YMMV / Twilight Zone: The Movie

• Awesome Music:
  • Jennifer Warnes' "Nights Are Forever" in the soundtrack.
  • The entire score by Jerry Goldsmith. Highlighted by "Kick the Can". An Award Snub on the original release, the remaster would get nominated in 2010 by International Film Music Critics.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The script originally included the line "I'll keep you safe, kids. I promise. Nothing will hurt you, I swear to God", which Vic Morrow never got to say to the child actors before they were killed on-set.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the "It's a Good Life" segment, one of the characters is trapped in cartoon land. The character is played by Nancy Cartwright, a voice-actress then only a few years away from her most notable role. And just to hammer it home, the "Treehouse Of Horror II" segment "Bart's Nightmare" would spoof this story, with Bart as the all-powerful boy. And this gets better; the "Treehouse Of Horror IX" segment "Terror Of Tiny Toon" sees Bart and Lisa getting trapped in the TV and Itchy and Scratchy are trying to kill them.
  • In this same segment, Anthony has the family eat hamburgers with peanut butter on them (and with candy instead of burger patties), which they evidently find unappetizing. Nowadays, peanut butter is a common hamburger topping at certain restaurants.
  • When William Shatner was given a recurring role on 3rd Rock from the Sun, it was inevitable that both he and John Lithgow would claim they each saw a man on the wing of their plane, and no one believed them.
  • Much is made of Halley's Comet's return in "Kick the Can", which would happen three years later, and was a big disappointment.
  • In "Kick the Can," Marty Garner & Selma Diamond play a married couple. On Night Court, which premiered a year after this movie, Garner played Bernie, a Recurring Character who was an Abhorrent Admirer to Diamond's character.
• Improved Second Attempt: While the overall execution and direction of the scene isn't considered quite as frightening as the original, it's generally agreed that the Gremlin on the plane wing is much scarier-looking and more convincing than the goofy-looking Gremlin costume from the original.
• Jerkass Woobie: Mr. Conroy comes off as cynical and bitter to the rest of Sunnyvale's residents, but the first thing we see of him is his own son reneging on a promise to let him come visit his grandchildren.
• Karmic Overkill: Bill from "Time Out" is shown to be a bigot, and thus is shown the error of his ways by experiencing racism himself by being teleported to several eras and locations in the bodies of different minorities. But given a fatal accident with his actor prevented Bill's redemption from being filmed, his story ends with him in a train to be sent to a concentration camp, which even many anti-racists thought was severe overkill.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The film will be forever tainted by the helicopter crash which killed Vic Morrow and two child actors, My-Ca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen. Steven Spielberg never forgave John Landis and the two have not been on speaking terms since. Eddie Murphy distanced himself at first as well, but eventually agreed to later work with Landis on Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop III.
• Retroactive Recognition: Nancy Cartwright plays Ethel. Her career-defining role is entirely offscreen as a voice actress, but you can clearly hear shades of Bart Simpson creeping into her voice when she explains Anthony's true nature to Helen.
• So Okay, It's Average: Teetering between light fantasy and horror, the film has been a mixed bag for many viewers.
• Tear Jerker:
  • The "Kick the Can" segment, which can be considered this for some older fans. Particularly Mr. Conroy's heartbroken reaction near the beginning when his son rudely brushes him off - and his begging of a teenaged Mr. Agee to take him with him.
  • The last scene of the "Time Out" segment, of Bill screaming for his friends who can't see him as he's being pulled away in a boxcar by SS officers who think he's a Jew, can be considered this as well - especially when you realize that not only was it the final thing Vic Morrow filmed, but his tragic death, which Landis was indirectly responsible for, prevented it from being a happier ending where his character gets redeemed.
• The Woobie: John Valentine of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". As one commenter put it, John Lithgow was acting his ass off throughout the sequence, and perfectly sells the poor guy's increasing distress and desperation when his usual anxiety gives way to terror at realizing that some kind of evil being is outside the plane he's riding on, trying to sabotage the engines, and nobody else can see it but him. At least he gets partially vindicated after saving the plane when the other passengers and flight crew see firsthand that, even though they never saw any Gremlin on the wing, Valentine was right that something was trying to destroy the engine.

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