Customer Reviews

Thinner (Widescreen)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

as far as Stephen King adaptations go,this is one of the better
ones.the story is very creative and inventive.it's dark and mysterious
and very creepy.i wouldn't call it scary,but i could see how some
people might think it is.there's a lot of mysticism in this one.it's a
real morality fable.it basically shows that everything you do,good or
bad,comes back to you.in this case,it's bad,very bad.evil,in fact.anyway,i
really liked this movie.for some inexplicable reason the story
translates well to the screen.don't ask me why.have no idea.but the
thing is,it works.For me,"Thinner" is a strong 4/5

Let me just start of by saying that I am a huge fan of both stephen kings, and horror movies. This however really isn't scary. However it did have a few scary parts. just be warned: this is not your average stephen king movie...but its still really good.

By the way...why do people give movies bad ratings if they have crappy special features? I don't know about everyone else, but I buy my movies for the movie, not for the extra stuff!

Enjoyed the movie. Teaches everyone to never underestimate anything someone else is capable of... especially if you don't know them.

Thinner is one of kings better movies along with children of the corn and creepshow. His worst movies were maximum overdrive and dreamcatcher. I enjoyed this movie but this a movie u cant take to serioussly or think of it as horror to much- it was horror but took diffrent approuch then most horror movies. Its about an overweight lawyer who kills an old gypsy in his car one night and then gets cursed by her gypsy father and the gypsy says thinner. the lawyer dosent know it but he soon enough finds out that a curse was put on him when he starts losing weight quickly and his judge friend also gets a diffrent curse stuck on him- this movie keeps u watching to the end - u will want to see what happens as u see him losing more and more weight and wondering what will happen - sure the makeup looks a little fake in the shower scene but other than that it was ok and the ending was really good- i recomend this film to rent or buy - 4 stars

Get outta town!! What starts off as a horror movie turns into an unintentional, hilarious comedy -- especially after the old gypsy woman gets hit. The characters are charicatures, cardboard stereotypes played for laughs. And I'm laughing. I think the makers of this movie said, "Screw it, we ain't deliverin anything near horror" and they made it for laughs. The lawyer is an arrogant fathead (literally) who, in one funny scene, shovels in a trainload of food, and mistakenly flirts with the fiercely vengeful Gypsy daughter who flips him off. I think gluttony is a theme running through King's imagination, like the blueberry pie puking kid in Stand by Me. Also, there's not enough of a payoff at the end, you want to see the effects of his revenge on the good doctor who's trying to cure him, but that's cut out. Well, they should cut out slices of pie instead of this movie.

If you are old enough to remember "Room 222"'s gentle principal in that 1960's TV hit, then you will marvel at Michael Constantine's performance as Tadzu Lempke, the centenarian patriarch of a roving band of gypsies. Considered unsavory nuisances whom the sheriff wants evicted, the gypsies legally lure curious onlookers. One of them, Billy Halleck (Burke), a dangerously overweight lawyer, ogles the nubile gypsy daughter gyrating seductively, but her unexpected vulgarity sets a sinister tone for what follows.

In this 1996 Stephen King thriller, Billy and his wife accidentally run down and kill Lempke's aged wife after she pilfers from a drug store. However, the couple is immediately acquitted as townsfolk "testify" in a stacked courtroom. Enraged, Lempke eerily grazes Billy while murmuring the curse, "Thinner."

Within days, Billy credits his new "diet" for his sudden weight loss which continues at a frightful pace. The sight of him going from obese to "normal" to gaunt are truly frightening, especially as the gypsies mockingly camp nearby. Although other townsfolk are cursed in even more grotesque ways (one commits suicide), Billy realizes all are doomed unless he can reason with Lempke, man-to-man. Still, Billy is continually mocked, and flees with a near-fatal slingshot wound through his right hand.

Now, leveraging the threat of violence against Ms. Slingshot, Billy forces Lempke to reveal that the only "antidote" is to pass the curse to someone else, as deceptively as possible. With a few scores to settle, including that of his unfaithful wife, Billy sets the trap, but forgets one very important detail.

Stephen King's Thinner is famous for one thing, and it's not this motion picture adaptation. Thinner was the fifth novel released under King's Richard Bachman pseudonym, and its relative success on its own (along with a few tell-tale clues in the text itself) lifted the veil on what was already basically an open secret to reveal none other than Stephen King to be the actual writer. If Thinner had been one of King's better novels, he would not have released it as Bachman; thus, the movie has little chance of becoming a classic or universal crowd-pleaser. The main problem with this whole story is in fact one of thinness; unlike the main character, who enters the arena rather hugely and soon wastes away to nothing, the storyline starts out thin and basically remains that way. Thinner just doesn't have the feel a Stephen King movie (or novel) should have; very little of consequence happens outside the tight strictures of the basic plotline; none of the characters seems to bring any life to what they are doing, and no one besides the young daughter is even remotely likable. Depth of character and the inherently interesting relationships between seemingly real individuals make up one of the greatest strength's driving King's creations; oftentimes, movie adaptations fail to capture this important magic and, predictably, prove somewhat disappointing. In the case of Thinner, such depth was never there to begin with.

