Desperation (2006)

To me, this movie is perfection.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

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

The first half of the movie can be described as interesting. Ron Perlman plays the role of a possessed cop, who has built his web like a spider on the town Desperation and the main road. He preys on travelers, catching them in his prison to use them as future hosts. Because the demon possessing him uses up the human bodies quickly.After catching quite a few people and killing some of them for... entertainment, I guess, he finds his mortal enemy in a boy. I forgot the name of the kid, but his message keeps ringing in my ears since he insists in repeating it for the rest of the movie in countless occasions. "Love god, trust him and endure whatever he wishes to bring upon you. Always do, whatever he asks without doubting anything." I'm not a religious man, but that isn't even what was annoying me. It was the hypocrisy. They spend time talking about the "free will", only to sum up that mankind is supposed to give up this free will and become nothing more than a puppet or slave to an omnipotent being. Which - even according to the movie - may or may not slay or save everyone at whim. Like a kid playing with toys and occasionally breaking some of them.Anyway, the fight between the demon and the humans isn't bad. It fulfills its purpose. The background story is kind of lazy though. They included some content with the former Chinese workers and the mine where the demon was accidentally freed some hundred or more years ago. And just when you might start getting curious about it one of them asks "What's the goal of the demon?" to which the boy answers "Does't matter. We only care about what god wants". They didn't even take the time to explain that. Like I said, lazy.Without these flaws it could have been a good movie, but as it is you might want to look for something better to spent your time on.

Stephen King's books have a habit of being hit and miss when they make the transfer from paper to the screen. In fact, more of them have been 'misses' that 'hits.' This one falls into that grey area somewhere in between.As per usual, anyone who's read the book 'Desperation' is based on laments how it's been interpreted on the big screen. I hear it's best to just read the book. It was supposed to be a two (or more?) part TV mini series, but, in the end, got turned into a 'made-for-TV' movie. It runs at about two and half hours and – sometimes – feels every bit as long.It's about a collection of various characters who all get (unfairly) 'caught' by – the slightly unhinged – Sheriff of a town in the middle of nowhere, subtly called 'Desperation.' Then, once incarcerated inside his cells, they have to come up with a way of escaping from more than just the immediate bars that surround them.First of all, it's worth mentioning that we have Ron Perlman on the cast list, who – as usual – turns in a brilliant performance as the afore-mentioned nutter-Sheriff. Any fans of Ron's will enjoy the film just on his appearance. However, what's left is good and bad as the rag-tag band of survivors try to figure out what happened. It's a bit like The Stand, only not as long and therefore with a 'rushed' feel in places and 'not enough information' in others.Also, it's worth noting that the film relies heavily on 'God' to move the plot forwards. Atheists beware – they may get a little tired of everything the Almighty doing being right all the time.It's not a great King adaptation, but it's certainly not the worst either. Enjoy it for its perks and do your best to forgive it for the parts when it drags a bit.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/

This was a fairly faithful adaptation of the Stephen King novel. After a couple is arrested by a crazed police officer after he planted a bag of dope in their car during a "search" while they were passing through his town of Desperation, Nevada, he locks the wife in a jail cell and kills the husband. She then learns that the other prisoners there have gotten similar treatment. Meanwhile, an author gets a similar arrest, a guy picks up a hitchhiker and they start investigating things, and a bunch of creepy dogs and other members of the canine family (wolves, coyotes, etc.) start popping up.Ron Pearlman gives a great turn as the cop, and this was a great cast. I think this was a good way to spend time watching a movie if you're a Stephen King fan. Give this one a shot.*** out of ****

I read Desperation (and its twin, the Regulators) years ago when they were released and like most King novels, though "gee, this would be a good movie if done right." I never knew about the miniseries and found it here on IMDb. Upon that discovery, my internal argument went: "Five stars, meh. King wrote the teleplay though, so it can't be all bad." I took the plunge, watching this with my wife. I've read it, she has not. We are both King fans and enjoy his work. And in the end, we both like this production.The teleplay closely follows the novel, and there are plenty of details for those who have read it. The casting could have been better, I think - all of the actors involved seemed a little less than convincing but they also weren't phoning it in. Ron Perlman was great as the lead bad guy, and as a reader he was just what I expected. Tom Skerrit was the other big name that people will know, and I didn't think he was enough of an asshole (the character in the book most decidedly is). The movie itself plays out more like a horror flick of King's in the vein of Carrie or his earlier work, which is not a bad thing, but I felt it detracted from the deeper story underneath at times. I would have preferred more character development but again, King wrote the teleplay and if he felt it told the story, I can live with that. Kudos to King for providing the back story that is necessary to the plot in a concise way that the movie format needed instead of trying to weave it in more subtly.My wife, having not read the book, had more questions about what was going on at times but agreed that it kept her interest right up through the end. Thus, my recommendation is to watch this if you like King's work, but it would not be an introduction to his world. I also believe that reading the book first will deepen your enjoyment of the movie because it, too, holds your interest and keeps you wondering.