Rating: 
Summary: THIS MADE NO SENSE. AND I WAS SMOKING LOADS.
Review: Right at the beginning you're forced into excepting a fairly outrageous premise from this movie. People who watch a video tape die within seven days of viewing it. Ok, pretty dumb premise, but I've seen worse. I've got an open mind. Especially whens it comes to horror movies. Next, great image of a girl who gets scared to death. Very chilling. Very cool. Now we get to see what's on the tape. Extremely gothic images in jump cut. Wow, fantastic production values. Now, I'm intrigued. I think, we may be in for something special. But, instead I'm taken on an investigation into the history of a little girl who's making all this happen. How? Why? What? Why did the horse jump off the boat? Why did this girl get killed? Her father doesn't want her and that gives Mommy Dearest the impetus to kill her? Huh? The little girl is making videos with her ghostly mind to kill people? What for? Revenge? Against who?...........Against me for watching this movie all the way through. Who cares? I didn't. But if I was bankrolling this, I'd sure be asking these questions. But it just shows to go ya, Hollywood can lay any kind of pooh pooh and people will pay to see it. I know I did. And over 500 people reviewed it. Now, if I can just stop one person from seeing this.....Hollywood justs seems to be sinking deeper and deeper with this genre. Whomever wrote this Screenplay should be forced to watch their own creation over and over, eyeballs open, ala Clockwork Orange, for eternity. That would be worse than what happened to the characters who watched the fatal tape in this movie. Oops, I called it a movie. Sorry. What really insulted my intelligence was the pretension of the film makers. Too much Drama going nowhere. If you got no story, bombard me with special effects. I can take it. Did anyone else notice VIDEODROME? Even though flicks in this genre hardly ever have one, a decent payoff is in order. Beware!! This one has the worst denouement in recent memory. Don't Actors and Producers read scripts anymore? Gets one star for the deadly gothic video tape. The rest is a waste. See FRAILTY instead. It's one of the best to come out in the genre in a long while. THIS made NO sense. And I was smoking loads. BAD DOG, I mean, HORROR MOVIE!! BAD!!
Rating: 
Summary: Intelligent Thriller
Review: At the horrid beginning for such a good movie (a beginning which was a very large turnoff for many people I suggested this movie to), some things happen that you don't understand at first. You really need to see the movie for a second time to understand the beginning. But basically, Katie, the not-bad-looking dark-brown haired female with slight highlights, takes a slightly joking approach to the video when her friend Becca tells her about it, but when odd things happen downstairs and when the tv begins to seem to malfunction, she begins to slightly lose her cool, and just minutes later, she is dead. Becca is driven mad by this, and ends up into a psychiatric hospital. It'd be quite ironic if the hospital was 'Eola', since that is the hospital used all the time in this movie...you have to see the movie to understand the irony. Rosie, Katie's mother, tells Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), a news reporter, to use her skills to find out what happened to her daughter since a sixteen-year-old girl's heart stopping is not a very common occurence, to say the least. This is how Rachel ends up finding out that Katie was not the only person to die at that time on that day. Her and three of her friends died at the exact same time on the exact same day. This is how Rachel fidns the tape...and, thanks to her investigative curiosity, she watches it. It is obvious that she is trying to remain calm when she first sees the tape and its disturbing images, but she slightly fails if you look at the disgusted face she is making. A nice little close-up of her contracting pupil shows her true emotions: fear. But she still does not believe it...until, seconds later, her phone rings. She picks it up and is to afraid to even say "Hello", but the ?person? on the other line is not interested in greetings, immediately whispering the message, "Seven days..." Rachel finds out that she has only seven days left to live. This means that her face will end up looking just like Katie's did when she died. This is when I take back what I said before about being "not-bad-looking". When you see how she looked after she died, you'd think the same thing. That would be an interesting first date. Her body was curled up slightly and her skin looked as if it had been UNDER WATER for several days. But anyway, Rachel, with the help of her ?ex-husband? with whom she had a child, Aidan, tries to fidn out what exactly the images on the tape mean. This leads to a complex chain of events (with MANY subliminal messages...look carefully at the transition between the horse-on-the-ferry scene and the Noah-at-Eola scene...). That include Rachel trying to find out how to stop the tape until her time begins to come and her seventh day slowly starts and slowly ends, when she discovers why the tape exists but knows it has to be too late to stop it. The thing I like about this movie is that the original author, Koji Suzuki (or Suzuki Kojie? It's as if his last name and first name switch around at will) didn't leave a single detail that he could possibly put in out. This includes the odd and wavy texture of people's faces in photographs and video recordings afer watching the tape. Something that was good about the original book, Ringu, was the fact that there were some things that stayed misteries even past the ending that you yourself are supposed to find out. This leads to one of my largest dislikes about the movie. The movie explained too many things--like why it was seven days. I always skip that part of the movie because it is so annoying to have them explain everything that I can't listen to it every one of the many times that I watch the movie. The acting was excellent. I read (unfortunately not misread) a review about somebody complainign about Rachel's jumpiness from comport to easily-rattled. This should be here! She tries her hardest to be a typical mother but at tiems she simply can't act like everything is fine. If you saw a gruesome face containing rotted skin and an expression of sheer excruciating pain and suffering, I'm quite sure that you would scream also (the scream that is on the cover of the DVD happens at that point). I liked the way that it had a complex plot that really needs to be thought over. Also, the graphics are so amazing I would never think they existed. The most computerized-looking parts of the entire movie (the faces of the people who died and Samarah while attempting to kill somebody in a strange way requiring the use of a television) are the parts that are not computerized. Samara (Deviegh Chase) was filmed walking at that point and was even filmed while walking upon the actual floor of Noah's apartment--computer editing only made her look more "bad-reception" like. Almost every single image on the tape, however, was computerized. I would never have believed that nowhere in the entire movie was there a single real fly filmed, but flies show up all over the place in the movie. This movie is a must-see for everyone who is ready to think--which, I hate to say, most Americans are not. That is why this movie was a watered-down version of the Japanese movie. However, this is still my favorite movie! I highly reccomend it. CasiquireZiphonium
Rating:
Summary: FINALLY, A GREAT HORROR MOVIE!!
