Entertaining but overrated

Rating: 5/10 (5 December 2011)

Currently leading in the most overrated movie of 2009 race, this sloppy pastiche of movie clichés has ridden an underserved wave of acclaim. Raimi trots out Hollywood?s current favorite stereotypes including:
1) Ambition can only be rewarded in men and attractive women ? true Alison Lohman is no beast but we are told repeatedly her character used to be FAT! Thus, it is morally justifiable that she be condemned to hell for all eternity for not granting a third mortgage extension. 2) ?Ethnic types? have magical powers - in this case the eastern European Ilenka Ganush can condemn people to hell (yet somehow can?t keep up with house payments) and Indian Rham Jas and Hispanic Shaun San Dena can protect people from this fate (provided the condemned have a platinum card). In Bollywood films, are the White Christian characters imbued with supernatural powers? 3) White Anglo-Saxon parents are bitter snobs, yet their prejudice melts away if you just stand your ground - such as when Christine Brown exhibits ?backbone? to the boyfriend?s mother by bringing a cake to a dinner party 4) Scientists instantly become believers on the thinnest exposure to the supernatural ? the boyfriend character (played by the guy who sells MacIntosh computers on the television) starts as a Prius-driving disbelieving psychological researcher and professor but lays down 10 large for a séance because his girlfriend thought she saw a demon 5) Cats and goats are substitutable for human souls ? vegetarian Christine chops up Fluffy on the advice of her fortune-teller and Shaun San Dena and her supernatural crew plan to sacrifice a goat because apparently while he would like an immortal soul, Satan will take small to midsize domestic animals instead
Having said all that I do give Raimi credit for slipping the M. Night Shyamalan-before-he-got-lame ending pass me - it saved this thing being a complete waste. Go see ?The Others? instead.