Title: Storm of the Century (1999)

Network: ABC

Rating: 'Not Rated'

Running Time: 247 Minutes

Directed By: Craig R. Baxley

Starring: Timothy Daly, Debrah Farentino, Colm Feore

Reviewed by: Bully

After a full-blown media blitz Stephen King's Storm of the Century aired in February 1999 on ABC. I did not get to watch it on TV, but I did rent the video, and I think it would have been a better book than a made for TV movie. This is what happens when you try to stretch a 90-minute movie into a three night TV mini-series.

The storyline is about how a stranger comes to the tight knit Little Tall Island community and kills an old woman to get the towns attention. After he is arrested and placed in the town's jail, more deaths occur and he tells them in no uncertain terms "give me what I want and I'll go away". After several confrontations with Linoge, he meets with the town and tells them what he wants. He gives them some time to go over his proposition and he returns. Finally he gets what he wants and leaves. But alas all is not well with the town, as people start to sink into depression and leave Little Tall island: it seems that Linoge took more from the town than they expected. The ending is weak but all in all the story was pretty good.

The scenes are drawn out with useless dialog. The Maine accents are laughable. Why doesn't Hollywood get it? If you don't have a real accent don't pretend you do-- it sticks out and sounds manufactured. There are a plethora of "Storm" shots to show you how "bad" the storm is raging. Plus if that was the "Storm of the Century" then the "Blizzard of '78" was the storm of the millennium.

First of all, any Nor'Easter is a worse storm than the one portrayed in the movie, with the exception of the lighthouse being swept into the sea. Getting a foot of snow in New England does not necessitate waiting out the storm in the basement of the town hall. Most New Englanders would laugh at you if you told them to come down to town hall because a storm is coming.

Secondly, I have ridden my bike in deeper snow. If this storm was so bad then how come you could still see the road? Why didn't the snow cat leave any tracks? Hell why would you have a snow cat on an island? If this was supposed to be the "Storm of the Century" don't you think that the roads would be impassable, that even a snow cat would have a hard time? What about white outs? Hell they happen around here all the time! It never looked like more than a normal winter storm to me. But that's just me living in NH all of my life. I guess I just got used to the storms and I know how bad they can be. To me the storm seemed less than spectacular. Which you think it would be, being the Storm of the Century and all.

You can't really blame King for that though, as he didn't direct the movie and if you live in Texas any snowstorm would seem bad on TV. Besides the bad acting, the butchered Maine accents, the less than intense storm and weak ending the main story wasn't that bad. I just felt like it was too long, but then again I watched it in one sitting not three, so that might be the difference as well. I'd give it a C+.