not horrible nor great

Disturbing yet enthralling

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

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.

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.

I watched this because I recently read the book and wanted to see what the differences were. Forgive me, but you must expect a lot of comparisons and contrasts between the book and miniseries in this review. Another reason I watched it is because it is a perpetual favorite of Weaponode, one of my closest friends. Any time Weaponode gets drunk, there's a good chance that he'll fire up "The Stand" on Netflix and watch some of his favorite scenes. So, I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.The book is more subtle than the miniseries, for one thing. There are no "transformations into Satan" on the part of Flagg, no voice of Mother Abigail at the very end, proclaiming that "the promise has been fulfilled." As a matter of fact, when I read the book, I assumed that Flagg himself had set off the bomb inadvertently by summoning his ball of flame. That took a lot of the wind out of the sails of the so-called "Stand" on the part of the main characters. After all, what was the point of them traveling all that way, with no food or water, only to be wiped out in an instant via a cataclysmic accident?! The film adds the voice of Mother Abigail and references to the giant hand as "The Hand of God," so that's definitely an improvement over the ambiguous ending of the book.There are other things in the miniseries that were a lot clearer than the book version, as well. For example, the instructions given to Tom Cullen while he was under hypnosis were a lot more clear and direct. However, some things were left more in the dark. Howard's turn to evil, so aptly described by his decision to begin keeping a bitter, acerbic journal, is completely left out of the miniseries version. Nadine's turn is a lot less detailed as well, she's sort of Flagg's by default in the miniseries, whereas she struggled with it a lot more in the book. It's a shame, because I thought the turning of these two characters were some of the most compelling parts of the book.To be honest, I think the miniseries as a whole is better than the book. The main reason being that the miniseries is only six hours long, whereas the book is over 1,200 pages in its "uncut" edition. The miniseries cuts out a lot of useless filler, like the establishment of the Boulder Free Zone and the endless bureaucratic meetings involved. I said in my book review of "The Stand" that King could have cut out most of the middle third without significantly hurting his narrative, and I stand by that assessment. The miniseries does a good job of this. There's only one Boulder Free Zone meeting featured, enough to establish that the mechanisms of democracy are functioning again, and it is relatively brief. Thank goodness.Even so, I think watching it was mostly a waste of time. The acting was passable, only Molly Ringwald came off a little stale, and the actor who played Flagg was way campy and over-the-top, as seems to be the case for a lot of these Stephen King miniseries. Overall I'd say I have to give it just barely a "thumbs down," with a rating of three stars out of five.

I read the rave reviews before I sat down to spend six hours watching "The Stand". By the beginning of part 2, I had to stop and check IMDb to see if there was another version, and maybe I was watching the cheap one.The raves for the acting and casting baffle me most. Molly Ringwald is possibly the worst imaginable choice for such a pivotal role, and her acting throughout is embarrassingly awful. No one shines, but she stands out for all the wrong reasons.My initial impression seemed so out of sync with the majority here that I forced myself to watch it all and keep an open mind, but the outcome didn't change.It's tripe, people, acted and staged badly, and a total waste of six hours of your life. Read the book. It takes longer, but you'll get to do your own casting and staging, and you won't have to watch Ms. Ringwald.

A virulent man-made strain of flu accidentally escapes from a top-security army facility and rapidly spreads around the world, killing millions. A small percentage of immune survivors find themselves courted by the forces of good (lead by aged Mother Abigail Freemantle) and evil (commanded by the devilish Randall Flagg) in a final battle for dominion over the Earth.At nearly six hours long, Mick Garris's TV mini-series of Stephen King's chunky post-apocalyptic epic is an arduous journey to undertake, maudlin sentimentality and religious pondering frequently making the road very hard-going; many, mayhaps, will fall by the wayside. It all starts off promisingly enough, with a terrific, truly chilling first half in which the last of the living—a wide ranging group of well-drawn characters performed by an impressive cast—are left to wander a world strewn with corpses, looking for fellow survivors; however, it all goes a bit awry in the latter half, which is laden with corn (and I'm not talking about the crops surrounding Mother Abigail's home!).Increasingly hammy performances (worst offenders: Jamey Sheridan as Flagg and Matt Frewer as Trashcan Man), moments of unintentional hilarity, and a sense of the absurd proliferate matters, with a ridiculous anti-climax that sees God himself saving the day, obliterating his enemy by reaching down a giant sparkly hand to detonate an atomic bomb. No, really! 5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.