The Story: I love Stephen King. I have almost everything he's written on my bookshelf. In fact, I may be one of the few people out there that likes King's non-horror stuff more than the horror books, which probably explains why my two favorite King movies are The Shawshank Redemption, and The Dead Zone (besides the fact that they both star my two favorite actors, Morgan Freeman and Christopher Walken). That's right, The Dead Zone isn't a horror movie, although it has several horror movie moments. But it is still an excellent character-based movie, and doesn't need explosions, buckets of gore, or a gun fight every three minutes to keep us entertained.

That said, let's get on with the movie.

Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) is a school teacher in the Maine town of Cleaves Mills, along with his girlfriend, Sarah Bracknell (Brooke Adams). One day, Johnny takes Sarah to a carnival, and gets a bad headache while riding the rollercoaster. Johnny drops off Sarah at her place, and heads off to his house. Meanwhile, a milk truck jacknifes on the same road and crashes into Johnny, sending him into a coma. So much for milk doing a body good.

Johnny wakes up a special clinic run by Dr. Sam Weizak (Herbert Lom), and is surprised to find that five years have passed. He finds out that he has lost his job, and that Sarah has gotten married and has had a kid. But that's not the most astonishing revelation. A nurse comes by to clean the sweat off Johnny's face, when he suddenly grabs her hand, and begins flinching like he's sitting through a John Tesh concert. Johnny sees an image of a little girl trapped in a burning house, which turns out to be the nurses daughter. He warns her to call the fire department, and sure enough, he was right, her house was burning down, and thanks to Johnny, her daughter was saved.

Later, Weizak talks to Johnny about the vison, which he denies, and shakes his hand. Yet another image floats through his head, this time of WWII ravaged Poland, and discovers that Sam's mother, who he thought was killed by Nazi soldiers, is actually alive and living in California. Weizak later calls her, and finds out that his mother is indeed, alive.

Weizak and Johnny now realize that the coma has somehow given him a powerful gift (or curse), that allows him to see certain events in the present and past. After talking with Sarah, Johnny decides to call a press conference to end the whole media frenzy about his powers. One of the reporters (a smartass might I add), asks Johnny to touch his hand, and discovers the hard way that you shouldn't screw with psychics (well, maybe Miss Cleo is an exception, but Johnny's not a f**king fraud like she is), and is pissed that Johnny knows his sister killed herself.

However, Johnny's mother, who was watching at home, has a stroke and dies in the hospital after Johnny visits her.

A few months later, George Bannerman, the sheriff of neighboring town Castle Rock  (where a few other King books take place in, including Stand By Me and Cujo) comes to Johnny's house to talk to him. He wants Johnny to help him find the Castle Rock Slasher, a serial killer who has been killing women with a pair of scissors. Johnny however, want's nothing to do with it. Bannerman leaves, but tells him to think about all the innocent people that might die if Johnny doesn't help him.

Afterwards, Sarah shows up at Johnny's house for a visit, and introduces him to her ten month old son, Denny. And then, in a scene that I really never got, she sleeps with Johnny, hoping that sex will make him forget about her. Well, if it was incredibly bad sex, that would sure as hell make any man forget about marrying her. (Note from Dante: Man, I wish some of my ex-girlfriends would've tried that to make me forget about them!)

After dinner, Sarah heads off to her car, where Johnny stops her. Sarah lays it out for him. She's married, she has a kid, and though it sucks that he fell into a coma, she can't change the fact he still loves her. Johnny, now sick of not serving a purpose, decides to help Bannerman after seeing another killing on the news.

Later, in Castle Rock, Bannerman and his deputy, Frank Dodd (Nicholas Campbell) show Johnny the most recent crime scene, and an empty cigarette pack, but Johnny can't get any readings from it. Suddenly, Bannerman gets a radio call. Another woman has been found in a gazebo in Castle Rock park, her throat cut. Bannerman, Dodd, and Johnny all head for the crime scene. Johnny touches the dead womans body, and gets a vision of the killing. The serial killer is Frank Dodd!

Bannerman notices Dodd is missing, and finds that he left the crime scene in his patrol car. Bannerman and Johnny quickly head over to Dodd's house, where he lives with his mother. Bannerman muscles his way into the house after Mrs. Dodd tries to keep him out. Johnny follows him in, and after being grabbed my Mrs. Dodd, discovers that she knew her son was the killer. Bannerman and Johnny head upstairs, and find that Dodd has the room of a ten year old boy! Man this guy has a lot of problems. Bannerman busts into Dodd's bathroom, and finds that he's commited suicide. But it's not over. Mrs. Dodd grabs Frank's service revolver, and shoots Johnny in the leg, before Bannerman blows her away.

A month later( at least I think, this movie never really shows the passage of time real well), Johnny has moved to another town, and is now tutoring kids. A rich man named Roger Stuart hires him to help his son, Chris, with school. After one of their sessions, Roger introduces Johnny to Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen) a slimy, smooth talking guy that's running for the Senate. Roger plays friends with Stillson, who then shakes Johnny's hand, but doesn't get his fortune read thanks to a button in his hand.

