The Tommyknockers

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The Tommyknockers is a TV miniseries based on Stephen King's 1987 novel. An alien spacecraft has been buried beneath the Burning Woods near the small rural New England community of Haven for millions of years, but has now by chance been unearthed by Bobbi (Marg Helgenberger) while digging around in the woods behind her house. The structure in the woods begins to exert a glowing-green influence on the town, causing the people to invent Rube Goldberg-like gizmos, develop the gift of telepathy, lose their teeth, and form a hive-mind mentality bent on digging up the ship and revivifying the desiccated aliens within. Luckily, Bobbi's significant other is an alcoholic poet (Jimmy Smits) who needs to learn to face his fears. He also has a metal plate in his head that prevents the hive-minders from reading his thoughts and makes him immune to the neon-green influence of the aliens. Ultimately, it's up to him to save the day. Although the acting is topnotch, especially from Smits and Helgenberger, and there are plenty of gooseflesh moments, there are also enough plot holes here to fuel a very long and enjoyable evening's conversation. Why do the aliens start in at this time, when they've been causing legends in the woods for ages? Where does an alien ship buried for ages get all that dry ice? How does the Smits character make a living as a poet? One suspects that King's fine sense of New England characterizations is given short shrift here, and that the woods in his mind teem with more alien thoughts than the TV miniseries form could embody. Welcome appearances by congenial actors abound, notably Joanna Cassidy, E.G. Marshall and Robert Carradine. And there's a slutty postal letter-carrier played authentically by Traci Lords. --Jim Gay

Customer Reviews:

So bad it was almost funny..........2007-07-27

This movie was 6 hours of my life that I can never get back. If I hadn't already invested 3 hours in it, I would have turned it off in the middle of the movie. That's what I should have done. Funny, I liked the book and have really loved a lot of Stephen King's books and movies. But this was trash and it should be thrown away.

Did you read the book?.......2007-03-12

Not really worth watching if you read the book. Do yourself a favor and read the book.

Poor Quality.......2006-10-14

I'm not going to waste a bunch of my time or yours giving a personally oppinionated review of the movie plot. It's redundant and unnecessary, and whether someone likes the story or not is irrelavent. Only you can form an opinion of whether you like it or not by watching it yourself. Double that with the fact that most movies hardly ever line up with the book that's based on and well...

My gripe is the transition from putting the movie in it's original format onto DVD was bad. The soundtrack is about 1/2 to 1 second off from the video part of film, therefore the voices don't sync up with the lip movement.

will this horror ever end?.......2006-10-13

Is it generally a rule that miniseries based off books have to suck so badly? I've seen a million TV miniseries based off novels that have sucked so horrendously, but NONE like this. Get this straight before I continue: I LOVE the book version of The Tommyknockers; it's my alltime favorite Stephen King novel (second-favorite: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon... review to come later) and I liked how it took the time to reveal key things about the plot: how Haven got started (and the "sowing and reaping" the itinerant preacher got on with the virgins in the cornfield), how Gard and Bobbi originally got to be such good friends (more than that actually; they dated for some time), and what actually went on in the woods that unleashed the evil. Here... bulls**t. Utter bulls**t. Here is why I think the movie sucked:

- The series is only 3 hours long... what the f**k? A novel the size of The Tommyknockers can't possibly be fit into a 3-hour long series. What about the minor stuff that, although minor, can't be taken out without a serious loss in credibility? Like Hilly. There wasn't much of him or his disappearing act with his little brother David, and there certainly wasn't enough of his tenure at Altair-4 or their frantic search for his body. And what about Gard and how he opened up the hole to suck in his conniving ex-poker buddy after getting cheated on a poker game? That scene would have been amazing in the movie. But no. None of it.

-The changes the authors made in the plotline. Seriously. Get some things at least partially right, then change what you have to in order to fulfill whatever sick and twisted purpose you had in mind when changing the original. But they take it too far. Example: in the novel, Gard and Bobbi's teeth originally fell out because of their "becoming"; now, nothing. And, the aliens themselves have a full set of teeth (that part in the novel)... so why the (insert obscenity here) did they change it?!?!

The only reason I gave this particular hellfest two stars is cause the original was made by Stephen King. No other reason. If you are looking for a good time, buy the damn book. It's the real thing- unlike this piece of s**t.

Overall: 2 stars
Why: for failure to be entertaining

This is really stupid!.......2006-06-12

This has to be Stephen King's worst work adapted. This adaptation is even worse than Needful Things. Children Of The Corn (I am talking about the original and not the crappy sequels) was miles abouve better than this garbage. Just a stupid movie adapted from a lame book. Just plain trash.

Stephen King Collector's Set (The Tommyknockers / Storm of the Century / Rose Red / The Dead Zone)

Average customer rating:

Stephen King Collector Set
Creepy as HELL :-)

Stephen King Collector's Set (The Tommyknockers / Storm of the Century / Rose Red / The Dead Zone)
Starring: Jimmy Smits , Marg Helgenberger , John Ashton , Allyce Beasley , and Robert Carradine
Director: John Power (II) , and Craig R. Baxley
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00007L4KQ
Release Date: 2003-02-11

Customer Reviews:

Stephen King Collector Set.......2003-04-09

I just recently bought this DVD mainly for Rose Red and Storm of the Century. Two of King's newer Made for TV mini-series. These are definately two of his best and most watched series.

I only gave this product a 2 because the Dead Zone and Tommyknockers just don't deliver. Don't get me wrong, I love USA's Dead Zone series but this is only the pilot epsiode. I'd rather buy the complete first season. The glimpse of 2nd season special feature was only about 3 minutes long and didn't give any good details.

Then the Tommyknocker fiasco. I don't know about anyone else but I had problems with my copy. The sound and audio does not match on screen. You see the actors talking but you have to wait a half second to a full second before their lips move. Pretty bad. And of course I couldn't exchange it for another copy since I had already taken it out of the plastic. What a bummer.

Other than that, Rose Red and Storm of the Century are worth buying this. Give me what I want and I'll go away. hahaha. LEGION

Creepy as HELL :-).......2003-03-11

This collection of Stephen King videos has kept me hooked for hours in front of the TV.

OF the four series that this collection contains, "Storm of the century"( 2 DVDs) and "Red Rose" ( 2 DVDs) somehow overshadows the other 2. With these 4 in the collection along with "Shinning", you can have a great collection of scarry and out of the world videos. Moreover buying these 4 together in this collection is cheaper for my wallet too :-)

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