Critic Reviews

This four-night, not-so-mini TV event that takes its story from the best-selling Stephen King book keeps you watching and waiting and on the edge of your seat. A captivating video version of King's horror parable (complete with religious "significance" of grand betrayals, Armageddon endings and messianic resurrections), The Stand shapes up as a chillingly absorbing descent into horror and things that go boo! in primetime. In scope and magnitude, The Stand delivers King-sized chills and thrills. [6 May 1994]

Ringwald jokes aside, The Stand is an impressive piece of work. It has a convincing, realistic look, relentless pacing, strong performances and a sense of grandeur as well as humor and irony. [8 May 1994]

I've seen the first six hours, and if I weren't here writing this, I'd be home watching the finale. I'm that hooked. [8 May 1994, p.6C]

If The Stand itself isn’t the perfect King adaptation, that doesn’t really matter, because perfection isn’t what a pop-culture omnivore like King aims for anyway. He’s after glorious excess, and The Stand has that in spades.

Visually arresting, epic in ambition and impressively acted by a splendid cast, The Stand" looks like King's close encounter with "The Andromeda Strain" crossing "Wild Palms, building its suspense around a deadly epidemic that wipes out most of the world's population and leaves the survivors seeking a new beginning for good or evil. [8 May 1994, p.1J]

Entertaining. But is it worth eight hours of your attention? Not unless you’re laid up with a bad flu bug you just can’t seem to shake.

But score a couple of solid hits for the good folks. Ray Walston is crustily effective as an elderly artist. And in the movie's most tender relationship, Rob Lowe, whose character can neither hear nor speak, and Bill Fagerbakke, as a mildly retarded Li'l Abner-type country boy, are outstanding.

The Stand is kitchen-sink King, a garish pop-culture potpourri of mystical-religious hokum and grisly kitsch. You'll love it or hate it. Maybe you'll love to hate it, or hate to love it...But start watching, and you'll almost surely be hooked. [6 May 1994, p.1D]

WATCHING The Stand, the four-night mini-series is like falling face-first into a yard-wide triple-cheese pizza: it is large and is messy, and even if you find the experience repulsive, you cannot easily disengage yourself.

While it's no "V," it's not bad; the mini probably would have played better at six hours, but should sustain the interest of King fans, who number in the millions, and may pick up some non-King followers. [2 May 1994, p.42]