Don Movie Reviews

But one thing that bothers me is the hoax vs not a hoax thing.

The house is REAL....the murders are REAL....the tale of the haunting is 100% a hoax! The LUTZ family THEMSELVES came out and said it was made up years later....okay? Is that convincing enough for everyone? They came out and said it was a hoax. Period, end of story.

But the movie is still a fun watch ;)

Do not buy this DVD! You will be disappointed, especially if you grew up watching this on TV as a kid (as I did). Buy the VHS tape instead.

WB (or whoever produced this DVD) should be ashamed. I personally think they should be flogged as well.

Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, things are better in memory than in reality. Whether it's changing tastes or simply adult eyes, but much of this film is needlessly tame: combat scenes (which are plentiful) mostly consist of repeatedly zooming in on static pictures, instead of showing the heroes and villains swinging their weapons. It's probably partly an economic decision -- it was surely easier to animate this way -- and partly an effort to sanitize the film, but the end result is that this feels like a needlessly G-rated version of what, at worst, is a PG story.

Fun to have, and a nice companion piece to the DVDs of the new movies -- and even after all these years, I enjoy Glen Yarbrough's theme song -- but go into it with your eyes open.

Recommended for fans who never outgrew their love of the "Greatest Adventure" and confirmed Tolkein fans.

Basically, the flight sequence is probably the coolest air scene ever in a movie. Top Gun can't even compete really. The fireball is hokey, but overall the sequence is done pretty well. The rest of the movie is boring. Nothing to do with flying at all. It's one man versus an entire army, and guess who wins? It's a good old patriotism movie (This movie came out like a few months after 9/11, if I remember correctly).

Basically, the flight sequence is probably the coolest air scene ever in a movie. Top Gun can't even compete really. The fireball is hokey, but overall the sequence is done pretty well. The rest of the movie is boring. Nothing to do with flying at all. It's one man versus an entire army, and guess who wins? It's a good old patriotism movie (This movie came out like a few months after 9/11, if I remember correctly).

Now here comes the important issue, and the main reason why I cant give this a 1 or 2 star rating. The screenplay - the screenplay was written by the no-less-than-brilliant Andrew Kevin Walker, and I highly advise any pending fans of this movie, to go out and read the script to this, to see what could have been. Hence I urge any of you out there who have screamed at the "bad writing" of this movie not inherrently blame "the writer" who had a well publicized falling out with Mr. Schumacher. Certainly the writing is bad in SOME scenes, but anyone who has read the script, or knows Mr. Walker's style will recognize the certain elements tacked in there by ghost writers - (i.e. "If you dance with the devil, you don't change the devil, he changes you." Hahaha!)

In anycase, long story short, this was a potentially fantastic movie, which was through the hollywood system (which Se7en for the most part, managed to luckily survive/escape) dumbed down, over-dramatized, and watered down. It is evident however, that there were some very talented people at work here, trying to make this great. Mr. Cage showed a very ernest enthusiasm for his part, as did many other actors who were a credit to their characters. But alas that is not enough to save a raped script.

Of course in a movie these fantasy-world advantages might be a little hard to overcome. Usually heroes like this are the sort of pablum fed to artistically unsophisticated middle-aged execs so that they will have something to fall asleep to in front of their hotel room TV. I think this would have worked better if Douglas's character were a little compromised, maybe make him a womanizer or somebody who abuses his practice or at least cheats on his income taxes.

The subject of his pro bono work is the catatonic Elisabeth Burrows played fetchingly by Brittany Murphy. In addition to being catatonic she is also quick with the multiple personalities and can job the shrinks to distraction. Enter the complication: the girl holds some numbers in her head that some crooks want. They give Conrad until five p.m. to shrink it out of her or they will kill his daughter whom they have kidnaped. Right, this could happen. Meanwhile they have magically installed cameras in Conrad's apartment and at the asylum lock-up, god only knows how. Furthermore, Conrad's wife (Skye McCole Bartusiak) is temporarily bed-ridden because of a skiing accident. Every time either she or Conrad makes a move a phone rings and it is the bad guys (led by Sean Bean) on the other end saying Big Brother is watching and if you don't behave we will kill your daughter.

Aside from the absurdities of the premise, there is the direction by Gary Fleder to consider. He might have made a passable made-for-TV kind of production if he had just played it straight, but no, he wanted to be creative (like Christopher Nolan of Memento fame, perhaps) and so chopped up the time sequence. Perhaps this was an attempt to camouflage the fatuous plot. No doubt Fleder and the clueless producers liked this because it allowed them to begin the movie with an inane action/adventure scene including a fire-balled vehicle and some "authentic" football-betting talk. After about twenty minutes of "Huh?" action, Fleder then allows the players to talk the plot and we realize that there are two time lines ten years apart. No doubt he also reveals how Bartusiak broke her leg, but I didn't stick around for that.

