Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Can you kill me now?, April 4, 2008
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.
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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
1.5--Well at least I wasn't the one who miss a $10 bill in my pocket, May 21, 2008
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.
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12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A Mediocre Mess..., April 19, 2008
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.
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