So lame and overdone. Miniseries was far better.
My son wanted to watch this when it came out but he only was in 5th grade then and we thought it would be too scary for him. We finally watched it tonight and we spent more time laughing uproariously at Pennywise than either of us did feeling scared.
Pennywise was so overdone and badly acted, with an over-reliance on the 'Kubrick Stare' face. The kids were poorly characterized with only Richie standing out in any way. The whole way through it felt like the filmmakers were saying "Look! This is REAL scary stuff here!" My son called this the 'Try-Hard" horror movie.
Seriously, I have seen any number of cheapo 70s and 80s horror films that outdid this in every way. The only remotely scary thing was that weird doll-faced woman that was attacking Stan Uris. She would have made a much better antagonist than the goofy Pennywise they gave us.
Next week we are going to pick up the 80s miniseries from the five buck bin at WalMart and give it a spin. No CGI or explicit gore or sexuality, but all in all that's a much better version with characters you actually care about.