CinemaClock Toronto

Think of this as "The Shining" lite. Johnny Depp once again saves an otherwise dreary movie from total disaster. The story is predictable, the direction is ineffective and it just works much better as a book than a movie. I truly think they're scraping the bottom of the barrel for Stephen King stories to turn into movies. But we'll only know that for sure when someone tries to adapt Gerald's Game into a movie. That said, David Koepp is probably the best screenwriter in Hollywood, having penned Panic Room, Spider-Man and Jurassic Park. His knack for realistic, snappy dialogue is evident here and Johnny Depp and Timothy Hutton work with it well. As a director though, I don't think Koepp cuts it. Some scenes that truly could have been cringe-inducing did little to jar my nerves here. I wouldn't recommend this movie to the casual movie-goer unless you either have to see every King adaptation made, or if you're a Johnny Depp groupie. Otherwise, skip it.

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