The Long Walk (2025)

Brent Marchant September 5, 2025

★ 2/10

Director Francis Lawrence’s screen adaptation of Stephen King’s novel by the same name is one of those pictures that makes me want to stand up in the theater and exclaim that the Emperor is indeed naked (though I’d probably be quickly escorted from the moviehouse if I did so). The source material for this production, originally written at the time of the Vietnam War, was an allegory about the draft and its impact on young American men at the time, a mandate that often led to their deaths in an unpopular and largely unexplained conflict. And it’s a statement that’s admittedly still valid (albeit perhaps not as relevant) all these many years later. However, the story’s translation from book to screen in the present day leaves much to be desired, in part because its message isn’t as timely as when the book was written and in part because of the film’s stunningly poor executi…

user1638 September 14, 2025

★ 3/10

This review contains spoilers. As you can probably tell, this isn't a "good movie 10/10" type review and I honestly don't know how to write a good one without spoiling things. I believe these spoilers are necessary to understand just how disappointing the film is and that they don't deter from the movie's "experience". You can already guess that half of the characters will die after the first night and that the main character and his best friend will be the last two remaining. Also, art is subjective. The review below is my opinion. I'm not claiming that it's the objective truth. With that said, let's get started. Watching The Long Walk felt precisely as the name suggests: it was a long, tedious, bland and repetitive experience. It's the worst kind of bad: It wasn't a movie about an alien spaceship suddenly interrupting the participants and abducting The Major. This would'v…

MovieGuys September 18, 2025

★ 9/10

Take a road, a few military props and a small group of young actors and you have the essentials of "The Long Walk". This is story is, in essence, a condensed metaphor, for walking the passage of life, its hopes, its dreams, nightmares and what life truly means to each of us, when its about to end. This is, in its own way, also a harsh repudiation of state sanctioned violence. Where the young are brutally sacrificed, by the old, in the pursuit of power and control. In spite of the fact this film is derived from Stephen Kings work, an author I have mixed feelings about, Id characterize it as an "instant classic". Thirty years from now this will be as refresh, remarkable, moving and memorable as it was in 2025. Why? Putting aside the more than excellent, intelligently written script, what makes this essentially very simple film shine is polished, quality acting. A rare thing these…

CinemaSerf September 19, 2025

★ 7/10

Initially, I though this had something of the “Hunger Games” to it, as a group of fifty young men assemble at a military roadblock. It appears they have each won a lottery and a prize of untold riches awaits the winner of a walking competition. The rules are simple. Keep above 3 m.p.h. and don’t stop. “Ray” (Cooper Hoffman) pays an emotion farewell to his mum and joins a group of lads that includes “Pete” (David Jonsson); the somewhat odious “Barkovitch” (Charlie Plummer), talkative “Olson” (Ben Wang) and the lithe and fit looking “Stebbins” (Garrett Wareing) and “Art” (Tut Nyuot). A rousing speech from the “Major” (Mark Hamill) explains the rules to them, and makes clear that it will quite literally be the last man standing who wins. Quickly, “Ray” and “Pete” bond and as they set off, we discover more about what makes these two men tick, intersp…

ergenekon February 13, 2026

★ 6/10

Has "the hunger games" vibe with less detail on world fiction, and does not intend to explain it neither. A 6/10 movie with good sub-message.

oscarlidenbrock May 3, 2026

★ 4/10

I started watching the movie thinking it would be a knockoff of The Hunger Games or maybe Battle Royale, but with a smaller budget. Instead, I found a film that makes little sense and has an even worse ending. The story follows a small group of boys who sign up for a government-organized event where they must take part in an endless walk with 50 participants. The rule is that the first 49 who stop, for whatever reason, will be killed. According to the film, the government does this to motivate the population, since the winner will receive wealth and a wish—which ultimately shapes the ending, though not in a very coherent way. It presents a dystopian future, but at no point does it really show why it is dystopian. They only mention that society has come out of a war and that people are struggling, but without offering much detail. At one point, it’s also shown that the govern…

The Fixate & Binge Podcast, w/ Joe Curdy July 29, 2026

★ 9/10

The surprising effect of watching **THE LONG WALK** after such a divisive and worrying week in America -- is the message of hope, sacrifice, and brotherhood the film embodies. These themes break through the stormy, dystopian clouds of gloom from this adaptation of an early Stephen King novel of the same name, blindsiding viewers with the perfect answer to tyranny, authoritarianism and the state: Love. Yes, love. John 3:16 love. This is how you topple empires, destroy despotic reigns, cleanse corruption and purify communities -- with love. But heroism is hard and the sacrifice is oftentimes too great to embrace. If that's an oversimplification of the film for you, I make no apologies for that. I consider this take on the film to be a spoiler -- so if you've read this far already, you already bypassed the warning. Copper Hoffman and David Jonsson give a masterclass on bro…

UnexpectedCheese September 6, 2026

★ 6/10

*The Long Walk* has a great premise, and there are stretches where the movie really captures the bleakness and psychological toll of what these characters are going through. The concept is simple enough, but that simplicity gives the story plenty of room to focus on the people involved and the growing sense of exhaustion and desperation. Unfortunately, it also starts to feel repetitive. There are only so many ways to make walking and talking visually interesting, and the pacing drags noticeably in the middle. Some of the characters are more compelling than others, and a few of the emotional moments feel like they're trying a little too hard to make an impact. Still, there's enough here that works. The performances are solid, the atmosphere is appropriately grim, and the basic idea remains disturbing even when the movie loses momentum. I didn't dislike it, but I also didn't find it …