THIS 'RING' HAS WRONG NUMBER.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic THERE'S THIS VIDEOTAPE in ``The Ring.'' You watch it - the black-and-white, avant-garde images look like something Yoko Ono Noun 1. Yoko Ono - United States musician (born in Japan) who married John Lennon and collaborated with him on recordings (born in 1933) Ono would have spliced together after a bad acid trip in the '60s - and you get a phone call from some kid telling you you're going to die in seven days. Naomi Watts plays Rachel Keller, a newspaper reporter looking into this. She watches it, she gets the phone call and the movie begins its march to death. And boy, does it feel like a death march in the hands of Gore Verbinski. The director that gave us the tedious, slack-paced yawner ``The Mexican'' last year demonstrates again that he knows a thing or two about style, but absolutely nothing about telling a story. Watts (looking rather ordinary after her astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. turn in David Lynch's ``Mulholland Drive'') puts on her Nancy Drew hat to find out why four teenagers died at exactly the same time after viewing the video. Her character has a personal stake: She watched the video, too, as did her young son (David Dorfman, who clearly watched ``The Sixth Sense'' one too many times). Rachel, the boy and a friend (Martin Henderson Martin Henderson (born October 8, 1974) is a New Zealand actor. Henderson was born in Auckland, New Zealand. He started acting when he was thirteen years old, appearing in "Strangers", a local television production. , a low-rent Ed Burns) try to solve the riddle of the video's mysterious images before the Grim Reaper comes calling. Their journey is full of Freudian hokum, blurred photo images straight out of the Rolling Stones' ``Goat's Head Goat's head may refer to:
Somewhere along the line it would have been nice if Verbinski managed to make the movie scary. For a solid hour, he spends more time concentrating on Rachel's rather routine sleuthing Sleuthing See also Crime Fighting. Alleyn, Inspector detective in Ngaio Marsh’s many mystery stories. [New Zealand Lit.: Harvey, 520] Archer, Lew tough solver of brutal crimes. [Am. Lit. than he does on establishing any sense of dread or suspense. By the time Rachel's last day rolls around, Verbinski could have given us a death tango with Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster Loch Ness monster “Nessie”; sea serpent said to inhabit Loch Ness. [Scot. Folklore: Wallechinsky, 443] See : Monsters Loch Ness monster supposed sea serpent dwelling in lake. [Scot. Hist. and Dead Elvis and still fail to overcome the accumulated boredom. ``The Ring'' is a remake of a very popular 1998 Japanese film that spawned two sequels, a television series and a comic book comic book Bound collection of comic strips, usually in chronological sequence, typically telling a single story or a series of different stories. The first true comic books were marketed in 1933 as giveaway advertising premiums. . It's hard to see the phenomenon repeating itself. Verbinski substitutes atmosphere for action, tedium for thrills. Call it ring-a-ding-dumb. THE RING - Two stars (PG-13: thematic elements, disturbing images, language, some drug references) Starring: Naomi Watts, David Dorfman, Martin Henderson. Director: Gore Verbinski. Running time: 1 hr. 49 min. Playing: Wide release. In a nutshell: Tedious horror film horror film n → película de terror or miedo horror film horror n → film m d'épouvante horror film horror n that substitutes atmosphere for action. Call it ring-a-ding-dumb. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Naomi Watts portrays a newspaper reporter investigating the mysterious deaths of four teens in ``The Ring.'' |
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