Rating: 
Summary: Had such potential ...
Review: What Lies Beneath almost satisfies. It comes close to being a good suspense thriller .... it just doesn't get there.Michelle Pfeiffer plays an empty nester re-married to an overworked Scientist - played by Harrison Ford. They move to a large mansion set amongst secluded land with a lake at the bottom of the garden. Their only neighbours are a seemingly odd couple who help the story get moving. Michelle has much spare time on her hands, and at first, is convinced she is hearing noises and seeing things. Husband, of course, is not convinced. To give the whole story away would be unfair, so I will stop here. I cannot fault the performances of Pfeiffer and Harrison. I can, however, fault the storyline for copying ideas from other films and just getting too ridiculous for its own good, in parts. It will not go down as great cinema history, but at least shows Pfeiffer and Harrison in unusual roles - certainly different from any other parts they have played.
Rating: 
Summary: Great
Review: This review may not be that helpful, but I thought this was a very superior thriller and most people have already seen it anyway so I won't really go into the plot. I wanted to say I was very happy to see Diana Scarwid again. She's been one of my favorites since "Mommie Dearest". When I saw this in the theater, I immediately jumped up and said "hey, I remember her!".
Rating: 
Summary: Actually Deserves 3.5 Stars ... Up To A Certain Point.
Review: I won't spoil this film for you by feeding you the plot ... What Lies Beneath contains some nice surprises and you're better off enjoying them as such. Alas, if you have watched the trailer or read the wrong reviews here at Amazon, you probably have a fairly decent summary of WLB in your head. To tell the truth, I was enjoying all the scares for the largest part of this film. Still, the 'finale' came across as the usual Hollywood stuff, and it all ended too nicely, too convenient (my opinion). And it moved along at a somewhat slow pace (no big gripe), and there are scenes that could have used some polishing. I even thought there was the odd ??? (huh effect) here and there, where only the soundtrack goes 'scary' while on the screen nothing creepy occurs. But casting all these complaints aside, there's still plenty of reasons why to invest your time in this. Ford and Pfeiffer are quite good as, respectively, husband and wife (Pfeiffer was the better of the two, IMO). Supporting cast is fine too. The real kicker is the bathtub, though. And also the mysterious neighbors. And the seance ... and the etc. etc. Conclusion: I haven't wasted time. Good but not a classic.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, not what I was expecting, better
Review: Harrison Ford shows us why they pay him the big bucks here. Great job! The chemistry between he and Pfieffer is suitable and she delivers an outstanding performance. Psychological thriller at its height. Just truly outstanding.
Rating:
Summary: One of my fav.'s...
Review: I thought this movie was excellant.True, it wasn't that scary, but I think it had a good plot- line, and Michelle never let me down in the whole movie. I think Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford were EXCELLANT together, and if they ever made another movie together, I would definately see it. This was another movie I didn't mind paying full price for.
Rating:
Summary: Underrated
Review: Since it's Halloween season, I thought I would get WLB again. This film is a strong, well made thriller with two great actors, which is a rarity for this day & age. I find it hard to understand why so many critics had so much trouble with this flick when it came out. Holding it next to so many other "scary movies" I have seen lately, WLB just seems stronger. The cinematography is simply amazing, and it's great to watch the two actors spar in great continuous extended shots with little or no editing. In a sense, it is a throwback to the days of Hitchcock, when "classic" actors were paired on the silver screen -- and that is part of the beauty of watching this flick. It's nice to see some character development in a thriller-- something lacking in current "scary flicks" -- a technique of which Hitchcock was a master. Pfeiffer nails the role, and Zemeckis knows how to play with that vulnerable edginess that she is known for. It's fun to watch her development from the facade of "happy housewife" to psychological wreck, then shift again to resolution out of necessity. All of the atmosphere is great & Zemeckis goes the whole nine yards. So many shots in the pic are so well composed and executed. I think it's a great film to study if you are looking at elements of a horror movie. I highly reccomend waching the director's commentary, as it gives a better appreciation for the film as a whole. No, it's not quite "The Shining," but it's still pretty damn good.
Rating:
Summary: well-directed horror film
Review: Michelle Pfeiffer stars as a suburban housewife in New England whose only daughter has just left for college. She is married to a professor (Harrison Ford) and they seem to have the perfect life. Except for the neighbors who fight constantly .... and then she suspects that the wife is being terrorized and eventually murdered. Her husband believes she is going crazy. As the movie progresses, we learn of all the things she gave up in order to have this happy marriage. And that someone has indeed been murdered but it is not whom she originally suspected .... This movie is interesting in retrospect as Ford is now engaged to Calista Flockhart, who closely resembles Pfeiffer and was indeed made a TV star by Pfeiffer's husband, David E. Kelly. It is well-directed by Robert Zemeckis (The Frighteners, Back to the Future) and has all the camera tricks a la Hitchcock that enhance the storyline as it becomes more and more tense.
