Film Review – The Long Walk

The director of “I Am Legend” and four chapters in “The Hunger Games” saga, Francis Lawrence certainly loves his stories of dystopian desperation with a little bit of gamesmanship blended into the despair. He’s fully practiced on the subject, and returns to the way of agony in “The Long Walk,” an adaptation of a 1979 Stephen King book, which followed the painful ways of a walking contest involving young men and a totalitarian government using violence and glory to maintain control over the masses. It’s a bleak study of endurance with a defined King curveball, slipping into the macabre on occasion as characterization takes center stage. “The Long Walk” has its issues, but Lawrence certainly isn’t taking the assignment lightly, creating a brutal, pitiless viewing experience that occasionally hits extremely hard with its visuals and performances. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com