An Object Lesson in How To Ruin A Great Film...

Rating: Null/10 (6 August 2003)

The Tagline: Before you die, you see the ring. The Reality: When you see The Ring, you die of boredom.
What a surprise. Hollywood hears of an original idea from another country and then maliciously sets out to ruin it. And once again the mission has been successfully accomplished.
In a nutshell: An urban legend about a killer video-tape attracts the attention of a female reporter after one of her relatives apparently dies seven days after watching it. She watches it herself and then receives a phone call telling her that she too will die in seven days. Not surprisingly, she freaks out and gets her ex-boyfriend/husband/whatever to watch it too. Then her (apparently psychic) son also watches the tape and so she sets out to uncover the mystery of the killer video before her and/or everyone else dies in unimaginative ways. To say any more would ruin the outcome of the far superior Japanese original.
There are so many things wrong with this film, it would take too long to name them all so here are some statistical highlights:
2 x Unnecessary characters.
1 x Scene stolen from The Omen.
2 x cases of unexplained psychic children.
4 x cases of Wooden acting.
2 x Dodgy mannequins
2 x Hilarious "Terrified to death" victim make-ups.
1 x Line of truly awful dialogue.
1 x viewer who will never trust a remake ever again (Although I
did actually say that after Psycho too).

Anyway, I'm off to watch the new version of The Italian Job now. D'OH!