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Secret Window

Secret Window

List Price: $19.94
Your Price: $14.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "The Most Important Part of the Story is the ending."
Review: The last twenty minutes of "Secret Window" pissed me off for a couple minutes,but when I really thought about it,it wasn't to bad.The movie is based on a Stephen King novella titled
"Secret Window,Secret Garden" by Stephen King,which appears in the book "Four Past Midnight".The movie is about Mort Rainey
(Johnny Depp) a writer who is having a bad case of writers block and is going through a nasty divorce with his wife (Maria Bello)
who he catches cheating on him with a man named Ted (Timothy Hutton).But one day a man named John Shooter (John Turturro) shows up on his doorstep and accuses Rainey of plagarism and leaves him his book for Rainey to look at.Rainey insists that he didn't steal the story,but Shooter won't have that.After a while Shooter becomes more and more determined to prove Rainey stole his story and things get bloodier and bloodier.Rainey goes to the police but they are absolutely clueless and Rainey is forced to deal with Shooter himself.I'm a huge fan of Johnny Depp and i've liked a big percentage of his movies and even if a movie sucks he usually does a pretty good job.Secret Window is a great movie when you give it some thought and it is worth seeing.The last scene of the film is very creepy and Turturro is great as Shooter,see this movie.B- for the movie.Enjoy!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Do NOT listen to the "professional" critics!
Review: I am one of those who never pays attention to any critics review of a movie, after all, I'm not them, so how can they say whether they think I will like a movie? I had started to read the story by Stephen King, but stopped part-way through to see the movie so I wouldn't ruin the ending. I needn't have worried because the movie didn't end the same way. Check out the book, it's an additional treat. This movie has an excellent story, which is a writer, recently separated from the love of his live, battling writer's block and jealousy of the ex's new boyfriend, who is holed up all alone with only his dog and his thoughts in a remote summer house. What he goes through is a wonderful story and a joy to watch, and Johnny Depp plays it perfectly!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A few brief, shining moments, but nothing special
Review: After chowing down a deliciously handmade waffle cone made with premium homemade ice cream at a wonderful local dive known as Bubbie's Ice Cream (located at the Koko Marina Shopping Center in beautiful Hawaii Kai, in case you're interested & if you happen to journey out into that particular vicinity, by all means, stop in! ), a plaque containing various movie reviews happened to catch my wandering eye on my way out the door. Except, in place of gold stars, a rating system comprised of waffle cone tips was substituted instead. A small group of movies playing at the 8-plex across the street adorned this slab of maple oak. Perusing the list, I came across "Secret Window", which I noticed was given a two waffle cone tip out of a maximum of four tip rating, which suggests an average assessment. Curious to see if Bubbie's assessment was correct, I headed over to the theater nearby and purchased my ticket (along with the "required" assortment of refreshments), then made my way up the lobby stairs to my theater destination, and sat down in my spacious theater-style seat. After sitting through some amusing "commercials" and previews, the moment of truth would finally arrive. But, would my vague expectations uncannily match those of Bubbie? "Secret Window", based on the Stephen King novel "Secret Window, Secret Garden", is like studying a grand master painting by Monet, Da Vinci, Rembrandt and associates. All the brilliant physical brushstrokes, in combination with vivid colors and subtle imagery are present, but you wonder if there's more beneath the surface. Those were my exact thoughts while viewing "Secret Window". Upon further in(tro)spection, I noticed that all of the elements which were usually contained within many previously released feature-length horror films are also present here: including an intense plot featuring a main subject (a mystery writer played adaquately by Johnny Depp), a menacing, lurking antagonist (featuring a masterful portrayal by John Turturro), including various other supporting subjects (good turns all nicely done by Dennis Quaid, Maria Bello, Charles S. Dutton and Len Cariou). But, unlike the inquisitive early-period masters listed above, there's very little structural mind-stretching content to be found underneath the film's well-meaning premise. "SW"'s storyline's lighweight script and often shallow character references suggest the overall theme doesn't want to dangle about merrilly, but just wants to lie still, taking an occasional coffee break in the process. The film's schizophrenic subject matter doesn't help matters much either, and by film's end, one is left to think while scratching his or her head: "This is IT?!!?", wondering if spending their hard-earned money on this very average at-best movie was actually worthy of any notable effort. As it turned out, Bubbie's assessment of "Secret Window" actually met my expectations, and was right on the money as a whole. For those expecting a Stephen King portrayal chock-full of intensity and all-out insanity, overall, there are a few brief, shining, over-the-top moments contained within, but, when all is said and done, one will consider "Secret Window" to be nothing of special importance or significance, for that matter. Also of note, I found out that Bubbie and I have very similar tastes in movies, as per the review display inside the establishment (example: "50 First Dates" was given a four out of four cone rating, "Hidalgo" a three out of four cones, etc.). However, I tended to disagree on his two cone rating of "Spartan", as the plot featured within that stellar motion picture contained more vim and bite than "Secret Window", which was given the exact same rating Bubbie had given "Spartan", as previously mentioned. Oh, well, we can't agree on everything, can we? I discovered the Bubster has excellent artistic taste in music as well, as Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark" album was playing over the stereo when I convened upon his establishment two days earlier. How about some Neil Diamond the next time I come in to your fine establishment, Bubs? Maybe we can take in a movie over at the 8-plex while we're at it? It would be my treat!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Formulaically masterful
Review: After numerous movies have been described though the viewpoint of a split-personality psychotic murderer, David Koepp appears to have mastered this technique. Koepp, who has himself experimented with thrillers such as "The Trigger Effect" and "Stir of Echoes," bases this film on a very recognizable Stephen King story: a man faced with writer's block, living in a removed location, and suffering from domestic discomfort tumbles into murderous insanity. Unlike "The Shining," however, the work this film is based upon is only a short story, with relatively few details to alone flesh out a feature-lenth movie. Though material is low, this void is filled by much-needed charactization. Here is where the acclaimed acting talent of Johnny Depp becomes indispensible. Without Depp's essential role as Mort Rainey, the picture would be lost.

