Reviewer's grade: C-
Talk about your counterprogramming for the holiday season. Ho-ho-no. This is a Stephen King story about a group of normal folks "? normal except for the religious fanatic and the soldiers from the base where experiments in dimension-manipulation are going on "? trapped in a grocery store by a mysterious mist that hides monsters.
Not much time is devoted to where the creatures came from; their victims just want to figure out a way to escape them. Lots of time, however, is spent in discussion of human nature, a kind vs. a vengeful God, who's to blame for what happens, etc.
This is the gabbiest thriller I've seen in a long time. At 127 minutes, most of this yammering could have been replaced by action and real scares. The special effects are not so special and while director Frank Darabont builds suspense fairly well, the payoff is only so-so. The cast includes Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher and Toby Jones. R
"?Doug Bentin