Rating:
Summary: loved it
Review: Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer star as a married couple in this thriller although Pfeiffer is the real star. She plays Claire, a woman who's recent car crash has had an effect on her emotional life. Her daughter goes to college and her husband, Norman, spends to much time at work. She discovers a ghost in her bathtub and suspects the neighbor of murdering his wife. This definately is not the case and soon she discovers that is a missing student of Norman's who had mysteriously vanished after Claire's car accident. This movie is not onw to miss.
Rating:
Summary: Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the tub...
Review: Making a good movie of a ghost story is a ticklish business. There is a vast but treacherous chasm between Terror and Horror, and few can navigate it successfully, for Terror is the subtler art of the two, a fact attested to by the rarity of truly terrifying movies about Haunts. Think about that for a minute. While there are scores of excellent Horror movies awash in buckets of blood and gore that I would happily watch again and again, you can count the truly successful cinematic Ghost Tale on one hand. Why are Ghost Stories, which are the pinnacle of trule tales of Terror, so difficult to put on film? I think it has something to do with the nature of what terrifies, as opposed to what horrifies: Horror is a visceral and visual art, which repulses and horrifies by sight. Terror, on the other hand, is heightened by the unseen far more than the seen. The good Ghost Tale is the haunt of the guttering candle, the shape in the shadows, the thunderous knock on the wall of an empty room in an empty castle, the dimly heard footstep treading up a lonely stairwell. Only a few films have gotten this delicate balance right: the original "The Haunting," Amenabar's superbly chilling "The Others", M. Night Shyamalan's "Sixth Sense", and the criminally underrated "The Haunting of Julia", the last of which is not available even on VHS! To this short list of worthy Terror films, I would add, without hesitation, Robert Zemeckis's superb little excursion in sheer spooky fright "What Lies Beneath." Yes, Zemeckis has studded this simple, frightful little tale with all manner of homages to Alfred Hitchcock, including nice little nods to "Rope", "Vertigo", "Rear Window", and "Suspicion". But Zemeckis, a seasoned and skilled director who has a few trips to the Crypt under his belt, is not overly pleased with his cleverness; instead he spins out a crisply paced, beautifully filmed (cinematography by Don Burgess, who worked on "Terminator 3", "Bourne Identity" and "Forrest Gump")little movie that builds from a lurking sense of unease to a shrieking crescendo of full-bodied terror. The story is simple. Dr. Norman Spencer (Harrison Ford, grizzled and effectively obtuse) and his wife Claire (played by the always lovely Michelle Pfeiffer) are empty nesters. Their daughter has gone off to college, Dr. Spencer has his genetics research, and Claire---well, Claire has the summer house on the lake, memories, and a little too much time to herself. Claire quickly becomes caught up in the silence of the lake house, and the profusion of her memories---particularly some she has lost, or possibly buried. And what of her mysterious, reclusive, slightly sinister neighbors? What of the brusque professor-next-door's wife (played briskly by Miranda Otto, who even musters up her frightened eye in service of scares), who evidently lives in fear of her husband? And what of her sudden disappearance during a rainstorm? Worse still, what of the whispered voices in the house, doors slamming shut, and the bathtub filling up by itself? All classically spooky stuff, but all legendarily difficult stuff to get right if you want to truly creep the audience out. Zemeckis does it, littering the path to the white-knuckled conclusion (why, on the lake, of course...where else?) with red herrings and a bucketload of ghastly little moments designed to make your bones creep and tingle. But the pleasure of this journey is the getting there, and Zemeckis realizes that the best horror is painted on a palette of silence. "What Lies Beneath" benefits from its studied atmosphere of the malevolent. And when the Spook appears, as in all good Terror Tales it must, it is deliriously scary. "What Lies Beneath" joins a select group of truly creepy terrifying films, and like the other members of that good company, this movie is ideal for a storm-swept weekend night with you, a blanket, a cup of hot spiced tea, and a warm and stoic cat.
Rating:
Summary: What Lies Beneath
Review: Michelle Pfeiffer stars as Claire Spencer, the perfect wife of perfect husband Norman Spencer, played by Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford. Claire's daughter has just gone of to college, and now she's become obsessed with her new neighbors. She knows that the husband of the couple has killed his wife, and so starts the classic horror stuff. Her bath tub fills up spontaneously, her door opens on its own, the computer starts up, and her dog runs away.
But then the twist slides in and Claire has a startling memory/possession from a year before, when she crashed her car. She knows that Norman has a secret, investigates and comes to a genuinely scary climax. THe very last frame of the film is spine-chilling.
The acting fromt he two main actors is superb, and the sets seem very realistic for a still sex-making couple in the US.
I really suggest this movie.
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