Hey folks, Harry here in Sitges, Spain along the Riviera looking out at the nude beaches and thinking... I should join them. In the meanwhile, Here' s Ronald Farber with a great rundown of reviews for upcoming films. He really liked RED DRAGON alot. Could Ratner be turning a corner? We'll see this weekend!
Hey gang at AICN! Ronald Farber here. (I change my name every time I
write.) I see lots of screenings and used to send reviews frequently. But,
now, I rarely write to you guys about them, because… well, because, most of
the talkbackers are fuckin' rude assholes who just like to flame other
peoples' opinions. So, I'm gonna try something different. I'm giving away
SPOILERS to all the new movies I've seen in the past two weeks. IF YOU DON'T
LIKE SPOILERS, DON'T READ!!!!! But I know some of you (hopefully just the
assholes) won't be able to not read, thus ruining the movie for you! Oh and
guess what? I saw all these fuckin' movies for free before they came out
(actually, I get paid to see them)! So, wanna flame me? Fuck you! Have fun
standing in line and paying nine bucks to see PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE, THE RING,
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE and RULES OF ATTRACTION when they come out in two
weeks! If you come to this website just to read about new movies and get
movie news, I apologize. But, to everyone else who post everyday and make
fun of everything that's different from your warped, Star Wars-lovin'
perspective, FUCK YOU arrogant cocksuckers! BTW, I'm drunk and stoned right
now and I'm typing the first thing that comes into my head so…. BEWARE
SPOILERS …………………
RED DRAGON
RED DRAGON - "Silence of the Lambs" = overrated. "Hannibal" = garbage. "Red Dragon" = "crowd pleaser". The crowd I saw this movie with really ate it up!
Which means only one thing, this film will probably gross around $200 million! Assuming everyone here has seen "Mahunter", I will write mostly about the differences. Film opens in Maryland in 1980. Hannibal Lector is feeding his sophisticated guests human organs at his home (unbeknownst to the guests of course). Will Graham (Edward Norton) stops by Lector's home later that evening to discuss some unsolved murders. Will has come up with a possible scenario that the killer at large must have eaten the missing organs. But Will wonders why didn't the brilliant Dr. Lector think of this. Lector claims that he made a mistake. Will says that Lector doesn't strike him as a man who make many mistakes. Lector leaves the room and Will begins to look around his office. When he turns around, Lector is behind him and puts a blade into his stomach. Graham manages to stab Lector with two arrows, and then shoots him. Next, opening credit sequence over newspaper clippings of what followed. "Lector found guilty." "Lector will be 'caged' for life.", "Will Graham goes crazy, sent to asylum", "Will Graham retires" etc. SEVERAL YEARS LATER. Jack Crawford (Harvey Keitel) visits Will to discuss a new unsolved series of murdered families. Of course, Will is retired by Crawford pleads with him to "just take a look at the file". Soon, Will agrees to go to Washington to work on the case. Will investigates for a few days, and then hits a wall. Crawford mentions to him the possibility of Lector helping out. Will is against it at first, but is visiting Lector's cell (made famous in "Lambs") before you know it. Will meets Dr. Chilton (Anthony Heald, back from "Lambs") and then walks down the familiar hallway to Lector's cell. (I thought it would be cool if "Miggs", in the next to last cell, would have said, "I can smell your cock!" as he flicked semen at Norton -but maybe I'm alone on this). Anyway, Lector's character is given much more screen time than Brian Cox had in "Manhunter". Ralph Fiennes (Dolarhyde) is very creepy and very good in this role. (However, I should note that I think Fiennes should have been cast as "young Lector" in a prequel to this prequel. Anybody else who would like to know how and why Lector starting killing?) Dolarhyde used to wet his bed and his grandmother would call him names and threaten to cut off his cocks if he did it again. Now, Dolarhyde breaks mirrors in the homes of the families he murders and puts mirror shards into his victims eye sockets. Freddy Lounds (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is the sleazy journalist for "The Tattler" who wants the story of Graham working with Lector to get to Dolarhyde. Turns out that Dolarhyde has sent Lector a note using toilet paper (so it can be easily swallowed if necessary) praising him.
