7.1 / 10 pour cette daube !!!?...ça repasse aujourd'hui
*
*
over-rated piece of cheese.
Author: redsweater from Denmark
27 June 2003
lately i've seen nothing but references to The Ring everywhere i go. people talk about it when they speak about their feelings and dreams, as if this movie were something thought-provoking and not just a crap of cheese. honestly, i've never seen something so cheesy in my life. the original wasn't the most fantastic thing in the box, but at least it wasn't too pathetic, over-acted and trying to be more high brow than the story is.
This is the only movie (other than Dreamcatcher) in which I wished all of the bad stuff that was happening to the characters was happening to me instead. It is amazing how poorly this movie is executed. It's rare that a movie can make Air Bud and Baby Geniuses seem like Oscars material, but The Ring does the job.
It has to be understood as an offense to any savvy viewer who caught the Japanese version of the movie, 'Ringu'.
I am aware of the fact that US crowds do not go for movies that do not cast large-breasted blonde psychotic women, but this is a little far-fetched for this story. The movie is meant to be solely based on psychology thrills and brain scare. The American version of the movie does not help in this at all, as all goes into the image and the special effects. Event he plot has to be altered and worsened: the little boy becomes a depressed child with a 6th sense who calls his mom by her first name.
Anyhow, you may go for the American remake if you are the kind to be scared by movies with subtitles. However, if you were delivered with a brain and some artistic sense, you'll go for 'Ringu'.
Author: taleee from Indinapolis, IN
28 May 2003
Ok, this movie is like too bad to even rate. Father of the adopted girl was reading his lines as he gave his big speach, YOU CAN even see his eyes darting back and forth over the cue cards instead of looking at the other person.
The clips seemed to be outtakes or sophmoric effort of film school 15 min shorts. We had the blood / drain scene, the pulling of a finger nail from a well, the lit tree on a hil and water pooling on the floor.
Needless to say the parts they stole from other movies says it all. BAD BAD BAD
wasnt even scary and typical ending. Just a sad movie over all and I wasted 4 bucks. Where is my RMA on this tripe
Absolutely unbelievable more and nothing really creepy about it at all just a bunch of psychobabble about some those running around terrorizing found it more of a sleeper film than anything horror involved. Its almost like the writers were stretching for a plot and couldn't quite grasp how to draw the viewer into it including me. After about 30 min of this film I really found the only horrific part about it was it wasn't over yet. Even the draw up to find out the reasoning for the terror occurring was more of a huge disappointment a complete waste of time. This film was more of a one time watch and never again I have better things to do then waste my time with garbage like this again.
Author: andrew_banks3 from Austin, TX
9 November 2002
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I had such high expectations for this movie. I guess the moviemakers did not share my expectations. Don't get me wrong, the music, photography, directing and some of the acting (the heroine's) are good. I just don't get why they didn't do more with the story. Now of course it is a remake, but the original must have been better than this! Let me be more to the point. The story is absolutely awful. It makes you think that all these clues are going to add up to something. It could have been really clever.
But about 15 minutes into the movie the clues have become so absurd that there is no chance for the villain to be anything else than a ghost. How original. Now here's the really dissatisfying part. All those clues you were paying close attention to? They don't mean diddly squat! They really don't lead to anything. You could have taken all the clues, changed them completely into some other clues, tacked on the ending, and it would have been just as good a fit. The simple truth is that it's just some mean monster terrorizing and killing people. And all those clues that could have at least revealed a tragic motivation for this disgruntled ghost's vengeance end up being utterly vain: the monster is just evil.
That's all there is to it. It came up from who knows where, always has wanted to hurt people, and always will. That's why none of what I said is really a spoiler. If the clues meant something, then telling you about them would reveal the ending. But this ending might as well have been put at the beginning, because all going through the middle is just a waste of time. The movie is a scare machine. It is mechanical, cold, and shallow, filled with mere fluff. A string of one cheap thrill after another. If you like this kind of movie, it would be cheaper and just as satisfying to go have yourself electrocuted (gently, of course -- as the movie shows, you can die from electric shock).
This film is just an embarrassment.
Naomi Watts I couldn't care less about, but Brian Cox? Brian, really, WHAT were you doing in this? Were you that hard up for cash?
I need to clear up some nomenclature. The original - i.e., the real film - is NOT called 'Ringu', somebody made that up. As far as any direct translation into English goes, it is simply called 'Ring', not 'The Ring', just 'Ring'.
The original is a terrifying masterpiece.
This film is just a mess.
