a terrible ending. A downer ending is one thing. Hell, I loved "Requiem For a dream". But this just did not fit, was unrealistic and then on top of all of that, the suddenly hollywood slo-mo, wailing middle eastern woman singing artsy pretentious garbage music video style switch. You could just watch the scene in "Baraka". It's practically the same. The kind of scene South Park would gleefully mock.

You know what WOULD have made the ending work? If it had taken longer to arrive at that point. If say, they were out of water and after seven or eight hours without water they are so parched that they pull over at a gas station and have one of them, (the blonde woman, say) risk a quick run to an outdoor soda machine to try and get some beverages and try to break it open, say with a crowbar and attract the boogies and die horribly in front of them. To actually show a character die onscreen that the audience invested some time and emotion in unlike the more stock characters in the market. THAT would really underscore the hopelessness and make the decision more plausible. As it plays now, it's like "Whoops! Crap. Out of gas. Nice knowing y'all. pow."

Also, why adapt a novella if you are going to completely change the ending? In the OPPOSITE way. In the book, they hear 2 words over the radio through The Mist. One is I believe, "Portland" (or another Maine city, skeleton Crew book is in storage at the moment) the second word is "hope..." leading the reader to believe that although we don't know the fate of the people in the car, it ends on more of an optimistic note. To change that and simply have the father very unrealistically do what he did and then tack on the ironic ending just to hammer home the heaviness of his decision and the irony, (oooh, if he had just waited 2 more minutes!!!!!) is just change for change's sake IMHO and adds nothing to the story. It basically negates the previous 2 hours. A very poor and unrealistic attempt at a "Twilight Zone" type ending.
Anyways, loved 98% of it though...


JUST imho.

Re: The Mist Blu-ray announced for Sept 16

I love the movie, dispite the ending. I have 2 kids, and I couldnt give up as easy, after making it so far!
Course if it was me, i would have died in the first 5 minutes!