The cast: Naomi Watts, David Dorfman
The director: Hideo Nakata
The storyline: The ghost of Samara comes back to haunt Rachel and her son Aidan.
The bottomline: Not as scary as the original.
When ‘Ring’ first released in 2002, it turned out to be a quite a hit, given its fresh approach to horror. It was based on Japanese director’s Hideo Nakata’s ‘Ringu,’ which is known to have relied more on story and character than special effects and gore.
But though the producers have imported the original Japanese director for this sequel, Ring 2 is ridden with predictable scares (if you’ve seen the original), gimmicks quite irrelevant to plot (unleashed at the audience with the “It-was-just-a-nightmare” licence), the oldest horror tricks (Name one movie where a corpse does not suddenly come alive to catch hold of the unsuspecting victim) and of course, the new found fascination of the horror genre to use spooky looking kids and have them whisper their “I-see-dead-people” lines.
The sequel moves away from the original premise of people dying within seven days of watching an abstract video. No phone calls with recorded messages to notify victims about their impending death.
Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) move to Astoria, Oregon from Seattle, hoping to leave their past behind. But Samara, the dead girl in the well from the first part, probably equipped with state-of-the-art GPRS systems, traces them to take over Aidan’s body, in her quest for motherly love.
Like in the first part, Rachel investigates more into Samara’s past to find out what she wants. To the director Nakata’s credit, he uses some of the most peaceful metaphors to introduce the scare quotient — water, deer (though the reason for them to attack a car provides adequate scope for an entire series on National Geographic) and children — to make it all the more eerie.
But the overall plot and the fatigue factor of having watched Rachel-and-Aidan-getting-spooked-out-by-a-scary-looking Samara-routine, does get to you. The imagery once again is replete with all possible circular symbols to reinforce the film’s title (like the well, the moon, the fountain) perhaps going a little overboard in some places.Nothing new, but Ring 2 is still definitely a cut above Hollywood’s regular slasher teen flicks!
Archive For June 3rd, 2005
Buddy has a ball: Airbud Review
The cast: Buddy, the dog
The director: Charles Martin Smith
The storyline: A dog helps an underdog basketball school team win.
The bottomline: Dog-lovers delight!
Yes, Buddy the dog, not just fetches ball, he also puts it in the basket.
What’s new? We’re talking about basketball.
No one knows how though.
But, an introverted 12-year old Josh (Kevin Zeggers), who has just moved into town, discovers a golden retriever (who he names Buddy) in an abandoned basketball court. There begins a friendship which would make girls go ‘Awww’ and toddlers go ‘oooh.’
Yes, the movie hall is a haven for kids. Even those too young to understand or speak the language seemed to be enjoying Buddy’s antics thoroughly. You can’t miss the infectious energy in a hall reverberating with excited babblings.
Disney’s ‘Air Bud,’ made in 1997, tries to capitalise on America’s passion for the game but the film’s true strength comes from what Buddy and his talent. No special effects were used in filming the basketball scenes involving Buddy, the end-credits mention.
Director Charles Martin Smith manages to create a few moments in the film that strike a chord, especially towards the end when he cashes in on the dog-kid bond for sentiment.
The evil clown (Michael Jeter), who comes to claim his pet back, gets the same treatment as the thugs in ‘Home Alone’. That done, the dog helps the underdogs win!
If you could deal with the basketball scene in ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ where the alien Jadoo helped the underdogs win (with a generous dose of special effects), you sure will love what Buddy does with the ball — truly, the USP of this film.
MADRAS INK. 