Review: As a lifelong afficianado of the horror genre, I cannot heap enough praise on this movie. From the eerie, surreal cinematography to the unpredictable plot turns and terrifying ending, this is absolutely the best "scary" movie I have ever seen (and I have watched hundreds). The main character is an unseen evil that has taken the form of a little girl, a particularly evil little girl that never sleeps and cannot ever truly die. I will say no more about the plot; you have to see the film. If you liked movies like the original "The Haunting" from the 1960's, you will love this one. DESERVES 10 STARS!
Rating: 
Summary: Well, it scared my dog!
Review: I watched the original Japanese film "Ringu" and watched "The Ring" later the same day. I enjoyed "The Ring", but I doubt if I would have been as impressed if I had not seen "Ringu" first. In the original, the story makes more sense. The remake attempts to add more detail but winds up being more confusing in the end. While I didn't find this one too scary, it really shook up my dog. He reacts strongly to loud sub woofer noises (things blowing up usually upset him), and there must have been something in the audio on this one, because he refused to sit still. I had to shut the movie off halfway through and take him for a walk before he would calm down. His behavior scared me a lot more than anything in the movie. I strongly recommend seeing "Ringu". It's more subtle and more interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Our Interactions with Media (The Ring)
Review: Some days ago, I saw the movie, ¡®The Ring,¡¯ with my friends. Actually, I saw this movie, ¡®The Ring,¡¯ several times before because one of my friends borrowed the original movie. At first, ¡®The Ring¡¯ was made from Japan some years ago. And also, in my home country, Korea, ¡®The Ring¡¯ was remade with Korean Style because it was really famous and popular in Japan.
The story of ¡®The Ring¡¯ is simple and it is just as like other horror movies but it gives a different style of horror. One girl was died by heart attack after camping with her boyfriend and also boyfriend died in exactly same time by car accidents. After this, one female newspaper reporter who feels something wired tries to find what is happened in camping place. She found nameless videotape in the cabin where young couples rested one week ago and she watched it. But it showed only weird things and after watching, she got a call. The scary voice on the phone said, ¡®You are going to die in a week.¡¯ In one week, she needs to find what is going on and also the solution and way to live, too. She asked help to her ex-husband, who has knowledge about video and photos. He needed to watch the same tape and also got a call. Few days later, they know what happened little by little and just one day before female newspaper reporter¡¯s day to die, they know true story. The wired tape was recording by the psychometric power of a girl who killed by mother. Under the cabin, they found the wall and finally, they thought they solved mystery. She did not die but one day later, ex-husband was found dead. The true way to live was only that copies that tape and showed to another person.
During watching the movie, I could observe others because I saw that movie several versions and I knew what would be happen. They, total was four without me, are all the same ages around twenty and two of them were Korean and female. And other two were male and one was Chinese and Japanese. Two ladies did not like horror movies, but they watched. Except two, we like to watch any kind of movies. Until finished ¡®The Ring,¡¯ they acted almost same except me. They were really scared when dead one¡¯s face. One of them was hided herself all the time when wired background music came out. My Japanese friend and I ate popcorns without fear, but he was shaking his legs in scary actions from the film. Especially, one girl was freaked out when the ghost came out in the last scene.
After watched the movie, before I asked the question, I could see that they followed same acts or made some sounds from the movie. Those were very interesting acts to me. When I asked, ¡°In what ways, if any, was this movie meaningful to you?¡± most of them said they would not like to watch unnamed videotape and film was really scared. They said they do not want to cause or afflict others at all. As well as, Chinese friend said that there is a similar kind of legend in china.
