This is a series of vignettes recreating three of the classic Twilight Zone episode and one original work. The prologue has Albert Brooks driving Dan Aykroyd in the middle of the night. I'm not happy with Dan Aykroyd. He's too comedic and sets the wrong tone. The character needs somebody darker to play him.

First is "Time Out", the only original segment, directed by John Landis. Bill Connor is a racist drinking at a bar with his work friends. He leaves and finds himself as a Jew in Nazi occupied France, then as a black man in the KKK American south and as a Vietnamese man against American soldiers. This is my least favorite and also the cause of the tragic accident on set. The switching between time periods is too random and feels like somebody's idea of the worst kind of greatest hits. If the movie stayed with the Nazis, this segment could have worked much better.

The second segment is "Kick the Can" directed by Steven Spielberg. Mr. Bloom has just moved into Sunnyvale Retirement Home. He invites the residents to play kick the can in the middle of the night and the old folks turn back into the child self. This is a perfectly fine segment but it struck me recently that this is a magical Negro story.

The third segment is "It's a Good Life" directed by Joe Dante. Helen Foley befriends little Anthony who is getting bullied. She drives him home to find his family in terror of his impossible powers. This is by far my favorite of this movie. Kathleen Quinlan is brilliant. She has a motherly way about her despite the outlandish situation.

The fourth segment is "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" directed by George Miller. It allows John Lithgow to go nuts but I don't know if anybody could top William Shatner.

So there is one great segment, two middling ones and one poor one. Add on the prologue, this is a functional but not spectacular effort. The tragedy makes this a dubious enterprise. The fact that the only original segment ranks the lowest makes me wonder if they should have picked another classic episode.

I really liked the first five minutes. Albert Brooks and Dan Ackroyd, doing what we've all done on a road trip. Playing at trivia; this time theme songs to various TV shows. The segment ends with a startling event. Enough said. There is a segue into the classic Twilight Zone beginning, that familiar series of notes that everyone can put a name to. We now have four episodes, redone from the old show. The first, with lots of profanity and violence, goes beyond Serling. It has a life of its own. Vic Morrow, who has the bigoted lead, died during the making of this movie. His character is so hateful that it's hard to see him ever softening. I never liked the overly sentimental "Kick the Can" episode. That could have been ignored, although Catman Scrothers gives a nice performance. And it does have a good message that we are only as young as we feel. In my top five is the episode about the boy who could send people to the cornfield. "You're a bad man! A very bad man!" This is redone with a different conclusion. One wonders whether the kindly teacher will get hers at some point. My favorite is the one that previously starred William Shatner where a neurotic man on a plane believes he sees a gremlin tearing up the engines. John Lithgow is masterful in his performance, fighting demons on and outside the plane. I was often dissatisfied with some of the conclusions of the Twilight Zone. This one gives hope to the hero. This can provide an entertaining evening if you enjoyed the old show.

It is very hard to think of another film anywhere that had such a great potential as TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE had, only to have a senseless and totally preventable tragedy--the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two illegally hired Asian child actors--mar the impact. Aside from that, and some heavy-handed moralizing that even the original show's creator Rod Serling would have had problems with, this is a fairly good tribute to what was perhaps the best TV series in history.

The prologue (with Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks) and Segment 1 are both originals, written and directed by John Landis. The segment deals with a very embittered white man (Morrow) who, after being dealt the denial of a promotion at work in favor of a Jew, unleashes his bigotry at a bar. But when he steps outside, he soon gets a dose of his own bitter medicine: persecution by the Nazis in Vichy France circa 1943; stalked by the KKK in Alabama in 1956; attacked by US soldiers in Vietnam circa 1969. Landis' penchant for hamfisted dialogue and erratic direction dilute what could have been an effective piece; and the tragedy that occurred on his watch taints not only this segment but much of the rest of the movie.

Segment 2, a remake of the 1961 episode "Kick The Can", directed by Steven Spielberg, stars Scatman Crothers as an elderly magician who brings a sense of youth to the residents of a senior citizens home, though over the objections of a veritable old fuddy-duddy (Bill Quinn). Spielberg has often been attacked, mostly unnecessarily, for his tendency toward sloppy sentimentality, but here a lot of the attacks may be justified, despite the best of intentions. He is still my favorite director, but this is one of his weakest.

Segment 3 remakes "It's A Good Life." Under the inventive hands of director Joe Dante (THE HOWLING),this film stars Jeremy Licht as a boy with the power to enslave and terrorize his family when he comes to feel that they hate him. Kathleen Quinlan stars as the teacher who unintentionally gets caught up in the melee, only to wind up volunteering to teach Licht how to better use his powers before they become too big for him to control (a la CARRIE). Dante's use of inventive special effects (courtesy of Rob Bottin) and black comedy enliven this segment, despite some weird overacting from the rest of the segment's cast (including William Schallert and Kevin McCarthy).

Segment 4 is a reworking of the famous episode "Nightmare At 20,000 Feet." With George Miller (MAD MAX) at the director's helm, the segment stars John Lithgow as an incredibly anxious passenger with a morbid fear of flight who constantly sees a monstrous gremlin tearing apart at the wings of his plane during a severe storm. His anxiety explodes into terror and madness, and the other passengers think he is certifiable. But when the plane lands, and the damage is inspected...

The final score on this is that Landis and Spielberg, who also produced, come up with the weaker segments, and Dante and, especially, Miller come up with the best ones. Miller's segment is a truly kinetic piece of suspense and terror, though I did find the little girl (Christina Nigra) an extremely obnoxious and unnecessary presence. Lithgow, who takes over for William Shatner (who had the role in the TV episode),gives a bravura performance, arguably paving the way for his role in "2010" as an astronaut deftly afraid of heights.

Jerry Goldsmith's usual efficient score and some good special effects work help to make TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE not only an above-average tribute to a great TV show, but also a good anthology film that combines fantasy, suspense, and mystery. It is a shame that the film is tainted by a pointless tragedy. But if one can ignore that, there are rewards to be had by seeing this.