Thinner is about as straightforward a plot as you will ever get from Stephen King. Billy Halleck, an obese, morally ambivalent lawyer accidentally (with some help from his unsavory wife) runs over an old gypsy woman. His friendship with the chief of police and presiding judge allows him to walk away scot-free, a fact which obviously annoys the victim's 106-year old father. This gypsy king places a curse upon the men who killed and then covered up the death of his daughter. Billy's curse comes down to one word, "Thinner." He quickly finds himself losing weight, which seems to be a blessing - at first. It doesn't take him long to figure out, though, that he is dropping two to four pounds a day regardless of how much food he throws down his throat. When he sees the effect of the gypsy curse on his two friends, reality hits him like a great big frying pan. As his fear and paranoia increase exponentially, he grows distrustful of his own wife, who truly is just a little too friendly to his basically unhelpful doctor. In desperation, having failed to convince the gypsy to release his curse, Billy turns to one of his shady clients, using him to implement his own "white man's curse" on the gypsy king and his thoroughly despicable grand-daughter. The ending of the movie differs slightly from King's original ending, but it comes off rather well.

All in all, this is a perfectly good movie that really doesn't even aspire to anything greater than what it is. Stephen King makes another memorable appearance as the town pharmacist, and that is pretty much the highlight of the whole film for me. If you are some kind of fanatic about movie makeup, though, maybe Thinner has a little more to offer you than it does me. Taking a character from 300 pounds to 128 pounds in a matter of several weeks is not something you just do off the cuff. Thus, the evolution of Robert John Burke's makeup becomes almost distracting as the movie progresses. This is really beaten into your head listening to the commentary by director Tom Holland and actor Joe Mantegna. Each stage of the makeup job is addressed, and I really don't care how many layers of latex the guy has on at any point or how that little bit of flaking and almost imperceptible sliding works and doesn't work, etc. I don't often listen to movie commentaries to know how they normally go, but this one seems to point out too many little problems, editing mistakes, and budget-deprived inadequacies in the film. Take my advice - don't listen to the commentary's litany of problems, just watch the film and try to find what little successes it provides. Again, I'm not saying this is a bad movie; when it's over, though, you just kind of shrug your shoulders and go on as it immediately begins to fade from your memory.

This is a super story with a great lesson behind it (which most of King's stories have if you really notice them). "Be careful what you wish for" and "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!"

"Thinner" is an adaptation of the novel Stephen King wrote as Richard Bachman that was almost on the charts on its own accord when his cover was blown. As was the case with a couple of other Bachman novels, the chapter titles were creatively the weight of the main character, lawyer Billy Halleck, whose loses a lot of weight as the result of a gypsy curse. Billy made the mistake of being distracted by his wife while driving and runs down an old gypsy woman. Her father touches Billy and utters a curse, "Thinner." Suddenly, Billy, who has had a growing weight problem, is losing pounds no matter how much food he stuffs into his face.

The problem with "Thinner" is one I associate with Steve Martin's idea of cat juggling. In his comedy act Martin would talk about being a cat juggler, which, if you picture in your mind's eye, is a pretty funny idea. But then in one of his films Martin tried to show cat juggling on screen and it just did not work. The same thing applies to what Robert John Burke has to go through playing Billy Halleck in this film in going from a character who weights 300 pounds to lone who dips under the 100 pound mark. Except for a few scenes in the film Burke always looks unreal to me. This is surprising because the make-up was done by Greg Cannom, who won Oscars for his work on "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "Mrs. Doubtfire." So if Cannom could not pull this off, then it is likely nobody could have (The video includes a featurette on "The Magic of Special Effects Make-Up"). However, this still means that the transformation that the story rests on does not work. Like cat juggling, what sounds like a great and horrifying idea, does not translate convincingly to the screen.

Part of the problem is the voice Burke affects for this role keeps dispelling the illusion. It seems to me to be something of a "fat" voice, but the key thing is that it strikes me as being even more fake that the make-up. This is too bad because the rest of the performances in the film work pretty well, especially Joe Mantegna ("Searching for Bobby Fischer") as Richie Ginelli, the mobster client who comes to Billy's aid with great relish when the lawyer puts the Curse of the White Man from Town on the gypsies in an effort to get them to launch the curse. Michael Constantine ("My Big Fat Greek Wedding") has a memorable turn as the old gypsy, Tadzu Lempke, and Kari Wuhrer ("Eight Legged Freaks") plays his fiery granddaughter Gina Lempke. The screenplay by Michael McDowell and Tom Holland sticks pretty close to the original novel by King, who makes his traditional cameo appearance in the film early on. "Thinner" was actually filmed in Maine, which is rather atypical for a Stephen King film.

When a successful lawyer from Maine (Robert John Burke) accidently kills a old gypsy woman. Then her older father (Micheal Constantine) puts a curse on him by losing weight instantly but also dying slowly from the inside of his body, he can't stop until the curse is broken.

Directed by Tom Holland (Fright Night, Child's Play, The Langoliers) made a terrific thriller (thanks to his own Screenplay with Micheal McDowell-Beetlejuice). This has excellent Make-Up effects by two time oscar-winner:Greg Cannom, which Highlight this film. Burke pulls off an amazing performance in this. Not seen by many people, which this a underrated cult classic. Based on a Novel by Richard Bachman (The Running Man), which is actually Stephen King. DVD's has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer and an strong Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD's has an behind the scenes feautrette and an commentary track by Director:Holland and Actor:Joe Mantegna-which is fun and entertaining to listen. This is a true winner. Grade:A.