The trick to successfully describing a split personality, as many remember from such films as "Fight Club" or "Identity," lies in creating two strikingly contrastive characters and placing them in situations where they are always alone or unnoticed, though they might not seem to be. In "Secret Window," there is thankfully no trouble in avoiding such incongruency, since John Shooter only appears around Rainey's secluded cabin. John Turturro does a supurb job as Depp's murderous personality, who's name predictably hides the secret message "shoot her." Bearing all this in mind, however, it is not tension or confusion within the movie which makes it successful - all of these clues are fresh in the minds of thriller fans, whether or not they are transparent in the film. Why "Secret Window" wins out is due to stylistic enjoyability and a feeling of comfortable familiarity with the film before ever seeing it. Now that the precursors have been established, Koepp is able to perfect the niche of simplistic psychological murder thrillers and weave an optimized plot. Instead of feeling concern for the characters, viewers find themselves most worried about symmetry within plot development and thematic cinematography.

All in all a great triumph. Supporting roles should not be overlooked, but credit here goes primarily to Koepp and Depp.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "You stole my story..."
Review: This was a very good suspense film, and I have to say that Johnny Depp turns in another great performance. John Tuturro is great as well, and his scary hick character, Shooter, is very creepy. David Koepp is a good director and screenwriter. See STIR OF ECHOES and PANIC ROOM for good examples of this. I really liked the twist at the end, and even though you will think that you've seen it all before, you should not come out feeling disappointed with it. I thought it was extremely creepy in a very quirky way...if that makes any sense.

Anyways, great performances and a good script make this worth the ticket price.

Recommended!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Secret Window
Review: I loved this movie. It had a little bit of everything: comedy, suspence, horror, and whatever makes a movie good. The only way this movie could have been predictable was if you read the frieken book. I really would recommed everyone to see this movie. I hate going to the movies because of the price, but I would actually pay to see this one again, in fact I think I will go see it again......right now.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ENTERTAINING!!!
Review: Okay, so maybe this movie wasn't the best of the johnny depp collection, but it was still a good movie. The whole theater laughed plenty of times at the strange humor of the main character. This movie is not scary. It is not beautiful. It isn't expensive. It's just entertaining. It's an easy movie to watch. It's interesting, and it does have a good story. It has a happy ending... some how. Just go see it and don't listen to the negative reviews and decide for yourself.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: johnny depp is sooooo hot and it's an awesome movie
Review: johnny depp is an awesome actor not 2 mension he's sexy as hell!!!!!!! and i luv the crap out of him!!!!!!awesomee! the movie waz cool, scary and suspensful! it waz the coolest thriller i ever saw and i luv thrillers!!!!! five-star is wayyyy 2 low i would give it a 10000000000000000000star!! i luved it from begging 2 end!!!! i luvvvvvvvv the movie and johnny! ;-)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Disappointment
Review: I've followed Johnny Depp with interest since Edward Scissorhands. Of course, last summer's "Pirates" only increased that interest! It's absolutely the only reason I was willing to shell out for this movie. Too bad. I wish I'd waited for video.

I'm not sure why he took this role. I suppose for the interest of playing this good guy/ bad guy character. If they'd stuck to the original plot, the author and the crazed stalker whose story the author may or may not have stolen, it could have been a suspenseful movie. I was looking forward to a showdown between Rainey & Shooter.

The plot twist seemed like a cop-out to me, similar to the infamous "it was only a dream" Dallas episode. Plus, I must admit, I didn't enjoy seeing Depp as a bad guy, at least not this particular kind of Stephen King horror movie villain. One thing I will say: Depp does make the character creepy. The thing he does with his mouth becomes absolutely scary, enough to cancel out the sexiness of "Pirate."

Even that, and Mr. Depp's looks, didn't make this really worth my time, especially given the endless commercials and movie previews I had to sit through, after paying the inflated ticket price. Help!

I just hope this doesn't signal Depp becoming the type of actor who does B-movies for money. That would be a real horror show. Fortunately, I don't see it happening.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: *sigh* Johnny, I love you, but...
Review: ...this movie wasn't very fantastic. As everyone said, if Johnny hadn't been in this movie, it would have been a straight-to-video type...but it might turn out that way anyway. Poor Johnny...his new movie was so bad. So predictable, so silly...oh well. Poor Johnny. See it if you love Johnny. Otherwise, wait a few months and it'll be showing on HBO. :K
Pros: Johnny...and Johnny.
Cons: Predictable.
Summary: Bad.


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