Home :: DVD :: Drama  

African American Drama
Classics
Crime & Criminals
Cult Classics
Family Life
Gay & Lesbian
General
Love & Romance
Military & War
Murder & Mayhem
Period Piece
Religion
Sports
Television
Gothika (Widescreen Edition)

Gothika (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $19.96
Your Price: $17.96
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 .. 15 >>

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: plagiarism. How do these people sleep at night?
Review: The basic plot of this movie was almost identical to "Kiss the Girls." There are two serial killers working together. One is a doctor and one is a cop. The murders even take place at an abandoned farm. If I was James Patterson I would be suing. Also she discovers that the dead people that are terrorizing her are actually needing her help. Of course everyone knows where they stole that from. The Sixth Sense. I have to admit that it did make me jump a time or two but most of the hospital scences reminded me of Jacob's Ladder. (...)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great suspenseful thriller
Review: Psychiatrist Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) wakes up inside a cell at the very institution she has been working in this movie. One dark and stormy night, Miranda takes a detour and almost runs over a young girl (Kathleen Mackey) and the next thing she wakes up in the mental institution. It turns out she has killed her husband (played by Charles Dutton) and left a cryptic message in blood on the wall. The movie takes you through lots of twists and turns, from start to finish. I thought the cinematography was great and really set the pace for the movie, as well as the suspense factor. It was a great movie, however the end was very cliché and typical horror movie resolution. However, it's still a great movie and Halle Berry proves why she is a fine actress yet again, and why she deserved to win that Oscar a few years ago.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Dark, Stylish Supernatural Thriller
Review: A good L.A. friend who participates in critiquing screenplays sent me the GOTHIKA script and I read it before I saw the movie. There was nothing really special about the script and the only mystery was WHO was responsible for the murders, not WHY. You'd think, given the setting and characters, the script might have delved deeper into mental illness vs. evil.
But it doesn't.
The script (and movie) has a great hook: a smart doctor wakes up in her own mental institution and then has to figure out why.

I didn't think Halle Berry would convincingly play the psychiatrist before I watched it--I mean, I still see her as the sexy femme fatale from the James Bond movie. Just too hot to be an academic. But she won me over and I bought it. I hope she continues to take wildly different roles because I've liked her in everything I've seen (DIE ANOTHER DAY, MONSTER'S BALL).

And I've got to give a big hand to the director and whoever else helped in developing the film: it's better than the script. It never creeped me out as well as THE SIXTH SENSE but it overflows with atmosphere. The rest of the cast is good, especially Robert Downey Jr.

A good spooky movie with no real shocks. I wished it would've explored the concept of evil more (which doesn't mean I wanted more slasher-style gore).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worth Watching...
Review: Some folks are just too serious. This is a great movie from an entertainment standpoint. Sure it's confusing at first...but it's supposed to be. It is supernatural? Is she being set-up? Did she do it? Is she experiencing a schizophrenic episode? It's spooky and makes you jump. If you go to get a drink, you'll put the VCR or DVD on pause...that's the test of an entertaining movie. For some movies, I'll let it play and cut the grass. Just enjoy this thriller.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Don't Blink!
Review: Because if you do you'll get lost in this movie. I didn't understand why Halle's character was chosen to do what she had to do. I don't understand what happened at the end. I was just lost! I had to watch it twice to try to figure out what the world was going on.

This was a different and new kind of role for Halle. I don't think that she ever played a part like this before at least not to my knowledge. Overall though she did do a good job. But as far as Charles Dutton goes, he needs to stick to his good guy roles. He looked like a fool when he was on that video camera torturing that girl.

If you like a challenge I'd suggest you get this movie. It's worth it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Unreal Reality
Review: One of the truly great features of this movie is how confusing it is during the first half. Halle Berry, playing Miranda Grey, is struggling to know whether she has suddenly become insane, or whether something else is going on. It takes her a while, but eventually she realizes that, as improbable as it seems, a ghost is haunting her.

Miranda Grey is a psychiatrist. She deals with people who behave strangely and often have a hard time dealing with reality. She drives home one day and encounters a girl in the road, but her encounter is weird. The next thing we know, Miranda is waking up in a hospital, accused of murdering her husband. The next portion of the movie is designed to make you confused, mirroring Miranda's own confusion. Who really killed Miranda's husband? Why was Miranda's husband killed? Is there really a ghost or is Miranda insane? Why does the ghost keep writing "Not Alone?"

