2008 Woodie Awards
MOVIE REVIEW
Trio of movie mediocrity
Three recently released movies don't break through average nature
Erik Klassen
Issue date: 12/5/03 Section: Features
Movies do many things. They can make the strongest person cry or the sternest person laugh. All it takes is a couple of hours. Knowing the greatness films can achieve, it pains me to know how many average and emotionless films have been released in recent times. This is a short review of three such films.
Let's start with a little film called "Gothika" about a psychiatrist at a mental institution who claims to be haunted by the spirit of a dead girl. Prompted by the ghost, she proceeds to murder her husband, an action which, predictably, gets her committed to the asylum that she worked for.
Although the movie has some strong points, including a strikingly "Panic Room"-esque editing style, its major flaw is its incredibly generic story line. It's one of those "I'm haunted by spirits that want me to solve their unjust murder and in the process I will learn that someone I am close to had something to do with it and that person will try to stop me from uncovering the plot" type of movies.
It's "Stir of Echoes," "What Lies Beneath" and a dozen other similarly styled suspense/horror flics all over again. This is not to say it doesn't deliver the occasional scare, because it does. There is just not enough to bring it to above average.
I don't want to nitpick, but if a psychiatrist went insane, wouldn't it be some kind of violation to keep her locked up in the place she worked not a week earlier? That just didn't sit right with me.
Another thing that didn't sit right with me was "The Missing." Now, this film isn't so much bad as it subpar by the director's standards. This film was directed by Ron Howard, maker of such great films as "Apollo 13" and "A Beautiful Mind." He could have made a great movie about a frontier-era woman battling Indians who steal her daughter to sell into slavery in Mexico. The problem is, he doesn't. The film is slow and underwhelming.
There were some good moments, and unlike the last film I reviewed, it had a far more original plot, notwithstanding the stereotypical strong-willed western female character who can handle anything. That has been overdone.
Let's start with a little film called "Gothika" about a psychiatrist at a mental institution who claims to be haunted by the spirit of a dead girl. Prompted by the ghost, she proceeds to murder her husband, an action which, predictably, gets her committed to the asylum that she worked for.
Although the movie has some strong points, including a strikingly "Panic Room"-esque editing style, its major flaw is its incredibly generic story line. It's one of those "I'm haunted by spirits that want me to solve their unjust murder and in the process I will learn that someone I am close to had something to do with it and that person will try to stop me from uncovering the plot" type of movies.
It's "Stir of Echoes," "What Lies Beneath" and a dozen other similarly styled suspense/horror flics all over again. This is not to say it doesn't deliver the occasional scare, because it does. There is just not enough to bring it to above average.
I don't want to nitpick, but if a psychiatrist went insane, wouldn't it be some kind of violation to keep her locked up in the place she worked not a week earlier? That just didn't sit right with me.
Another thing that didn't sit right with me was "The Missing." Now, this film isn't so much bad as it subpar by the director's standards. This film was directed by Ron Howard, maker of such great films as "Apollo 13" and "A Beautiful Mind." He could have made a great movie about a frontier-era woman battling Indians who steal her daughter to sell into slavery in Mexico. The problem is, he doesn't. The film is slow and underwhelming.
There were some good moments, and unlike the last film I reviewed, it had a far more original plot, notwithstanding the stereotypical strong-willed western female character who can handle anything. That has been overdone.