Customer Reviews

Mirrors [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(37)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

If you like horror movies you won't be disappointed in this. Buy it. The movie has an interesting premise involving radical treatment for schizophrenia, which results in a supernatural side effect involving mirrors. There are some "very" brutal scenes in this movie. The theme is actually very creative and Sutherland does an excellent job of making you feel the horror. I liked the ending. It was a nicely twisted finish. The disk functioned perfectly, audio and video quality were great.

- Mike S.

Mirrors (Alexandre Aja, 2008)

I was about forty minutes into the hundred-odd-minute Mirrors last night when my wife, who's down with bronchitis, took some cold medicine and went to bed. I considered turning the movie off and coming back to it today, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Why? Because I was seeing something I had never seen before--a good Alexandre Aja movie. No, seriously--a really good Alexandre Aja movie. (In my defense, when my wife takes cold medicine, twenty minutes later she has no idea whether I'm in bed with her or not. "Comatose" is a valid description.) I was expecting yet another stupid Hollywood remake (and with Alexandre Aja having helmed the epitome of the stupid Hollywood remake, the 2006 version of The Hills Have Eyes, I felt entirely justified in this). For the record, I have yet to see the film upon which this is based, the 2003 Korean project Into the Mirror, and maybe that changed my perception a bit. But oh, yes, I was completely immersed in this.

And then we got to the last five minutes. And that Nike I was waiting for clonked me in the back of the head, except by then I wasn't expecting it. Ever since I finished watching the silly thing, I've been trying to spin the ending a different way. Me, of all people, trying to figure out how to defend a film by a guy who, up until now, hadn't even figured out how to direct a good short! (I generally don't review shorts, only rate them; I caught his first project, Over the Rainbow, earlier this year. It got two stars mostly for its brevity.) I think this is a sign of the apocalypse.

In any case, the plot concerns an ex-cop named Ben Carson (Dark City's Kiefer Sutherland--who, let's face it, hasn't done a good film since the beginning of 24). Ben left the force after an incident that messed with his head enough that he fell into the bottom of a bottle, resulting in the breakup of his marriage (he's now sleeping on the couch of his sister Angela, played by Crank's Amy Smart) and a period of jobless wandering through a self-tortured life. He's started picking up the pieces, though, and newly sober, gets a job as a night watchman at a department store that burned down five years ago. (We're told that it's still being patrolled because the company is still tied up in a legal battle with the insurance company.) All well and good, except that ghostly goings-on begin his first night. He quickly finds out that every night watchman in the place, including the guy who originally burned the place to the ground, has had the same problems. You see, there's something wrong with the department store's mirrors. (This is not a spoiler; we find this out in the refreshingly gory opening scene.) Needless to say, whenever he tries to explain the mirror problem--to Angela, for example, or to his ex Amy (Precious' Paula Patton)--they look at him like he's nuts. How to convince them he's not before something unspeakable happens? And what do the things in the mirror want, anyway?

It's always been the case that the decent American remakes, or even the mediocre ones that still somehow manage to be worth watching (Verbinski's The Ring, for example, or Scorsese's The Departed), are based on top-notch flicks. Not to say there haven't been awful American remakes (did you see Bangkok Dangerous? No? Stay that way.), but the good ones? Yeah. So I'm guessing that Sung-ho Kim's original Geoul Sokeuro is a real barnburner, because the first hundred minutes of this movie are, at least for Alexandre Aja, absolute genius. The whole thing is about character and atmosphere. It is, in fact, the second (that I know of) Asian-horror-flick remake to actually get that bit right, and as a result, the film shines. Some of the criticism leveled at the movie has had to do with some bad acting by supporting players, and this is true, but none of the supporting players here gets a whole lot of screen time; this is Kiefer Sutherland's movie, and he carries it. (Some of the other criticisms say he's just reprising his Jack Bauer role. I've never seen 24, so I can't comment on that, but if so, I can see why the show's a hit.) The atmosphere is tense, and more importantly it's believable enough to let the viewer swallow enough disbelief to actually buy the rather ridiculous premise.

And then the final five minutes. Intellectually, I know I shouldn't hate them as much as I did. The ending probably even works in the original (though some of the things I've read lead me to believe the ending has been changed). And for the record, the final shot really is set up nicely all the way through the movie, and if you take it by itself, it's creepy and effective. But my god, the plot hole that gets blown through this movie in the final two scenes is unforgivable--especially because those scenes are right next to one another. It was as if Aja and his longtime writing partner Gregory Levasseur said "hey, we need one of those endings that sets up for a sequel (ed. note: which is in the process of being filmed as we speak, of course), who cares if it makes no sense in the context of the rest of the film?". And that's exactly what we got.