The movie does plod a bit, but the plodding is intended to give you time to think about the movie and what is happening, allowing you to add to your own confusion. It takes about half the movie for the viewer to become convinced that a ghost really haunts Miranda, which is about the time that Miranda herself realizes that she is being haunted. Once Miranda catches on that the ghost wants her to do something, then the movie enters a whole new phase. Fortunately the ghost is working with her to help answer all the questions that the viewer asks in the first half of the movie, including what I thought was a chilling ending that I did not see coming.

Portions of the movie are predictable, and we are left with a plot hole big enough to drive a bus through, but I still found the movie enjoyable and would recommend it to people who like horror movies that make you think. Even if you find the ending predictable, then you can pat yourself on the back about how well you figured it all out from the clues sprinkled throughout the movie. A solid four star effort.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: ALEXS CAPSULE MOVIE REVIEWS
Review: Highlights: Direction; production design; some inventive effects and camerawork.
Lowpoints: Badly written; cliché-ridden; concept: not-scary-but-gory; acting: not-special-but-adequate.

Conclusion: Like the title, the film "Gothika" doesn't make any sense, its formulaic plot littered with obligatorily 'unconventional' supporting characters and predictable shocks. H. Berry's is a psychiatrist who, after a car accident caused by ghostly girl, awakes locked up in her own ward and blamed for her beloved husband's murder, which she obviously can't remember committing. As she struggles to remember (in a performance that makes you wonder about that 'Berry' Oscar), horrid things start happening and the 'suspense' supposedly mounts. What mounts is our annoyance with the film, that boasts decent direction (which elevates "Gothika" above Dark Castle's previous sordid efforts like "Ghost Ship" and "House on Haunted Hill") and stylized sets - and everything else trying to live up to it... Or NOT trying - P.Cruz and R.Downey Jr ham it up effortlessly, as if finding it pointless to attempt to liven up this particular material.Watch the director's French "La Haine" instead, and hope he'll aim his skill at more worthy material next time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Ghosts believe in me
Review: GOTHIKA is a whodunit with big doses of psycho-drama and supernatural trappings. Halle Berry is great as Miranda Grey, the woman falsely accused and determined to prove her innocence.
The major players here, Berry and Robert Downey and Penelope Cruz, are so strong you're able to overlook the plot holes and inconsistencies. There are a LOT on inconsistencies, most revolving around how easy Berry finds it to get in and out of her locked cell.
The movie has a nice grey and blue look to it. It feels a little surreal and oppressive.
GOTHIKA slickly manipulates us into suspecting a number of characters of the crime Berry is accused of (we never believe it's her, of course.) It works well until near the end, when the real killer is exposed. It might have worked better if a few clues had been sprinkled in earlier in the movie, making it a little more plausible.
Limp Blizkit's music video "Behind Blue Eyes" and a commentary by the director and the director of photography is included. Liked the video, turned the commentary off after about 15 minutes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: fantastic THRILLER!!!!!!!
Review: Okay this is what I'm told is a sleeper movie (movie that's great but didn't do all that great at the box office theaters). Okay I have to agree I love Halle Berry and that's the reason I was going to see this anyway, but the trailer to the movie was terrible. It didn't do it justice at all!!! This movie is GREAT. One of the problems with the promotion was that everyone kept calling it a horror movie. when most people think horror they think slasher film type, but if they'd said horror/suspense/thriller type then i think it would have done a lot better. It's horror in the genre of the lady in the white dress or the 6th sense. RENT THIS it's defiinitely good and has the potential for a sequel!!!!!!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Don't run to see it.
Review: I knew very little about this movie so I didn't set my hopes up too high. I was fairly disappointed with the movie though. The storyline was extremely confusing and jumps around quite a lot. Halle Berry & Penelope Cruz are both fantastic in the film. The story is about female psychiatrist Miranda Grey(Berry). She wakes up as a patient in the asylum for the criminally insane where she works and finds that she is being charged with the murder of her husband, which she has no memory of committing. As she wrestles to regain her memory, she finds that she is the pawn of a vengeful spirit. I wouldn't say that it was bad, it was just confusing.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 .. 15 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates