Customer Reviews

One Missed Call

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(23)

 

 

First off, I am very, VERY aware this is another Japanese horror remake. And this time they picked out a film by the equally famous and infamous Miike Takashi. ...Did they ever pick out the weak film of his lot. His 2004's 'One Missed Call' may have been a hit, but I'm guessing on the same level that many of our American slasher flicks are a hit here, despite not being very good or memorable. Ghost stories may be popular in Japanese horror, but I liked Takashi's more left-field films, like 'The Audition' and 'Ichi the Killer.' There's a reason no one's gone in for the remake yet. Why bother? They're still awesome as they are!

Unfortunately, as far as remakes go, 'One Missed Call' looks like a poor excuse for a clone of the earlier and far superior Japanese remake, 'The Ring.' Both focused on technology, killing good looking college aged kids, ghosts, child abuse, and a race against time to stop a pattern based curse from spiraling out of control. And let's face it, even in The Ring, these plots are a stretch to the imagination. I don't know anyone who freaks out upon finding an unmarked videotape, and I highly doubt anyone will be afraid to pick up their cell phones or check their messages.

Like in the Ring, the story starts with the picking off of a bunch of arbitrary characters who receive a call from themselves in the future, and get a voicemail of themselves when they die. Beth (Sossamon) is witness to this and wants to get to the bottom of the curse, but nobody takes her seriously, and who can blame them? So she enlists the help of one detective, Andrews (Burns), who does believe her, only because something similar happened to his sister, so he has a motive and reason to help. There's no real character development outside of Beth, but they do however track the calls to a creepy, abusive mother and her two daughters... But of course, things aren't always as they seem as the two dig deeper into the case. Unfortunately, there's no real answer to the 'when does this thing get scary already?!' To be honest, it doesn't.

And let's face it, even without being a remake, even without having a tired, reused theme that really isn't that scary, this movie just doesn't work on any level besides atmosphere. And if I wanted just atmosphere, I'd watch The Cell again. (Guilty pleasure movie. Shut up.) The casting is alright, I guess, but the performances are so wooden and devoid of emotion or terror, as if even the characters know that this is just too weird to be scary. 'You hear yourself die on the phone then die in real life? Oh, uhm... sure. *Checks messages* Ok, I'm good.' There are of course themes of ghosts, child abuse, and a bit of a twist at the end, but it's nothing that feels /new./ Nothing that's grabbing enough to make anyone really care. The characters are bland, the story is all over the map yet thoroughly not engaging, and this movie is a failed attempt at horror. The PG-13 rating really should have been a red flag for me from the start. Hasn't really been a great PG-13 horror flick since 'The Sixth Sense.'

If you're still insanely curious, at least see Miike Takashi's original film first. Yes, it's in Japanese. Yes, it's better. Is it great? Well, it's certainly not one of his milestones. But as far as 2008's 'One Missed Call' goes, give this one a miss.

In yet another Japanese horror remake, One Missed Call is quite ordinary. It's in the same mold as The Grudge and The Ring, with thrills here and there - mostly of the quiet-then-LOUD variety, a few genuine shock scenes - the creepy visions each victim has, and a touch of ridiculousness - the other 75% of the movie.

Essentially, the movie's plot breaks down as a Final Destination meets Alltel's "My Circle 5" campaign. When a person gets a voicemail - the call is suspiciously absent - they hear their own voice moments before death. To top it all off, the voicemail is time-date stamped at the time of death. So, if there is a voicemail with a date of 2045, then it's clear for you to laugh in the face of the terror and danger - like I did the entire movie.

The main character in the movie, Beth Raymond (Shannyn Sossamon), has a collection of friends who one-by-one have received a voicemail letting them know that death is on the way. It begins with a nurse - who happens to be the sister of Jack Andrews (Edward Burns), a detective helping Beth solve the mysterious voicemails, and the original victim of the insidious killer (1). After that, the chain of events has begun. Each death shown on screen is borderline hilarious. At first an arbitrary girl and her stupid cat go scuba diving without gear in a backyard pool (2), then a grotesque blonde gets sent into orbit by a moving train (3), followed by a grungy moron who quickly learns why construction sites require hardhats (4), and finally a bad foreign actress who receives a rear-naked chokehold from one of the ghostly, evil jujitsu-practicing killers (5). Alltel's product placement is now complete.

