Thinner (1996)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Better Late Then Never

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The makeup is great. No one can deny that. It's impressive watching Robert John Burke's transformation from morbidly obese to painfully thin. The various makeup effects on the other affected characters are also impressive. So if you watch a movie for the makeup - don't miss this one. The problem is that few if any people watch a movie for the makeup. We watch for the story; the performances. On those scores, "Thinner" disappoints. It's based on a Stephen King story. I've seen a few film adaptations of King stories. Some are good, some not so much. This is included in the latter group.Burke plays an obese lawyer named Billy Halleck who accidentally kills a gypsy woman in a traffic accident, and her father takes revenge by placing a gypsy curse on him that causes him to lose weight rapidly. At first it seems fine. He's been trying unsuccessfully to lose weight, and now he is. But it quickly becomes clear that something is wrong. He eats and eats and eats more than he ever did - and he still loses weight. His relationship with his wife and daughter suffer and he becomes desperate to find the gypsy who put the curse on him so that he can convince him (either by begging or by force) to remove it.But this movie lacks spark. At times it's silly (yeah - it's about a gypsy curse, so what would you expect?) But overall it just didn't connect with me. The cast isn't especially well known. The best known cast members are Michael Constantine as the gypsy man and Joe Mantegna as a mobster who helps Billy do battle with the gypsies. The performances aren't bad - but they're outshone by the makeup. I also found the ending kind of disappointing. But there's still the makeup! Can't beat the makeup! (4/10)

This isn't a terrible movie, it's just not that good either. Decidedly average with a ridiculous premise, corny dialogue and some below par acting.The lead actor is the worst culprit. No offence to the guy but he's not leading man material. The special effects designed to make him look obese are very dated and just make him look unrealistic and almost like a cartoon character. The other characters are complete clichés, from the evil gypsies with magic in their veins to a psychotic Mob boss.This would have worked better as a 30 minute Tales From The Crypt episode. It's not interesting enough or good enough for a movie.

Bad acting and story line; I guaranteed my mom that Stephen King didn't do the screenplay for this, like he's done for others, as I went to look it up...and what'd'ya know. The sexy young gypsy girl dances sexily for Billy early on, flashing him, then flips him off, SPITS at him, and walks away. And this is before he even runs over the elder gypsy woman crossing the street. If I were him in that scene, I'd be like, "I'm lost... Come again?" She later explains her anger to him when he visits their campsite that "You white folk never SEE us. You're always wrapped up in yourselves." Excuse me but Billy looked over at their group from across the way at the beginning and even asked a co-worker about them. What does she mean they never SEE them? Billy contradicts himself from scene to scene, like his reaction to his daughter's concern about his weight loss that there's nothing to be concerned about it because he's finally found a diet that works, only to hurl his plate later on at the wall and get irritated with his wife that he's being erased, like she just doesn't seem to grasp that. The book does a much better explaining why Billy's angry at his wife and feeds her the pie at the end. The movie doesn't explain that at all; it just comes out of nowhere.

I have yet to read the book.I didn't I had seen this movie before but as I got hear the end of the movie.I did remember that last few scenes fro years back , which I forgot about.So that already tells you it a forgettable movie I did like some of the make up effects to make him look k ThinnerThe fat make up was to much and found it looked far to fake , it actually looked really bad The acting in this was really good.I didn't really liked how the movie ended at all, I don't know if story Ended I the same way.I found that Really silly way to end it