Rating: 
Summary: No Oscars
Review: Ok, saw this flick Tuesday night. I was not overly impressed with it. It had a slow start, but then when it was off and running it went by pretty quick, then it dragged ass again. Halle Berry is a shrink who, evidentally, works with prisoners. She gets into a car wreck because she sees this girl in the middle of the road. Next thing she knows she is waking up and her husband has been murdered. Chopped to pieces. Guess who the only suspect is.... of course, her. Predictable, right?See that was the problem with this movie. I want a movie to leave me wondering and then show me before I have time to figure it out. Now, as far as mystery quality, this movie was not so great, obviously. As far as horror quality.... it has a few pretty good "gotcha" moments... nothing I would recommend any award nominations for. My advice: If you wanna see the movie, go ahead. I can't say I was completely unsatisfied. Personally, if I had it to do over, I would still watch it... but after it came out on video. Overall score: C+
Rating: 
Summary: Talk about scary.
Review: I couldn't stop jumping at every little thing. It was a suspense thriller that gives you big surprises. I never expected what happened at the end and the dead girl in the movie scared the crap out of me! I can't wait for this movie to come out on DVD because it was such a great movie.
Rating:
Summary: Gotta see Gothika!
Review: This is a definate pschological thriller! Like sitting in the last car of the rollercoaster! You may think you have this one figured out but it will keep you guessing until the end!
Rating:
Summary: Not Alone...
Review: Gothika is an awesome Horror Movie about a psychatrist ends up being condemmed into her own ward, and starts to see a dead girl that died 4 years ago and won't leave her alone. I know the plot isn't anything new but it is still a good movie that will keep you at the edge of your seat in suspense. Halle Berry and Robert Downey Jr. are wonderful in the movie and acted very well. It also has a very modern horror movie type style to it.So I think you should go see it first then make a judgment on it. Just give it a fair chance, it is a great movie!!!Keep an open mind!! well g2g PEACE OUT!!!
Rating: 
Summary: the acting saves it
Review: Saturday night, I saw the movie _Gothika_. the acting was excellent, the direction OK, the plot lame.... as in: if the plot is too lame to build up viewer suspense naturally, it is not a good idea to insert B-movie creepy horror violins every time a character walks around. or sits down. or opens a door... it's not like the concept is anything anyone hasn't seen on "In Search Of..." or "Unexplained Mysteries" or a Chris Carter TV series. a decent screenwriter could have done a lot with it, especially with the caliber of acting talent they drew for this film. but no. the resolution was beyond trite, not that one would notice becuase one is too busy trying to resist the tension generated by the bad score. I'll leave it to you, gentle readers, to deduce why on earth they called it Gothika. I certainly couldn't figure it out.
Rating:
Summary: Halle deserves better scripts.
Review: Gothika Is Halle Berry's first big solo movie after the Oscar win but it seems like it's back to business as usual for her. Good performancefrom her, bad script from the writers and bad production values from the producers. Overall bad movie despite good acting. Halle Berry deserves better than the roles she's currently being offered.
It was a dark and stormy night......Yeah that's how every one of these thrillers starts. Dr. Miranda Grey is driving down the road and her car swerves to avoid a girl standing in the road. She blacks out and All of a sudden she's an inmate in ther own asylum struggling to escape. It seems Dr. Grey has killed her husband in a fit of insanity and must escape to prove her innocence. Logical unless you consider the following.
1. The courts would never allow any member of prison staff to be imprisoned in the SAME ASYLUM as the inmates they work with. It's a security risk and a conflict of intrest. Only in bad movies (see Slyvester Stallone's LOCK UP) does this happen. To make this scenario work she'd have to be imprisoned in SOLITARY confinement at a DIFFERENT facility to prevent a security risk. There the "posession" subplot would have worked very nicely and the hallucinations would make sense since long-term solitary confinement does make people lose their minds.
2. She WORKS THERE. It would be very easy for her to escape because she knows the place inside and out. Walk right out that unguarded side fire door and she's free. It happens all the time in real life.
3. She's an EXPERT in psychology. If a psychopath like Hannibal Lecter can manipulate people psychologically, surely an EXPERT in the field could do this even more easily and walk right out of the prison they work in.
4. See reason #3. Wouldn't the courts and prison security be afraid of having this person in population with inmates they counseled? It's a safety risk for the prison, she could manipulate the inmates into joining her in a riot. Also it's a liabilty risk for the State. Wouldn't they be afraid of some other inmate shanking her? But that is another women in prison B-movie.
5. Halle Berry being married to Charles S.Dutton. I was scratching my head about this one. Does anyone at Dark Castle Entertainment know what a SCREEN TEST IS?
