this was the first twilight zone piece i saw, but after gotten used to the original 1959 twilight zone series, i realize this seem to rely too much on special effects and strange camera shots, and it lacks the amazing dialogue the original series had, but still i give it good rating cause lets face it, the original series is something else, and this has some groovy stories and in the last piece the actor gives an intense mind blowing performance.

Looking past the accident, I can't really understand why this is not a good movie. Four brilliant directors, all given the opportunity to make Twilight Zone episodes with a movie-like budget. A number of great actors involved. How come the result is lackluster and lacking of charm? The old Twilight Zone TV-series obviously owes part of it's charm to the era it was made in, but it's also full of stories, some quite silly, that all take themselves seriously. There's twists at the end of the episodes that you some times can see from miles away, but that at other times makes you admit that it was clever. There's tons of bad episodes, but the package itself is still brilliant.Then there's this movie. The first story lacks a proper ending (something that's due to the accident), making the rest of it feel pointless. The second story is visually beautiful, but feels both predictable and rushed. I would have thought that this sort of project would bring out the best in Spielberg, but he chooses a story that's only OK, and doesn't manage to portray in a way that transcends the silly story that it is. The third film is one of the more famous TZ-episodes, and the updates done to the story mostly works. I loved this due to the special effects that were used, but the acting and the story left some to be desired. The last one, also a famous one, is probably the best of the four. Had all four of them been this interesting on a story level, the movie would have been a lot better.I would love for them to have another go at this. Especially Spielberg and Miller has proved many times what they are capable of, and I'm sure TZ (and those sort of stories) still mean a lot to them. Oh well.

I'm cheating. I'm only here to review "It's a Good Life".Some background: I had already read the Jerome Bixby short story that this segment was based on, but I had not seen the original black and white Twilight Zone episode.So, yes. I love this story. The rest of the film is okay (I love the Nightmare at 20 000 feet segment as well, I might do a separate review for that) but this one was my favourite, not least because I realised the story it was based on halfway through.Anyway, it's just full of all sorts of fun things that I love. I love the cartoon house appearing on the TV screen as an exact copy of the real one just as Helen and Anthony walk in. I love the bizarre cartoon furniture and the loopy Joe Dante lighting all the way through the house (he was born to fill this segment of the Twilight Zone movie, I tells ya). I love the creepy cartoons on all the TV sets in all the rooms, just the whole way the sense of something reeeeeally off-kilter building up slowly as the story progresses I think is really well handled. I think it's the most "Twilight-Zoney" of all the four segments.And my favourite bit of all is Nancy Cartwright getting sent into Cartoonland and the way all the awful violence in cartoons suddenly takes on a new meaning. It was very unsettling and very clever. I was quite young when I saw this! So it made a big impression on me.But my favourite things of all are the sentences "I hate this house. I wish it away... I wish it all away..." and "It's not fair! You're supposed to be happy when your wishes come true!" There was something so poignant and oddly profound about that to me, and my little sisters. We taped the movie when it came on TV and watched that segment over and over again, all falling quiet as Helen finally walks into Anthony's world properly, the first person he's ever met who makes any attempt to see him as a normal little boy. The only one who tries to help.We fell in love with the movie. For us this segment of the movie is up there with Poltergiest, ET and Little Shop of Horrors as 80s stories that we still quote constantly, even though we're now in our forties...I like the fact that they changed the ending. I like the fact that he found a way for his wishes to come true and still be happy.And then there's the final shot of Helen and Anthony driving away into the weird, cartoon pink sunrise surrounded by a field of flowers all bursting into bloom spontaneously. How many Twilight Zone stories have happy endings? I think we're allowed one.

The prologue and first segment are both directed by John Landis. While the prologue is one of the best parts of the film due to how great the dialogue is and the ending, the first segment is an uneven and mediocre part of the film, left unfinished due to a tragic accident on set. The plot of the first segment is similar to two episodes of the show, "A Quality of Mercy" and "Deaths-Head Revisited", and though while the segment does have a very Twilight Zone feel to it, it is obviously unfinished, and thus very flawed.When people say Steven Spielberg makes saccharine films that have no real point, his segment of this film must be what they're referring to. Spielberg is among the greatest directors of all time, but his segment is definitely what I feel is his worst directorial work. Scatman Crothers is good in it, but it just seems like Spielberg was half-asleep when directing this. A shame, because originally Spielberg was planning to direct a far more interesting segment involving a nasty kid being pursued by real monsters on Halloween night.The film definitely picks up a great deal with Joe Dante's segment. A new version of the episode "It's a Good Life", it involves a young schoolteacher dropping off a strange young boy off at his house, and is invited to stay for dinner by the boy and his family, but something's a bit off about the family, and it becomes clear something is seriously wrong with the boy. This segment has great and intentionally cartoonish special effects, with many unnerving and creepy moments.The fourth segment is easily the best, and I feel it's actually better than the episode it's based on, "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". John Lithgow plays a passenger on an airplane with an extreme fear of flying, and while he at first has it somewhat under control, it soon becomes quite severe when a lightning storm continues to get worse, and worse yet when Lithgow's character seems to be the only one to notice a gremlin tearing apart the wing of the plane. The gremlin causes more damage to the plane, and as the storm gets worse, so does the man's fear. Lithgow's performance is great, and the special effects for the gremlin are excellent, it looks menacing and expressive.Though uneven, this film is definitely good, and should be an enjoyable viewing experience whether or not you're familiar with the TV series.