Many things...

Rating: Null/10 (15 March 2003)

Okay, first off, let's get this strait...this movie is not scary! I was expecting this movie to be super-scary, but there was only one time when I even got close to getting scared (the closet flashback). Sure, there is suspense and it gets a tiny bit spooky, but most of it is only from all the morons you know telling you "oh my god, THE RING made me p*ss my shorts!". This ain't scary. Now, on to something else...
The story is good, but it so closely similar to FEARDOTCOM, you wonder if the same writer didn't use a different name and write FEARDOTCOM as well. Speaking of writer, the film is written by Ehren Kruger, the guy behind the writing of SCREAM 3 (a film which I probably gave far too low of a rating, it was quite good)...yeah, he returns to write THE RING. He is getting better with time and he is beginning to grow on me. He *almost* scared me with this one. The film is at times tinted a gloomy greyish color which also mimics FEARDOTCOM and David Fincher's masterpiece SE7EN. And, speaking of story...the film is based on some movie called RINGU, apparantly one of Japan's biggest hits in like, forever. Uh, well they must have some pretty bad movies over there, because out here in USA-ville, we had a couple tons of better movies than THE RING. I can't judge as to how good that film is, but I will soon see it.
As for THE RING, the cast is not very big, there are not very many characters. Brian Cox's (25TH HOUR) character doesn't come into the film until practically the very end and Naomi Watts I have never heard of before in my life. Also, I don't know about anyone else, but I was a little confused with this film. The whole thing moved fast and moved along quickly, but there were certain things that I just didn't understand. There are certain portions of the film that really don't make a whole lot of sense, and I was getting a little agitated towards the end and I even began thinking "okay, what just happened?". This film was a lot more thriller-ish than FEARDOTCOM was, only because FEARDOTCOM went more for a horror approach on the audience, and horror films usually don't scare people too much. Thrillers are mainly the types of films that make people wet the bed. THE RING is a thriller. The whole thing with the 'ring' is also another one of those things that after you're done watching the movie, you kinda think "ohhh!!".
Overall, not the best film ever made, but then again, I have seen a slew of films that sucked terribly. This is one of the bigger and better hits of 2002, and I recommend that you see this movie, because overall, it may not be very perfectly constructed, but at least it is entertaining.
THE RING: 4/5.