Firestarter
"Firestarter" (2022) lacks the funds to be much fun.
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Here’s a little primer on my history with “Firestarter.” I’ve never read Stephen King’s book. I watched director Mark L. Lester’s 1984 original for the first time three days ago. I wasn’t over the moon about the Drew Barrymore vehicle. The movie was entirely too long. It should’ve been leaner and meaner like a lot of Lester’s other work, i.e. “Commando” and “Showdown in Little Tokyo.” I needed more of the flick to feel like its admittedly very fun (and very cheesy) final 10 minutes. Where “Firestarter” (1984) was stretched to its very limits, “Firestarter” (2022) – now in theaters and available to stream on Peacock – is spread entirely too thin. It’s less than the sum of its parts and too forgettable to even be ephemeral.
Andy (Zac Efron) and Vicky McGee (Sydney Lemmon) were given experimental drugs by Dr. Joseph Wanless (an underused Kurtwood Smith). The medication gave the couple special abilities – he has powers of persuasion; she has telekinesis. Their daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong of last year’s “Black Widow” and “The Tomorrow War”) is born with both of their skills and another one … pyrokinesis. A shadowy government operation headed by Captain Hollister (Gloria Reuben) is in hot pursuit of the family … especially Charlie, whom they hope to weaponize. Hollister commissions John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes, “Blood Quantum”) – a bounty hunter who was also experimented on by Wanless – to capture Charlie, but she won’t be taken without a fight.
As directed by Keith Thomas (“The Vigil”) and written by Scott Teems (“Halloween Kills”), “Firestarter” (2022) does a good deal to differentiate itself from its forebear. It was an interesting choice to cast Reuben (an actress I like and haven’t seen in a hot minute) in Martin Sheen’s role. It was a wise choice to cast an actual Native American actor as Rainbird as opposed to George C. Scott, whose style in that flick I suspect inspired Steven Seagal’s entire aesthetic. Rainbird as played by Greyeyes is somehow simultaneously both more sinister and more sympathetic than Scott’s take on the character, but his redemption felt unearned to me.
Efron is serviceable as Andy and Armstrong is a cute kid and a decent enough little actress, but their characters’ relationship lacked a lot of the warmth shown by David Keith and Barrymore back in ’84. I don’t know if this is the fault of the actors or of Teems’ script, but I suspect it’s more the latter as opposed to the former. John Beasley (he was the Grandpa in “The Mighty Ducks”!) essays the Irv Manders role that Art Carney rocked in the original, but Teems’ script saps any and all personality from the part.
“Firestarter” (2022) is a Blumhouse production and therefore has a Blumhouse budget ($12 million). Humorously enough, this was also the cost of the ’84 iteration. That money went a lot further almost 40 years ago than it does now. This story needs more scale, more scares and more thrills than what $12 million affords in 2022. (I assume a bulk of the budget went to paying Efron. And why not? He’s got MTV Movie and Teen Choice Awards unlike Oscar winners Scott and Louise Fletcher.) Much like its predecessor, the best part of “Firestarter” is its score. While I liked what John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies did here, I definitely dug Tangerine Dream’s work more.
“Firestarter” (2022) isn’t worth venturing out to a theater for (speaking of which, special thanks to the idiot who took a phone call, messaged, checked NBA Playoff scores, left for half an hour and returned during my screening), but it might be worth watching if you have nothing better to do and already subscribe to Peacock. Better still – if you have a hankering for King-inspired tales of telekinesis you could simply watch or rewatch Brian De Palma’s “Carrie.” Now that’s time well-spent!