The title with short description attracted me to this movie more out of curiosity than anything else. 1408 is the number of a possibly slightly decaying 4 star hotel in New York called The Dolphin. Nobody has stayed in room 1408 for more than an hour since sometime in the 1930's without leaving, dead or alive. The Dolphin, managed by Samuel L. Jackson, won't let anyone stay there but for reasons of its own doesn't close the room. Naturally someone is going to stay in the room and we will get to see what happens. Sounded intriguing to me, and the foreknowledge that the someone was John Cusak was enough to get me to cough up for a senior citizens discount ticket. I hadn't noticed that the movie was based on a short story by Stephen King until the opening credits. That should give us all an idea of what lies ahead. Cusak is a hack that writes books about "The The Ten Most Haunted .. ." Now he's working on hotels. He finds out about The Dolphin's 1408 and just has to check it out by spending the night. He tries to book 1408 for a night, and finally does so with some amusing difficulty. Jackson tries everything he can to keep Cusak from renting the room, but eventually we see Cusak in the room. Naturally, once in, he can't get out, at least by the door, and Stephen King like happenings start occurring. Electronics turn on and off by themselves, there are strange happenings with the faucets in the bathroom, but this is just kid stuff. Most of the rest of the movie is action/horror, some predictable, some not. Fortunately, I think it so over the top that most people won't take it seriously enough to be scary. I think many would find themselves thinking analogues of "don't look in the basement" at several points in the movie. The escapades are a lot of fun and some quite inventive if you enjoy that sort of thing, and I found myself wondering if there was going to be some sort of logical explanation sometime (yes, I know: it's Stephen King and I should know better). Sometimes I thought there was, sometimes not. If you care, you'll just have to see the movie to find out if Cusak survives 1408 and if it does have a logical explanation. Is/are there subplot[Photo] ? Yes, but it's Cusak that makes the movie, or rather, is the movie. In my experience, most people either love Stephen King or hate him. For those that love him, the strong performance by Cusak makes this a must see. For those that hate him, there's probably not much here.

Produced and direcd by: Brad Pitt. Starring Brad Pitt(and Casey Afleck, who plays John Ford). Two hours and 40 minutes of close ups of Brad Pitt(and Casey Affleck) looking
intense in period attire and demeanor. Oh yes, there's some shooting(really loud bangs) and sort of a plot, other than the Assinaton, which I really didn't follow, possibly since it wasn't two hours and forty minutes worth, and I found it
difficult to keep from dozing. All I know is that it involved searching for
someone to kill because he had killed someone else. There is some sort of effort to show more than one side of Jesse James, but it is not fully developed.
There's more, but I won't divulge it to allow the viewer to enjoy the
unusual aspects.
A feature that I did enjoy is the depiction of the 1880's West in what
I think of as accurate. Towns and communities very small(even those we would
think of as being substantial). muddy streets everywhere, nothing very well
built or very nice. Perhaps this is because I grew up on th 50's John Wayne(and others) horse operas where the buildings were of substantial wood(that was
acarce, if there at all), tidy, well kept streets, classy saloons, etc.

If you are enamoreed of Brad Pitt, I think you'll like this. Otherwise,
I think you'll find it way too long to make it worth your time.