One Missed Call (2008)

HEY - A CELL PHONE THAT WORKS IN A HORROR MOVIE! WahoooOO!!!!

It is releiving to finally find a horror movie which doesn't include some variation on "no cell service in your area", "no signal", or "I'm not getting any bars." I am so tired of this cliche in every horror movie...

OK - I've vented enough.

This was turning into a really good movie, until about halfway through, when the Ed Burns characted comes more into play. Then, the plots holes, wooden acting, and all-too-convenient happenings take over. Still, I'd give it three stars - good to rent, not to own. July 14, 2008

"The Grudge" Meets "Final Destination"

This movie is sort of a composite of those two other popular thriller franchises. There is an inexorable spirit at work here who dispatches in grisly ways those whose number is up.

This movie has a few new wrinkles though. It plays into modern fears that cell phones might be taking over our lives. It wrings a new villain out of technology. In addition to hoping the vengeful spirit gets defeated, we hope to see the medium of the cell phone given its comeuppance. So this movie held my interest, delivered a few chills, and perhaps made me perennially just a little wary about checking my caller ID. July 6, 2008

I give It 5 Cuz of People Hatin.

Sure this movie isn"t great. But who cares if it won't be nominated for an Academy Award. I only decided to check this out because of Shannyn Sossamon. Was an OK flick. Buy when the price goes down. Or rent. Just see it to make the haters mad. June 24, 2008

Godawful

One Missed Call, yet another PG-13 take on the Japanese horror genre, is a godawful mess from beginning to end. A group of young people start getting mysterious messages on their cell phones, which contain recordings of their own future deaths. Sadly, One Missed Call does little with the premise, other than throw one predictable scare at you one right after the other. The script is terrible with some hideous moments of dialogue, and the film as a whole lacks any kind of real guts and feels incredibly restrained in it's violence, and thus has no teeth to speak of. The acting, if one were to call it that, is just as bad. Not to mention, one has to wonder just what Edward Burns did to get cast in garbage like this. If starring in A Sound of Thunder was bad enough, Burns heads a cast here that includes Shannon Sossamon, Meagan Good, Azura Skye, and Ray Wise; and he manages to out do them all. Granted though, it isn't by much. Avoid like the plague. June 16, 2008

One movie I should have missed...

Perhaps I've seen too many horror movies, but this one just didn't do much for me. Though the idea was new-ish (premonitions of death are old hat, but this might be the first case of them being delivered via cell phone) it just fails to be the slightest bit scary or even suspenseful. And when it was all explained at the end I was left with an 'okay, what?' feeling - never a good thing.

I don't think there was enough coherency to the plot, which was stretched a bit thin to... well, I don't know why it was so thin. It could have been more well-developed, more interesting, and still fit the basic premise. But in trying to shock (the main character's past and the whole nanny-cam revelation) I think they lost whatever momentum they had (which, to be fair, was very little).

And despite understanding that you do have to give a little in the logic department when it comes to horror movies, there are too many things that just didn't make sense. The overriding one being: why? Evil being evil just isn't that interesting, it's a story you can see played out on the 6 o'clock news. Give me an interesting, compelling explanation, realistic or not, and you might just scare me. As it is, this is a movie that I won't even give a second thought. June 16, 2008

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