Campy, predictable, not worth your time

Rating: 3/10 (1 November 2002)

My first inclination upon hearing the storyline to this movie was that it was going to be another in a long string of predictable un-scary movies. In an attempt to keep an open mind (and find a truly riveting, scary movie) after reading the fabulous reviews The Ring was receiving, I decided to give it a try.
I should have listened to my first instinct.
This movie starts out so poorly that I (and the person I saw it with) thought it was going to turn into a show the people in the actual movie were watching. That didn't happen. It was the real movie.

This is simply another Urban Legend that has been put to the screen and the lengths to which they went to contrive some of the scenes are incredible. There was 1 scene which had a startle factor of about 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. I jumped a bit, the person I was watching the movie with didn't move at all.
I am not familiar with any of these actors but I suspect they're fairly good actors subjected to horrid scripting. The little boy appears to have potential but they actually used the Sixth Sense technique & had him whispering on the phone. (remember the "I see dead people." scene?) They actors were good looking for the most part, if that's a redeemable quality, then The Ring gets a point on that. There is a surprise albeit predictable (if you've watched more than 3 scary movies in your lifetime) ending. Surprise in that you think the movie is over but then it continues on. Surprise.
Scary? No. Good for a laugh? Yes. A laugh worth 7$? No. Not even worth watching on a rainy Saturday afternoon when the only other choice is to wash the dog.
Wash Rover. It'll be more entertaining.