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The Mist

Today’s forecast: Foggy with a 60 percent chance of killer insects

By Matt Pais

November 21, 2007

Critic's Rating:

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When a massive mist engulfs a small northeastern town, a group of locals and outsiders hole up in the supermarket for safety. They’re led by an artist (Thomas Jane), frustrated by an uptight lawyer (Andre Braugher) and worked into a frenzy by a Bible-thumping nut (Marcia Gay Harden), but eventually everyone comes face to face with the creatures that arrive with the mist.

Big question: Can director Frank Darabont (“The Shawshank Redemption,” "The Green Mile") score with another Stephen King adaptation?

Catch it: Efficient but unsurprising, “The Mist” delivers the squirmy pleasures of a big bug movie enough that you won’t want to swat it from the screen. Though the same can’t be said for the overdone religious fanaticism and the standard reminder about human nature that desperate times call for desperate measures.

Skip it: If you can’t even handle when a bird finds its way into your apartment. You probably won’t want to see a supermarket overcome with gigantic flies and dragons that look like ugly flamingos.

Bottom line: No one’s hungry for another clash between big city liberalism and small town conservatism, and the group dynamics in “The Mist” won’t shock anyone with one psych class under their belt. But there’s a comfy, creepy quality to this competently made disaster zone, even if the movie toes the line between old-fashioned and old hat.

Bonus: To dispute Norton’s (Braugher) skepticism, Mrs. Carmody (Harden) reminds him, “There’s no court of appeals in hell.” Maybe it’s not such a bad place after all!

mpais@tribune.com

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