**
Nice refutation of the idea that movies should closely mirror the books on which they are based. Stanley Mann's dull screenplay sticks too close to its source material (Stephen King's book of the same name), inevitably reproducing the worst parts of the novel rather than emphasizing its strengths. Add to that Lester's slack direction (the movie begins with a father and daughter running from bad guys in New York City in a sequence that produces only yawns), and a prominent role that was beyond young Drew Barrymore, and you get...well, you get a fairly typical Stephen King adaptation. (The good ones have been by directors smart enough to use the books as starting points rather than blueprints.) This one is about a young girl and her father (David Keith), each with psychokinetic powers, who must fight for their freedom from an evil government agency. Martin Sheen is good as the head of the agency, but George C. Scott is miscast as the heavy, a hitman with a meaningless fixation on the little girl. Followed by the TV miniseries Firestarter 2: Rekindled (2002).
Nice refutation of the idea that movies should closely mirror the books on which they are based. Stanley Mann's dull screenplay sticks too close to its source material (Stephen King's book of the same name), inevitably reproducing the worst parts of the novel rather than emphasizing its strengths. Add to that Lester's slack direction (the movie begins with a father and daughter running from bad guys in New York City in a sequence that produces only yawns), and a prominent role that was beyond young Drew Barrymore, and you get...well, you get a fairly typical Stephen King adaptation. (The good ones have been by directors smart enough to use the books as starting points rather than blueprints.) This one is about a young girl and her father (David Keith), each with psychokinetic powers, who must fight for their freedom from an evil government agency. Martin Sheen is good as the head of the agency, but George C. Scott is miscast as the heavy, a hitman with a meaningless fixation on the little girl. Followed by the TV miniseries Firestarter 2: Rekindled (2002).
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