Stephen King's The Stand

Ringwald jokes aside, The Stand is an impressive piece of work. It has a convincing, realistic look, relentless pacing, strong performances and a sense of grandeur as well as humor and irony. [8 May 1994]

This four-night, not-so-mini TV event that takes its story from the best-selling Stephen King book keeps you watching and waiting and on the edge of your seat. A captivating video version of King's horror parable (complete with religious "significance" of grand betrayals, Armageddon endings and messianic resurrections), The Stand shapes up as a chillingly absorbing descent into horror and things that go boo! in primetime. In scope and magnitude, The Stand delivers King-sized chills and thrills. [6 May 1994]

If The Stand itself isn’t the perfect King adaptation, that doesn’t really matter, because perfection isn’t what a pop-culture omnivore like King aims for anyway. He’s after glorious excess, and The Stand has that in spades.

Visually arresting, epic in ambition and impressively acted by a splendid cast, The Stand" looks like King's close encounter with "The Andromeda Strain" crossing "Wild Palms, building its suspense around a deadly epidemic that wipes out most of the world's population and leaves the survivors seeking a new beginning for good or evil. [8 May 1994, p.1J]

Entertaining. But is it worth eight hours of your attention? Not unless you’re laid up with a bad flu bug you just can’t seem to shake.

WATCHING The Stand, the four-night mini-series is like falling face-first into a yard-wide triple-cheese pizza: it is large and is messy, and even if you find the experience repulsive, you cannot easily disengage yourself.

The Stand is kitchen-sink King, a garish pop-culture potpourri of mystical-religious hokum and grisly kitsch. You'll love it or hate it. Maybe you'll love to hate it, or hate to love it...But start watching, and you'll almost surely be hooked. [6 May 1994, p.1D]

But score a couple of solid hits for the good folks. Ray Walston is crustily effective as an elderly artist. And in the movie's most tender relationship, Rob Lowe, whose character can neither hear nor speak, and Bill Fagerbakke, as a mildly retarded Li'l Abner-type country boy, are outstanding.

Come to The Stand tonight as a TV event, not a revelation. You may get hooked for the duration. Or you may decide by Thursday night that Seinfeld, Frasier and the gathering demise of L.A. Law are more interesting than this particular retelling of the Noah's Ark tale. [8 May 1994, p.G01]

While it's no "V," it's not bad; the mini probably would have played better at six hours, but should sustain the interest of King fans, who number in the millions, and may pick up some non-King followers. [2 May 1994, p.42]

The Stand is far superior to other miniseries based on King books -- IT and The Tommyknockers -- but at twice their lengths, it's a demanding, sometimes confounding epic. The first six hours unfold, oh so slowly, as an elaborate prelude to the rousing final two hours. ABC is betting you'll still be around by Thursday night, to see divine intervention, spectacularly hellish makeup and an explosive finale. [8 May 1994, p.1]

Everything from casting choices to wardrobe to musical cues cements The Stand firmly in the mid-’90s, sacrificing any timelessness in favor of an already dated sensibility. It’s not the self-aware frolic of Clueless or the drab naturalism of Office Space. This is 1994 as an ’80s hangover, complete with former members of the Brat Pack and an 8-year-old Top 10 hit already milked for nostalgia.

Be prepared not to be scared, though. Or even to be stimulated. The Stand is for viewers with time on their hands. Lots of it. And for viewers with patience. Lots of it...Despite its creepshow pretensions, much of it is flat-out dull.

Dull, meandering.

This hollow, stuffed effort is like a mediocre "Twilight Zone" sadistically stretched out with four two-hour episodes over five grueling days. [3 May 1994, p.65]