An average movie

When I was a teenager, one of my best buddies loved 'Different Seasons' which was his favorite Stephen King's book. Did I read it actually? I'm not sure... Anyway, 'Different Seasons' is a collection of four Stephen King novellas with a focus on a realistic drama than the usual horror fiction for which King is famous. Out of those four stories, three have been adapted in movies and two of them became some bonafide classic ('The Shawshank Redemption' and 'Stand by Me'). This movie was the last one they made and the least known but I thought it was not bad at all. The main character was played by Brad Renfro, a talented but troubled actor who died very young (If I remembered correctly, he died around the same time as Heath Ledger). Against him, you have Ian McKellen before he reached worldwide fame with the 'X-Men' and 'The Lord of the Rings' franchise. McKellen was, as usual, excellent, Renfro was also pretty good and the story was really interesting but, as usual with Stephen King, the whole thing became rather preposterous at some point. For Bryan Singer, this feature was rather a step down after the amazing 'Usual Suspects' but that could be said about his whole career. To conclude, in spite of it flaws, it is actually a decent Stephen King adaptation and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

6/10