I don't understand where the "This is the first movie to give me nightmares" reviews are coming from...I mean, this was a PG movie from the '80s. And the '80s was a decade where ratings never really mattered. "Robocop" horribly bloody scenes and I remember watching it with a hole bunch of other 8 year-olds and parent's that thought "yup, kids are going to love this movie." "The Twilight Zone: The Movie" was tame compared to soooo many other movies people that were little kids in the '80s liked to watch..."Nightmare on Elm Street." My mom and dad made me wait until I was in 3rd grade to watch that one.Anyway, almost all of the stories had happy endings, almost all of them had morals. And even as a little kid you can walk away learning something about life.And we did, in our own little way. It falls under a beloved Childhood Classic for a lot of kids my age...who are adults now. Not as cherished as The Goonies, but still one of the movies that we would never pass on when the opportunity to watch it came around...And the amazing thing is, that stuck to adulthood. I can pass on childhood favorites like Firewalker and Iron Eagle...but I can't pass on this...I still have to sit down and watch it.

Three of the four stories are from the old TV series "The Twilight Zone" - recreated for this film. The fourth, or should I say the first story, is an original short story for this movie entitled "Time Out". But the movie is actually worth watching for the last two short stories."Time Out" is a basically a horrors of war type of story. It's pretty interesting. "Kick the Can" is not to bad of short story. It's not all that scary but still fairly good. "It's a Good Life" is a good horror story. This one is worth watching the movie for. The last story is called "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and they did save the best for last. This is the segment that freaked me out when I was a kid - yes it's good!! Yes Twilight Zone: The Movie makes a great late night movie and would make a great double feature with "Creepshow", "Trilogy of Terror" or even "Tales from the Darkside: The Movie".9/10

Four stories by four directors, Spielberg, Landis, Dante and Miller, a great collection of directors and a neat selection of spooky tales. This is actually a great movie adaptation of the series which doesn't forget its place and go overboard, the stories are remakes from the original series but including one original story.The first tale is about a racist bigot who is somehow transported back and forth through time from Nazi Germany to Vietnam experiencing racism against himself. An obviously strong message of justice or revenge against prejudice in a very simple way. Landis does a reasonable job with the simple tale but its a little uninspired and personally I would of liked a more horror based tale from the master of comedic terror.Tale two from Spielberg is again rather uninspired but you can tell miles off its by Spielberg with its warm glow and gentle heart. A tale of old folk who dream of becoming young again and with the help of a mysterious old man in their retirement home they do just that overnight. Easily the tear jerker of the four, very sweet, very cozy with strong similarities to the Ron Howard movie 'Cocoon', did Howard possibly pinch the idea?Tale three is clearly made by Dante, like tale two you can see the directors style straight away visually and design wise. Trademark Dante finger prints all over this with his fave actor Dick Miller used yet again. A fun and very eerie tale of a boy who can make anything he wishes come true and holds a group of people captive in his bizarre home. Pretending to be his family the small group of people are merely scared of the boy and can never leave fearing the young boy may wish something terrible upon them. Its a spooky tale if you think about it and works very well, parodied by The Simpson's in a 'Treehouse of Terror' episode surely means it deserves respect. The final tale by Miller is a remake of the classic Twilight Zone episode which featured a young William Shatner 'Nightmare at 20,000 Feet', again parodied by 'The Simpson's' earning it even more respect and fame. A terrified airline passenger is driven insane by a combination of the fear of flying and the fact he can see a monster on the wing of the plane ripping apart the engine. Probably the best of the tales with a great concept and cool creature to boot. John Lithgow plays the passenger going insane from fear nerves and anxiety with a performance equal to the original whilst the gremlin looks perfectly kooky and unnerving (Gremlin-ish).Mixed bag of tales really, the two from Dante and Miller being the best, Spielberg's is reasonable but boring and Landis I think picked the wrong type of story to best suit his abilities. Love the bookend sequences with Dan Aykroyd and the overall visual style of the movie from all directors. My only wish is that the film were a tad more mysterious and sinister with its tales, but overall its a solid anthology.7/10

Anthology movie based on the classic television series, of which I'm a huge fan. It's an all-star effort with four big '80s directors. The movie is most remembered today for the tragic accident that took the lives of Vic Morrow and two children on set. There are four stories plus a prologue that ties back in at the end of the film.The prologue and first story are both directed by John Landis. The prologue is about a driver (Albert Brooks) and a hitchhiker (Dan Aykroyd) driving late at night. The driver plays a game by turning the headlights off and on, trying to scare the hitchhiker. The hitchhiker turns the tables on him and reveals a surprise of his own. This is a lackluster beginning. Brooks and especially Aykroyd have a kind of flippancy in their performances that puts me off. The first story is "Time Out" and is the only original story in the film. The others are remakes of Twilight Zone episodes. The plot is about a bigot (Vic Morrow) who is thrown through time to various points of history to experience persecution and hatred. It's a moralizing soapbox story that might have played better had it been written with the slightest bit of sophistication. As it stands, it's a weak, downbeat story and an odd choice to start the film.The second story is "Kick the Can," directed by Steven Spielberg. It's about a group of oldsters at a retirement home who discover playing a game of kick the can restores their youth. Reportedly Spielberg was going to do an original horror story for the movie. But after the tragedy he changed plans and did this tepid remake. The direction for this story is half-hearted at best. A very underwhelming effort from Spielberg.The third story is another remake, "It's a Good Life," about a boy with special powers who holds his family prisoner and forces them to do whatever he wants. Joe Dante directs this and it has some of his trademark touches, such as genre in-jokes and homages. Despite Dante's direction and how much fun he seems to have with the story, it's still nothing special.The last story, directed by George Miller, is a remake of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet." This is easily the best story in the film, with a powerful performance by John Lithgow as an airplane passenger who is terrified of flying. While in the air, he sees a creature on the wing of the plane trying to tear the engine apart but nobody believes him.Overall, there is only one exceptional segment in the whole movie. The film as a whole misses the point of the Twilight Zone and comes across as a hollow experience. Still, failure or not, there's enough scraps here to be of interest to fans of the series or the big-name directors involved.