Rating: Summary: Please! Review: This was a horride movie. It had some creepy sceans, but the story was flater than paper. This proves that a movie doesn't need special effects to be scary. I saw "The Sixth Sense" and that was much better (And more scary) than this movie. Don't waste your money.
Rating: Summary: Sadly Disappointing Review: This overdone remake of the brilliant 1963 classic is sorely disappointing. If it had been released as an original movie with an original title, it would have worked. The special effects (though good) were too much for this movie to bare.
Rating: Summary: Scary with the right equipment Review: As most of the other titles in my DVD-collection, this is a horror movie and such films won't win that many Oscars. This isn't a complicated or "deep" movie, if you want something like that you should look elsewhere. This is more of a scary, "cuddle-up-together-with-your-sweetheart-movie" - and as such it's great. "The Haunting" is a film that should be watched late at night with the lights turned down low and the sound turned up a bit and if your setup lacks Dolby Digital, it just isn't the same (this is the movie that made me buy a Pioneer DTS/DD surround system - it actually gets kind of corny without surround.As I mentioned earlier, this movie isn't very deep when it comes to the plot, but a movie that really takes advantage of the DVD-system - the picture is crisp and clear with great detail while the sound knocks you out (mainly with the massage you'll get from the subwoofer) and scares the socks of you (I got goosebumps at the Dreamworks logo before the movie even had started) with all the ambient sounds, loud sudden cracks, sounds of lost souls etc. Even if you're not the greatest fan of scary movies, this is a great product to use when you're showing of your home entertainment system - it clearly shows the advantages of separate surround channels.
Rating: Summary: It had a lot of potential Review: If this movie had been played for more than just cheep thrills, it could have been good. It had an array of good, if not overly impressive, actors, good special effects, and a good basis novel. Unfortunately, the acting skips around from histrionics to casual acceptance where there should be histrionics to just plain silliness. This is a neat movie to watch for some brainless eye-candy, but it really lost a lot of energy in the translation from big-screen to video. And completely unrelated, but the ending scene sounds like an anti-Russian lobbyist. "I won't let you kill any more children, Ukraine! Go to hell!"
Rating: Summary: poor remake Review: Whoever made this misunderstood the word 'scary', special effects make you go "wow" not "aarrgghh! " Look to the original version.
Rating: Summary: Needed More Depth Review: I really liked the idea of the story, especially Catherine Zeta-Jone's part in it, but was not pleased with the lack of demension. The story to me was flat. To me, there was no real Opening, Middle, and Ending. Everything just blended, and moved to quickly.
Rating: Summary: THE HAUNTING Review: ALL I CAN SAY IS SEE THE ORIGINAL WITH JULIE HARRIS. SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE NEW. THE NEW DEPENDS ON COMPUTER EFFECTS. WHICH WERE PRETTY COOL. BUT DID NOT SAVE THE MOVIE FROM ITS DOWNFALL. ITS LACK OF STORY WAS LAME.NOT SCARY WHAT SO EVER. SEE THE ORIGINAL. YOU WONT BE DISSAPOINTED.
Rating: Summary: good special effects, but no plot Review: To think of the courage it took hollywood to actualy claim that this was taken from Jackson's book "The Haunting of Hill House" is amazing. I am a big fan of the book and I'm just writing to tell that there is little simularity's between the movie and the book. Only the names are the same and 1 five minute scene is taken from the book. The rest is from the imagination of the screenwriter. I would think that if you are going to change that much of a plot, then you shouldn't be allowed to advertise it as from the book. However, the special effects are amazing, the acting is well done. They should have put another title to it and changed the names of the charecters. Then it could have been there own work. Very disapointing.
Rating: Summary: Cheesy, boring, move on...... Review: I'll make this short. Terrible script with very forgettable acting. How'd they con Liam Nieson into this one? Extremely cheesy, not to mention lame, visual effects. It seemed they skimped on the screen writer to waste more money on worthless effects. Very boring sound effects, there's only so many times I can here a creaky door in 5.1 before I put the mute on. At least it was only a rental, however, it was late so it cost me 6 bucks, what a waste. I'm glad I didn't blindly pay 20 for this dog.
Rating: Summary: NOT UP TO THE ORIGINAL Review: One of the best actors in contemporary films is Lili Taylor. She was the only element of this film to make it worth viewing. Everyone was likeable, but the screeplay's potential, about the house's secret, never climbed to the level of suspense. The ghostly manifestations scream "computer" and this works against any creation of an eerie atmosphere. The one excellent eerie moment is Lili Taylor looking at her reflection in the mirror. One thing that amazed me, apart from the screenplay, was how attracted I was to Lili Taylor whom I never previously regarded in that way. Catharine Zita Jones played the sexy character, but, for my money, Lili Taylor was far more appealing in both personality and physical look.
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