Misery (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging) (1990)

Misery is an exceedingly good adaptation of the original novel by Stephen King. The novel features one of King's most tightly-wound, increasingly suspenseful tales, and this movie faithfully brings the novel to life on the big screen. Paul Sheldon, America's best selling writer, creator of Misery Chastain and chronicler of her romantic and human struggles and successes, has just finished writing a "serious" novel he hopes will give him the stature he desires. On his trip home with the manuscript, a fierce blizzard causes him to lose control of his car. Annie Wilkes, his number one fan, finds his car at the bottom of a hill, pulls Sheldon out of it, and takes him home to nurse back to health. As Sheldon begins to adjust to his new surroundings, he is increasingly bothered by his caregiver's erratic mood swings. He soon finds himself a virtual prisoner in her house, essentially unable to move with his two mangled legs. When Annie reads his brand new book, she is exceedingly unhappy with it. When she gets the newly published Misery Chastain novel and finds out that her beloved Misty is dead, she begins unleashing her fury on Sheldon and insisting he resurrect Misty in a new novel written especially for her. All this time, the small mountain town's husband-and-wife police force search for any sign of the missing author (albeit halfheartedly). Eventually, Sheldon realizes escape is something only he can achieve for himself.

James Caan is quite good as Paul Sheldon, but Kathy Bates simply is Annie Wilkes. Her performance as this complicated, mentally disturbed super-fan broods over this entire movie, making it the riveting thriller it is. Lauren Bacall, in what is an overlooked but rather amazing casting coup, lends her talents to the movie in the role of Sheldon's literary agent, while Richard Farnsworth and perennial King favorite Frances Sternhagen round out a truly excellent cast. King actually held out on this project until such time as it could be placed in the more than capable hands of director Rob Reiner. King had a special affection for this particular story, and he was not going to allow a second-rate adaptation of it to come to the big screen.

The suspense of this story is basically psychological in nature, but there are two scenes of far more physical suffering. The hobbling scene is memorable to say the least, and another incident toward the end introduces a little blood to the film, but overall this is a movie that all lovers of suspense and human drama can appreciate. There are a lot of bad movies based on terrific Stephen King stories and novels, but this movie captures the powerful magic of the original novel as effectively as any King movie ever has.

Finally a special edition of Misery! This has been previously released on Region 2 DVD but this is the first official Region 1 release of the special edition. Kathy Bates won a much deserved Best Actress Oscar for her performance. This is one of Stephen King's best and while there are a few humorous moments most notably through Kathy's dialogue, the horror and suspense never fizzle in any way. This is one of the best horror/suspense pictures out there and should be in any fans collection for multiple viewings. Here are the special features:

DVD Features:

Region 1

Keep Case

Widescreen 1.85

Audio:

Dolby Digital Surround Spanish

Dolby Digital 5.1 English, French

Subtitles English, Spanish Optional

Additional Release Material:

Audio Commentaries 1. Rob Reiner Director

2. William Goldman Screenwriter

Featurettes 1. "Misery Loves Company"

2. "Marc Shaiman's Musical Misery Tour"

3. "Diagnosing Annie Wilkes"

4. "Advice for the Stalked"

5. "Profile of a Stalker"

6. "Celebrity Stalkers"

7. "Anti-Stalking Laws"

Trailers 1. Original Theatrical Trailer

2. Original Theatrical Teaser

Buy Misery (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging) (1990) Now

This 2-disc bundle is an interesting edition in the sense that you get the movie twice, on Blu AND on DVD.

DISC ONE

The Blu-ray disc has the movie only in beautiful 1080p Blu resolution, of course, and featuring DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround sound plus French and Spanish audio tracks and English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles.

Disc one is why I bought THIS Misery I already have a DVD edition and, at this price, I'm glad I did it. Misery's Blu treatment is nothing short of spectacular. Since I was able to compare the 2 versions, with the DVD and the Blu playing simultaneously, it was easy to see the difference. It's not only Blu's higher resolution that reveals more detail James Caan's 5 o'clock shade anyone? but the colors are brighter and the picture overall is crisper. Same for the sound. The lossless (uncompressed) audio is a big plus even on a movie like this where most of the sound is dialog and creepy music.

DISC TWO

Is the 'curious' one, featuring the entire movie as a DVD and a relative large number of featurettes. I call it 'curious' because there is no mention on the back of the box of the movie's duplicate on the second disc a mistake?

Anyways, besides the movie there's the obligatory 'this is how we made this and we had so much fun making it' featurette, named 'Misery Loves Company'. We get to hear from James Caan, the always lovely and talented Kathy Bates, director Rob Reiner and so on.

In addition, there is a SERIES of featurettes discussing 'stalking' which I will list because they are fun to watch:

Advice for the Stalked

Profile of a Stalker

Celebrity Stalkers

Anti-Stalking Laws

This is interesting because Annie (Kathy Bates) is not really a stalker. She is sick and she is Sheldon's (Caan) biggest fan but she's not stalking him, she only takes advantage of an opportunity.

