Stuart R
The first and last acts are fun enough to watch [but] about halfway in, things are just completely nonsensical. 🍅 more so gonna let it slide- last act saved it for me.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/04/24
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Howard H
Awkward from beginning to end. A plot which at the end is quite surprisingly...bad however enjoyable at times.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/19/24
Full Review
Drift B
Mediocre makes you wonder why this Stephen king is so famous with so many bad movies
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
01/03/24
Full Review
Charles T
Stephen King's novel, written under the name Richard Bachman, makes a successful transition to the screen. Billy (Robert John Burke) is a highly successful defense attorney, getting an acquittal for known mobster Richie (Joe Mantegna). He is trying to diet, topping the scales at three hundred pounds. One night while driving home, Heidi (Lucinda Jenney), Billy's wife, begins fooling around in the car with him while he is driving. In the throes of passion, Billy does not see an elderly gypsy woman crossing the street, runs over her, and kills her. The judge and police chief conspire to cover the crime up, and the death is ruled accidental. That does not sit well with the old woman's even older father, Lempke (Michael Constantine), who brushes Billy's cheek and whispers the title of the film. Soon, Billy is dropping three or four pounds a day. He seems to be disappearing before everyone's eyes, but concern sets in. He is eating twelve thousand calories a day, still losing weight, and now Heidi and his doctor (Sam Freed) are spending a little too much time together. Billy decides to track down the gypsies, especially after hearing and witnessing others in on the conspiracy were cursed as well, and he mistakenly enlists Richie to help him.
Greg Cannom's special effects make-up is phenomenal. He has won Oscars in the past, and he should have won again for this film. Burke is totally believable going from 300 to 124 pounds in the span of the story. It helps that Burke's performance is as flawless as his make-up. He does not let all that latex and rubber get in the way, and goes from sympathetic to slightly deranged rather well. Jenney is also good as Heidi, although her character is often relegated to the "supportive wife" routine. The first hour of the film is very suspenseful. Billy is chasing the gypsies, and the authorities are chasing him. However, the film's biggest flaw was also the novel's biggest flaw- letting the convenient mob friend Richie help get revenge on the gypsies. Mantegna is one of those great actors who never receives his just credit, but here his character is just a caricature of mob types Mantegna has played before especially on "The Simpsons"- try listening to Mantegna and not hearing Fat Tony. Holland's direction keeps things fresh, he shockingly shot this on location in Maine instead of fleeing to Canada like most Hollywood films, but the screenplay feels rushed most of the time. I wonder if this would have made a more effective transition to mini-series form, something King has done before. I was surprised by "Thinner." Considering what some film makers have done to King's work, it is a better adaptation when put in that context. Strongly anchored by believable make-up and gore effects, and a fantastic central performance, I recommend it.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
09/28/23
Full Review
kotiko g
Gypsies do not seem to be a threat to society, they lead a wandering life. They don't have one particular place of residence. They make certain demands in order to have basic bread money. But gypsies can curse a person if he "deserves" it. Tom Holland's 1996 film is built around this theme. In the epicenter of the events is the famous lawyer Billy Halleck, who is suffering from obesity. Billy keeps a poor diet, which naturally worries his wife. "One fine day" Billy will hit a gypsy, Suzanne, with his car and kill her. Of course, the lawyer did not do this on purpose. While behind the wheel, he is distracted by his wife (Heidi Halleck). The court did not recognize Bill as an accused and considered the girl's death an accident. As if a successful lawyer easily hid from justice, but don't be sorry. Tadzu Lemke, the father of the dead gypsy girl, gave the killer a curse of thinness. This is a story about a person who did not take responsibility for himself and was punished accordingly. Over time, Bill loses weight, but eats more food than he should. As if what could be better than this, although this fact seems alarming to Hyde, because such an illogical development of events can make the health problem urgent. After some time, Billy realizes that he and everyone else who took part in Billy's trial has been cursed by a group of gypsies. Hyde does not believe this story and believes that Billy should be treated. In the second half of the film, the director shows the tense phase of the husband-wife relationship. Bill is jealous. He thinks Hyde is quietly spending time with Dr. Mike. Such a development of events can have such an explanation. Hyde realizes that Bill is losing his mind and tries to stay away from such a person. However, this story line is not fully resolved. Because there is not even one scene in the film that gives us a satisfactory and justified answer to the question of whether Hyde is really cheating on her husband or not. In the end, Billy finds a way out through revenge. I would single out two controversial scenes that are identical to each other in some component. 1) Suzanne's death (where Heidi didn't warn Billy that a gypsy was crossing the road) 2) going to Glassman's clinic (Heidi was sitting behind the wheel, she was distracted while talking to her husband on the road, which almost caused an accident. Amoto also gave our unfortunate hero a sense of injustice.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
07/30/23
Full Review
andrew p
Great suspenseful film! Interesting plot twists. A must see!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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