In return Lector has sent a coded personal ad to Dolarhyde (via "The Tattler") revealing Will Graham's home address. Graham uses Lounds to print a story in which Dolarhyde (aka "Toothfairy") is made to sound like a chicken shit, psycho freak killer. Dolarhyde gets pissed. Lounds is later glued to a wheelchair, as Dolarhyde bites off his tongue and sets him on fire before pushing him down the street. Emily Watson is Reba, the blind chick that Dolarhyde is falling for but cannot be with because he is becoming the "Red Dragon" and must kill her (or something like that - doesn't matter, he's crazy). Anyway, Dolarhyde spots a co-worker (Frank Whaley) giving Reba a kiss on the cheek after he drives her home one night. Dolarhyde shoots him in the head and then attacks Reba, rendering her unconscious with the help of Chloroform (sp?). When Reba wakes, Dolarhyde is right there and starts pouring gasoline all around the room. He tells her the "Dragon" will torture her so it is better if she just dies quickly. He plans on shooting her than himself. Then, he claims he can't shoot her. So, we hear a loud bang as blood sprays all over Reba's face. She falls to the floor and feels a corpse with a blown-apart head. She screams, cries and gets the hell out of the burning house. Meanwhile, Graham and his men are in route having finally figured out the link between the two murdered families. They both had videos edited by the same company that Dolarhyde manages. The cops arrive at the scene, the house blows up real good and Reba goes to the hospital. Will goes home to Molly (his wife) and child (Josh) as they are having a campfire out back. Meanwhile, Crawford learns from the autopsy that the body recovered from the burning house is not Dolarhyde's, but Frank Whaley's. Josh (Will's son) goes into the house to get some marshmallows for s'mores. Josh is taking a long time. Will goes to get him, but notices that a mirror is broken. He knows something is wrong as the phone rings. It is Crawford calling to tell Will that Dolarhyde is still alive. Will opens a bedroom door and sees Dolarhyde with a knife to Josh's face. Frightened, Josh has peed his pants. Will, thinking fast, begins to call Josh a "faggot" and "disgusting" and threatens to cut off his dick for peeing himself. Dolarhyde is getting angry and more protective of Josh. Finally, he pushes Josh aside and attacks Will.
They fight, Will gets stabbed but also stabs Dolarhyde. Will then takes Josh into another room and locks the door. But Molly is coming into the house to see what her husband and son are doing. As she comes up the stairs, Will calls for her to "get down". She hits the floor as Will fires shoots into Dolarhyde, but Dolarhyde fires a few into Will as well. Molly goes to Will's side and Will tells her to "shoot him". Molly picks up the gun and shoots Dolarhyde three times, twice in the face. The last scene has Dr. Chilton announcing to Lector that he ahs a visitor, a young female FBI trainee. He asks Lector if he will talk to her. Lector asks, "What's her name?" THE END.
