Rating: 
Summary: Technically well made, but lacking everywhere else....
Review: So, you've paid into the hype and decided to check this movie out, huh? Well, let me give it to you straight: This film, well made in a technical sense (direction, production, acting), falls painfully flat when you try to dissect its incoherent plot. Story, story, story... Does it exist somewhere in this mess of a script? Sadly, odds and ends are apparent, but as a concisive whole, it's noticably lacking as to what the point of this thrown together bits of spookiness is supposed to mean. In my personal opinion, audiences found this film to be incredibly spooky because of it's visceral nature whereas any attempt to decipher the theme, meaning or ,really, any element of the story will result in an aneurysm because the script is cobbled together from bits and pieces of ghost story gibberish with a splash of esoteric Eastern views on the nature of horror sprinkled throughout (i.e. this results in a monotonous, boring film with a few scares or jumps before descending into non-sensical garbage). I personally think it's just the fact that most people didn't understand the film, therefore, they think they liked it because of a few genuinely creepy parts. I know what you're saying, you're saying "You just didn't GET the movie, James..." No, I did "get" the movie and it's crap, pure and simple. The scares happen for no apparent reason (no attempt at explanation is given), characters do things that seem out of character with what we've seen from them earlier in the film (the little "Sixth Sense"-esque kid? Please... I hope he dies in the sequel), half-@$$ed explanations on what the girl from the video is (she's pure evil, get it? The Japanese love this concept and they use it all the time in other films and books and sometimes better, I might add). All in all, it's worth a look if you don't actually think about what you're seeing (the film is brain candy, pure and simple. Entertaining at first, but hardly fulfilling). The only "psychological horror" you're gonna get out of this film is trying to decipher any hint of plot, theme or meaning from the poorly-written script. Oh, and Gore Verbinski? Shame on you. I expected better and all I got was this lousy, overrated, lame "horror" film.
Rating: 
Summary: good story but.............
Review: acually i give it 1 and a half stars. the story is good but the movie has a few scares at best and is way to long. when i first saw the opening scene i thought this could be a good movie. after that the movie became a long slow moving horror movie and then tacks on a stupid ending. the story is about a video tape when viewed, you only have seven days to live. a reporter who just viewed the tape must unlock the mystery before her times up. rent this movie first. as i said this could have been a good movie but the slow pace and lack of scares kills it.
Rating: 
Summary: Spots that scared me, but not movie as a whole
Review: When I first watched "The Ring", I had the same reaction as when I saw "What Lies Beneath". There were spots that scared me, but the movie as a whole did not. There are bizarre events in the movie that made me wish that I could see more. How did the people die exactly? What did the little girl do to them? The son was very creepy throughout the entire movie, and I found that to be unsettling.All in all, I think that it was a good movie. The shock value and plot twists make it very interesting. With all the hype, it was much better than I expected.
Rating: 
Summary: This is not psychological horror
Review: Let me say that this is not psychological horror. The movie is full of cheap scary shocks. Personally I don't like this horror movies, they are based in these shocks because they can't scary you other way. I give it 3 stars because is not a bad movie at all, in fact it have nice spots and the story can hook you. But if you want to see a truly nice psychological horror movie, go for "SESSION 9".
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting
Review: If you liked "Signs" or "Sixth Sense" then "The Ring" will appeal to you. Just like those films. "The Ring" doesn't depend on graphic scenes of violence or evil to scare. It relies on glimpses of strange images with appropriate camera angles to heighten the suspense, basically "old school" style. Combined with a strange plot, this movie should keep your eyes glued till the end.
Rating:
Summary: Scared the crap out of me
Review: The slasher films that have been around since the late 1970s have never really scared me. Sure Jason and Freddy were kind of creepy and could come up with some really interesting ways to kill people, but there was just something about them that didn't scare me and keep me up all night. The movies that always scared me were the ones that messed with your head and you couldn't figure out what in the hell was happening. "The Ring" is definitely one of those kinds of movies. A brief summary of the plot is easy to do. There's a videotape and if you watch it, you will die. You watch it, then the phone rings, and then a spooky voice tells you that you have seven days to live. That's a freaky enough premise as it is, but when Naomi Watts' character starts trying to decipher the tape and figure out what it means, the events that follow just makes things even more bizarre. I didn't see "The Ring" when it was in theaters, but I heard all the buzz about it. I watched the movie as soon as it came out on DVD and there were some very disturbing things going on in this movie. Everytime you think your getting closer to figuring out what the deal with the videotape is, something happens and some of it is truly unnerving (ie. the bath one of the characters takes at the end or the horse on the boat). Plus, just when I thought the movie was done and everything had been resolved, I looked at the counter on my DVD player and realized that there's still another fifteen minutes of movie left. What happens at the end still blows my mind! Oh, and just a warning, if you're one of those people who like to go hunting around for easter eggs on DVDs, you may want to save the hunt for another disc. If you find the egg on this movie, you'll get to see the entire video without the ability to stop, fast forward, or pause it. Very freaky!
Rating:
Summary: Terminal Tape Of Terror...
Review: What? Hollywood got one right?? Yep, THE RING is that rarity of rarities, the big studio (Dreamworks) movie that's actually scary! Naomi Watts is Rachel Keller, a reporter who is drawn into the world of the unknown and the unspeakable, due to her niece's sudden death after viewing a video tape. The chills build slowly, causing a palpable dread that's hard to ignore. You know the story, urban legend comes to life as the killer video is seen by not only Rachel's niece, but by three of her friends, who all end up dying at the same exact time, on the same exact night, in four different locations, in different ways. Rachel watches the tape herself, and suddenly realizes it's no joke when the phone rings and a voice says, "Seven days". This is a disturbing movie! Rachel's quest to save her life (and her son, who also watches the tape) is a journey into the dark corners of the supernatural, full of hints and portents, leading her ultimately to an answer she may not like or even survive. Her ex-boyfriend, Noah (Martin Henderson) is finally convinced that it's all for real, after he views the tape and weird things start happening to him as well. The images on the tape seem to be just disconnected shock-value stuff, like a Nine Inch Nails video. However, they are really pieces of a hideous puzzle and markers on a map, leading to the shadow-world that lies far from the light of day. THE RING is a must own for any rabid horror fan. A modern masterpiece...
