King Me: Stephen King's The Stand (1994) *Part 4*

 A big finale is upon us!

To see what happened in Part 1, go here.
For Part 2, here.
For Part 3, here.

Now, let's get to Standing!

Right off the bat, Flagg makes Harold crash his bike.  Nadine lives him.

He offs himself the next day and that wraps up that Arc!

Flagg can identify two of the Spies, but not the third.
Tom 'M-O-O-N spells MOON' Cullen is apparently immune because...um...let's not go there.

So, he needs his men to capture the ones he knows and get the information.

His men accidentally kill The Judge (thanks for nothing, Ossie Davis) and he pops up to kill...Sam Raimi?!?

For all my complaints about Flagg's absence in the last 3 parts, he more than makes up for it here.

This is The Randal Flagg Show, co-starring everyone else.

He tries to interrogate the other Spy (Dayna- who helped restore power, but now just wears lingerie).
She tries to kill him, but he morphs and laughs it off.

She offs herself (a weird theme here) and he gets no information.

Things go better in the Desert where he finally meets Nadine in person (or, in creature, to be more accurate).  

He has his way with her, the woman realizing too late that he's a Monster.

Things go worse when he takes her back to Vegas, she freaks out and, you guessed it, offs herself- denying him his demon baby.

As random luck would have it, the mean lady from Part 2 (aka Shawnee Smith) is now in Vegas and spots Tom Cullen leaving.

He sends folks out to get him in the Desert, including...John Landis?!?

Our Heroes, meanwhile, are wandering through the Desert- like in the Bible, you see- and Sinise breaks his leg.

He asks them to leave him behind, which works out well in the end.

The other three are captured near the border and Ray Walston is killed.

The other two are tied in a cross-like manner- again, like the Bible, you see- and given a 'show trial' for a bombing done by Trashcan Man.

Speaking of him, he did find one of the Nukes and drives it into the City towed behind an ATV.
Google says that the missiles can weigh anywhere between 600 lbs. and 79,000 lbs., so...is that even possible?

Regardless, the Hand of God appears- since every King Mini-Series needs usually dodgy CGI in Act 3- and sets off the bomb, killing everyone.

I guess it is a happy ending for our Heroes...is it?

Sinise and Tom Cullen watch the City explode in the distance.

Time to go home.

They get back by Winter and are met by...Stephen King?!?

Oh right- he was in Part 3 as well.  Never mind.

He tells them that Sinise's baby was born, but there's a catch.

It was born with the flu (how?!?) but manages to survive with the Parents' antibodies.

The Musician's Wife is also going to have a child, so the new Generation will continue.  
The End.

This sure...had lots of things happen.  I did get what I was asking for.

Right off the bat, what was the point of the spies?  They never reported back.  Two of them didn't even come home.  Tom comes home, but only after the bomb goes off.

About the bomb, he hired the crazy guy to bring it to him...and he did.  What was the big plan again?

Randall Flagg is kind of awful as a Character- at least as far as his planning goes.  All of his men fail.  All of his plans fail.  He spends all 4 Parts trying to do them and...fails.

Yes, he does fail to a literal Deus Ex Machina.  Even so, was his plan going to work otherwise?  Doubtful.

The finale leaves so many people out- specifically the people back in Boulder.  It's almost like they spent 90% of the other parts in Boulder and then overcompensated here.

At least we get 3 Director Cameos.

I'd nitpick more, but I think that the Film has become self-aware.

Next time, a random pick from my pile of Horror Remakes from the '00s.  It is a tale of violence, but is the message still there?  Stay tuned...

King Me: Stephen King's The Stand (1994) *Part 3*

 Another look at a Post-Pandemic World where everyone has to live in the West.
*Shudder*

To see what happened in Part 1, go here.
For Part 2, go here.

The Episode begins with some random guy dying from...um, something.

They have a Funeral for him, which is mostly there to introduce Ozzie Davis here as The Judge.
His Wife played the prophetic Mother Abigail.

We soon learn that Sinise and Ringwald became a Couple during the off-screen time jump presented here.

She's also pregnant with his child.

In the Book, she's pregnant BEFORE meeting him and they aren't a Couple, which is key for later.

Over in Las Vegas, Randall Flagg recruits more people to his cause of chaos and debauchery.

He sends Trashcan Man to go find nukes.
He also asserts his mystical control over 2 other people...but that's it.

Our Villain sure is waiting until the last Part to really do much, it seems.

Nadine shows up, now fully as Flagg's Apostle and (possible) Future Wife.  She tries to seduce The Musician (who apparently got married during the time jump) but fails.

Oh, and she's connected to Stephen King's extended Cameo as some guy who also goes to the Colony.

