Since its debut in 1959, Rod Serling's classic television series The Twilight Zone has gone on to inspire many a future filmmaker as well as bring stories of the fantastical and creepy to multiple generations. It's a show that's stuck within societies conscience enough that they even launched new versions of the series (with varying degrees of success) in 1985 and 2002. However, before both of those series Warner Brothers gathered together four talented directors to make an affectionate full-length film spin-off of the series of which you are reading about right now.

The makers put their good intentions on display right from the get go as the movie starts with two friends (Dan Akyroyd, Albert Brooks) driving down a lonely highway at night who are so bored they've resorted to playing chicken with the car lights off and humming old television theme songs to each other as a guessing game. After a knowing wink at the audience when the two characters have a discussion about The Twilight Zone and how great a show it is, this brief wrap-around sequence ends with a pretty cool "jump" scene before the famous theme music and introduction plays.

First up is Landis' contribution, which stars Vic Morrow as William Connor. Seems that not only did William get passed-up for a promotion at work, but he's also a huge racist bigot. After spitting out a venomous diatribe about the Jewish, African-Americans, and Vietnamese he leaves the bar even angrier than when he came in. But things are different outside and it turns out that William has become stuck in a "role reversal" situation as he ends up in Nazi Germany, at a Klu Klux Klan lynching, and in the middle of the Vietnam jungles. This is basically a simple comeuppance tale (which Landis also wrote) and kicks things off decently thanks to Morrow's convincing performance and having a story that we can (even today) sadly relate to. This segment is also known for being Morrow's last acting work as he was tragically killed in a helicopter accident on set.

Steven Spielberg takes the reigns next for a tale that would fit perfectly as a show on his Amazing Stories series that debuted in 1985. Set at the Sunnyvale Rest Home, this has all the whimsy you'd expect from Spielberg as it tells of Mr. Bloom (Scatman Crothers) who comes into the home and brings a childlike wonder back to the elderly residents. Unlike the first tale this one is strictly schmaltz and it really doesn't have nearly enough fantasy, sci-fi, or horror elements to fit in with the rest of the movie.

For the third tale, Joe Dante has taken Jerome Bixby's awesome story "It's a Good Life" (which was filmed in before in the third season of the original series) and blended it with his apparent love of Looney Tunes cartoons. Kathleen Quinlan plays Helen, a schoolteacher who's passing through a small town on the way to her new job. After leaving the local diner she accidentally backs her car into youngster Anthony (Jeremy Licht) who asks her for a ride home since she wrecked his bike. Upon arriving Helen starts to suspect something is wrong, as Anthony's family is much too friendly and enthusiastic for their own good. Turns out Anthony has psychic powers and he likes using them to manifest his love of cartoons. If anything, this tale definitely has Dante's stamp all over it and while it does contain a freaky shot of a girl with no mouth and has a few goofy creature effects it just doesn't make the pure suspense of the original version.

They have truly saved the best for last, though, as we get the most horror oriented story of the set as Mad Max director George Miller remakes what is quite possibly the most famous episode of Serling's series. John Lithgow takes over the role William Shatner played so convincingly in the original to play John Valentine, a businessman who suffers from quite a large case of "flight fright". Nervous about even being on a plane things get a lot worse from him when he looks out the window and sees an imp-like creature tearing apart the wing. The rest of the segment has him trying to convince everyone else what he saw as well as trying to stop our nasty gremlin from making the plane crash. Still an effective story all these years later, Lithgow puts in a pleasingly over-the-top performance and the monster effects are pretty decent also.

There's no denying the filmmaking prowess on hand but just because you have a group of people who are good at their craft behind the camera it doesn't particularly mean that the results are going to be as good as they could have been. In fact, if you were to pick out the main problem with Twilight Zone: The Movie it's that it almost plays it too safe. Despite the fact that the third and fourth stories are remakes, the movie doesn't feel consistent throughout. The best way to describe how things turn out is that the first and last stories end-up book ending and propping up the weaker segments in the middle. This is the kind of movie you can easily sit down and enjoy on a lazy Sunday afternoon while it's playing on a local television channel but don't expect it to demand multiple viewings. (Chris Hartley, 10/5/07)

Directed By: John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, George Miller.
Written By: John Landis, George Clayton Johnson, Josh Rogan, Richard Matheson.

Starring: Vic Morrow, Scatman Crothers, Kathleen Quinlan, John Lithgow.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: As with a lot of movies shot in the 1980's this ends up looking a little bit soft at times on DVD. That's not to say Warner hasn't delivered another decent transfer for a catalogue title as the picture looks good throughout and handles the movies various colour palette changes well.

Extras: Considering all the talent involved in this production, Morrow's on set accident, and the fact that this is the movie's DVD debut; I'm sure there could've been a lot of special features gathered together for this but instead we just have to be happy with what amounts to a boring teaser trailer. And what's with that butt-ugly box art? It's so boring and doesn't make the movie look at all appealing.