I'm not a big fan of "Manhunter". I enjoyed this version much more. Brett
Ratner does a decent job of moving the story along and surprising me even
though I knew (for the most part) what was coming. Like another reviewer
said, there is a lot of humor in this film. Danny Elfman's score is
excellent. Shot seen in the trailer where Will's son opens the door and
Fiennes is standing there and says "I'm a friend of your father's" did not
make it to the final cut. Just thought you'd like to know. This film should
do about $50 million this weekend and about $200 million for its total
domestic run. Ratner will probably get to do "Superman", and guess what
folks, we could do much worse. 3 stars (out of 4)
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE
PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE - "Boogie Nights" was the best film of 1997 and one of the most stylish and exciting movies of the 1990's. I thought "Magnolia" was overlong and difficult to watch in one sitting. But, I couldn't resist buying the 2-disc DVD set, and after watching that opening scene (after the prologue, intro of the characters) about fifty times, I now think that "Magnolia" has some of the most visually exciting scenes ever put on celluloid. So, how does "Punch-Drunk Love" rate? Well, it's disappointing. It lacks the pacing and energy of PTA's other films. It's not boring, but it's not terribly interesting either. However, I was under the false impression that PTA set out to make "a 90-minute Adam Sandler comedy". Strangely, this idea made sense to me when I first heard it. Yes, Adam Sandler is very funny. But, he appears in some pretty bad movies. (Ok, I do like "Billy Madison", "Happy Gilmore" and "The Wedding Singer"), but his other films blow and so do his comedy CDs with a few minor exceptions. I wondered, "could PTA pull this off? Could He show the world once for all that Adam Sandler actually is a very talented comedian?" I was confident that he could. But, alas, he does not try (it seems) to elicit laughs at all. He has made a romance, a drama about Barry Egan, a depressed, socially awkward, loner who is prone to throw fits of rage. Why does he throw fits of rage? Apparently, because PTA thinks it's funny when Adam Sandler breaks things. It's not. Adam Sandler does a nice job playing this pathetic character, which is basically his "Wedding Singer" character (unconfident, kind of shy and soft-spoken) but depressed and without a sense of humor. It's a good performance, but a more difficult performance would have been to balance these character traits while still making Sandler humorous as he breaks things (see "Happy Gilmore"). I'm not surprised that Sandler and PTA reportedly had arguments on the set. Sandler probably kept asking, "When do I get to be funny?" P.T. Anderson, meanwhile, forgot he had set out to make a comedy in the first place. I will say right now to forget about the buzz. Adam Sandler has no chance whatsoever of getting an Oscar Nomination, nor does Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman or P.T. Anderson for that matter (neither for script or director---what were they thinking at Cannes?!). Emily Watson enters the movie and instantly falls in love with Sandler. Why? Neither Sandler's Barry nor the audience has any idea. She's cute, but there's really nothing for her to do here except love Adam Sandler. We get no sense of what kind of person she is. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Luis Guzman are basically cameos here and surprisingly, no other of PTA's actors show up. I was sure that John C. Reilly would turn up somewhere (hell, he's even in PTA's "Pleasantville" video), but no such luck. To quell a few rumors, Adam Sandler does NOT appear naked as many rumors have stated, in fact he is always in his blue suit, except during one scene where he wears a robe (post-coitus) when he lies in Lena's (Emily Watson) bed in a Hawaii hotel room. The pudding buying for the frequent flyer miles is kinda fun, but it's not even Anderson's brainstorm, it's taken from a true story.
The movie opens (no opening credits) with Sandler in his office talking to a customer service rep from Healthy Choice. Barry needs clarification on the rules for the "frequent flier miles" promotion. We see that he is alone and sad. Barry walks out of his office and a cb pulls up, drops off a small piano and rives away. Later, Barry brings the piano into his office. He has seven sisters who try to get him to be more social and get out more. Rhonda (from Mr. Show & "Road Trip") tries to fix Barry up with her friend, but Barry refuses. "I don't do things like that", he tells her. Indeed, he is very nervous just at the thought of having to be set-up with a girl. At one of his sisters' birthday party, PTA perfectly captures Barry's social awkwardness as the camera stays Sandler as everyone talks and everyone "chats" and gets ready for dinner. We watch Barry, who is unsure how to communicate with the others. He tries to act like he's comfortable, but clearly he isn't. Next thing you know, he starts smashing the sliding glass doors in the dining room. He apologizes to Rhonda's doctor husband and asks him for help because he doesn't like himself sometimes ("Barry, I'm a dentist"). The ad on the package reads: "Buy any ten 'Healthy Choice' Products and get 500 frequent flier miles". So Barry does some supermarket research. TV dinners are $1.79. 'Healthy Choice' soup is $0.99 can, but 'Healthy Choice' pudding is four cups for $0.99. Each cup has a UPC bar code, thus $2.50 would be enough to get 500 frequent flier miles, with a special coupon, Barry can get 1000 miles. So, Barry buys as much as he can.
