Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Did you people see the same film I saw?

Better Late Then Never

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

David Keith, Drew Barrymore, Martin Sheen, George C. Scott, Heather Locklear, Art Carney, Louise Fletcher and Moses Gunn star in this 1984 sci-fi film based on Stephen King's novel. This begins where we meet Andy (Keith) and his young daughter, Charlene aka Charlie (Barrymore) who are on the run from government agents because they have special, psychological abilities. Andy is able to mind-control others and Charlie is able to set fire with her mind. Soon, they're captured and become experimented on with deadly results. Sheen (Wall Street) plays Capt. Hollister who keeps them under observation, the late, Scott (Patton) plays Rainbird, an assassin, the late, Gunn (The Neverending Story) plays scientist, Pynchot, the late, Carney (The Honeymooners) plays Irv, a farmer who helps Andy and Charlie, Fletcher plays his wife, Norma and Locklear appears briefly as Victoria, Charlie's mother who is killed. This isn't a bad flick featuring a decent cast & Tangerine Dream's score is great as usual. I recommend this.

A couple who participated in a potent medical experiment gain telekinetic ability and then have a child (Drew Barrymore) who is pyrokinetic.There is a decent cast with Martin Sheen as a villain (not unlike "The Dead Zone") and the always powerful presence of George C. Scott ("The Changeling"). We have decent shots from cinematographer Giuseppe Ruzzolini, who has previously worked with Sergio Leone on "Duck, You Sucker" (1971).Critic Vincent Canby wrote, "The screenplay, by Stanley Mann, bears more than a little resemblance to 'The Fury' which was directed by Brian De Palma, who made his first big commercial hit by directing the screen version of Mr. King's 'Carrie' which also had to do with brain power." This is, of course, a fair line of reasoning. "Firestarter" recalls David Cronenberg's "Scanners", but one could also see parallels with the films Canby mentions. In a way, there is something of a subgenre of psychokinetic horror films from the 1980s.

The Government is running a secret facility known as 'The Shop'. The man in charge is Captain Hollister (Sheen) who oversees drug experiments on human guinea pigs. Andrew Mcgee (Keith) meets Vicky (Heather Locklear) while going there and the experiments go south quick. Andrew can control things with his mind and make people do things against their will. It drains him terribly when he does it, but he has a power the government is interested in. When the couple has a kid named Charlie (Barrymore) they discover she has the ability to start fires just by thinking about it. Captain Hollister sees Charlie as a terrific weapon to be used but Andrew takes his daughter on the lamb wanting simply to be left alone. They use their powers only when they half to. This makes up the first half of the movie. The second half has the two captured at The Shop. Once separated, they work on Charlie to win her over. Hollister's most deviant agent is John Rainbird (Scott) a Native American who poses as a janitor and wins over Charlie's trust. Eventually Andrew hatches an escape plan and a fiery conclusion ensues. Hollywood was desperate for Stephen King stories in the mid 1980's seeing it as box office gold even if the movie wasn't very good. This probably explains the first class treatment this film got with a huge Hollywood cast filling out the bill even in small roles. No doubt King's novel must have been interesting, but something was lost in the translation to the screen. Not only is this not scary in the slightest, it's not even very interesting. Sheen overacts terribly in spots and even though George C. Scott is a terrific actor, you must wonder why he was cast as a Native American in this evil role. To Scott's credit, he is the only menace or feeling of evil in the film with his impure desire to destroy Charlie in the end. This overlong movie suffers pacing problems and inconsistent acting from young Drew Barrymore who is impressive in one scene and terrible in the next. At one time Director John Carpenter was picked to direct this picture but Universal was unhappy with his box office results on "The Thing" and yanked the job away from him. Carpenter would have delivered a more interesting film than this one turned out to be. It shows you what Universal knows.

The timing of this movie was bad, as bad as the Blue Bird that Shirley Temple did. Although the Blue Bird was worse than Firestarter by far, people did not want to see Drew setting CIA agents on fire. They were more into Irreconcilable Differences, a much better movie starring Ryan O'neal and Shelley Long. I loved Firestarter later when it came out on VHS. Drew Barrymore is not a very good actress at all, she and Mandy Moore have the worst speech impedement since Garry Hixon herself. They live in glass houses, Mandy Moore is a complete nobody, and Drew disses her father , and is now back with Jade, John Barrymore was great, Lionel Barrymore was great, Ethel Barrymore was great, and in I love Jennie or Peggy or whatever. Steven Spielberg, thats a good one. Instead of hiring 16 year old Garry Hixon for ET he hired cry baby Henry Thomas. A total sissy.