I haven't read the short story that inspired this particular movie, so I can't comment on how it compares in that regard. It's decent, though the second half is much better than the first.
The story opens with a young woman witnessing an execution in the middle of the desert while she is horseback riding. The criminals see her and attempt to kill her, but are unsuccessful. Feeling obligated to bring the men to justice, she agrees to testify despite her husband's objections.
As expected, they put a hit out on her and her car explodes, killing, and essentially fridging her (shortly after it's strongly implied that she's pregnant no less). It all just begs the question, just where was she going exactly?
Suffice it to say, her husband, Tom (played by Wes Bentley) isn't pleased and he vows vengeance on ol' Jimmy Dolan (the human trafficking crime boss played by Christian Slater). He even buys himself a BFG to off the crime lord who was behind it all.
The acting is mediocre at best. When your two top billers are Christian Slater and Wes Bentley, you kind of go in knowing what to expect. The script doesn't help a whole lot either.
Where this movie really kicks into high gear is in the final act. You see, try as he might, Tom just couldn't get himself to pull the trigger. This leads to a rather interesting scene where Dolan and his lackey accost Tom in a bathroom. They smack him around and Dolan toys with the idea of shooting him with his own gun (which even Dolan refers to as "an inadequacy") before deciding that he's just going to let Tom live and suffer seeing as Tom won't kill either Dolan or himself.
Tom's down, but not out as he hatches a new diabolical scheme to...take a summer job working highway construction*. OK, I joke, but once you see what he planned to do, you come to the conclusion that it really was an effective plan in the end. Sure, you could question how he knew where Dolan was going to go, but it was still pretty cool to see.
From here it's just Dolan pleading for his life while Tom taunts him. While the two were not particularly impressive throughout the duration of the film, here they actually seem to be putting some umph into their performance and it makes it a much more enjoyable viewing experience.
What was up with the Flagg reference though? During the opening sequence, we get a voice over from Bentley that, presumably, is talking about Dolan, only he uses pretty much the exact same terms that were used to describe Flagg in The Stand. Even my roommate caught it. Was that followed up on in the story at all? It seems kind of out of place here. I guess it was just supposed to be a wink to the ardent King fans watching the movie, but it's still a tad odd.
Overall, the movie's passable. The final act really elevates it a few levels. It wasn't bad, Lord knows there are worse film adaptations of King's work out there, but up until the end there really wasn't anything that made this worth checking out. One other memorable bit comes in the second half with the big black dude who works at the construction site. He doesn't have a lot of screen time, but just the fact that he puts a new spin on an old profanity makes him one of the more memorable characters, not to mention the fact that, that is hands down the most quotable line of the movie. We laughed.
*If you're wondering why I linked to that particular video, it's a nod to an internet critic who does video reviews of comics who uses that same clip in a similar capacity.
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