Lack of good storyline.

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie had potential, and on paper, sounded like it would be a lot more fun to watch than it ended up being. Good cast, a neat premise, an accomplished author providing the source material, and a director capable of greatness should have added up to more than what I got.The story concerns a man gaining psychic powers after coming out of a coma, but truth be told this is more the premise than the plot. That's because this film doesn't really have a plot- it has three, and as such feels awkwardly episodic and much longer than its running time because of the lack of momentum and satisfying pace. The first third deals with the main character learning to live with his injuries and newfound powers, the second has him helping a sheriff with a murder investigation, and the third has him trying to take down a terrible presidential candidate before he can get into office and do any lasting damage. The last of these two stories are wrapped up insanely quickly and anticlimactically. I feel like if the film focused on one or the other, it could have been more fleshed out, satisfying, and less awkward. The cast all do a decent job with the occasionally awkward dialogue that one has to expect from most Stephen King adaptations- the guy's got a great imagination and knack for interesting story ideas, for sure, but the way his characters talk does sometimes border on ridiculous. All notable actors within the film have been better elsewhere, however. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this movie is Cronenberg's direction, not because it's bad (it's perfectly serviceable), but because the film overall doesn't feel like a Cronenberg movie. It has little of the style, tension, sense of dread, or boldness that makes films like The Fly, Dead Ringers, and Eastern Promises so memorable.The Dead Zone dips its toes into a number of genres- drama, horror, sci-fi, thriller, romance- but doesn't go far enough in any way to stand out within any of said genres. This coupled with the film's weirdly episodic, poorly paced nature means that it fails to stand out or make much of an impact. Very little is terrible, but at the same time, nothing's really better than average, and so I feel like a 5/10 rating makes sense, and reflects how I felt watching this. I feel like I'll forget most of what I just watched within a couple of days.Oh, except for the scene near the end where Martin Sheen's character literally grabs a baby to use as a shield after Christopher Walken's character tries to shoot him. You don't even have to pretend it's a deleted scene from The West Wing for that to be hilarious, mainly because of how absurd and over-the-top it is. Maybe the rest of the movie could have tried to be a little more out there; at least that would have made it a decent amount more fun.

I had a few problems with this movie from the beginning. I didn't think Christopher Walken was a great choice for the role. He doesn't emote all that well, and his weird delivery doesn't play well in a dramatic role. I think the movie could have been written better. If the character had stuck with the "hunt for the serial killer" aspect, for the entire movie, it would've been more compelling, and would probably have made the movie a classic. What we got though were three separate cases, which don't really lend themselves to each other. No case Walken's character works on seems to segway another. By the time we get to the end of the film, it feel as though it could have been a better climax. The story arches in the wrong places, the character doesn't progress very well, and you kind've get sick of trying to watch Christopher Walken fake a really bad limp. I also had to yell at him when in the end he stood up to shoot the rifle. He had a perfect shot while he was knelt down, why would he stand up? That all being said, I did enjoy it for its simplicity and mystery. The light sprinkling of violence throughout the movie kept me going too.

This is Christopher Walken's film, really. He stands head and shoulders above all the other actors on screen at all times. Why? Well, Walken looks like he really has travelled to the brink of death, with his pale features and disturbing limp. Blighted by visions of death, Walken is coldly compelling and chilling in his role. Cronenberg has a habit of casting slightly weird/creepy leading men – think Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons, Jeff Goldblum – and Walken is among the best of the bunch. He does get able support from an OTT Martin Sheen as the corrupt politician, and his doctor is played by none other than Herbert Lom. It's great to see Lom back on the screen and he's as good as he ever was. Brooke Adams, from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, is Walken's love interest here.The entire film is realistic and tends to be disturbing rather than horrifying, which is what you come to expect with Cronenberg's work (check out DEAD RINGERS if you like this man's style). One of the best King adaptations, but also, one of the best films dealing with psychic phenomena, it's clear that this influenced later movies like FINAL DESTINATION. I'm usually not too keen on these psychic link films, because really I find the topic a bit limited in scope. There are only so many times you can show somebody having a vision or something. THE DEAD ZONE goes beyond that and is a film which is actually better than the book (in my opinion, of course). If you're at all interested in psychological horror (be warned, there are some gruesome scenes involving a serial killer as well) then look out for this one because it's a cracker with one hell of a twist ending.

Revisited this one not long ago just to see if my initial impression of it would change; it didn't. Well-crafted but oddly COLD (as are many of Cronenberg's films), THE DEAD ZONE DOES boast one unforgettable scene: the scene where Sheen snatches up the baby to use as a shield. It's a quintessential Political move- especially in this Day and Age. Like it or not, we live in what Norman Mailer, writing in CANNIBALS AND CHRISTIANS, called "a world whose ultimate logic is war, because in a world of war all overproduction and overpopulation is possible since people and commodities may be destroyed wholesale." THE DEAD ZONE suggests, too, that a Psychological Evaluation of potential Political Leaders might be in order. "Politics," wrote Mailer, "was the place where finally nobody meant what they said- it was a world of nightmare; psychopaths roved." As for World War "Three" (there've been so MANY World Wars, from Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan to what-day-of-the-week-is-it?, that it's hard to keep track), said Mailer: "One's own suicide might be lost in a national suicide."