Hearts in Atlantis

Hearts in Atlantis_360P

I had to see this movie twice(once with my parents, once with my friends) and it got worse the second time I saw it. My friend read the book by Stephen King and at first I didn't believe him when he told me about it because it was so different. Anyway, I almost fell asleep. It was really boring. Nothing really happened. I expected to be seeing a supernatural thriller. The trailers made it seem that way. His powers didn't have anything to do with the movie. There was also a really cheesy part. This is a sort of crucial moment so... He was running up the a hill carrying his friend "against all odds" and it was like he was a famous line backer or quarter back or something that the "psychic guy" told him about. Snore.

Great cure for insomnia. Where to begin... pointless story, terrible script, and the worst performance by a kid actor in a lead role since Nathan Watt in "Unstrung Heroes". One of those films I wish I could sue to get my ticket money and 2 hours back. Very disappointed.

such a touching and lovely movie. i was moved by the friendship of the boy and sir anthony hopkins. i was really inspired with this story. being there for your friend. A MUST SEE MOVIE!!!!

Infuriating story from a Stephen King book about elderly man with ESP (Anthony Hopkins, in an easy, sly performance) befriending young Bobby (Anton Yelchin), the boy of a single mother who both live downstairs in the same building. William Goldman's mediocre screenplay pokes around, trying to come up with interesting details, but the whole thing is too belabored, with arty directorial flourishes adding nothing (such as the slow-motion photography with Bobby and his friends playing in the river). The focus of the piece is so off that a bullying kid is not only revealed to be a cross-dresser (huh??), he gets away from criminal punishment with a good, stiff beating from vengeful Bobby, while good-hearted Hopkins gets hauled away (again, huh??). The picture doesn't even have the sense to tie its ends together at the finish-line, instead giving us a voice-over dripping with dulled-out sentimentality. *1/2 from ****

Another unfortunate case of one writer taking another's story, raping the h*ll out of it, and using just the characters and basic events for their own purposes. This movie seems eager to join the league of bland Stephen King adaptations. It's simple, see, all you have to do is; take a Stephen King story, remove all irony and dark humor (in this case, all humor period), along with anything possibly offensive, dangerously crude, or sexual (which is about a fourth of anything King writes), add in a bunch of sappy, trite bullshit that washes away anything real from the characters and grinds them all down to a cliché, and boom, there you go. Add in a boringly typical Anthony Hopkins performance void of any true emotion, just sappy bullshit sentimental faces, a mediocre child actor, and MAKE SURE to use the same flat three point lighting technique and film stock as every other bland Stephen King movie in recent memory. Then you'll get this movie. What a waste. There are good Stephen King adaptations out there. This is not one of them.

My wife and I didn't walk out on this movie only because we didn't have enough sense to lean over and say, "you want to leave?" We were both sitting there, side by side, hating it. This is an utterly worthless film. Not much happens, and at the end one can see no point whatever to it. What is this movie trying to tell us, what does it want us to feel, in what way are the events show really connected? It is an utter, complete mess, and the fact that it's gotten a fairly high vote on the IMDB just confuses the hell out of me, because it's really, really bad. The only thing I can think is that the book made sense and people who have read the book have a way of understanding what the point of it all is, but really, don't go see this. Just don't.

I have never really liked Stephen King's books but found some of the movie adaptations to be enjoyable, especially "Misery" and "The Shawshank Redemption." Both of those were pretty short books (Shawshank being a short story). It's when his book tops 400 pages (which is usually always) that things go bad. But since I did not read the book, I will say no more about it. This movie is plain dreadful. It tries to pull on the ole' heart strings with absolutely nothing. The kid does not act like an 11-year old (which is typical of King's stuff) and the dialogue is unreal. I rolled my eyes at least 5 times in this movie and almost turned it off about 3 times. I kept thinking it would get better, but it kept getting worse. Hopkins is totally wasted in a role that could have been quite good, like his portrayal of C.S. Lewis in "Shadowlands." There is no suspense in the movie and it is really about nothing. Though the main child actor keeps talking about his frienship with his male friend, there is rarely a scene where they talk. It's just so predictable and "Kingish" that I can't figure out why people like it. Oh well. Watch at your own risk.

I saw Hearts in Atlantis last night, and I have to say that the more I think about it, the more I like it. After it was over, I couldn't help but remember my "Atlantis." The town in which I grew up in was certainly one of the best places in world. I lived there from the time I was born, until I was 18. Hearts in Atlantis made me remember what it was like to be a kid, and to really not have a care in the world (except what time all my friends were going to meet to play football or baseball). Of course I understand now that there is much more to life then riding bikes and playing games, but a part of me wishes I could go back, just for one more day. I loved when the Hopkins character explained how when you're a kid a day could last forever, and the place in which you lived seemed almost like a paradise...like Atlantis must have seemed. This movie made me remember my "Atlantis," and I am glad that I saw it.

Hearts in Atlantis is another Stephen King adaptation I wasn't aware of, it stars Anthony Hopkins, David Morse, and the taken before his time Anton Yelchin. It tells the story of a small bullied boy, his father has passed away and his mother isn't fullfilling her duties as a parent. When a mysterious man appears in his life everything changes. I had no idea what to expect but was quickly gripped, it was standard King stuff from small town America to flashbacks of youth to that wonderful charm they all seem to have. The movie immediatly whispers sweet promises in your ear, you know something is coming and you'll expect it to be big! Sadly it doesn't entirely deliver, in fact I found the big "Revelation" very underwhelming. Don't get me wrong it was okay but not on the level I had expected. Hearts in Atlantis is a beautiful quaint little tale, but is not one of those big epic life changing experiences that occasionally cross our paths. The Good: Cast are on point Looks and sounds wonderful Very charming The Bad: The twist is very weak Feels like it should have been better Things I Learnt From This Movie: Anthony Hopkins simply can do no wrong can he?