Twilight Zone: The Movie: A Big-Screen Anthology of Mixed Results (Blu-ray)

The Film:

Ever since it premiered way back in 1959, Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" has been a much-beloved program that is often cited as one of the greatest shows ever made. Over the course of five seasons, it told fascinating moral tales that often had endings you weren't quite expecting, delighting & entertaining audiences of all ages. This made it no surprise that, 20 years later, the idea was brought up to bring the concept to theaters, with four big directors (John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, and George Miller) each doing a segment of the anthology film in an attempt to recreate the experience of the original show.

The film, simply called "Twilight Zone: The Movie," was a box office hit, making over four times its relatively small $10 million production budget, despite it being covered in controversy due to a fatal helicopter accident during its filming. The reviews, on the other hand, were not quite what the studio was hoping for, with many seeing it as a mixed bag of stories that didn't quite make it worth the effort. However, the film has certainly had its fans over the decades, which is why Warner Bros. has re-issued the film on Blu-ray, giving more fans of the original program the chance to discover its curious motion picture counterpart, so now it's time to dive in and see how well it's held up in the 40+ years since its release.

With this being an anthology film featuring four different stories, a very brief summary of each will have to suffice for a synopsis. The first segment, "Time Out," tells of an extremely racist man (Vic Morrow) who suddenly finds himself transported to different time periods & locations where he is perceived to be the very people he despises. Segment two, "Kick the Can," is about an elderly man (Scatman Crothers) who gives the residents of a retirement home the chance to be young again. The third tale, "It's a Good Life," tells of a woman (Kathleen Quinlan) who finds herself entangled with a young boy (Jeremy Licht) that has the power to make anything come true. The final story, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet," features a fearful flier (John Lithgow) who swears that he sees something on the wing of the plane during his flight.

As always, whenever filmmakers decide to do an anthology film like this, the biggest risk is that they might include too many weak stories in the collection, so before the idea was even finalized, one has to assume they thought they had strong enough material to make it worth it as a theatrical experience. However, right off the bat, you'd be forgiven for showing some concern with the very first segment, which is Landis' contribution, and the only original story in the set of four. It's a very basic tale that has a racist getting his comeuppance by being put in the shoes of those he hates at different points in history. It's a story that far too "on the nose," with no subtlety to it whatsoever, kicking off the film with a rather weak entry.

The second segment, Spielberg's contribution, is based on "Kick the Can," which made for a sweet episode of the original show, but doesn't really make for a particularly good entry in a theatrical lineup of stories. Again, when picking stories for the big-budget film version of such a show, you would think they'd pick ones that had a little more oomph to them (as opposed to something that's merely sweet & sentimental), which is what we finally see some of as we come to the third tale, a remake of the classic episode "It's a Good Life" from director Joe Dante ("Gremlins").

This story, involving a young boy who has incredible powers, feels like it has actual stakes involved. That is to say, it has real people in a really dangerous situation (as opposed to the completely unlikable character in the first segment that you couldn't care less what happens to). On top of that, it features some zany, cartoonish special effects/animations that really help bring the story's themes to life, easily making Dante's contribution the strongest of the three thus far.

However, the best & most classic of the lot is the final entry, which is a remake of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" from director George Miller ("Mad Max"), one of the most famous episodes of the entire show. It's a good rendition of the tale, featuring the great John Lithgow in fine form as a man who sees a creature of some sort on the wing of the plane, which subsequently makes him freak out, causing alarm among the other passengers & crew. It's a wild tale for sure, but it's also an entertaining one that ends the anthology on a pretty strong note.

That said, we still have to tally up the film as a whole, giving us two weak entries and two pretty good ones, which does indeed make it a mixed bag overall. It becomes a rather peculiar mystery as to why they wouldn't have tried a little harder to include only stories that would make & leave a strong impression. In the prologue, we have two characters that bring up the classic episode "Time Enough At Last," one of the very best episodes of the show. Why not include it in the film? Then there's the fact that Spielberg was originally supposed to direct a remake of "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," another all-time classic episode, but switched to "Kick the Can" after the tragic accident on set, resulting in the unfortunate inclusion of the weaker tale. In the end, it was an intriguing idea to try and transplant the beloved show onto the big screen, but ultimately better decisions needed to be made as to what stories to include, resulting in a curious anthology film that's only half recommendable.

Video/Audio:

"Twilight Zone: The Movie" returns to Blu-ray in a 1.85:1, 1080p High Definition transfer of excellent quality, featuring a perfectly sharp & clear picture throughout the film's entire 101-minute duration. Likewise, the 5.1 Dolby Digital audio track is fantastic, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and Jerry Goldsmith's score in outstanding quality. Overall, Warner Bros. has done a marvelous job in both areas for the film's re-issue.

Special Features:

None.

Conclusion:

It was an intriguing idea to bring together four different directors (Landis, Spielberg, Dante, and Miller) to concoct a big-screen version of the beloved classic "Twilight Zone" TV show, but with a balance that features two weak stories & two pretty good ones, the result is a curiously mixed bag that makes you wish that they had put a little more thought into which tales should've been included in this attempted anthology.

Score: 3/5

Now available on Blu-ray.

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