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February 25, 2004
Kingdom King
In this week’s TV Guide there is an article about StephenKing’s upcoming show entitled “Kingdom Hospital”. There are supposed to be fourteen episodes in all which will begin airing on March 3rd and continue every Wednesday thereafter. This show sounds twisted, psychological, and creepy enough for me to get into. It should be very interesting.
TV Guide also listed what they thought were the 5 best and the five worst Stephen King films. I have to say that I disagreed with both lists. Very importantly and something that should not be forgotten or taken lightly is the fact that books are almost always 99.9% better than the movies they represent.
Here are TV Guide’s 5 best Stephen King films:
1. Carrie
2. Salem’s Lot
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. The Shining (Jack Nicholson version)
5. Stand by Me
My top 5 list would go like this:
1. Rose Red
2. The Shining (Jack Nicholson version)
3. The Green Mile
4. Misery
5. The Shawshank Redemption
Here are TV Guide’s worst Stephen King films:
1. Dreamcatcher
2. Graveyard Shift
3. The Langoliers
4. The Shining (TV version)
5. Maximum Overdrive
My worst three goes like this (sorry, I haven’t seen everything, so these are the only ones that I am sure I did not enjoy):
1. Pet Sematary
2. Carrie
3. Christine
What TV Guide failed to give was a “best book” list.
Here are my favorite books:
1. Apt Pupil – This short story is hands down my favorite. I think the realness of it; that things like this really do go on is what hooked me. It was enough to keep me thinking for days.
2. The Green Mile – If you’ve seen the movie, then you’ve pretty much read the book. This is one of the 1% that truly depicts what the book is really about. But, if you’re a reader like I am, you’ll want to actually read it first.
3. Pet Sematary – Okay, I know how bad this movie was, but the book is excellent. The whole time I was reading it, I was also looking over my shoulder to make sure that nothing was coming after me! It was very chilling and thought provoking.
4. The Shining – This is one of those books that play mind games with you. Did I just hear something? Did that just move? Those are some of the thoughts I had while reading this book. It was totally enthralling and exciting. I was scared to death of what I was going to read next, but I had to keep reading it anyway and in some sick way, I enjoyed being scared.
5. The Stand – This was a great story about good versus evil. What side would you have chosen? It brings up some interesting points.
6. The Mist – This was one of Stephen King’s first short stories that I ever read. I can remember at the end of the story, my mouth agape thinking, “They have to make a movie out of this one.” If they did it right and true to the story it would be awesome!
7. The Shawshank Redemption – Yes, this was a great movie, but the book was around first. So, if you haven’t read the book, you need to. It is actually a short story in a book called Different Seasons. My #1 pick, Apt Pupil is also in this same book.
8. Desperation – This book was about a town in the Nevada desert where very bad things take place; very surprising bad things. **Side note: When I finish a book, I always write my name, the date I finished, and a one word comment (IE: excellent, very good, etc.) inside the front cover. I finished this book on April 3, 1998. I think it may be time to pick it up again ;)
9. Misery – I loved the film with Kathy Bates, and even though I own this movie, I still think that you can picture something twice as bad in your own mind as what can be portrayed on the screen. This is one of those books where you picture something quite worse than what the movie gives.
10. I can’t stop at just ten, so I’ll name the rest of my four favorites and say that they all tied for tenth place. Here goes: Dolores Claiborne, Needful Things, Little Sisters of Eluria (short story), and last but certainly not least, The Long Walk (short story). All of these are too wonderful to not mention.
Believe it or not, there are many Stephen King books that I still have not read. Cujo, Firestarter, and Hearts in Atlantis are just a few. I do plan to read all of the Gunslinger books. I haven’t read any to date, but I would rather wait until they are all out so that I don’t have to wait one minute between books. I just read on the website that the last two books will have an earlier than planned release date. One will be on June 8th and the other on September 21st. Maybe around October I will begin a new journey with the Gunslinger.
Posted by tami at February 25, 2004 12:32 PM
Comments
I have GOT to remember to tape Kingdom Hospital. I received Sony's e-mail about that today and checked out the official website. It looks creepy and good, yes!
Stephen King is written off by so many as "just a horror writer", and that's unfortunate; he is a master of storytelling and character development who happens often to write about stuff that makes my toes curl, that's all. ;)
I *really* liked the book, Pet Cemetery, too - never saw the movie. His book It really creeped me out. I've always disliked clowns, but since meeting Pennywise, I *really* dislike them.
Posted by: gw at February 25, 2004 10:49 PM
BY the way, have you seen the other Stephen King works that are in the works for TV and the big screen? Check out his name over at imdb.com: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000175/
Wooo-hoooo!!
Posted by: gw at February 25, 2004 10:52 PM
Do you know that "IT" is one of those books of his that I have never read! We own it though, so I'll have to put it in my "to read pile".
I checked out IMDB and let me just say that I am sooooo excited that they are making a Desperation mini series. If you have read the book then you know it will be SO good!!!! :)
Posted by: Tami at February 26, 2004 7:50 AM
It will be tres creepy, I bet. That awful deputy, especially...
Posted by: gw at February 27, 2004 1:25 AM
Well, I didn't tape Kingdom Hospital, but I watched it with my mom as it aired. We both thought it wasn'tall that great. I'm hoping it gets better. Here's a bit of trivia for you...The female kitchen worker with Down's Syndrome lives right near here in Columbus, Ohio! :) She signed up ten years ago at some DS get-together, saying she was interested in acting some day. Lo and behold, someone called her for this series. It's her first acting job!
Posted by: gw at March 4, 2004 1:13 AM
That is a neat bit of trivia. I thought she and the guy in the kitchen did a great job. They were kind of bizarre too laughing like that!
Posted by: Tami at March 4, 2004 8:21 AM