In each situation, the victim receives a notification via voicemail a few days prior to death, giving them time to hallucinate, and generally have psychotic visions of dead people and giant millipedes. If the call and knowledge of an impending death wasn't enough, each victim gets taunted until their last minute and is inexplicably gagged by a large piece of candy post-death (similar to the murders in Silence of the Lambs). Well, all is good until Beth receives the inevitable call; then her search for the answer becomes extremely important.

Will Beth and Jack figure it out in time to save Beth's life? You betcha, and it's completely ridiculous as the finale is reached, an inordinate amount of twists are shoved in, and absolutely no answers are gained.

There are enough downfalls to this movie that I won't waste time - here's a bullet list:
-It's not scary, unless you're a timid 6-year old Japanese girl.
-It has a laughable plot that requires not only suspension of disbelief, but also a slight bit of retardation in order to truly become engrossed.
-One of the scenes of a green, "scary" baby at the end is reminiscent of the B-movie horror classic Ghoulies.
-From beginning to end, the movie fails on the horror genre formula, where the person wronged is vindicated and then the story reaches a resolution.
-It's almost guaranteed that each viewer will leave the movie hating themself just a little bit for watching yet another Japanese horror flick adaptation that failed to deliver.
-Each good looking college-aged student has the same ringtone. In a world of ubiquitous ringtones and downloads, especially amongst college students, to hear the exact same monophonic ringtone over and over is absurd.
-The actors, minus Sossamon, are all fairly wooden, and bland, as if they attended the William Shatner school of acting.
-There is a barely connected, ludicrous subplot of a troubled little girl who is clearly a ripoff from Poltergeist.
-The traumatic childhood experience suffered by Beth is a forced and superflous, and has absolutely no real point.

If you, like me, enjoy watching a preposterous horror movie and making jokes all throughout, then this is the right one for you. If you are looking for a an actual horror movie that may just scare you, skip it.

Should we talk about this again?............This movie was horrible. It's called a horror movie but I was laughing during most of it. The only time I was actually a bit creeped out was when I checked my phone and it said that I have One Missed Call. I love the original. I definitely didn't expect to be any good but once in a while everybody wants to see a movie on a long Saturday afternoon that they don't have to think or talk about ever again. But in the end too many words came out of it. I enjoy good movies but I can also appreciate certain bad movies that are good for passing time but ultimately this offers me one missed call too many.

As you watch this you will notice a mixture of The Ring and Final Destination, both of the above films are clearly better. The central character is Beth (Shannyn Sossamon), a young student who witnesses more than one of her friend's grisly demises and who appears in line to be a victim despite the disbelief of local authorities (represented largely by Margaret Cho, in a non-comic role). She is finally believed by Det. Jack Andrews (Edward Burns), whose sister died a mysterious death and who joins Beth in searching for answers. Sossamon is competent as the bewildered victim, while Burns adds a certain depth to a fairly nondescript role. Supporting plays include Meagan Good (too short of scene), Ray Wise and Azura Skye.

Production design is generally effective; however, the film's score generally is of the garden-variety horror type in which one can easily tell by the music when something bad is going to happen.

I always try to refrain from bashing any movie just because I understand that a lot of effort goes into making even the worst movie. I found myself bored most of the movie and again amused at the "scary" parts because of how weak it is. I can't really say much about the acting except that its sub par, Ed Burns is the only decent actor in the whole movie. "One Missed Call" may very well hold over horror fans desperate for something even remotely near their beloved genre, however, gorehounds and true horror fans are likely to be disappointed. Do yourself a favor watch the Japanese movie "One Missed Call 2003", if you don't like subtitles it is dubbed in English plus it's well worth a watch, as far as this movie goes its one call you won't regret missing.

I would say the best thing that can be said about this film is that it's pretty average. Sadly, that's not really saying much.

"One Missed Call" is about a young woman who joins forces with a local detective in order to solve the mystery behind various bizarre deaths, while trying to keep herself from becoming the next victim. Each victim receives a phone call on their cell phone that goes to voice mail. The call is dated as being from the future, and when they listen to the voice mail they hear their own death.

