Sole Survivor (2000 TV Movie)
Almost-great combination of Stephen King and Michael Crichton
15 July 2002
My one-line summary for this movie, and most of this critique, seems to hold for most Dean Koontz books/movies that I have read/seen. They are a combination of Stephen King fantasy, horror and mystery; "supported", sort of, by a Michael Crichton "high tech". The combination works well up to a point, but for reasons that I don't quite understand, it doesn't quite become "great". It seems that Koontz isn't quite comfortable with a good fantasy story, that he seems to "need" some kind of scientific justification, which he doesn't.

This particular movie/story rolls along quite nicely, a lot of interest, possibly a little too long before the denouement, when we find out what's really going on. But overall, a "very good" movie. I see strong similarities between this movie and "Phantoms" in particular.

I also think that the violence is a little gratuitous. But against that is that there is not a single swear word, not a single glimpse of naked flesh; where there is plenty of opportunity to include that if he wanted to.

Having said all that, it IS a good movie. I would always be prepared to hire out a Dean Koontz movie on the strength of his name alone. It's simply that here on IMDB I get to wax philosophical about it...
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