Nice little Stephen King adaptation. It has likeable Ed Harris and awesome Max Von Sydow - and the eerily watch-able Amanda Plummer, from before she went off the grid. It's feels like a well-produced tv-flick, and if you can live with that standard, there's some fun to be had here.

Despite a few funny lines -- as when von Sydow says, "You're disgusting. I like that in a person" -- Heston's puerile King adaptation is a mostly tedious, one-joke job stretched to nearly two hours. Occasionally effective FX and performances that go beyond the story's feeble demands -- von Sydow, sheriff Harris, cafe owner Bedelia, and waitress Plummer all put out with admirable enthusiasm -- also help hoist the film to a watchable level. Only hardcore King fans will find this needful viewing

Beyond a few good casting choices, it's another relatively mediocre adaptation of another good and inherently sinister Stephen King novel. The fact that the film is significantly toned down from the novel also doesn't help it that much, even beyond the significant levels of violence that are included. I also get the feeling that with some aspects cut from the novel, the running time didn't really need to be two hours. As with most King adaptations, if you have time read the novel first.

The enjoyable cast and some decent scenes make this watchable, otherwise it doesn't have much to recommend it. I suspect fans of the book would be disappointed.

 If adaptations like It and Storm of the Century ascend beyond TV-terribleness to make even their campier moments palatable, Needful Things is very much a lowlier kind of Stephen King flick -- more adept at making you roll eyes than feel dread. Miraculously, Von Sydow rises above it all, but there's little redemption for filmmakers who craft scenarios as apocalyptically (in the negative sense) awful as Things' guffaw-worthy preacher fight. It's a jumble; a disaster.

Think "Blood Simple" (ideologically, aesthetically) but better. Silly and chilling. Ed Harris is the perfect Stephen King protagonist.

A tightly plotted thriller that would be perfect if it didn't rely on two things: simplistic shorthand for past events and that irritating slow/fast-motion 12fps effect that makes every scene of violence look like it was cribbed from a Lifetime movie. Still, von Sydow is instrumental in turning King's behemoth of a novel into an excellent black comedy.

This is a really mean spirited novel and it doesn't translate well to film (shocking a King adaptation doesn't translate well). I like Ed Harris but there just wasn't much to get into with this role. I do think Max von Sydow went at it with gusto (" Gobble my crank!"). I think it went overlong and they should have made it a miniseries as the extended version I saw on TV was a little better.

not good, but entertaining

ok

Surely the dullest movie based on a Stephen King story in history.

Average King adaptation. This film loses its balls; the book kills children.

Good adaptation of a Stephen King story. Max von Sydow in something like this... :-)

An excellent story adapted fairly enough to get the point across. If you only have two hours to kill, watch this film. If you have a day, definitely read the book. Regardless, there are some pretty good performances in this one, even if Amanda Plummer is typecast.

the book is way better.

The book is better better better.

Very clever, with a great performance from Von Sydow