classicsoncall Review of Riding the Bullet

Riding the Bullet (2004)

"Just settle back and enjoy the ride, son."

[7/10 · 13 September 2017]

I didn't think this flick was all that bad, but when I plug it into my list of Stephen King-based movies I've seen so far, it comes in dead last out of twenty one titles. An interesting point in retrospect is that you don't really know if the first two drivers who picked up Alan Parker (Jonathan Jackson) were apparitions or not, the way George Staub (David Arquette) turned out to be. In a bit of a nod to another Stephen King novel and movie, the car he was driving reminded me of Christine, so that was kind of cool. One of the story's gimmicks is having Alan's more mature alter-ego try to set him straight whenever he got into a sticky situation, but perhaps the scariest thing about the picture was the idea that a ticket to a Rock n' Roll Revival featuring John Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band would only cost you eight bucks back in 1969. And if they were all going to go, Alan and his pals could chip in to buy a third ticket! Just goes to show that what doesn't sound like a lot today might have been a stretch for college students a half century ago.