And then, and THEN, not content with trying to remake one film that could not possibly be remade, they tried again with DARK WATER. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? There is no way, NO WAY AT ALL, that Dark Water could ever have been remade.
And the same goes for Ring.
See the real film, the Japanese one. If you can't cope with films with subtitles, consider getting an education, or moving to a country with an actually functioning social system that will GIVE you an education.
At least I saw it at the cheap second run place.
Author: driffma from Richmond IN
16 February 2003
Movie Review for The Ring By MaxD
Roger Ebert said of the movie Pearl Harbor, that is was 'a two hour movie crammed into three.' I mention that only because Gore Verbinski, director of The Ring, performs a trick of time manipulation similar in scope and power. He manages to make two hours seem like four. Essentially he has crafted a test of human mental endurance: How long can a mind be subjected to the insanely boring?
The Ring tells the tail of a cursed videotape that kills who ever watches it precisely seven days post viewing. Whoever watches the tape gets a phone call right after the tape ends. A whispery voice, says 'Seven days.' (It is interesting that every one who gets this call knows that it means they have only seven days to live. No one ever thinks to ask, 'Seven Days what? Who is this?). Our heroes are a divorced single-mother of a withdrawnchild-professional-journalist-torn between her career and motherhood-type, a withdrawn child who draws weird pictures and is mildly psychic, and the slacker-video expert ex-husband.
The journalist is put on the case by a grieving sister confused by the mysterious circumstances of her daughter's death. 'You ask questions its what you do.' Says the grieving sister to the journalist. Great. From there on we know that at the very least the journalist and the withdrawn boy-who draws eerie premonitory pictures will see the tape. That much does not shock us. What is shocking is the fact that no one takes the news, 'seven days', too hard. We might expect this from the journalist, she is used to working with deadlines, but what about the kid? Or how about the slacker ex-husband? In fact no one really gets too worked up about it at all.
The Ring begins much the same way Scream, a superior movie to be sure, did, with one minor variation. Instead of one young teenage girl alone in a big house out in the middle of nowhere, there are two. Actually there are other variations in this scene. For instance, Verbinski opted to substitute snappy dialogue with the utterly banal. He also managed to remove any tension or malice from the opening scene or any scene. We, the audience, are never scared, we are never made to jump, and we never, ever care.
What is on the cursed tape? It is supposed be like someone's nightmare. However it is full of images that are not as menacing, disturbing or scary as they could be. I will not bore you with the details I wish the film had not bored me with them. Actually I will bore you with one detail. Embedded in the images are the all clues an enterprising journalist with a mildly psychic son, and a video expert ex-husband need to unravel the motives, and origin of the malevolent force behind the tape. The son however is no help at all. While he is obviously in contact with the malevolent force, and could provide some valuable information to the other heroes, he is a cliché.
He is the disturbed boy who voices his deeper revelations through cryptic drawings. This means that to the rest of the cast he will only speak in sentence fragments, nods and grunts while trying hard to look mysterious and somewhat beyond.
The mistake Gore Verbinski makes, well the most important one anyway, was to think he had a film more important than he really did. At the heart of this film is a Friday night teen horror flick. He misses this and instead tries to make a film that is deeper, and more mysterious. He cannot do this because he is, after all, working the script he was given. The result is a ponderous film, that tries to beat into you, with clichéd shot after clichéd shot (the film uses every cinematic convention in the horror filmmaker's arsenal), that it is a film with depth and originality. On top of that he steals from truly engaging suspense/horror films: Psycho, Halloween, The Exorcist, Scream, The Sixth Sense. I am sure I am missing others, but I hope you will not fault me their omission. After all, about 20 minutes before the film was to roll the blessed credits, I had pulled out my cell phone and began playing brick attack.
This film is a disappointment!
Author: movieman1964 from Toronto
4 January 2003
I went to this film prepared to be spooked, but was very disappointed! It was campy and a cheap rip-off of all the other horror movies I've ever seen. Its weak attempt at fear falls flat. It had obviously lifted elements of The Others, The Sixth Sense, Blair Witch Project, and believe it or not The Invasion of the Body Snatchers; but still did not come anywhere near matching their expertise. This film is without a doubt one of the worst films I've ever seen.
Pathetic waste of time. 2 very, very short scenes slightly disturbing, but absolutely Not Scary. A wanna-be Poltergeist, Sixth-Sense, Urban Legends, film with NO originality. High expectations Zero results!!What exactly did the damn RING have anything to do with this garbage film? I wouldnt even recommend anyone rent this crap.
