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Review: The Ring (2002)

The Ring (2002) Review by Tinita Tikkeram.

A remake of the 1998 Japanese blockbuster 'Ringu', The Ring brings the original movie kicking and screaming in to the 21st century with all the panache, glitz and candy coated lipgloss that Hollywood has to offer. Unfortunately all of this extra sparkle adds nothing to a very bland movie that simply cannot compare with it's predecessor.

Naomi Watts stars as Rachel Keller, an auspicious and somewhat 'highly strung' reporter for a local newspaper. When her niece is found dead, the local authorities cannot explain the reason behind her death. Her best friend who was with her at the time said the blame must lie in a videotape that kills it's viewers exactly 7 days after viewing it. Keller finds out 4 students have been killed in total, supposedly after viewing the tape. Becoming all the more curious she decides to find out the truth behind this supposed 'cursed' tape.

Having seen Ringu before this new remake, i already knew the story and what was going to happen. For the most part i was surprised at how similar the two movies looked. In this version the director (Gore Verbinski) did seem to be keeping the movie true to the original at least visually in the sense of the camerawork.

Unfortunately what lets it down from the original is the crass and often under-par acting. This was one of the main strengths of the original, that the cast were what made the movie as they fitted in to their roles so well. With this we have typical bog-standard scare movie acting. I felt like i was watching a Scream movie or something. Music was also over used. Often tension building scenes were ruined by over use again, of typical Hollywood scare fare.

It's a great shame because at first i'll admit it, i was hating this movie and swore blind i would never watch it out of respect for the original. Then i thought no, i'll do it to see what it was like and to say that i've seen it. I'm glad i did now because it hasn't altered my opinion on the fact that i like Ringu better. One of the benefits i can see now is that hopefully it should entice more people to seek down the originals (and then wonder why they bothered with this version).

That can only be a good thing. Can't it?

Final Score: 6/10 ''Before you die, you see the ring...''

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0298130

This is a biased Review too (Sorry Mystic),but you said that it was a dumb idea because Ringu 1-27.5 or whatever where awesome and they shouldn't be study and remake it. Everyone I have talked to said it's a freaky ass amazing movie. Meh, I'll be watching it tonight. So I'll be posting how r0x0ring it was. See Ya's.

I have tried not to be biased with this review though. I changed my mind and thought, fuck it, i'll watch it anyway. It was really hard to sit there and watch it and not start making comparisons with the original.

The thing is, everyone who has seen this version will be in my position but only the other way round when they watch the Japanese original.

This was better than most remakes of other movies that have been made, but it was never going to be better than the original. It was very well done for what it was, but it wasn't an enjoyable movie.

I'll be watching the Japanese version next weekend, so I'll be able to give an opinion based on seeing them the other way round.

I think MS was trying to be fair here, and I'm amazed he didn't totally trash the remake! He highly recommends the originals.




Billy

The originals are fantastic. But i guess it all depends on how you consume your cinema. The majority of you will go "thats slow" or "it was boring" because you've all been spoon-fed Hollywood candy for the best part of your lives and little or none of the cinema the rest of the globe has to offer. Japanese cinema is also very slow and meticulous in it's presentation and story telling, something the majority of Westerner's may find hard to digest.

I won't be surprised if loads of you hate the originals. But do give them a try, just like i did with this one. I tried very hard with this movie, but it just couldn't live up to what i had seen previously. Again, i'll stress the fact that it was very well done, but it was still a very bland, standard movie. It could have been so much better.

Now i'll stand here and wait for the backlash from fans of this movie and haters of the originals.

well i've seen the american version.. and a little bit of the japanese...

and the american version looks like it was almost completely copied from the japanese...

and the american version was not scary at all... they did an awful job at it.

when i watch Ringu this weekend i'll tell you if i think that was good.

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quote:

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Originally posted by darkslide
well i've seen the american version.. and a little bit of the japanese...

and the american version looks like it was almost completely copied from the japanese...

and the american version was not scary at all... they did an awful job at it.

when i watch Ringu this weekend i'll tell you if i think that was good.

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I so agree with you MG. The US version had an uphill struggle from the start. Ringu was like some powerful King sitting on it's throne on a cloud up in the sky overlooking it's SNES Zelda III style map of all it owns.

And The Ring was like, well, i dunno. Just nowhere near as good.

it was a copy.. thats all it was... and everyone knows.. a copy is not as good as the original...

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What do you get when you cross an owl, with a bungee cord? My Ass.

Sadly the ring was shit, and sadly I didn't understand much of it.

If u cant understand the movie thats ur fault not the makers . I think most of u r just hating cause its a remake , once u get passed that its a good movie IMO...

Peace

but if its a remake, at least make it different.. so it actually has a POINT to being remade.

how many remakes of old films are any good, or indeed better (surely the point?) anyway?

The Ring - jury says no.
Psycho - the jury has commited suicide.
Oceans Eleven - the jury is in the toilet.

most remakes are pointless, this proves to be another one. i think its more of a case of "x million people are too stupid to watch a subtitled film, lets cash in on their ignorance by makin a movie that'll be very cheap as it uses b-list actors and screenplay is prewritten and guaranteed good".

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The Magnificent Seven, a remake oif Seven Samurai.. is spossed to be good.

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What do you get when you cross an owl, with a bungee cord? My Ass.

moved.

I havent seen the Japanese version, but I thought 'The Ring' was the one of the most ridicioulas movies ive ever seen. I didnt think it was scary, and at times me and my friends thought it was very lame at times. I watched it all, and thought the plot was excellent, but they really didnt do anything with it.

i liked the ring a lot
but i never saw/knew anything about the originals when i watched it.