And I asked one more question, ¡°What was the most unbelievable scene?¡± Two of them said how the girl could make the tape after death, and they said that situation was funny. Moreover, all of my friends said last scene that the girl came out from the television was really scary, but it does not make a sense to them. My last question of the film was, ¡°Are you going to tell to other friends to watch this movie?¡± Answers were little different. Two Korean girls said that movie was scary but there were no point to watch this movie if others watched other remake ones. Other friends said they could tell it is a nice movie.
As I said, they tried to follow the scene from the film and made a scary sound to girls who did not watch yet. It will be a good example about the perspective of media effects to us. My friends who watched movie with me copied things from the movie and got happy from the making others scary when they went to their dormitory. In addition, they explained with overstatements to others. Most of them got scary, but they who did not watch ¡®The Ring¡¯ wanted to watch the movie. It shows how media attract people. And a second point of my view is cultural studies because this movie was remake from Japanese, I could see little difference that compare with other American horror movies. Most of American horror movies used real person like killers to give fears to audiences, but not this movie. I think that we acts almost similar interacts after watching same things from the television or other media, because I saw other people did almost same things after the finale of the film. And that will be what filmmakers want to audiences because it will be one of good advertising for the movie. Now, media is not just watching the television or movies. It means that the media could control the people in some ways.
My result is, in modern society, media does great effect to many people. We get anger or furious when we watches bad story, also we get sadness and pity from the young age¡¯s gunshot. Media does not try to deceive the society, but they could give more points or angles which media wants to show more or can make more profits by showing little distorted point of view to us.
Rating:
Summary: The Ring: A Breath of Fresh Air - 3 1/2 Stars
Review: The Ring isn't your scare a minute, pop-up horror, scariest film of all time, the film tries to present itself in an atmosphere that's creepy. The atmosphere from the colors in the movie, to the way it was filmed, really drives the movie. Like I said before, this isn't a scare a minute movie, but when you go to sleep at night, you won't be able to help but think of this movie. The mood set is so creepy, and the movie is driven by that mood, and a suprisingly interesting mystery. There's a story that if you watch a certain video tape, you will die in 7 days. A woman finds the tape after a niece of her's dies, and watches it. She decides to uncover the mystery of the tape before the 7 days is up. The set up might sound like another teen horror movie, but it's not. The movie has its moments where you will jump out of your seat, but the movie definatley sets a creepy tone, and for a night or two, you might have the leave the lights on. This movie isn't driven by sex or gore, it's intended to creep out the audience, which is does. This isn't your average movie, and is far better than any "horror" movie you will see today. It isn't the best scary movie, but it will sure as hell be in the back of your mind for the next few days after you watch it. But unlike the movie, the DVD isn't so great. This could've gotten 4 stars, even 5 if this movie had more extras. You can see a preview of the Japanease version of the The Ring, "Ringu" and the "tape" that makes you die in seven days. Well not really, but its pretty creepy thinking about it. And maybe 1 more thing or 2, but that's about it. It's really ashame the DVD isn't as good as everyone hoped, because the movie is great. Watch them come out with a special edition, that would be annoying, but for now, get this movie. Like I've said probrably 100 times in this review, this is a big breath of fresh air, and if you want a good creepy movie for a rainy day or relaxed night, pick this up. Nice add on to the collection. And if you want to give me a breath of fresh air, click the "YES" button under this review. By the way, if you're scared of little girls in horror movies, like I am, get ready, this is going to be fun!
Rating: 
Summary: disturbing and ...stupid? by caston
Review: dont waste your time on this video it stinks it didnt make any sense at all i mean wouldnt rachel die when she watched the movie the movie is gory and gag me i thought it wold be good and scary but the fact that a girl named samara walks through the screen out of the question so dont waste time and money on this B movie
Rating:
Summary: Psycho illogical Thriller
Review: The first time you see this movie it truly rocks. However, after seeing a couple of times on DVD, you find out that this movie its just a series of scary flash shots snapped into a so so story. For example : if the reporter made the copy of the tape after day number 2, why then all the creepy things keep happenning to her if Samara already had 'forgiven' her ???. That among other things. Besides, 20 bucks for a DVD with out one single commentary ??? AYK ??
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Stinks!!!!!
Review: P>Get the original Japanese movie Ringu instead, even with this...directors ...story this terrible remake doesn't have any of the true eerieness or suspense of the original low budget film!
Rating:
Summary: Cause, but little effect
Review: This film has mood and mystery, a decent cast, an interesting production design--with a filtered effect that makes most of the scenes look as if they were shot under water. It's intriguing but, ultimately, a terrific letdown. There is no viable resolution or explanation for the premise set at the outset. As a mood piece with some clever effects, this is worth watching. If you're looking for a film that travels from A to Z, don't go with this one. It goes from A to about H ... and then leaves you scratching your head in bemusement.
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