Also good is the "Diagnosing Annie Wilkes" featurette where a psychiatrist explains that Annie was:

psychotic

bi-polar

delusional

paranoid

abused as a child

and a few more other defects that I can't remember now.

THE MOVIE

I love Stephen King, I've read a lot of his work and watched nearly all King-inspired movies but I'm not his biggest fan. While a fan, I am objective enough to admit that not all of the King movies are great and some are quite terrible. It's not the case with Misery. Thanks to Kathy Bates (Oscar for best actress) incredible performance, Caan's showing that he can act and inspired work from director Reiner and photography wizard Sonnenfeld, Misery is one of those few movies that you can watch again and again and never get tired of it. I do watch it every couple of years and, thanks to the Blu edition now, I will enjoy watching the movie even more.

RATING THIS EDITION

This Misery earns high grades for the Blu version. While inside a cheap plastic case the kind that has holes cut in it to save a few pennies the 2 discs feature enough quality and content to qualify this as the best Misery so far:

superior Blu rendering of the movie

unexpected second copy as a DVD

interesting, informative, actually watchable featurettes

reasonable price

The 5 stars are well earned.

Read Best Reviews of Misery (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging) (1990) Here

Misery is one of the best in the horror/suspense genre. I have to say I don't think I've seen a better movie that was based off of a book. Usually the book is so good and the movie is sub par, but this one is the exception.

The story begins as writer Paul Sheldon(James Cann)crashes in car while driving in a blizzard. He awakes from being unconscious to find himself in the home and care of a very obsessed fan(Kathy Bates). As he gets better he begins to realize his caretaker has no intention on letting him go anywhere.

Exceptional thriller which anyone would enjoy. I completely recommend Misery especially if you are a Steven King fan.

Want Misery (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo in Blu-ray Packaging) (1990) Discount?

In my opinion The Shining is the greatest of all Stephen King adaptations and then Misery. There are actually a lot of similarities between Misery and The Shining. There both about writers, in secluded locations, who are deserted at some point due to a snow storm. They both have characters that aren't all there mentally and we are witness to their descent into madness and loss of reality. Both Bates and Nicholson have a way with tools, whether it be an axe or a sledge hammer, and with these tools they have cut and hobbled their way into our memories and into film history.

Kathy Bates is the star of this film and deserves her Oscar win as the at times lovable Annie Wilkes, the obsessed fan of author Paul Sheldon played by James Caan. Annie goes from saving Paul to keeping him hostage for her own agenda. The "shining" beacon of this film is without a doubt Kathy Bates who for me is one of the most memorable and witty villains of modern horror film up there with Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter. With that said Caan is there like a dance partner for Bates every step of the way, he is like John Stockton to her Karl Malone always ready to assist her in enhancing the dark comedy throughout with his reactions by facial expression or perfect delivery of his lines. Caan's non verbal reactions to Annie's tirades are priceless and only enhance her dialouge. Pay attention to Caan's facial expressions during the scene when Annie explains about "chapter plays" and don't call them cliffhangers.

So getting back to the king and queen of horror, I had an idea, what if Bate's character Annie Wilkes had rescued/kidnapped Jack Nicholson's character Jack Torrance and what would that dialouge be like. I think it would go something like this:

JACK: "Annie, let me explain something to you. Whenever you come in here and interrupt me, you're breaking my concentration. You're distracting me. And it will then take me time to get back to where I was. You understand?"

ANNIE: "Understand? UNDERSTAND? I will tell you "what I understand!" I go out of my way for you! I do everything to try and make you happy. I feed you, I clean you, I dress you, and what thanks do I get? "Oh, you bought the wrong paper, Annie, I can't write on this paper, Annie!" Well, I'll get your stupid paper but you just better start showing me a little appreciation around here, Mr. MAN!"

JACK: "Now, we're going to make a new rule. When you come in here and you hear me typing

[types]

or whether you DON'T hear me typing, or whatever the F you hear me doing; when I'm in here, it means that I am working, THAT means don't come in. Now, do you think you can handle that?"

ANNIE: "I thought you were good Jack... but you're not good. You're just another lying ol' dirty birdy."

Just a thought, forgive me for prattling away and making everything all oogy, here's the dvd features.

COLLECTOR'S EDITION DVD FEATURES:

(A reviewer listed them above but in case they got lost in the review shuffle here they are again)

First if your like me and like a nice pristine transfer and good sound the dvd is a definite and worthwhile upgrade. The picture quality far surpassed the older version on dvd and I own both. Also on the sound there was no Dolby Digital 5.1 on the old version and on the Collector's edition there is.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio Commnt by Rob Reiner and screenwriter William Goldman

Misery loves company featurette, Marc Shaiman's musical Misery tour featurette

Diagnosing Annie Wilkes featurette, Advice for stalked feature, profile of a stalker feature, celebrity stalker feature and anti stalking laws feature.

This is a must for any horror fan to add to their collection. It is already a classic and is the type of horror that gives you that warm, glad to be inside, tucked into bed feeling if you can avoid getting hobbled.

A great watch for Halloween. Enjoy!

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