Stephen King's The Langoliers

Patricia Wettig, Dean Stockwell
Teleplay and Director Tom Holland
1995 Republic Pictures

I think this is a made-for-TV venture that starred the two actors still hot off their thirtysomething and St Elsewhere shows. Also, this is one of King's mixing horror with Sci-Fi ventures.

Started off great - the mystery of how the people were left on the plane. Good characterization.

The airport scene excellent, but overdone. The tension of "what's making that noise" was great, unitl 10 minutes in, and 20 minutes, and by 30 minutes we no longer care. Also, the character of the man "facing his own demons" and taken over by the memory of his father was a bit pat - and contributed nothing, and in fact, detracted, from the story.

Completely hated the actual Langoliers - hairballs with giant teeth? Come on! Scary monsters had no place in a psychological thriller.

Liked the idea of having to be asleep to cross back through the portal - and the sci-fi aspect of time catching up to them - being out of time, everything being stale - very interesting and while science purists would rip apart the glaring errors, I still thought it was interesting.

VG