This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Blistering performances.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I never would have imagined putting Gary Sinese and Molly Ringwald together as a (romantic) couple, but for some mysterious reason it seems to have worked really well. I found myself quite moved in a couple of places, which was a nice surprise.I was also amazed at how perfectly cast Laura San Giacomo was as 'Nadine.' Very scary, almost too scary like it was real life, not acting. Corin Nemac was also good as 'Harold,' the unsuspecting victim of her super scariness.

This is one of Stephen King's most epic stories, there are others, but this one is probably one of the first. It is the forever-told story of the battle of good versus evil but without CGI, gimmicks and unrelatable characters. This story frightens you to the core because of how real everything seems to be. It could in fact happen tomorrow, to all of us, any of us. King is not an overly religious man, from what I have read but his ability to tell stories with religion deeply ingrained, amazes me. He does it from a standpoint rarely seen, if at all, and doesn't force the reader/watcher to believe any one thing but to just, think, perhaps deeper than they ever have before. However, don't be put off by the 'deepness' of it all, it's got enough comedy, action and adventure to still be an 'easy to watch' film with mates on a Friday night.

The first time I saw this was back in 94 when I was 12 years old. At the time I thought it was great. It wasn't until the 2000's before I saw it again and I have re-watched it from time to time. The first two hours holds up well for me. I always enjoy seeing the start of any plague movie or TV miniseries. It's interesting to see what unfolds in the story. By today's standards, The Stand might seem too timid or slow to build to anything. For me, I enjoy watching what happens around these characters and how they react. Seeing entire society crumble before you is pretty cool. Where the Stand starts to fall apart is when more focus is put on good vs evil. Good vs evil is really the main plot of the story. It really all goes down hill around the two hour mark. That's when the plague story ends. Not only that, the story starts to fall apart, characters begin to get annoying, the acting seems to get worse and worse, jumps in the story start to happen, continuity is poor and the excitement is over. It started out as a story that could have gone anywhere and then pigeon holes itself. Overall, I think it's worth a watch, but don't be surprised if your interest in the miniseries wanes.

TV mini-series adapted from Stephen King's epic apocalyptic novel about a plague that wipes out most of the world's population. A group of walking clichés survive, some joining the forces of good (led by Ruby Dee) and some joining the forces of evil (led by Jamey Sheridan, sporting a hilarious mullet). "The Stand" was never my favorite King novel, although I did enjoy it when I read it probably twenty years ago or so. This mini-series was almost doomed to failure from the start for trying to accomplish a story with such grand scope on a TV budget. It's directed by Mick Garris, who has directed many Stephen King adaptations (most of which are garbage). I'm not a fan of Garris but I will say this is definitely him putting forth his A effort. He's limited by his budget and lack of talent so he does remarkably well considering. Most of the Love Boat-style cast are adequate, with some standing out for good performances (Gary Sinise, Rob Lowe, Miguel Ferrer) and others standing out for how hammy they are (Ruby Dee, Jamey Sheridan, Matt Frewer). Others are just plain awful (Laura San Giacomo, Parker Lewis). On the whole, it's very watchable for its length but never reaches its potential, TV excuse notwithstanding. At times it is extremely campy and even corny. There's some entertainment in that, of course, but it hurts the film more than it helps because the story really needs you to take it seriously for it to work.