Eventually, Rhonda does introduce Barry to her friend Lena, who likes Barry right away, despite the fact that even we, as the audience, are creeped out by him. Meanwhile, the phone sex girl Gloria who Barry called the previous night is now calling him back and asking him for $750. Barry turns her down, but she keeps calling getting more and more angry with him, finally threatening him. Enter Philip Seymour Hoffman as a sleazebag who sends goons to Barry's home and office to rob him. He takes Lena out for a date in a restaurant and Lena admits that she likes him. Barry is getting more relaxed. He tells her about his "pudding scam". But Lena tells him stories that his sister told her about him when he was younger. Barry is getting upset, insisting his sister is lying. Barry excuses himself from the table to go to the restroom where he kicks and punches and breaks the stall doors and soap dispenser. Barry goes back to the table, but soon the manger is at they're table insisting on having a word with him. Barry and the manager speak in private, where Barry is accused of but denies trashing the men's room. The manager asks him to leave. To avoid a scene, Barry and Lena leave. By this point, Barry is very much in love with Lena and she feels the same way. They briefly kidnap Barry, take him to an ATM and demand that he withdrawals $500 for them. Barry does and they leave. But, after Barry realizes he's in love with Lena. He gains courage and calls Gloria (the phone sex girl) back and demands the return of his money. To get away from all this, Barry decides to fly to Hawaii where Lena is going on business. But, first he and Luis Guzman go to the supermarket to buy all the "Healthy Choice" puddings that they have. He is in a good mood and dances in the supermarket aisles. Barry gets to Hawaii and gets in touch with Lena who is happily surprised that he is there. They vacation together and soon go to bed together and confess their love to one another. Barry tells her "Your face is so cute, I just wanna smash it with a sledgehammer". They return home together. But, on their way home, Barry's car is sideswiped, sending the car spinning in circles. When they stop, Barry sees that Lena is bleeding from the head. Barry gets out of the car to confront the thugs who had taken his $500 the day before. Barry punches the first guy, takes the crow bar that he was holding and whacks the second and third guy with it. Then he goes after the fourth guy and smashes the windows of the thugs' truck. He takes Lena to the hospital and then goes to his office to threaten the phone sex girl, who transfers Barry to Philip Seymour Hoffman. Barry gets Hoffman's address and confronts him. He tells Hoffman that he is in love and that he has more strength than he can imagine. Hoffman respects this and they never come to blows. Barry brings Lena the piano left by the cab at the beginning of the film and he and Lena live happily ever after.
Watching this film, I couldn't help think that the actors don't look like they had any fun making this. They seem bored and sad. Like they wish they were doing a comedy. And unlike PTA's other films, even the music here is disappointing. The music by Jon Brion is pretty good, but overpowers too many of the scenes. Don't bother buying the soundtrack, as there is essentially only the one song ("He Needs Me" from the trailer and "Popeye" movie).
It's hard to fully dismiss this movie. Any time PTA goes near a camera, you
know you're gonna see one or two nice things, and here is no exception.
There is a wonderful long-take which follows Sandler as he nervously paces
around his apartment as he talks on his phone on a sex hotline. The shot
probably runs about 5 minutes long and the camera follows Sandler's movements
perfectly. There are also two (!) car crashes, both of which are very
surprising and well done. I don't think this is a film for fans of Sandler
or PTA. It is worth seeing, but don't expect a comedy and don't expect to be
moved. It won't make more than $40 million. 2 ½ stars (out of 4)
RULES OF ATTRACTION
RULES OF ATTRACTION - When I first saw "Killing Zoe" in the movie theater way back in 1994, I thought it was as good as "Reservoir Dogs". Rewatching it years later made me realize that I had been mistaken and that "Killing Zoe" was no "Reservoir Dogs". But Roger Avary is definitely talented. Hell, he wrote the watch segment from "Pulp Fiction" (my favorite segment). But, what the hell happened to him. Then, I hear that he's directing Bret Easton Ellis's THE RULES OF ATTRACTION and the rumor at the time was that it would be released unrated or NC-17. Then, I saw the trailer, the one with subliminal shots of mutilated and diseased genitalia, and I thought omigod, this man is crazy and I must see this movie asap.