Rating:
Summary: Loved it from the start
Review: Back in early 2001, I heard buzz that there would be a remake of the Japanese Ringu. I couldn't wait. I'll never forget the summer day when I walked into the theatres and saw the first theatrical trailer for The Ring. It was so eerie and foreboding; very well done. I was going out of my mind with anticipation. I knew this film was going to be good. Everyone I talked to in the time after I saw the trailer, and even before when the project was first announced, had no idea what I was talking about. But eventually I downloaded the trailer and, little by little, I showed it to all my friends as they came over. Everyone was blown away by the preview alone. It surprised me because, here I had been waiting for this movie for over a year and yet no one else had even heard about it. I showed the preview to another close friend and she was immediately hooked. We made plans to go see it and when the theatrical release came, I took her. Needless to say, we were both amazed. Simple fact is - This film is one of the greatest horror movies to come out of America in quite some time. From the Scream teeny bopper crap of the nineties, to the absolutely disappointing failures of the Final Destination and Hannibal movies, American cinema had no horror left worth mentioning. All we had was a scant offering of luke-warm, dull slashers that lacked the suspense and true dread of their horror predecessors. America needed a good ol' fashion terror invoking horror flick, and The Ring answered the call. This movie does not disappoint. It is genuinely creepy and very well put together. The cinematography and music alone make this movie a triumph. The Ring is dark, grainy, and without a doubt unnerving. The acting is top notch all the way from Naomi Watts down to little Daveigh Chase who plays Samara (evil little dead girl with a penchant for killing from beyond the grave) Any bad buzz that you may have heard about this movie is stale and hardly worth mentioning. This is as good as American horror films get. The people who complain about this movie over-analyze and base their objections about the film on ridiculously trivial facets of the movie's mechanics. - You can tell that they're really digging to find bad points. This is a movie experience that will you leave you a bit rattled and maybe even leaving the light on for a few nights when you hit the sack. (Don't be ashamed; I was 18 when I first saw this film - The night after I watched it I had to turn my bedroom TV around so that the screen faced the wall.) What's truly great about this movie is that it has a little thing I like to call 'sleeper-terror.' What I mean by that is: The full effect of the movie's psychological horror doesn't hit you at first. But in the proceeding days after viewing the film, you think more about it and discover additional things that creep you out. Aside form the sleeper-terror, there are several scenes in the film that are extremely disturbing right off the bat. This film definitely delivers in the terror department. I give it five stars and a full recommendation. So dig through the festering heaps of crap-horror titles and embrace The Ring. - It's a remarkable American horror film with rich Eastern roots. DO NOT pass up this movie.
Rating:
Summary: The real post modern nightmare is us...
Review: This is the American remake of a Japanese movie, based on Japanese novels and manga, or adult comic books. It is post modern, cynical, and basically juvenile in nature, and as such appeals to huge, numberless hoardes of people out there. The images are shocking, terrifying, unforgettable...but the plot has holes you could throw a cat through. This doesn't really matter, though, because its intended audience isn't a product of the literary genre, but rather the visual one. Therefore, it's a film based on images rather than story line. A young girl becomes a ghost when she is killed by her own mother by being thrown down a well. This ghost chooses a modern and highly technical way of avenging herself: victims must make copies of video tapes to avoid being killed. This odd melding of the spiritual with the technical sheds a little light onto the distorted origins of this tale. The fact that we aren't told vast amounts of explanatory material, that we don't know (in the end) anything about anyone in this film, that there is no moral, that there is no resolution, that motive and causation are left out of the mix, matters not a whit. The modern audience isn't trained to look for these things, so it doesn't miss them when they're gone. Give people gorgeous, shocking images, and they're happy - they'll grin from ear to ear. I give it 3 stars because it's genuinely very scary, and scary in new ways that I've really not seen before. The "cursed video" that everyone watches is extremely upsetting, in the same way the the film "Jacob's Ladder" was. The nightmare of the murder and the ordeal in the well fill our minds with horrible images. So on purely technical grounds, it's a solid effort. But the fact that movies like this make us feel frightened, disoriented, alone, bereft, harmed, confused...none of that seems to bother anyone. Why do we seek out "entertainment" that assaults us? No easy answers. "The Ring" has, of course, achieved cult status, and all the gaping plot flaws and confusing omissions (I don't know how many times I said "HUH??" during this movie) are neatly filled in by lots of confabulating fans filling in the details. In fact, the less you tell kids these days, the more they like it - it lets them spend weeks on the internet researching nonsense, basically writing your story for you as they go. But who cares? All I'm left with is the very pained, nauseated feeling that I watched a movie about a child that was thrown down a well and whose ghost is now horribly murdering innocent people, and many people think this is a profitable use of their time, that they derived enjoyment from it, that they are better for the experience. I challenge you to ponder this concept, and what it means about the state of our souls, and not be bothered by it.
Rating:
Summary: A thrilling and fantastic piece of work
Review: I started to watch this movie one afternoon, got to the first death and thought... this is one scary film, best to watch in the dark. i stopped watching it at the begining. then that night i wasn't disappointed. this film scared the crap outta me and i recomend this to any horror fan like myself or indeed any movie fan at all. a great piece of film and one that will go down as a classic
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