1408

John Cuzak, Samuel L Jackson

2007

Two of my favourite actors do their upmost, but still the film goes a little flat.

Not that it's a bad film, not that it's excessive or either too over the top or too underplayed, it simply could have been better.

You probably already know the plot - an evil hotel room whose only reason for existence is to kill you.

That's about it - how to make it into an hour&1/2 movie? Add more to the character - Cuzak as a writer of supernatural hauntings of hotels, who doesn't believe in his subject matter, and having abandoned his wife after the death of their daughter left him bereft of any faith in God.

That could have been played out to such great effect - it was used, yes, but could have been used more. The room, of course, played upon that guilt to drive Cuzak even further mad - still . . .

Jackson, of course, kicks butt in any movie, and he's no different here, as the hotel manager. Only terrible part: when Cuzak sees him in the middle of the dormfridge. That was stupid.

And yes, by the time the flood of water came pouring out of the maritime painting, I was thinking how like Jumanji this whole fiasco had become.

And that alarm clock that kept playing the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun." - That Christine-esque plot device was only effective the first time. By the fourth time, it was just annoying, rather than horrifying.

Still, I believe that we as moviegoers have come to expect that any film which alludes to Stephen King really has very little to do with his original work, and so none of this should reflect upon the original short story (which I need to read by the way). And lastly, as I sat down to do this little writeup, I notice now that the DVD says that it has two "bone-chilling" alternate endings. I think I need to check those out.

However, I will say that the ending of this movie was actually fairly satisfying, and I, like the character played by Jackson, reclined in my chair, saying, "Good job, Mr Enslin, good job!"


VG