Alas, I did not see the "unrated" version of the film. I'm not sure what was
cut and what was altered, but to be honest, it doesn't matter. This matter
was an incredible visceral experience. I had a big smile on my face from
beginning to end. I was actually expecting to be a bit disturbed. Surely,
something in this over-the-top film would leave a bad taste in my mouth. I
expected something in the film would make me say, "Did they really have to go
that far?" The movie is honest in its portrayal of these kids. It is not
exploitive, like say, "Kids", but rather, has a sense of humor (not to
mention an incredible sense of style) about what these characters do and say.
Roger Avary doesn't hate his characters like, say, Larry Clark or Todd
Solondz. Anyway, I know a ton has been written about this film already, so
I'll just provide a few SPOILERS and move on. I loved Victor's trip through
Europe a whole lot, especially the fact that we hear a distorted version of
"Holiday Road", the theme song from "National Lampoon's Vacation" playing
behind it. (I was afraid to breathe during this scene because I didn't want
to miss a single word. However, some words were inaudible. Were they edited
out?) Loved the scene in the restaurant with Swoosie Kurtz and Faye Dunaway.
("How's School?" "It sucks coooock."). One of the characters reads a porno
mag called "Cumshot Review", I laughed out loud. Lauren looks at pictures of
diseased genitalia to help her fight the urge to get all fucked-up and fuck
some random guy. After all, she is in love with Victor, who doesn't know who
she is. A film geek is talking about Tarantino to Lauren. Soon, he's video
taping her getting fucked doggie style before being thrown up on. Jessica
Biel gets really drunk and fucks the football team (shown off-screen
unfortunately). Fred Savage shoots heroin in between his toes and explaining
why he doesn't have a clock in his room while Bateman (Van Der Beek) is
yelling at him for the money he owes him. Bateman goes to his drug dealer's
house and starts a fight where he slices a guy's arm with an electric knife.
He gets beat up a little too. The film ends very abruptly with Bateman riding
off on his motorcycle not sure where he's going. Then the end credits run
backwards. There is at least one shot that I haven't seen before. Actually,
it's two shots (in split-screen) -- Two characters (Bateman and Laura) are
talking to each other face to face, but facing the camera, then both cameras
swing around them, putting them both in a two-shot. Very nice. All of the
acting is top-notch! And Roger Avary is here to stay! This is my second
favorite film of the year (next to "Minority Report"). I'm seeing this again
on Thursday. Can't wait to own the DVD. Great Soundtrack too! Highly
recommended, for those who can handle it! It could gross around $35
million. (4 stars)
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE - Wow! I did not expect to see a documentary better
than "The Kid Stays in the Picture" this year. But here it is! "Bowling for
Columbine" is so smart, funny, subversive, powerful, moving and intense that
I didn't want it to end. Having just read Michael Moore's brilliant "Stupid
White Men", I was excited for this film. Not only is Michael Moore a
wonderful and brilliant writer, he's also one of the best documentary
filmmakers working today. The title comes from the fact that the guys who
did the shooting were bowling only hours before they went on a rampage
through the school. (Moore surmises that perhaps the "bowling" and not
Marilyn Manson's music caused the kids to break.) The film opens with Michael
Moore opening a bank account to get a free rifle that is promised in the
bank's newspaper ad. Mr. Moore answers a few questions for the teller and
then Viola! He has a rifle courtesy of the bank. Highlights: Tense segment,
which shows the actual video surveillance taken from the cameras at Columbine
High School. We watch the action occur from four separate camera feeds in
four quadrants (like Figgis' "Time Code"). Moore brings two survivors from
the Columbine shooting (each still has at least one bullet still in them! And
one is paralyzed for life) to K-mart head offices. First, they are given the
runaround. But later, they return and Moore finally succeeds in getting
K-marts across the country to stop selling bullets! Amazing! Michael Moore
interviews Marilyn Manson intercut with Charlton Heston speaking at an NRA
convention in Littleton Colorado only weeks after the Columbine shootings.
