Rating: Summary: Thank You! Review: Thanks, England, for releasing this movie on Hallowe'en (how GENIUS!). Thanks, school, for giving me two free periods at the end of each Wednesday (I went to watch it yesterday lunch-time). And thank you - THANK YOU! - Alejandro Amenabar for this amazingly eerie, spooky, freaky, chilling ghost story that aims for the mind rather than the stomach. (One scene in particular hasn't left my mind since I watched it. HINT to those who have already seen it - photos) Now, the final word: when the hell is the DVD coming out?
Rating: Summary: Everybody wanted the sequel!! The Sixth Sense 2! Review: Well, there's no Bruce Willis nor Haley Joel Osment, neither M. Night Shyamalan, nor anyone else who was on The Sixth Sense, but here is your recycled sequel, enjoy. How can people be so dumb and pay for the same movie so many times, if somebody had warned me I wouldn't have gone, I already own The Sixth Sense on DVD.
Rating: Summary: Disappointing Review: I wanted very badly to like this movie. This is NOT a psychological study ala "Turn of the Screw". Nicole Kidman was fine. The house was fine. The mist was fine. The kids were fine. The set up was fine. The "gimmick" was completely predictable. Not a movie to buy for your collection, seek out a little gem from a few years back called "Haunted", watch that on the same night as "The Sixth Sense" and you've got this movie.
Rating: Summary: The Feel-Good Scary Movie of the Year Review: Want to see a movie without all the blood, gore and tasteless slicing-and-dicing of bodies? If so, then "The Others" is right up your haunted little alley.When I first saw the previews for this movie, I immediately wanted to see it. It looked like a good old-fashioned scary movie. I'm not a huge fan of this genre, but for some reason, the thought of wanting to see this movie never went away. And now I can happily say that the money I shelled out to watch it was well worth it. "The Others" stars Nicole Kidman as the main character, with her two kids (one boy and one girl), and the three housemaids. The story is set in the 1940s and the war is still going on. I'm not going to reveal any of the plot here because this is definitely one of those movies you have to see in a theater. If I were to give away anything, it would take away from the final effect. The thing I really loved about this movie (besides it's pyschological creepiness) is the fact that it was scary without being in-your-face scary. This isn't "Friday the 13th" or even "I Know What You Did Last Summer." There is no blood or gore in this movie at all, and that is a welcome change in this viewer's opinion. It may have been scary to see someone get gruesomely filleted when I was seven, but it's not anymore. What makes this movie scary is that it plays with your mind more than anything else. It uses all the old-fashioned techniques of making people jump - pianos playing without somebody there, thumping noises on the above floors, chandeliers shaking, doors slamming. I could name off three or four times where what the viewer is watching makes he/she jump. In short, "The Others" is definitely the movie to see if you're in the mood for some good clean scares. Too bad it couldn't have come out during Halloween - that would have made it all the more fun to experience!
Rating: Summary: An objective lesson in perspective Review: Have you ever been offered the stale advice that one's view of the world depends on where that one is standing? Well, quite right, and THE OTHERS is an effective illustration of that truth. Grace, played by Nicole Kidman, is the mistress of a gloomy old pile of a mansion on the British island of Jersey very soon after the end of World War II. Her husband, of His Majesty's Army, was, or maybe wasn't, killed during the conflict. Grace's children, Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley), ostensibly have a fatal hypersensitivity to sunlight, which means that heavy drapes must always be drawn over the windows of the rooms they're occupying. To make matters worse, the electricity isn't working - the effects of the war and German occupation, you know - so lots of candle wax gets burned. The movie opens as three former servants of the house, employed there before Grace's ownership, gain re-employment. They're led by the kind and imperturbable Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan). The three are witness to the family's increasing awareness of mysterious household "intruders", which open curtains, play the piano, and rumble about in upstairs rooms. Ghosts, perhaps? They remain unseen to Grace and Nicholas, the epitome of a frightened young boy, but are regularly observed by the sassy older sibling, Anne. And there's more than just a little mother-daughter friction, not helped by the fact that Anne is not shy about telling the help that Mom recently went crazy. The trepidation that builds in this very atmospheric film is not due to any overt horrors. There are no skeletons or mutilated bodies falling out of closets. No ghastly spirits go "boo" from around dim corners, and no razor-sharp knives flash from behind curtains to carve up unsuspecting flesh in the middle of the night. Rather, the suspense builds slowly in the flickering candlelight, in a house surrounded by an interminable mist, and in the mind of an increasingly agitated Grace. Both she and the audience know something is amiss, but what could it be? And what's with those old pictures of posed dead people lying about? Kidman is superb as the edgy Grace, and Mann, a new face to this moviegoer, is great fun as the feisty Anne. Despite that, THE OTHERS is one of those movies about which I felt ambiguous up until the end, at which time I suddenly became a big fan and said "Wow!" I would pay to see it a second time just to revel again in the delight of watching the perspective suddenly flip. This is clever scriptwriting.
Rating: Summary: Wonderfully Old - Fashioned Review: A nice bit of old style ghost story suspense. It requires one to use one's mind and imagination. Which makes for a much scarier experience then all the FX and blood and gore in the world. The best thrillers are those that leave more to the viewers imagination, i.e. Alien and Blair With Project. The Others reminds me of the classic, The Univited with Ray Milland made in 1944. Now there is a great movie, but this one is a close second.
Rating: Summary: Thought Provoking Review: I hesitated to see "The Others" because I was concerned that it would be too gory or scary. However, it was more of a thought provoking thriller than horror. I thought the movie was well acted and completely fascinating. I highly recommend the movie to anybody who enjoys a movie that will thrill, entertain, and make you think!
Rating: Summary: Riveting 'til the end Review: This movie was excellently done. I believe that it was one of the best movies of an overall disappointing summer.
Rating: Summary: Chilled to the Spine Review: These days, it's not difficult for supernatural thrillers to fill themselves with too much visual effects. Audience would probably agree with me that the new editions of the The Haunted, The House on the Haunted Hill were major disappointments despite that they were star studded with respectable actors & actresses. Then again, there were gems such as The Sixth Sense, The Echo Within. Even though What Lies Beneath was scary at times, the movie was bogged down by its ending. Well, how would I rate the Others? I would have to say that it's on par with the Sixth Sense. The cast was excellent, the setting was sombre, & the development of the story line & the the characters were slow but effective, & it's build up to the twisty ending was first rate. The Others is simply a breath of fresh air, challenging us to see things from other perspectives than how we were accustomed to in the past about the theory of supernatural world. Don't miss it. It's that good.
Rating: Summary: Ugh Review: I am sorry, I love Nicole Kidman, but god, this movie bit. The person in front of us kept nodding off. Me and my friend couldn't stop laughing during most of the movie. Nicole looked oh so threating with a shotgun. I was tempted, but didn't, to shout out "Hail to the king, baby!" Hmmm...what eles...the movie dragged on until the last 5 minutes. It's not as scary as they portray it in the commercials. Some parts, the end and the Nicole vs. The door part, were a bit predicatable. There really wasn't much to the whole plot of the movie. I'm giving it 2 stars for the interesting twist at the end. Best way to enjoy this movie? Go to see it at night, when nobody else is, and do your own Mystery Science Theater. Sorry, but come on...ugh.
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