L'occhio del male

King adapted movies either work or they don't. Horror type flicks are very hard to do well. This did have a made-for-TV feel about it similar to other King flicks, but imo, the reason this was acceptable was in large part due to the acting and casting of Robert John Burke. Can you imagine seeing this man walk his dog at night? He seems outside the human race somehow…I guess that's why they choose acting as a profession. He so not normal. His voice quality was over the top, Simpson-esq in quality like in a cartoon…but that worked here.

Joe Mantegna and Michael Constantine were excellent. As stated previously, Kari Wuhrer is smokin' hot. Too bad she looks exactly like that Doritos girl who is on a UON stupid sitcom now. I guess you can't have two Doritos girls in Hollyweird.

You gotta love IMDb.com to look up all the work these actors have done. I knew I saw Burke and Wuhrer's face before but couldn't place them. I thought Michael Constantine was James Coco…but only tonight I saw Constantine in The Hustler w/Paul Newman, one of his first roles. IMDb confirmed this.

Even found out Joe's wife owns a pizza place in Burbank...need to stop by.

Alright people, what's up with all the negative reviews for this flick? Coming from a horror fan, I loved Thinner...simple as that. Working from a story by Stephen King, this is Tom Holland's return to kick-ass horror. Billy Halleck is a very overweight attorney who is cursed by a Gypsy after an unfortunate automobile accident. That's the set-up for this cautionary tale about accepting guilt. Greg Cannom's (Bram Stoker's Dracula) make-up is superb, the guy has two academy awards for Christ's sake. So lighten up. Joe Mantegna is hilarious as Ritchie the Hammer and Robert John Burke is intense ("I'm being ERASED!"). There might be a little hammy acting here and there, but what would a horror movie be without that? The story is just superb and the line between good and evil is very blurry here. Having no good guy makes it a very interesting film and a little more realistic. It's a perfect thriller in the Tales From the Crypt vein.

I saw this movie on TV a few years back. I'd read the book before seeing the movie, and I've read the book a second time recently, after seeing the movie. And I think I can safely say that 'Thinner' is a decent attempt, but doesn't live up to the book.

The movie is based on Stephen King's 'Thinner'. It is based around an obese small-town lawyer, Billy Halleck (Robert Burke), who has a curse put on him by a gypsy (Michael Constantine), after running over his daughter with his car. Halleck leaves his wife (Lucinda Jenny) and daughter (Joie Lenz), to find the gypsy and get the curse that is steadily making him thin reversed, before it is too late.

Like another reviewer said, this movie seems really TV movie-ish. The only actor I recognize in this movie is the typecasted Joe Mantegna. The rest I've never heard of before or since this movie. For the most part the movie is faithful to the book. But, it lacks much of the vivid detail of the book. Also, the main character is far more tame in the movie. Though, as I said, most of the actors I've never heard of before or since, they do a very good job in this movie. After seeing the movie, I can't picture anyone else playing the roles they did. And the make-up effects are amazing.

Overall, a decent movie. Could've better captured the spirit of the book. You could find a worse way to spend two hours.

Rating: 7/10

This engaging adaptation of the novel, which Stephen King wrote under his Richard Bachman pseudonym, stars the under-rated Robert John Burke ("RoboCop 3") as Billy Halleck. Billy is a lawyer in Maine who happens to be grossly overweight. After he accidentally runs down an elderly Gypsy woman, his judge (John Horton, "The Shawshank Redemption") and police chief (Daniel von Bargen, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?") friends conspire to help Billy avoid any punishment. This infuriates the old womans' even more ancient father (Michael Constantine, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"), who places one of those old-fashioned Gypsy curses on Billy. Stroking Billy's cheek, he utters one word: "Thinner". Soon, Billy is rapidly losing weight, which he enjoys at first, until he realizes that he really is going to waste away to nothing unless something is done.

Just personally speaking, this viewer has a blast with this particular King story. Yes, it's unrelentingly downbeat, but I didn't mind that so much. And it's true: other than Billy's daughter Linda (Bethany Joy Lenz, 'Pearson'), there isn't a single character in the story that's particularly sympathetic. Still, this viewer found it refreshing that so many of the characters here turn out to be such a-holes. It's a highly entertaining tale, well told by co-screenwriter and director Tom Holland ("Fright Night", "Child's Play"). And it's fortunately not completely without a sense of humor, although the humor tends towards the dark.

There's wonderful music by Daniel Licht, but the real marvel of the movie is the astonishing, convincing makeup effects (supervised by Oscar winner Greg Cannom) that transform the thin Burke into an obese man. There's also a gem of a supporting performance by the always entertaining Joe Mantegna ('Criminal Minds') as a mafia man whom Billy had successfully defended in court. Therefore, the mobster feels indebted to the lawyer, and is more than willing to help Billy in his quest to convince the ancient Gypsy to remove the curse. The supporting cast is solid right down the line, with Lucinda Jenney ("Thelma & Louise") as Billy's possibly unfaithful wife (the script tries to leave this aspect as ambiguous as possible), Sam Freed ('Kate & Allie') as a doctor friend, the intoxicatingly sexy Kari Wuhrer ("Eight Legged Freaks") as Constantines' great granddaughter, Elizabeth Franz ("School Ties") in a bravura turn as the judges' distraught wife, and Peter Maloney ("The Thing") as an information provider. Director Hollands' son Josh plays Frank Spurton; King has his usual cameo (playing a pharmacist). What is a real laugh is the fact that actress Irma St. Paule ("Twelve Monkeys"), as the accident victim, actually looks OLDER than Constantine!

Good gloomy fun, but it won't be to all "tastes", especially the ending.

Eight out of 10.

Billy Halleck (Robert John Burke) hits an old gypsy woman with his car, and with the help of his lawyer and judge friends gets away without even a traffic fine. Unfortunately for him, he cannot use legal maneuvers to get the gypsy curse off of him!

Stephen King has one of the worst track records for film adaptations. For every great film (Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Shining) there are some real piles of rubbish. And any number of films in between. This one, luckily, is closer to the good end. Some have pooh-poohed it, but I found it pretty enjoyable.

Beyond the main story, which was average, the film comes alive due to Joe Mantegna's portrayal of Richie Ginelli. Mantegna, who you may know from "Criminal Minds" or as the voice of Fat Tony from "The Simpsons", is pretty great as violence incarnate. When he unleashes his vengeance on the gypsies, you almost have to feel bad for them, as you admire his tenacious bloodlust.

I have heard people complain about the ending, which apparently varies from the novel. I have also heard that the novel has more intricate subtleties that the movie overlooked. I do not have the novel, so I cannot comment on that, beyond saying that I really enjoyed the ending. I can't say what it is, but I found it very appropriate.

Burke's Clint Eastwood voice may be a bit dramatic, but I did not mind... oh, and Kari Wuhrer appears, as well... though does little more than provide a dash of sex appeal.