Riding the Bullet

Adapting Stephen King isn't easy, and it usually results in films that aren't worth watching. Unfortunately, the American film Riding the Bullet is one such example. I would have expected a bit more from Mick Garris, who has been making his mark in horror for quite a while now and he has made some pretty successful King adaptations, but Riding the Bullet simply didn't work and it's a pain to watch. (08.08.2019)

Only a few adaptations of King's works can be considered successful, while the majority are disasters... From this point of view, it has to be said that Riding the Bullet is definitely not a masterpiece and anyone who has a reasonable alternative to watching it should not hesitate and rather read a significantly better short story. However, it could have been much worse. The story is primarily about coming to terms with the phenomenon of aging and death (not only) of loved ones, and its oppressive atmosphere is replaced in the film by several average jump scares. This film is watchable if one does not have exaggerated expectations... The lack of atmosphere and fear can be attributed to the unremarkable, inconspicuous direction. Overall impression: 50%. If you are not a fan of the genre, I recommend subtracting 15%. (10.11.2007)

The short story is better. No doubt about it, but the movie isn’t bad either. In places pretty confused, unclear (even for me and I’ve read the short story) and a little long-winded. Toward the end, when David Arquette appears on the scene, the story starts to gain momentum and starts to work much better. Mick Garris certainly has to come up with something to catch up with the competition, because there are much better King adaptations around than this one. (07.11.2006)