Riding the Bullet (2004)


Writer and director Mick Garris began his association with Stephen King with Sleepwalkers, a script that King wrote but, wisely, decided he wasn't going to direct.  This would lead to Garris directing numerous King adaptations, from the miniseries versions of The Stand and The Shining to anthologies based on King's short stories and numerous other movies based on his source material.  

Obviously, King likes him and there is some ongoing friendship between them.  That is the only way to explain how someone who has consistently showed little visual skill as a director and no true feel for adapting the author's material despite often being faithful to the source material.  Seeing Mick Garris's name attached to any of these properties is always a disappointment as one knows that the resulting movie is going to be mediocre at best, and just barely rise above a direct-to-video or television production.  Riding the Bullet is no exception.

Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson) is a death-obsessed college student in Maine in 1969.  His girlfriend Jessica (Erika Christensen) is about to break up with him and, after a failed suicide attempt on his birthday, she decides she's had it.  He is about to travel to Canada with his roommates to see John Lennon when he gets a call informing him that his mother (Barbara Hershey) has had a stroke and is in the hospital.  Afraid this may be the last time he gets to see her Alan changes his plans and decides to hitchhike his way back home to the town of Lewiston. 

Along the way he begins to encounter a number of strange characters, from a pretend hippy to an old man (Cliff Robertson) reminiscing about his dead wife.  The scariest encounter by far, though, is a man named George Staub (David Arquette).  Staub picks Alan up just outside of a graveyard and, it is clear from the beginning, Alan Parker is riding with a ghost.  Straub gives Alan a choice: either he can die, or his mother can, and he must make that decision by the time they enter Lewiston or Straub will take both back with him. 

Riding the Bullet is a novella that was originally released exclusively online in 2000.  It appeared in print the first time in 2002 as part of the collection Everything's Eventual.  The novella itself is by-the-numbers Stephen King, but because he wrote it the story was still popular to the point that the server was crashed by the number of simultaneous downloads upon its release.  Riding the Bullet later received a limited standalone publication in 2009, while Garris's movie quickly came and went from a number of theaters in 2004.  Because I didn't remember an actual theatrical release, and because of the subpar production values, I thought that it had been a cable release or direct-to-DVD. 

Garris does make some changes, particularly setting the movie in 1969 instead of the modern day.  He throws in various references to King stories, most notably having Staub drive a red Plymouth Fury, albeit a different model year than Christine.  It tries to mimic King's unique dialog and asides, but instead of coming across as a respectful adaptation it instead feels like Garris is just trying too hard.  The suicide attempt with painted figures yelling, "Cut!" along with a stylized Grim Reaper (Simon Webb) are unintentionally funny during a scene that should be dramatic and tense.  Combine weird mood shifts with a draggy, disjointed story line and constant fantasy sequences and the movie is more frustrating than scary. 

David Arquette is the only one in the entire movie that is memorable.  Jonathan Jackson is horrible in the lead, looking more like a mopey emo kid rather than a disaffected hippy, while Barbara Hershey shows up for her paycheck and little else.  Arquette, however, does his usual job of just going over the top and giving a camped-up performance as Staub.  Garris manages to ruin this as well with a Tarantino-style flashback, but at least Arquette tries.

This is a pretty obscure King adaptation and should remain so.  Thankfully, Garris made his last King adaptation, a miniseries version of Bag of Bones, in 2011 and has since gone on to other things.  There have been numerous other directors before and after that were fans and did much better jobs with the material.  Unfortunately, for the better part of a decade, he had a hand in ruining a number of the author's best stories.

Riding the Bullet (2004)
Time: 98 minutes
Starring: Jonathon Jackson, David Arquette, Barbara Hershey
Director: Mick Garris


 

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