Like most Japanese horror movie remakes, this one had difficulty being translated and Americanized. The plot seems awkward and disjointed most of the time, and the acting (especially on the part of Edward Burns, who plays Detective Jack Andrews) was pretty terrible. I'm not sure if it was just because they were having difficulty with the material, but the acting definitely left something to be desired.

There are no special features available on this disc, only the usual scene selection and language options. Admittedly, having special features wouldn't have saved this mediocre mess, but it might have helped just a little bit.

Bottom line, while it might be an okay rent for anyone who is curious about it, I definitely wouldn't waste your money purchasing it.

I don't know what everybody's problem is. I guess these reviewers need a lot of sadistic gore (via Saw)to deem a horror movie watchable. OK, when I finally got to rent the movie (it seemed to always be out), I was disappointed to discover it was PG-13. So, after disappointing unrated junk like Dead Silence, I went in with very low expectations, and was delightfully surprised. This movie was creepy and tense and had many disturbing images and didn't have to resort to cheap (or expensive) gore effects to tell the story. And that haunting ringtone is still with me! A psych student and a cop race against time to find the source of a cell phone caller who calls intended victims from a dead person's cell with their own voices at their last moments of life...a day or two before it happens. (Yes, it seems that Japanese horror formulas follow the whole I saw/heard this and now have 24 hours to live). I will not spoil the movie with details, but it is very creepy and some of the images are sure nightmare-inducing. If you are bothered by gore but like a scary movie, I recommend this one. The acting is good, and it's always nice to see Twin peaks' Ray Wise acting again. My only complaint is that the victims aren't DRIVERS on their cell phones. At least they would deserve the abuse!

This movie has an original idea. Many characters received a cell-phone message of his/her own voice. The message was dated a couple of days later! The startling thing was that the message revealed what he/she was talking why he/she was dying! Besides that there's nothing interesting or suspenseful in this movie.

It's still worth viewing for curiosity.

In this case, the Japanese original is way better than the remake. I have nothing against remakes, but this one just doesn't work that well. First, it's not very scary. Then the acting comes off kind of stiff and overall it gets pretty boring. Too bad, it had some potential that wasn't realized. Being PG-13 didn't help.

Don't you hate seeing a movie with potential, (even if it is only a little potential, as in this one) but then some bad acting and Horrible directing ruin it? I do. I can't help but keep myself occupied during the seemingly forever running time, thinking of how I would have done it.
This movie starts off so lame and continues steadily the entire time. No real plot or character development. No directoral flow. No good acting. And the only thing creepy about the entire movie is the creepy ring tone. But the whole concept of a cell phone curse is totally B Grade and cheesy. Also, the broadcasted exorcism by a day time talk show host sums it all up.
Don't waist your time. You'll wonder why you didn't just ignore this call.

I guess there's no need to explain what REALLY makes cell phones scary! No no, it's nothing to do with shadow people coming out of nowhere, or mysterious sounds and images that appear out of nowhere. Cell phones are scary because, well, you know. Like I said, no need to explain what makes them scary! Just go driving or go to the movies for further proof!

Anyway, this isn't really THAT bad of a movie. It tried to have a spooky atmosphere, and it tried making the kill scenes interesting. It even tried telling a story that was fairly interesting in that each time the cell phone would ring, the person who owned that phone would find out they were going to die soon.

Of course that meant the people would start freaking out, which would lead to these strange demon creatures appearing, and sure enough, the people would die a short time later.

And why was it whenever someone would die, their friends would have NO reaction to it other than a quick scream or moment of confusion? Where were the tears?

The death scenes were pretty graphic, even though the entire film is basically the same thing as Final Destination 3. VERY similar vibe and appearance. I know one thing- the woman who played the lead actress is very VERY hot. What a face that girl has! That's probably the main reason I'm giving the movie an extra star. I guess I can't help myself there, hehe.

Anyway, no, don't rent this movie, and especially don't BUY the darn thing. It's laughable of course. I mean, come on, a cell phone predicting peoples deaths? Are you kidding me?

Oye, Took TWO WEEKS to get here when my other items ordered same day arrived on the next business day or two. Good movie though and glad i ordered it...