Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

Directed by John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, George Miller. Starring John Lithgow, Scatman Crothers, Kathleen Quinlan, Vic Morrow, Bill Quinn, Jeremy Licht, Dan Aykroyd, Albert Brooks, Abbe Lane, Kevin McCarthy, Doug McGrath, Martin Garner, Patricia Barry, Charles Hallahan, William Schallert, Selma Diamond, Helen Shaw, Donna Dixon, Murray Matheson, Dick Miller, Priscilla Pointer. [PG]

Collection of four different segments under the banner of the classic sci-fi/horror television program, “The Twilight Zone”; the framing material and the first segment are original, but the other three are based (loosely or closely) on previously-aired episodes. Landis’ segment is fumbling and heavy-handed, while (surprisingly) Spielberg’s is easily the weakest despite the best efforts of Crothers as a “Magical Negro”-type, a story slathered in so much mothballed whimsy and nostalgia that all momentum screeches to a halt. The second half, however, makes it worthwhile—a delightfully off-center revamp of “It’s a Good Life” from Dante with a little boy (Licht) who possesses dangerous supernatural powers, and an energized recreation of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” from Miller, featuring a bravura, panic-stricken Lithgow performance, and a much-improved “gremlin” threat. Morrow’s final film, as he tragically died in a fatal helicopter accident while shooting the first episode (along with two child actors whose parts were removed from the final cut). Narration by an uncredited Burgess Meredith.

67/100