Rating: 
Summary: Sufficiently Eerie
Review: "The Mothman Prophecies" is based on an actual event that occurred in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge spanning the Ohio River from Point Pleasant to Kanauga, Ohio collapsed killing 46 people. While the movie says that the reason for the bridge's collapse has never been determined, it actually was decided that the bridge collapsed due to old age. It basically had passed its useful lifespan.That is the only real truth that the movie can be said to be based on. The rest of the movie is pure speculation about a supposed creature(s) that appeared in Point Pleasant on several occassions for about one month prior to the bridge collapse. In the movie, Richard Gere plays John Klein, a successful reporter for the Washington Post. John loses his wife Mary (Debra Messing) in a car accident. Before her death Mary has drawn several images of a red-eyed, winged creature that she claims to have seen prior to the accident. After two years have gone by, John still hasn't gotten over his wife's death. He's supposed to do an interview with Virginia Gov Rob McCallum (Murphy Dunne) in Richmond. He decides to leave very early in the morning for Richmond instead of going to a party to meet a woman his friend has set him up with. After about two hours driving his car shuts off on a desolate highway. After an eventful night, he wakes up the next morning to find himself in Point Pleasant. He has gone over 400 miles in two hours and has no idea how he got there. In Point Pleasant he finds a town on edge over odd things that have been occurring. Being an inquiring reporter he sticks around to find out what's happening. He begins to suspect that the events happening in the town have some connection to his wife's drawings. "The Mothman Prophecies" provides just enough mysterious suspense without being hokey. It's easy for a movie like this to go off the deep end and get carried away. "The Mothman Prophecies" stays with a steady build which provides an adequate amount of increase in the creep factor without becoming farcical. Part of the movie's success comes from the believable portrayals given by Gere and the other two central characters, Laura Linney as Connie Mills and Will Patton as Gordon Smallwood. Connie is the local girl turned town sheriff who provides John's connection to the townspeople. Gordon is the first person John meets in Point Pleasant and is the person around whom most of the odd events seem to occur. All involved give performances which make you think they are just regular people being subjected to mysterious events. Unlike with most movies today, this one actually gives you a satisfying account of the mystery creatures plaguing Point Pleasant. There's no description of where they come from or what they want but, the movie's resident expert on them, Alexander Leek (Alan Bates), gives a good account of his experiences and enough information that you can draw your own inferences. Too many movies today use the mystery as an excuse for an entirely different plotline instead of having the mystery at the center of the film. On this "The Mothman Prophecies" is dead on.
Rating: 
Summary: Full of Sound and Fury BUT...
Review: As Shakespeare might have said - this film is full of sound and fury, but ultimately signifies nothing. In order to understand this film to best effect - like why there are two Christmas trees in the hospital, and why we keep seeing rows and loops of multicoloured lights - you really need to watch the 'Special Features' before you watch the main feature. Apart from over-using the contents of the basic trailer, these "extras" are genuinely interesting, useful and relevant. The basic problem with the whole project, as far as I could tell, was that any attempt to raise the film to a metaphysical level (listen to the comments by Richard Gere (star), Will Patton (lead support) and Mark Pellington (director) in the Interviews feature) was effectively kyboshed by the need to produce what somebody thought would be a marketable product. Despite the frequent claims that the story is "based on truth" the fact is that it is LOOSELY related to certain highly subjective reports of "the truth" as set out in John Keel's book "The Mothman Prophecies".
I mention this because whilst the film uses the idea that the Mothman, or Mothmen, gave detailed warnings - "99 will die", "disaster on the River Ohio", etc., the message from John Keel is that the prophetic element is IMPLICIT rather than EXPLICIT. That is to say, Keel seems (in the interviews on this disc) to be saying that SIGHTINGS of mothmen imply looming disaster wherever they are seen, but he mentions NO examples of direct communication with human beings, and certainly NO specific prophecies. As to the film itself, it is unquestionably technically "clever", but it is a clever presentation of pretty hackneyed material. Gere, as bland as ever, is distraught over the death of his wife in a car accident two years earlier (the crash provides the prologue to the main action).
After somehow travelling 400 miles in an hour or so - at the end of which he loses all electrical functions in car and mobile phone (this typical UFO-associated phenomena is never fully explored) - he meets up with Gordon Smallwood (Will Patton), who is apparently being pestered by a Mothman, and Police Officer Connie Mills (Laura Lynney), with whom Gere then proceeds to deliver a "poor man's" version of "The X-Files"'s Mulder and Scully for the rest of the film. Gere has his own interpretation of the film in general, and his part in particular, which he describes in the interview section of the disc and which certainly helps to explain the way he plays his part.
Unfortunately this interpretation is never allowed full rein, and the film comes down to a fairly straight drive to the final Silver Bridge collapse and consequent loss of life which are depicted the last 10 minutes of the film and which are the only details, as far as I could tell, that were genuinely based on "true events". In the final analysis this is JUST passable as comic book level entertainment - but unless you're the sort of person who thinks that the Bermuda Triangle stories are pure fact, DON'T expect to get anything meaningful out of it. The basic material just doesn't measure up.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Old-Fashioned Scary Movie
Review: I liked this movie from beginning to end. The way the Moth Man gets Gere's character to West Virginia is creepy. The sequence of events from where the bridge starts to fall in to where it does is knitted together perfectly. I don't want to give too much away. There were times in the movie I was wondering if it was the Moth Man or reality being presented. I have to wonder if the Moth Man and the Bell Witch know each other. They seem to share the same powers.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining, but contrived - and entirely fictional
Review: I was required to see this film on its opening weekend because I was researching an article about its origins for "The Skeptical Inquirer." I actually enjoyed the movie far more than I expected, largely for the way it was structured. However, I wondered why the story was updated to the modern day from the 1967 period -- a time rife with paranoia -- described in John A. Keel's original book. This change undermined any sense of reality the story might have had. Not that there was much in the first place. My subsequent article may be read at this URL: [local website]. There I describe how Gray Barker was responsible for at least one telephone call (and possibly more) to Keel and others in an attempt to generate interest in the Mothman and UFO accounts that were rampant at the time. Those who wonder what to believe should read this, if only to understand that there is indeed "more to the story."