In the most baffling moment so far, they hypnotize Tom Cullen to follow instructions.

You see, they plan on sending 3 Spies into Flagg's territory and he is going to be one of them.

What
The

F**k

She's told to go after Harold, who still loves Ringwald's Character.

It is meant to be a sadly ironic thing that he turns on his friends for no reason.

Here, he has justification- even if he's still terrible for doing it.

He's apparently an expert at making bombs, based on one Scene in Part 1 where he made something...I think.

He also listens to Disco while making his bomb, as you do.

He plants a bomb at the Committee Meeting, but they find out.

Nick sacrifices himself to get everyone out- not that he needed to.

Oh, well- we have pathos, and we can officially not feature him, after barely doing it in Part 3.

Around this time, Mother Abigail left- having felt that she was too proud- and she returns right around the time of the explosion.

Her dying words are that the 4 men (convenient that Nick was blown up, I guess) in charge are to go off into the Desert without supplies.

That's...a plan, I guess.  Let's just abruptly stop there then.

A decent Episode/Section, but I have many, many issues/comments.

The Time Jump is pretty lazy, no?  Why spend time setting up events when you can just say 'It happened between segments?'

Lazy.  
Kind of like saying 'lazy' twice, I suppose.

The actual Plot is fine, even if I have issues with how little Flagg and company do here.  They talk about what they might do.  They send Trashcan Man out.  We see them doing...something for a few minutes and... that's it?

I guess Part 4 is going to be massive...or disappointing.  Given that Part 4 of The Stand is called 'The Stand,' I think I know which way I'm leading.

The bulk of this Part is introducing yet more Characters, sending them off or killing them off and just kind of biding time.

I watched these days apart, but they originally ran one night after another.  I'm curious how the Pacing felt to people back then.  

If you can relate, leave a comment.

As for me, I'm optimistic that the conclusion will be good, but mostly still making this face at the 'Hypnotize Tom Cullen' Scene...

Alright, Mini-Series- take it home.  I want you to be amazing, so...please do it.  See you then...

King Me: Stephen King's The Stand (1994) *Part 2*

 All plans to do this in 4 days like how the Mini-Series ran pretty much ended by the next morning.
That said, let's keep looking at the Mini-Series with Part 2.

To keep up, see the first part the first part here.

Part 2- The Dreams is all about two things.

Introducing New People to our Cast and moving said People to a new location.
That's pretty much it.

So, we get Molly Ringwald leaving home (after Scrubs Dad died) with Definitely Not Her Boyfriend.

The Rock Star goes to New York City (after his Mom died) to see the Waitress we met once.

Instead, he meets Laura San Giacomo (an upgrade, to be fair).
They both leave the city, while she seems seduced by a dark power...

A new Character named Trashcan Man (Matt Frewer in yet another Garris FilmGarris Film).

In typical fashion, he's crazy.  He sets oil reservoirs on fire and is called to Vegas by a strange voice.

Said Voice is that of Randall Flagg, who we next see breaking Miguel Ferrer (who was arrested in Part 1) out of Prison.

He agrees to be Flagg's Lieutenant.

To be fair, I'd follow someone with a mullet that glorious too!

Less glorious are the adventures of Rob Lowe (a deaf mute) and...sigh...Lenny from Of Mice an Men.

He's actually Tom Cullen (played by the man who voices 'Patrick Star') and it's...something.
I'm curious how the 2020 Mini-Series handles him.

They also briefly meet Shawnee Smith (playing a more crazy version of Audrey Horne) too.

Gary Sinise is free of the CDC and meets up with some folks, including Ringwald and Seriously, He's Not Her Boyfriend Guy.

They go to Colorado.

In Vegas, Flagg has assembled a group of Lieutenants, although we only saw the Introduction of Ferrer and Frewer (Not Attorneys at Law).

He's up to...something.

The main group has met up with the Old Lady from their Dreams and go to Colorado.

They see a group of people- including Sinise and company- arrive as Part 2 ends.

Unfortunately, this Part either sinks or swims based on how invested you are in the Characters- especially the new ones.

For me, I'm more interested in the Story and very little progresses here.
Yes, you do need a part in a Story like this where people travel from Point A to Point B.  The trick is to make that part interesting AND/OR make the Characters great.

I don't dislike the Characters- other than the representation of Cullen- but I'm not super-invested in them at this point.

As it is, Part 2 is just them making bigger groups and traveling.

Like I said, it's a necessary part of the Story...but man is it not that interesting.
You have Flagg around and we only get TWO SCENES of him.

Don't worry, we get lots of Cullen, so I get to keep making this face for most of the 90 minutes...

Next up, Part 3 hopefully moves the actual Plot forward and delivers.  I'm giving it a chance!