I wanted to love this movie. And had I turned it off five minutes before the end, I probably would have. ***

i did enjoy the film a good bit more than i thought i would . i read a very favorable review in VIDEOSCOPE (the phantom of the movies) mag . i chuckled to myself a good bit when ann was impaled on the pipe (so to speak) and an approximation of MICHAEL'S lyric sprung into my mind . i like the director a good bit (THE HILLS HAVE EYES) remake . i've seen better . i've seen a lot worse . it's my favorite genre . it was not too insulting . good grue . pretty fair script . loads of things you've seen before but still a fun and sometimes scary afternoon . certainly worth a rental . if you've seen a lot of horror you'll still be entertained . if you have not seen much horror you'll probably think it's the cat's p.js . check it out . if you're an avid 24 fan , you may not be able to divorce yourself from JACK Bauer syndrome . not his fault . he gives a solid performance here .

I rented this movie after it was recommended to me through the Netflix recommendation system, and for the most part I was very satisfied.

Kiefer Sutherland plays an ex cop who becomes confronted by daemons that live in mirrors of a burnt-down New York department store. As they threaten him and his family, he uses all of his detective skills to destroy these sinister forces. The movie is well paced and well acted, with the music score and visuals that greatly enhance the whole experience. The twist ending also makes you rethink many aspects of the movie, which comes as an added bonus.

If you are looking for an entertaining horror flick and are not too squeamish about the cutting/dismembering scenes then give this movie a chance. It may not be the most outstanding horror film you'll ever see, but it's certainly worth watching.

I like Keifer Sutherland, and I like horror/ghost stories, but this septic compilation of disjointed genre tricks and a bad script are painful to watch. Ghost story? Demonic possession? Alternate universe? Pick one already. The premise isn't horrible, but the inconsistencies are blatent and the execution of the storyline leave you scratching your head wondering if the director even knew what he was going after. Even the ending was a convenient gimmic inconsistent with the premise. All in all, one of Keifers worst. However, if there's a saving grace to this film it's the sets, which added a sense of menace and were genuinely well done.

Extremely surprised that Kiefer would participate in a cheesy, low-budget, poorly conceived film like this. Weak believability in the plot and bad-acting except for Kiefer, who was mediocre. I gave this dvd to a friend who is less discriminating than myself. I certainly won't stay up nights not knowing how this movie ended!

I brought this movie about 2 or 3 months ago and I didn't have time to watch it until last night. I watched it with my sister and 2 of my friends. This movie was VERY GOOD!! You have to pay attention in order to understand what's going on, and once you know what's going on, you won't want to stop watching it. This is one of my favorite horror movies and I hope they make a sequal to it. I recommend this to all horror fans.

I watch this movie practically every night. For two main reasons, first because Kiefer Sutherland is in it and second because I love thrills, chills and horror in movies. This movie was very creative when it comes to mirrors. I give it two thumbs up. The movie really opens up in a thrilling chilling scene where the prior security guard Kiefer will be replacing is running is the NYC subway station in Harlem from something creepy and winds up hiding in a locker room where he finds a small window which he hopes to escape through but to his "Oh F***!" surprise when he opens it he finds it is bricked up and he cannot get out. Being he has hit a dead end he turns around, apologizes to the mirrors and suffers the unthinkably brutal fate in store for him by the mirrors. And here is where the terrifying story opens! Watch on and enjoy!

Slasher / horror films have to start off believable to actually scare the viewer. Mirrors just doesn't set the stage with anything credible.

The opening montage of the security guard running around a subway station and then being forced to slit his throat with a broken mirror, works pretty well. It's scary, the guard looks trapped, and he has no idea what to do. The second scary part is when Jack Bauer, oopsie, Ben Carson, played by Keifer Sutherland, a laid off police detective does his rounds at night in a burned out department store. The part that just doesn't ring true, he jumps every single time a bird flies. The director keeps birds flying all over the place. A trained detective, even nervous, would never jump the way Ben does. From there the credible details just fall all over the place. At one point, Ben just blindly fires his gun, nothing there, no mirrors, just fires it. Definately not something a police officer would ever do. Detail after detail just stopped adding up.

So this viewer had a lot of difficulty being drawn into the story line of this movie. Production-wise, the film is done decently. There's some out of focus shots. The pacing, which is absolutely critical to horror films, just didn't work. No rythmn was built and maintained. The film lopes along between gory scenes, dragging its feet most of the time. Audio was well recorded and dialog clear. The blood, seemed real.

This is an extremely gory movie. About every 20 minutes a person is killed or disfigured, and there is a ton of blood whenever that happens. The single worst one is the first bathtub scene. Frankly, that was probably a bit too far over the top. There's a fair amount of strong language. And there's two scenes of full nudity (Amy Smart one notable scene). Definately an R rated film. At one hour 50 minutes, this is a long film.

The DVD has a single special feature, theatrical release and an unrated release. There is 1 minute difference between the two. It's virtually impossible to tell what was changed, certainly somebody has uncovered that useless bit of trivia.

I actually really like horror but this is basically as unpleasant as it gets. It pulls many CGi shock effects (rather than the more classic camera moves). But fundamentally this is a dark film that strives to make the audience miserable - and succeeds. Even writing a review seems to justify this film, which I detest doing.

Apart from the fact that the plot is flimsy, the characters are 1-dimensional, and there are no redeeming elements, the antigonist is fundamentally deranged in a way that leads to no conclusion nor resolution.

Just avoid this one. It's awful.