Tony Scott

The actor and the sharp script should grab audiences quickly: The sitcom has humor, good characters — and Pinchot.

Director John Power gives the fright thing a try, but the writing is pedestrian, the characters obvious. Eventually the vidpic works up to that ultimate Saturday matinee serial weapon from the ’50s, the death ray. Kelly green. The plot’s clearly out of hand.

Writer-director Tom Holland has pulled off the viewer-friendliest Stephen King vid adaptation since the Tobe Hooper-Paul Monash "Salem's Lot," at least for the first three hours. Pulling flesh-and-blood characters out of King's stick figures aboard an airplane zooming into a twilight zone, Holland has turned The Langoliers into a TV grabber.

Trekkies will strain to like it because of the concept, though the first episode bows in with too much hardware and only hints of personal interrelationships. But there are intriguing potentials. [30 Jan 1994]

Opening program is a disappointment. Better stories and a tighter directorial rein are needed. The acting is surface stuff and too much of the action depends on the gadgets.

Shows great series potential.

Cleaned up, with violence relegated mostly to comic-book action, the pilot proves a semi-hoot.

Pedestrian writing, pulp-mag plotting, shopworn characters, hackneyed dialogue ('with all due respect' pops up at least three times in the first hour) and Mario Azzopardi’s broad direction will all undoubtedly delight billions and billions.

One trouble is that Crane and Walters don't come near striking a spark; episode's final, unprepared-for scene, in which they profess a mutual declaration, goes clunk. [9 Aug 1996]

Surprisingly witty...Hardly great comedy, program still has spirit and Asher and Manasseri, who are good, developing comedians. [4 Mar 1994]