Riding the Bullet (2004)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Powerful

Absolutely Fantastic

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Alan is a morose youth who hitches home from college after learning that his mother is dying. Not every driver is ideal though.Stephen King is probably my favourite author (in that I like both the general area he covers and also his style) and it is always interesting to see filmed adaptations of his work. Not always enjoyable, but always interesting. The problem is that it is easy to capture the physical events of his stories, but the best part of the writing is what goes on in the heads of the character. This adaptation of a short story tries to address this by various means, as a consequence of which you are never quite sure whether what you are seeing is real (whether now or flashback) or imagination, hallucination or the like.Mick Garris, who seems to be King's collaborator of choice, does the same sort of job here which he has done on so much of King's material - he produces a competent but relatively thrill-less TV movie. The problem here is that this is a cinema release, and so it seems reasonable to expect the stakes to have been raised. Apart from some bad language and a couple of bare breasts, it hasn't, and this film is not the one to result in my reconsideration of Garris as a journeyman director. Other directors do King much better (also, to be fair, many are no better than Garris).Incidentally, this isn't one of King's better stories: it recycles elements of Christine, The Talisman, and The Road Virus Heads North, to name but three.

after reading some of these awful reviews, I have to conclude that you need to be in your 50s to enjoy this movie. well, I am, and I did! a lot.it was really beautifully shot, the story was interesting, and the acting was fine. Barbara Hershey has always been one of my favorite actresses, and I love the fact that her face is still HER face! the late '60s vibe was a little hit-or-miss (somebody above mentioned the plastic bong), but the music was perfect. if you like creepy movies that also make you think, you'll like this, although you might find the resolution a bit unsatisfying. if you just want to see zombies eat humans, you might not.

The story Riding the Bullet is a short story from Stephen King's Everything's Eventual. The name of the book holds very true to the premise of the movie on how life's journey can have moments of sheer terror, for example a death in the family. Garris uses horrific scenes and imagination to employ how scary real life can be. The movie is very much a trip because its tough to tell what is imagination or real. I enjoyed the movie because its quotable, interesting plot and the viewer can be emotionally attached to the main lead. The antagonist, Mr. Arquette does a fine job being evil and is the cherry atop of Riding the Bullet.

When I saw the preview for this movie, I didn't expect it to be much. I thought it would be just another lame hitchhiker movie. But as soon as I started watching, I couldn't stop. The scenes with Alan's inner self were hilarious! Jonathan Jackson did such a great job in this movie. He took every line and perfected it. It was a funny/sad/freaky movie to sum it up. George Staub freaked me out completely. As soon as the older Alan began talking in the end, I began crying. When Alan's mom died, I had to get the tissues out! Between that sad music and Alan's high pitched voice saying "Mom?" I couldn't help but sob. The last few scenes with older Alan riding the Bullet made me cry even more! "Fun is fun, and done is done. Nobody lives forever, but we all shine on." Beautiful script, beautiful movie. 10/10. Very well played. I hope to see the actors and actresses again in more movies! Brilliant!