Rating:
Summary: confusing mishmosh
Review: Gere is a Washington Post reporter whose wife (Messing) has recently died, after they had just seen a new house with a moth fluttering around in it. Driving away, she has a vision of a "Mothman" and crashes the car. Gere ends up in W. Virginia, 400 miles away from his assigned route, and there are Mothman sightings everywhere. The Mothman also calls Gere up on the phone and speaks. But what and who is he/it? And why is he following Gere? And is this really true? It's supposed to be true and ther are some stunning visual effects as well as a horrifying tragedy, but nothing is explained and you're just left hanging. By then, you don' think you care about any of the characters or their lives. In fact, you may end up rooting for the Mothman. ugh.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, spooky, trippy ride
Review: Based on actual events that happened in the small town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, this is the story of the unusual "mothman". And the creepy stories that go along with it. Gere's character's wife dies, but before she dies she sees this strange figure, draws pictures, and he just plays it off as angels. Two years fast forward and Gere finds himself in Point Pleasant and strange things begin to drag him into a mystery he can't seem to deny he has something to do with that have brought him there....then the pictures, the same his wife drew show up again, the same the townspeople have drawn. With the help of the local police office, Linney, there is much to be discovered and uncovered....all with much creepiness and oddity. The movie is shot backwards, forwards, upsidedown, and inside out at times which lends itself to the feeling of what is what and what is going on. There are brief, almost indistinguishable flashes of shots that are just plain trippy and spooky, but fun and scary all at once. And to know this was all actually based on real experiences is the best trip of all. Enjoy and hope the "mothman" doesn't show up at your door!
Rating:
Summary: REALLY?!!
Review: I have one question here... is this movie "REALLY" based on true events?!! Umm... Hmm... The only way to swallow this movie is to "REALLY" believe it was based on true events, but I can't believe so! I think the main weak point is the "Mothman" theory, that's why if you don't accept it you won't be able to go with it all along. I think if it was not for Richard Gere, no one would have even heard of the movie!
Rating:
Summary: Nothing more than a bad X-Files episode
Review: I really, really thought I was going to enjoy this film. However, from the get-go I saw nothing but tired old predictable cliches in music, cinematography, and effects. I was not scared by anything, because I could always sense (or prophecise) what was about to happen; except for the ending, which actually, through its tension and timing and effects, makes up for the rest of the bland, pointless journey through this film. In general, the performances are top-notch, and the fact that this film is based on some reportedly true events will create some intrigue; but basically this film is really nothing more than a bad episode of The X-Files. What would have improved this DVD experience for me is if a documentary about the supposedly "true story", of which this film was based on, was included. I think I would have found the latter to be much more interesting than the film itself.
Rating:
Summary: I Have Met The Mothman, And He Is Us
Review: I am a big fan of suspense films and puzzle games. I compare this film in many ways to COMMUNION or THE FIGHT CLUB, with elements from the video games SILENT HILL and CLOCKTOWER. If we take into account that a few artistic liberties were taken from the actual story, we still have a decent film for amateur detectives and numerologists to have fun with, without spoiling the ending for the people of Point Pleasant who have seen the Mothman, but do not understand his warnings. The point of this film is that we all have our own Mothman that we will meet some day, who will lead us to ruin or salvation; and some of us already have.
Rating:
Summary: A cut down modernized Hollywood version of John A. Keel's fa
Review: ...What a wonderful and rich role for Gere who should maybe experiment more in movies that deal with the realms of the unknown. A much respected reporter for the Washington Post John Klein (Richard Gere) is about to have his life turned upside down when his wife dies in an automobile accident that seems to have been caused by a mysterious flying creature which he never did see himself. The plot takes Gere to the Ohio/West Virginia border where he meets with the local residents who all seem to be having their troubles with strange lights, weird phone calls and a bird like creature which they call the Mothman. Klein investigates the mystery at the cost of his own sanity and career. The film is very scary but lacks the pace and fibre that made the John A. Keel's book an awe inspiring read. There are no Men In Black, UFO's, alien impregnated women, phone tapings or a clear resolution to some of the character's fate. In fact only about 10% of the book is actually reproduced in the film. The other 90% seems to have been plucked from an episode of the `X-files'... but what a good episode it is! This is a film that has high production values. The lighting, camerawork, sound and editing are always on top form which is something that prevents the movie from disappearing into the ranks of science fiction B movie hokum. `The Mothman Prophecies' looks simply `weirdly' gorgeous on the big screen. There is not enough Mothman revealed to the viewer but country folk Gordon Smallwood (the well cast and superbly acted Will Patton) creates a much needed conduit into the effects that the Mothman has on the people of Point Pleasant and this is what the film is really all about - The consequences that the supernatural can have on the psyche of a small backward town's population. Although the ending is Mothman free it certainly does jolt the emotions and evokes a sort of belittling sympathy for the human beings of this planet. Watch this film and then go read the book for a much better look at really went on. All in all, the film is a spine-chilling riveting stuff and well worth repeated viewing even though it never truly escapes its `X-Files' feeling.
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