Ok, so it has been FOREVER since I wrote anything here! I was thinking of a place to just record some thoughts about different movies and things I saw, and then I tried to look for this old blog instead of starting a new one because I am lazy. Some funny stuff from four years ago on here-I think I should never have posted my revised Indy IV post, because I think I nailed it the first time. That movie sucks. Bad. I was in denial for a LONG time on that one.
Ok, so I was up late with my 1 month old son this past Saturday night, and I had recorded IT (the 1990 version) on Spike. I literally had not seen it since 1990 when I was a teenager. I had forgotten most of it. I remembered Richard Thomas and his epic ponytail and Tim Curry's Pennywise but that was about it. Fast forwarding the commercials, I got through this thing in just under 3 hours. I was up to 4 in the morning watching this sucker, and these are just some of my random thoughts and observations (and no, I have not read the book. I have read and enjoyed many Stephen King books, but this is not one I have read before).
I guess the first thing I noticed was IS EVERYONE IN THIS HICK TOWN A SOCIOPATH? Between young John Ritter's "lovely" cousin and aunt to little Annette O'Toole's crazy dad ("Only 12 and already goin' around with some boy!"), to the bully who threatens to kill everyone in the loser's group (for not liking to be bullied, I guess), just a whole lotta disturbed going on here. It seems living in this town, being attacked by a demonic clown might be the least of your worries.
Tim Curry is truly disturbing as Pennywise. If you are scared of clowns, this is the mother of all clowns to be scared of. I thought he was the best thing about the movie. "We all float down here!" Classic. He pulled of creepy very well.
As many have said over the years, the children's story (and acting performances) come across much better than the adult story. Watching the unengaging older versions reenact a lesser version of something we just saw earlier simply did not work. And how did all these disturbed kids from this backwoods Maine town all separately end up in show biz (except poor Tim Reid)? And that ending. OH, that ending...
But before we get to that ending, what a letdown the whole "bully- eaving the psych institute to go back and murder the old Losers Club" arc. Ok, this old bully guy who took the fall for the murders 30 years ago sees Pennywise on the face of the moon, coercing him into killing the old group that's come back to town. The end result? He gets the jump on Tim Reid and barely stabs him in the side once before he's "overpowered" by some of the rest of the crew and ends up stabbed in the chest and dies immediately. I'm sure Pennywise was not amused.
Sooo, the big climax turns out to be...the demon is a really crappy puppet spider that the cast rips apart at the end. That's it. Ok, I guess. Not really. Pretty lame, actually. I've invested 3 hours watching this thing, and this is the payoff. Not fulfilling. At all.
And the last scene. To wake up his sweetie, Richard Thomas and his awesome ponytail decide that, "Hey, if I ride Olivia Hussey on a bike really fast down some hillls on main roads and dangerously into busy, downtown traffic, I can break this demonic coma thing!" What an almost surreal scene, and there are no back roads in Derry, I suppose. A very silly ending to a very silly movie.
Seeing a bearded John Ritter, Harry Anderson, Dennis Cristopher's hair, Richard Thomas's ponytail, Tim Curry's Pennywise, and the overall production design/wardrobes that scream 1990 was a fun jump back in time and somewhat worth the 3 hours I invested in it. But I'm not sure I'll be in a hurry to tackle this thing again anytime soon.They'll all have to float on without me.
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