KING ON SCREEN (2022) Movie Review

King on Screen (2022) d. Daphne Baiwir (France/Belgium) (105 min)

Stephen King’s debut novel, Carrie, first landed on book stands in 1974 and was a relatively modest success. By the time Brian De Palma’s film version hit screens in 1976, King’s follow-up, ’Salem’s Lot had already been published, with The Shining just around the corner. Over the following 45 years, King continued to churn out tome after tome, oftentimes two (or more) in a single year. As of this writing, he has signed his name to 65 novels, over 200 short stories, and five non-fiction books, making him one of the most (if not THE most) successful living authors. It is therefore no surprise that the man’s work has been adapted time and again; over 80 feature films and TV projects (movies, miniseries, series) have their roots in King’s brainwaves, with many of them deemed modern classics.

DARK ANGEL (aka I COME IN PEACE) (1990) Blu-ray Review

Dark Angel (aka I Come In Peace) (1990) d. Baxley, Craig R. (USA)

While I distinctly remember the trailer for the bombastic '80s sci-fi actioneer I Come in Peace (released in 1990, but like that year’s other big-bam-boom-blammo alien assassin flick, Predator 2, this one screams the prior decade), I elected to pass on it both during its brief theatrical run nor did it ever make the final cut when dragging armloads of video rentals to the checkout counter. While I enjoyed the concept of an unfriendly E.T. having learned just enough English to catch his quarry off guard, it wasn’t enough to push me over the cliff. Chalk it up to the fact that I was still waist-deep in catching-up mode during the VHS boom, and well, headliner Dolph Lundgren wasn’t exactly someone whose filmography piqued much interest. Time passed, and in all that time, no one had ever come along to insist I had missed out on some kind of overlooked gem, so I continued to ignore it.