It (The 1990 Version)

It (1990)

Runtime: 187 minutes

Directed by: Tommy Lee Wallace

Starring: Richard Thomas, John Ritter, Annette O'Toole, Harry Anderson, Tim Curry

From: As everyone knows this was made for television

It was about time I saw this again; the initial viewing was many years ago. As the new It is a gigantic hit... see me talk about the original below: 

I have returned after a few days; I was away because Hurricane Irma was baring down on Florida. The storm came closer to me than expected yet I was lucky in that my place did not get damaged and the power went out only once, and only for 5 minutes. Considering that trees fell in the area and some stop sign poles were bent at a 45 degree angle... yes, I was incredibly fortunate. At least I am back in the saddle again.

I don't know when but eventually I'll see the 2017 hit as not only is it doing astronomical business for a horror movie, the film has great word of mouth. I saw this once before, a real long time ago. This is another case where I am sure everyone is familiar with the plot so I don't need to spend much time there. This was a TV miniseries where the first half was getting to know the main characters, mainly by showing them befriending each other in the small town of Deery, Maine, and that's when they face off against Pennywise. As adults, the evil has returned so they need to reunite.

I admit that some moments are kind of goofy and yeah, even kind of dopey. I somehow did not remember the scene where you see two grown men riding a bicycle together... I'll just say they might as well have taken their shirts off and started playing beach volleyball while a Kenny Loggins song is in the background! Still, I can say this is good overall, although I imagine it being 8 to 10 hours long as originally planned may have been better for a book I understand is over 1,000 pages long-I haven't read it before.

Heck, if they would have stuck with those plans, the director would not have been Tommy Lee Wallace (who did a fine job) but instead... George A. Romero, which is a missed opportunity. It definitely would have made a subplot or two presented here better instead of being so rushed and not having as much meaning. For all I know, the flaws in this story can be blamed on the King story, to put it bluntly. I do know that the book has an incredibly awkward and gross scene involving the 12 year old boys doing something to Beverly before they confront It the first time...

Even with those complaints, I can still give this a positive review. It is easy to root for those outcast kids (who are treated poorly at home and are tormented by several horrible late 1950's greasers) as they deal with a demon who preys on their weaknesses; the adults, it's not always the same but it's not intolerable by any means. Both the adults and the kid actors do fine overall; yes, I did laugh that super geek Seth Green turned into a mustached Harry Anderson. As everyone can agree, Tim Curry's performance as Pennywise was incredible and even though he doesn't have a lot of screentime in this 3 hour film, it is still iconic.

As this is not perfect by any means, that is why I was not too upset when a remake was announced; the idea of doing two movies that are each more than 2 hours long sounds like a good one, and from general opinion I am glad the new It is a worthwhile King adaptation rather than one of the many bad ones, such as The Dark Tower.