Disappointing

Rating: 4/10 (10 March 2003)

*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*
I was expecting better from a movie hypes as the "scariest of 2002". I found The Ring to be drawn out and much too slow paced. Too much time is devoted to the investigation into the origins of video. This leads to resolution of sorts at the end, but creates too many dead end sub-plots and plot holes in the process. Overall the suspense just wasn't there. The freakiest moments of the film are delivered at the end, but by then I was left feeling cheated that at 116 minutes running time I had only seen 10 minutes that were remotely scary.
The DVD edition contains an imaginative presentation of what appears to be deleted and alternate scenes from the movie. To me, it was more enjoyable than the actual movie. All in all, I found that The Ring failed to deliver on it's promises. Maybe it's just because of all the hype... 4/10
* A fun little prank to play if you are watching this movie with other people: If you have a cell phone, near the end of the movie discreetly cue up the phone number of the place you are watching the movie at without removing the phone from your pocket. When the credits are rolling, call the number (again, without removing the phone from your pocket). This should elicit a bit of fear, especially in younger viewers. Heh heh heh.