Product Details

• Actors: Dylan Baker, Robert John Burke, Robert De Niro, Amy Irving, Famke Janssen
• Directors: John Polson
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: September 23, 2008
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (242 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001BYLFAI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #221,513 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Dakota Fanning--the elfin star of Uptown Girls, The Cat in the Hat, and Man on Fire--trades in her blond locks for a semi-gothic brunette do in Hide and Seek. Fanning plays Emily, a young girl whose mother commits suicide. To help Emily through the trauma, her father David (Robert DeNiro), a psychologist, takes her to an isolated house in upstate New York. But instead of healing, Emily gets dark circles under her eyes, mutilates her favorite doll, and develops an imaginary friend named Charlie. In no time at all, things get spooky and David suspects this imaginary friend isn't so friendly. Hide and Seek owes a lot to The Shining, but whether the creepiness is borrowed or not, there's a decent dose of it (though the twist at the end is unlikely to surprise many viewers). DeNiro does his job with professional gloss, but Fanning carries the movie; she's got the kind of charisma that goes beyond acting ability--that ineffable glow that makes an audience want to watch her. Hide and Seek also features Famke Janssen (X-Men), Elisabeth Shue (Leaving Las Vegas), and the ever-dependable Dylan Baker (Happiness). --Bret Fetzer

Product Description

Robert De Niro and Dakota Fanning keep pulses pounding and hearts racing in this chilling horror hit about a troubled father and daughter tormented by someone - or something - named Charlie, a malevolent entity who may or may not be "imaginary" but is definitely the stuff nightmares are made of!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars FATHER KNOWS BEST..., July 28, 2005

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Hide and Seek (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

Let me cut to the chase. This film did not, at all, meet my expectations. The trailers lead one to believe that it is a film with supernatural overtones, but it turns out to be something else all together. The story line seems simple on its face. Alison Callaway (Amy Irving), a wife and loving mother, unexpectedly decides to slit her wrist in the bathtub one night, killing herself. Her husband, psychologist David Callaway, comes upon her lifeless body, and so does their beloved daughter, Emily (Dakota Fanning). Emily goes into shock and comes under the care of a therapist named Katherine (Famke Janssen).

Sometime later, when Emily's condition seemingly improves, her father then decides to leave New York City, where they live, and relocate to a small upstate town. No sooner do they move there, they meet the real estate agent and the town's sheriff, both of whom seem a tad peculiar. Moreover, there appears to be something not quite right with the couple next door, especially the husband. When Emily starts talking about an ostensibly imaginary friend named Charlie, the viewer knows that something is afoot. When David develops a new friend of his own, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Shue), trouble lies ahead, as Emily exhibits bizarre behavior towards her, as well as towards Elizabeth's young niece who is trying to befriend her.

As Charlie appears to be becoming an ever present and ominous entity in their lives, and Emily's odd behavior continues unabated, David remains the most kind, concerned, and understanding of fathers. He contacts Emily's therapist Katherine, who is very concerned about the eccentric behavior Emily is exhibiting. Meanwhile, the male neighbor interjects himself into the picture in a seemingly ominous way. So, David, who is also having flashbacks of events involving his wife, appears to have his hands full on the home front. By the time things start to go totally askew, the viewer can pretty much guess what the final denouement will be.

Despite its great cast and excellent performances, the script is weak and leaves a lot to be desired. It cheats the viewer with its subplots that go nowhere and are used merely to create red herrings for the sake of creating them. The film ends up being no more than total nonsense. Ari Schlossberg, the screenwriter, has made the mistake of underestimating the intelligence of the average viewer who would go to see a film starring Robert De Niro. Not even De Niro's otherwise fine performance can elevate this film to more than what it is, which is a far cry from what it promises in its trailers.

The DVD provides clear audio and visuals. It also provides four alternate endings that are moderately interesting, at best. What it does not provide is a film worth adding to one's personal collection. This is a film that is worth a rental, when you have nothing better to do.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lame, July 23, 2005

By 

Talking Wall "Never trust a man with manicure... (Queen Creek, AZ) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Hide and Seek (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

At one point I said to my wife, if Emily's friend Charlie turns out to be "X" I'm really going to be pissed. Charlie was "X". Predictable. Bad. If you liked the movie Identity - the lamest thriller of all time - you will like this. Dakota's acting is incredible but the story and premise are just stupid. Terrible writing. Did a 10 year old write this piece of junk? People are actually getting paid real money to write this garbage? There's more mystery, tension, and suspense in what lies beneath all that mold in the vegetable drawer in my fridge than you will find here. What the heck happened to the DeNiro we once knew? Pathetic. Just pathetic.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Traumatically bad, September 17, 2006

By 

Movie_Fan (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hide and Seek (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

This movie starts off with the death of Emily's (Dakota Fanning) mother. Wanting to get away from it all, she and her father (De Niro), move to the country. There she finds friendship in an imaginary friend she calls Charlie. Strange, creepy things start happening, writing on walls, people dying, dolls defaced, etc...
The movie pretends to play out on the psychological effect of grief, which here came from the death of the mother. I don't want to spoil the movie, so I'll just say that one form we see comes in the shape of Emily's reclusiveness.
But unfortunately, it's just that, it pretends...there's no REAL psychological depth to the movie, which is too bad, otherwise it wouldn't have been that bad.

The movie plays out fairly predictably, in the sense that you can tell who is going to die and who isn't. Now I know this is supposed to be scary or something along those lines, but I just thought it failed at that. I was bored out of my mind during the first half of the movie, and then when things got a little "juicier", the answers came along relatively fast and it's a little dissapointing.
Without revealing anything, I'll just say that I thought the ending was just bad. It looked like a bad wannabe version of the Sixth Sense, or worse, The Village. We're also left with holes with some of the characters, notably the neighbors.

However, this movie does have something going for it : Its cast. Dakota Fanning carries this whole movie, she's great. While I'm not the biggest fan of DeNiro, he's also good, even more so when you take the whole of the movie into consideration. The supporting cast (Elisabeth Shue and Famke Janssen) breezes through as well.

My only recommendation is that if you want to be scared, you'd be better off walking around your neighborhood at 2 o'clock in the morning than watching this movie, most likely because I found it amusing more than anything else.