The Mist

"The Mist" is the movie that "Cloverfield" desperately wanted to be. Scary. Thought-provoking. Well-acted. Evoking a sense of wonder. Cool giant monsters (and small ones).

I picked up the two-disk special edition specifically to get the director's preferred version of the movie, in black and white. And I have to say, it gives it a totally different feel than the color version. If you get the chance, definitely go for the B&W.

Can't say too much more about the movie without giving the good stuff away. The premise is that a mysterious mist rolls into a small town trapping a bunch of people inside a supermarket. The rest of the movie is them trying to figure out what's out there (no surprise that it's some nasty creatures), and what they are going to do to survive if help doesn't arrive soon. It should also be no surprise that the worse monsters are among the people trapped inside as civilized behavior eventually starts to fall apart.

Acting is uniformly good, and for the first time, I actually thought Thomas Jane commanded a screen, playing a great everyman in this.

The ending has received lots of controversy (it's much different than the novella the film is based on), but I'm ambivalent about it. It works well enough for the film even if it crosses the line a WEE bit into "and now here's the clever movie ending."

I give this nine teeth out of ten.