Nerds That Geek Movie Review: 'The Langoliers'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

There never quite seems to be enough time anymore. We get up, we go about our day and we are always being chased by the clock. Minute by minute, hour after hour we see our windows of opportunity slipping away with the steady tick of the second hand.  

We lament this as often as possible for as the hours slip away, so does our ability to accomplish anything productive and often times our day ends with us lying back down, our mind on tomorrow and accomplishing all those things we missed out on today and always wondering where the time has gone. It's an important question and one that is answered in the most horrific fashion possible in the 1995 miniseries, The Langoliers. 

A routine red eye flight from Boston to Los Angeles becomes the source of terror for several passengers who awaken in the middle of the night to discover that they are the only people on the plane. Thankfully a pilot is aboard as well but their situation quickly becomes all the more precarious. For there is no one on the radio and when they finally reach an airport, no one on the ground. There is only silence and with the help of a mystery writer they discover that they have traveled into the past and now it will be a race to get back to their own time. For a horrible noise is on the horizon and with this noise comes the discovery of what happens to yesterday when people and time have left it behind.

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​This was to say the least, the least horrific miniseries to come out of the 1990's Stephen King miniseries boom. It was also sadly, the weakest entry out of all of them. Not that it wasn't entertaining, as it most certainly was. After all, the scenes where everyone is trying to figure out what happened to the world are unsettling indeed. The unknown surrounds both the viewer and the characters and the horrible noise that the Langoliers provide adds a fine level of terror and tension. 

But the motion picture plays out more like a mystery, and while it is indeed entertaining there are some moments where you wish the plot would advance a little faster. But perhaps the part that took me out of the motion picture were the monsters themselves. With such a grand buildup to these creatures that devour the past and everything within it, their appearance was well... underwhelming. The cheesy CGI effects simply leave you wanting more.  

However, while the plot does drag at times and the monsters are as goofy as they come, this particular entry in the Stephen King universe is watchable. The overreaching mystery is engrossing and Bronson Pinchot’s over the top performance somehow draws you in. Just don't go into this one expecting the wallop of It or The Stand and enjoy this one for what it is... pure entertainment.

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