Rish Outfield's reviews
As my partner, I too have had a falling out with Dean Koontz. But unlike tyranist, I have read Hideaway, and remember enjoying it.
I wanted to see this film version when it first came out, mostly because it had "The Aerosmith Girl" in it, who I worshiped like a life-long druid confronted with Pinocchio. But I never did. In the ensuing years, my love for Alicia Silverstone has waned even more than that of Dean Koontz.
Co-written by the enormously talented Andrew Kevin Walker (Seven, Sleepy Hollow), this adaptation stays fairly faithful to the book, and stars the always reliable Jeff Goldblum. It wasn't a great film, though. Parts were intentionally confusing, and other parts seemed to be accidentally confusing. Parts got predictable, and the ending didn't feel satisfying. The film was frustrating because Goldblum's wife (Christine Lahti) won't believe him. You get the impression there's something else going on if he has a near-death experience and his wife thinks everything that comes out of his mouth is crazy. Also, Silverstone's character constantly needs a belt in the mouth. But hey, a lot of characters in the film do. The special effects were actually pretty good, but at the end, it was all so ludicrous that I didn't care.
I'd Recommend It To: Koontz and Goldblum fans, but probably not the average viewer.
Note: I think the problem I have with Mr. R. Koontz is that so many of his books (and there are so many of them) have such similar plots that they're hard to distinguish, hard to remember, hard to keep reading. He's written some great stuff, though, and I'm sure that one day soon, I'll give him another chance.

The tyranist's thoughts
I have often talked about my love/hate relationship with Dean Koontz. Unfortunately, this novel came out right around the time I was falling into the hate cycle. I haven't read it, but I don't doubt that it would be better than this movie as it preceded his selling out period by a few years.
So Jeff Goldblum's character, Hatch, dies and is resuscitated. Except now he has weird and unexplained psychic visions. He's tormented by the threat he perceives his family to be under but no one, and I mean no one, will believe him.
My biggest problem with the movie is that they sold it as one thing and it turned out to be another. Just take a look at the tagline. There are some strong implications there, but really the movie takes a completely different direction, until it completely self-destructs at the end.
Jeff Goldblum wasn't bad and if I'd seen this a few years earlier, Alicia Silverstone is hot, but really, they can't overcome the fact that the movie was poorly adapted. I sincerely hope that the novel is better, and I suppose someday I'll find out.
If you are a Koontz fan, you might want to see it, just to be complete, but don't feel too obligated. Still, it is better than all those Watchers sequels. Oh, and please watch all the way through the credits so that you can see an alternate ending that someone smartly clipped.