6. If the girl was dead four years ago how does that relate to the murder of her husband (other than an ephiphany about how stupid this marriage actually is)
7. You realize the big plot twist is you experincing Déjà vu. Could Gothika simply be The Rich Man's Wife repackaged?
Yeah, it's just a movie but if Psycho and Silence of the Lambs can follow some type of logical continutity, this film should too. There was a good original psycho thriller here, but it's lost in the writer's poor attempt to copy other thrillers like Sixth Sense and Silenceof the lambs. Robert Downey Jr. phones in a performance as the sheriff and Penelope Cruz is good in her small role as an inmate. The visuals are predictable not scary. There is the usual gratutious shower scene and Halle in tight T-shirts. Other than that this is a very dull as dishwater B movie with an A list cast that is better than the dreadful script they have to work with. Wait for the DVD and rent that.
Rating:
Summary: Stunkika
Review: Here's yet another "spooky ghost child wants to avenge it's murder" flicks that seem fashionable right about now. Frankly, this not so original plot device has grown a little long in the tooooooth. Like many reviewers have stated, this movie actually begins well, but quickly falls into clicheland. Every scare in this film has been done to greater effect in some earlier and better horror film. The last third of the film relies, not on actual scares, but on those little Jump-out-of-your-pants type bursts of loud sound and action. These consist of quick little flashes of the dead girl appearing at any given moment. To me, this was kind of a cheap one trick pony way of doing things, but observing the audience's reaction(they jumped EVERY TIME regardless of the fact that you could see it coming a mile away!), I guess the film makers got what they set out to achieve. Personally, I don't know how people could fall for this gag over and over again. My own girlfriend kept jumping into me, smashing my pack of Basic full flavors in the process. This ended up being a cruddy movie. Not Texas Chainsaw Remake cruddy, but the second half just takes the plot into territories the movie shouldn't have gone. It becomes too derivative and outrageous to take seriously or be scared of. For instance, this spooky ghost child wants Halle Berry to help her out in avenging her murder, but usually beats the snot out of Halle for no apparent reason when she appears to her. What's that all about? Plus, the villians and motivations are too stupid to buy. If I were you, I'd stick with Stir Of Echoes, a movie that managed to conjure up some real creepiness instead of relying on startle tactics.
Rating:
Summary: OK flick - nothing new
Review: This movie had some real potential, but it was ruined about 2/3 of the way through when the suspense was suddenly turned off. There were some real spooky parts early in the film that had the audience jumping. But once the supernatural parts ended, the movie felt like any other flick. And OOOOOOHHHHHH it was easy to guess whodunit. Another Hollywood disappointment
Rating: 
Summary: You can run, but you can't hide!
Review: After seeing "Gothika", the above title couldn't be futher from the truth, and is highly likely to be the best horror film of 2003. Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is a psychiatrist at a prison for the mentally insane, and has her eye on a patient, who claims to be posessed by demons, or is the devil herself. After taking a much needed rest as a result of being overstressed and overworked, some bizarre incidents occur in Dr. Grey's life. When local law enforcement officials get wind of these occurrences, they suspect Dr. Grey's not just seeing things, and suspect her of murder. One such victim is Dr. Grey's husband, Dr. Scott Grey (Charles S. Dutton), who was working on a related case at the time of his "disappearing act". Several things happen all at once in "Gothika", where, even if you pay strictly close attention, you may not be able to tell if "The Good Doctor" committed these murders, or if she was having nightmarish dreams. The local law enforcement authorities put Miranda to the test, who appear to act as accusers rather than helpers of her situation. With law enforcement officials and various others on her back about the murders, Dr. Grey finds out she is "NOT ALONE", and desperately tries to escape this vicious cycle of occurrences, whether they're real or imaginary. By letting the viewer decide whether these muders existed or not, the people involved with the making of "Gothika" were extremely careful not to insult the viewer's intelligence. "Gothika" contains many theories concerning whether or why Dr. Grey caused these murders to take place, and gets seriously hurt in the process. With so many scary scenes featured here and there, it's hard to prevent a climactic scene grom showing its' fully orchestrated colors. To make certain characters appear samey, it's as if the film's makeup artists were trying to make Halle Berry appear more caucasian, thus, making her to be a mirror image to some of the subjects featured in the storyline, which suggest the characters may be remnants of Miranda's past life, who may be coming back to haunt her. So, the answer to some burning questions, is why are these sprits making Miranda pay, and, if so, what is their motive for doing so? One such question that needs to be answered, is: Was it real, or was it all just a bad dream gone awry? To find the answer, just go and see "Gothika" for yourself. After you've eaten your holiday turkey (or ham, if you prefer), prepare to get the "stuffing" scared out of you. It's happening at your local theater today!
Rating:
Summary: Gothika-- A psychological thriller worth the movie trip....
Review: I enjoyed the movie very much. Halle Berry, as always, looks very beautiful. I enjoyed the psychological twist in Berry's role as a psychiatrist who is charged with murder and doesn't know how it happened. As the plot thickens and unfolds, she is in search of what really happened and how she got to where she is as a psych patient and a woman charged with murder. She begins to uncover how it all began. This is a worthwhile movie. And, yes, Halle Berry is the center attraction and very beautiful. Diego Rodriguez
Chicago, Illinois
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