It's amazing how sensitive Manson comes off and how insensitive Heston comes
off. Later, Mr. Moore interviews Heston himself and man does Heston end up
looking like and ass! Moore also interviews Matt Stone, who grew up near
Littleton. Stone has some interesting things to say. Another funny segment
involves Moore asking Canadians why there are so few gun-related murders in
Canada. Most Canadians Moore talks to admit that they don't lock their doors
at home. To test this, Moore goes to various houses and sure enough he is
able to simply push open every front door he encounters. Like many
documentaries, this is very dense and loaded with statistics and information.
It calls for a second viewing. This film begs for the Academy to add a
"Best Documentary Feature" Category! Highly recommended! One of the best of
the Year! A Must See! 3 ½ stars (out of 4)
THE RING
THE RING -- After seeing a TV spot late one evening, I became really excited to see THE RING. I even rewatched "The Mexican" to get a better idea of what Gore Verbinski was capable of. (The Mexican is about 20 minutes too long and it features Julia Roberts' most annoying performance but Pitt's loosest performance. And Gandolfini was pretty good as the gay hitman) Overall, I was ready to give "The Ring" the benefit of the doubt, especially after seeing that creepy TV spot where they mostly show the footage that appears on the tape. Well, the movie's a letdown. It starts out with a bang, no opening credits, not even the title. Just right into this story. Now, before I go further, I would like to say that I have never seen the original Japanese film, "The Ring" but my friend who was with me had seen it and thought this version was worse. Opening scene of the movie……Becca (a teenage girl) is sleeping over her friend Katie's house. Becca tells Katie about a cursed videotape. Telling her that after watching said tape, the viewer receives a phone call informing he/she that they will die in seven days. After Becca tells Katie specifics about the supposed tape, A frightened Katie confesses that she has already watched it last week with her boyfriend. It's a fairly chilling and effective scene (reminiscent of the first scene from "Scream"), but there were a few laughs in the audience. The scene progresses with a TV turning itself on and off, something moving in the background, and the telephone ringing (audience jumps). Katie somehow dies (shown off-camera). Cut to: 3 days later…Rachel (Naomi Watts - so fuckin' beautiful) picking up her son at day care. Katie was Rachel's niece, who was very close to Aidan, who is Rachel's 6 year-old son. (According to Adian, Katie told him she was going to die). At Katie's funeral, Rachel is asked by her sister to find out how and why the heart of a sixteen-year-old girl would just stop. Doctors can tell her nothing. Rachel, being a reporter, agrees to look into it. Turns out, Becca, the friend, went into an insane asylum after witnessing (?) Katie's death. She will not speak. Rachel also hears talk among Katie's friends about a cursed videotape. Rachel goes through some of Katie's possessions and find a roll of film, developes it and notices that on one of the pictures has everyone's face deformed (kinda creepy-like Mickey Knox's face morphing in Natural Born Killers---which, btw, is one of the greatest movies of all time). Other pictures lead Rachel to a Cabin where the teens spent a night eleven days earlier. The motel clerk (?) informs Rachel that the reception on the TV is not good, so all the cabins have VCRs and the clerk provides free rentals. Rachel looks at the videos and notices a suspicious one not in a box/sleeve. She steals the tape, rents a cabin, and prepares to watch the tape. The images on the tape are interesting, but by no means really creepy or disturbing. After viewing the two-minute video… .the phone rings. The voice on the other end says "Seven Days". From here on we get superimposed title cards "THURSDAY, DAY 1", "FRIDAY, DAY 2" etc. Rachel begins to notice things from the videotape in the real world, not to mention the nightmares she has. Soon, Rachel notices that her face too is deformed when a picture is taken of her. She sets out to undercover the curse. At one point, she is examining the video looking for clues. She notices a lighthouse in the background of one of the shots. The next thing you know, she's in a library looking through a book of lighthouses and, wouldn't you know it, the book includes a picture of the very same lighthouse taken from the exact same angle (yeah, I know, whatever). A perfect match!