In the middle of another session with Chris at his house, Johnny finds out that Sarah and her husband work for Stillson on his campaign. Johnny, despondent after seeing Sarah with her husband, breaks down, and hugs Chris. We all know where this is going. Johnny gets a horrifying vision of Chris and a few of his buddies drowning in an ice covered pond. Johnny gets a ride with Chris to his house, and finds that Roger is unloading hockey equipment. Roger tells him that he's going to take Chris and a group of his friends out on the pond for a game of hockey. Johnny desperately tries to stop him from sending the kids out to their doom, but Roger won't listen. After breaking a vase, Roger tells Johnny to forget about it, he's cancelling the team. Johnny holds Chris's hand, and sees only darkness, a dead zone (gee, I wonder how this got it's title), which was created when he changed the future. Of course, we find out that Roger only told Johnny that to get him to leave, but Chris shows that he has more brains then his old man and refuses to go play hockey.

Later, Johnny sees the headline in a newspaper: Two drown in skating accident.

He tries calling Roger, but he won't answer, his pride hurt. Johnny forgets about it, and goes on with his life. One day, he sees Sarah outside his house(it's right across the street from Stillson's rally), and goes out to see her. He loses her in the crowd, and winds up shaking the hand of Stillson. Johnny sees a future in which Stillson is president. But Stillson turns out to be a psycho. He orders the head general of the United States (I don't know what his offical title is, so if you could help me out, Dante, I would appreciate it.) (Note from Dante: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. ) to scan his hand through a device that controls the U.S.'s nuclear arsenal. Stillson does the same, and sends a few ICBM's hurtling towards some unnamed country that the U.S. is at war with (although my guess is Russia). Johnny now has a dilemma: He feels that he should assassinate Stillson before he kills thousands of people. But he knows that if he does, he's a dead man.

Johnny decides to do the right thing, and heads off to the town Stillson is having a rally in. Armed only with a rifle and the knowledge that he can change the future, Johnny breaks into the building where the rally is being held and hides in a balcony overlooking the main stand. The next morning, Stillson shows up, and the rally starts. Johnny swings out, but misses his first shot. However, Stillson shows his true colors by grabbing Denny from Sarah and holding him in the air as a human shield. Johnny is shot down by Stillson's bodyguard, and is left dying. Stillson grabs Johnny, causing him to see one last vison. This time it's of Stillson killing himself after seeing the cover of Time magazine, where he's holding Denny in the air. Stillson storms off, leaving only Sarah and Johnny in the room.

The movie ends sadly as Sarah cries over Johnny's body.

Best Lines: "It's called the coma diet; lose weight while you sleep." -Johnny, to Sarah, after she tells him he's lost weight.

"I'm a man of medicine, I'm expected to save lives, and ease suffering, and I love people. So, I would have no choice... but to kill the son of a b*tch." -Weizak, to Johnny, in response to Johnny's question of whether or not he would kill Hitler before he came into power.

Are You Kidding Me?:

1.) I didn't really buy the whole affair between Johnny and Sarah. I'm no professor of human studies, but I would think that them having sex would actually make things worse between them. There's a reason why God made it a no-no to commit adultery.

2.) Roger Stuart is a stubborn moron. Sure, he knew that Johnny was a psychic when he hired him, but he still doesn't believe him when he's told the ice on the pond is going to break. Here's a clue, if the psychic is able to predict four things correctly (including the well known Castle Rock Slasher case) then he's probably not screwing with you. Besides, why would he make a big deal about that anyway? It's not like it's going to give Johnny any kind of advantage, like money.

3.) Johnny's house is f'n huge! How in the hell does he pay for it? God, even renting a house like that is still expensive, and Johnny is just a tutor. He must be secretly bringing in heroin or something.

4.) I sincerely doubt that just the president and the head general would have control over the nuclear payload, especially during a war. Wouldn't the vice president also have something to do with it too? Then again, we've never had a psycho for a president. But now that I think about it, this movie made a pretty accurate prediction. Stillson is a crazy third party candidate, and the last third party candidate we had was Ross Perot! I think that speaks for itself.

Sex and Nudity: We see a woman's breasts being bared by the Castle Rock Slasher, and an offscreen sex scene between Johnny and Sarah.

Huh?: Man, Martin Sheen overacts badly in this one. Hell, even William Shatner would have been embarrassed by him.

When Johnny first meets Stillson, a large metal button is the only thing that separates Johnny and Stillson's hand when he touches him, suggesting that it needs to be skin contact to have the visions. But later on, Johnny gets the drowning vision by touching Chris, even though he only touched the clothed part of him. Now, in the words of Hurricane Helms: Wazzup wit dat?

I know that Stillson was probably scared, but don't you think that a man who basically lived by what the public thought of him, would just grab a baby for a shield, right where there's about fifty cameras? And speaking of which, it wouldn't have mattered if Johnny missed or not. If Stillson had grabbed my kid, I would have killed him myself.

Sarah obviously doesn't have good parenting skills. After Stillson basically uses her kid for a shield, she asks a dying Johnny: "Why?". I don't know about you, but my choice of words would have been: "Why in the hell did you miss?".

The Final Judgment: This movie is really great, and entertaining, and doesn't follow the typical Hollywood ending. It's just another testament to how great a writer Stephen King is. I give this movie five devils and a full pardon.