Riding the Bullet

Another Stephen King story, but this time I'll go with a movie.

While this film is based off of relatively decent short story, it's considerably better in its movie format. Shocking, I know. I'm one of the elitest jerks who rarely gives such an adaptation a chance, lumping them in with the made-for-television SciFi Channel programs before ever giving them a chance. Sometimes this saves me from immense pain, other times I've found I miss out on some true gold quality stuff. Luckily I have friends to convince me to check things out.

Riding the Bullet, the movie, is about Alan Parker, a college student in 1969, who has to hitchhike back to his hometown to see his mother who had a stroke, hospitalizing her. Along the way he's picked up by a ghost whose job is to carry souls to wherever, and that night he's been sent to make Alan choose whether he or his mother is going to die. It's a simple story and what they added to drama it up to movie standards honestly works. I won't say it's a really deep plot, but the concept is excellent.

As for the cast, the mother is familiar but I can't place her in anything I've seen recently...Alan is played by Jonathan Jackson, best known for his soap opera stuff and Tuck Everlasting, and he is fantastic in the film. The real star of the movie is the ghost, played by none other than David Arquette. He's serious, creepy, and goofy all at once, and by the end you really can't be sure he was actually a bad guy. His and Jonathan's performances were great, the dialog above average, and the cinematoghraphy was much better than I expected. It surprised me that this was in theaters, as I might have actually given it a shot had I seen it on the local dive's marquee.

All in all, it's worth watching, maybe even worth buying if it's your cup of tea. Check it out.