The rest of the movie pretty much borrows from better movies such as The Bad Seed, Stir Echoes, Sixth Sense, and What Lies Beneath. Some sort of injustice has been committed and there's a body somewhere and needs to be found and buried properly or something. Brian Cox also turns up in completely superfluous role, as a former horse-breeder whose horses and wife have died. With nothing to do to improve the movie, he elaborately electrocutes himself in the shower later for no memorable reason. And Aidan (Rachel's son) gets to act glum and say serious things that kids shouldn't say and we're supposed to get creeped-out (ineffective here). What's with little kids being scary anyway? Did this come from "Village of the Damned"? It's just getting annoying now, particularly in Resident Evil ("You're all going to die down here." oy) and in "feardotcom" as well as in the upcoming "Ghost Ship" (btw, the latter two can get a theatrical release but "The Mr. Show Movie" cannot?). Also, Martin Henderson plays Noah, Rachel's partner in cracking the case, and as we find out later, her estranged husband (and father of Aidan). I've never seen this actor before, but basically, he's a cross between Viggo Mortensen and Breckin Myer. In case you are wondering what the title refers to: The "ring" is a circle of light that is seen by the little girl that has been thrown down into a well as it is being covered by a concrete slab. Hence, "before you die you see the ring". Lame. There is a false ending in which I suspect many viewers will find surprising. At this point though, my thumb was already down and nothing could save it. Fuck it… ..here goes… it was assumed that the little girl died wrongfully at the hands of her mother, but no. The little girl herself is evil and wants to hurt people. Her mother threw her into the well to kill her and, in essence, to stop her. At the end, getting the little girl out of the well doesn't stop the curse. After finding the girl's body, our protagonist assumes the curse will be lifted. But Noah is watching the tape when all of a sudden the little girl actually comes up form the well and crawls out of the TV!!!! I fuckin' kid you not, it's as gay as it sounds! The girl kills Noah. It continues. But, why didn't Rachel die? What did she do differently? Well, she made a copy of the tape (sorta like a chain letter where the curse skips the person who makes a copy) and the closing minutes of the film have her making her son make a copy as well. The movie leaves you with many unanswered questions such as "where did the original tape come from?", and "why in hell would she leave the tape anywhere near where her son might find it and watch it?!" Some nice photography and one gorgeous actress make "The Ring" hardly make it worth watching, so I can't really recommend it. I was hoping the plot wouldn't be so convoluted, that the filmmakers would take the basic premise of the cursed tape and run with just that "urban legend" and rewrite everything else. There is a good movie in this idea somewhere, but "The Ring" ain't it. Skip this. "The Ring" may gross about $50 million. 1 ½ stars (out of 4)
GANG TAPES - Someone posted a decent review of this film a week or two ago. I probably would've passed on seeing this if I hadn't read that review. I agree with pretty much everything in that review. Great acting. Great premise. Well worth seeing! Unfortunately, the movie won't play theatrically. But, it should be on DVD by Dec. or January. 3 stars (out of 4)
Next week, I'm seeing "Truth About Charlie", "Heaven", "Autofocus", and "Below". The week after that I'm seeing "About Schmidt", "Adaptation", and "8 Mile". If you guys show a little respect and not act like jerk-offs, I might send you some real reviews. Also, I have the "X-men 2" script on my lap. I'll read it tomorrow, when I sober up.
Sincerely,
Ronald Farber