Bottom line: there are at least a thousand movies better. Pick one.

Dr. Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas) and his wife (Famke Jansen) are shocked, when their daughter Jessie (Skye McCole Bartusiak) is kiddnapped. She is taken for ransom the Conrads are warned by her captor (Sean Bean) that they must do what he wants quickly, or she will die. The Doctor's only hope for her safe return, rests with a troubled mental patient named Elizabeth (Brittany Murphy), and a six digit number.

The film is based on the best selling novel by Andrew Klavan and directed by Gary (Kiss The Girls) Fleder. The problem I have with this film is that, quite frankly, it plods along too much for my tastes. The suspense is muted by a lot of atmosphere and long dialogue-heavy scenes. By the time any payoff comes, you can spot what's going to happen, before it does. The acting is ok, but as usual, Bean stands out as a great bad guy

My problems with the movie not withstanding, I still enjoyed most of the bonus material, included on the DVD. Director Gary Fleder's audio commentary is pretty good. But even better are the actor insights on specific scenes by Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Brittany Murphy, Famke Jansen and Oliver Platt There are three deleted Scenes and a comprehensive series of featurettes. Broken down into three parts: preproduction, filmming, and post production, give you more than just a passing look behind the scenes. Some stuff is repeated but I can let that slide if it doesn't happen too often. Rounding out the disc's extras are
storyboard-to-screen comparisons and an ad for the Wall Street DVD, starring Michael Douglas, but no theatrical trailer for the film itself.

Recommended as a rental only if you must

Of course in a movie these fantasy-world advantages might be a little hard to overcome. Usually heroes like this are the sort of pablum fed to artistically unsophisticated middle-aged execs so that they will have something to fall asleep to in front of their hotel room TV. I think this would have worked better if Douglas's character were a little compromised, maybe make him a womanizer or somebody who abuses his practice or at least cheats on his income taxes.

The subject of his pro bono work is the catatonic Elisabeth Burrows played fetchingly by Brittany Murphy. In addition to being catatonic she is also quick with the multiple personalities and can job the shrinks to distraction. Enter the complication: the girl holds some numbers in her head that some crooks want. They give Conrad until five p.m. to shrink it out of her or they will kill his daughter whom they have kidnaped. Right, this could happen. Meanwhile they have magically installed cameras in Conrad's apartment and at the asylum lock-up, god only knows how. Furthermore, Conrad's wife (Skye McCole Bartusiak) is temporarily bed-ridden because of a skiing accident. Every time either she or Conrad makes a move a phone rings and it is the bad guys (led by Sean Bean) on the other end saying Big Brother is watching and if you don't behave we will kill your daughter.

Aside from the absurdities of the premise, there is the direction by Gary Fleder to consider. He might have made a passable made-for-TV kind of production if he had just played it straight, but no, he wanted to be creative (like Christopher Nolan of Memento fame, perhaps) and so chopped up the time sequence. Perhaps this was an attempt to camouflage the fatuous plot. No doubt Fleder and the clueless producers liked this because it allowed them to begin the movie with an inane action/adventure scene including a fire-balled vehicle and some "authentic" football-betting talk. After about twenty minutes of "Huh?" action, Fleder then allows the players to talk the plot and we realize that there are two time lines ten years apart. No doubt he also reveals how Bartusiak broke her leg, but I didn't stick around for that.

Bottom line: there are at least a thousand movies better. Pick one.

Dr. Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas) and his wife (Famke Jansen) are shocked, when their daughter Jessie (Skye McCole Bartusiak) is kiddnapped. She is taken for ransom the Conrads are warned by her captor (Sean Bean) that they must do what he wants quickly, or she will die. The Doctor's only hope for her safe return, rests with a troubled mental patient named Elizabeth (Brittany Murphy), and a six digit number.

The film is based on the best selling novel by Andrew Klavan and directed by Gary (Kiss The Girls) Fleder. The problem I have with this film is that, quite frankly, it plods along too much for my tastes. The suspense is muted by a lot of atmosphere and long dialogue-heavy scenes. By the time any payoff comes, you can spot what's going to happen, before it does. The acting is ok, but as usual, Bean stands out as a great bad guy

My problems with the movie not withstanding, I still enjoyed most of the bonus material, included on the DVD. Director Gary Fleder's audio commentary is pretty good. But even better are the actor insights on specific scenes by Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Brittany Murphy, Famke Jansen and Oliver Platt There are three deleted Scenes and a comprehensive series of featurettes. Broken down into three parts: preproduction, filmming, and post production, give you more than just a passing look behind the scenes. Some stuff is repeated but I can let that slide if it doesn't happen too often. Rounding out the disc's extras are
storyboard-to-screen comparisons and an ad for the Wall Street DVD, starring Michael Douglas, but no theatrical trailer for the film itself.

Recommended as a rental only if you must