Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Updates:

One Missed Call (2008)

Director: Eric Valette

Average user rating

24 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out New York

Ringu…ringu… Sounds like my Japanese cell is going nuts again. Technohorror had its moment right around the Y2K panic. Now all those cool-blue ghosts seem about as silly as hoarding duct tape. So it’s hard to know what’s scarier—the fact that Asia keeps producing these movies, or that Hollywood keeps on remaking them.

Based on a rushed 2003 thriller by increasingly minor auteur Takashi Miike (Audition), One Missed Call begins with a montage of Americans deep in cellular communion, gesticulating, yammering, no doubt offending others. A billboard reads "Your phone. Your life." Alas, that’s about as trenchant as this remake gets. Until a film comes along that shows these people as the zombies they are (Stephen King’s forthcoming Cell is promising), we’ll have to make do with the premise that unfolds: killer voice mail. Beth (Sossamon) and her fashionably mussed entourage start receiving garbled messages from themselves, each of which ends with a scream. Can they stave off the inevitable? Or at least get more free minutes?

William Castle would have found a way to make all the cell phones in the theater vibrate with each kill. Despite some enjoyably loony overacting, the onscreen executions are dull, with some rather surprising lapses in photographic consistency. (One chase appears shot by two competing cameramen.) As the culprit shifts from the supernatural realm to that of evil caretakers, evil kids and—brace yourself—an evil teddy bear, the urge to leave the screening to take a call becomes irresistible.

Author: Joshua Rothkopf 2008-01-08 18:38:51

Time Out New York Issue 641: January 10–16

Bookmark

User reviews of this film

Dani said...

Posted on May 22 2008 00:35 This is something a bit different, didn't really understand the ending someone please explain

Report as inappropriate
josh said...

Posted on Apr 27 2008 20:26 no just no god awful

Report as inappropriate
SOPHii3 said...

Posted on Apr 20 2008 12:47 GOOD FILM ..BUT THEN AGAiiN ii SEEN iiT iiN JAPANESE WHEN ii WAS AT MY NANA'S ON HOLiiDAY ALSO SEEN THE SECOND ONE REALY GOOD ..BETTER THAN THE FIRST ONE AND DONT BE SCARED TO WATCH iiT COS ii SEEN iiT WEN ii WAS 12 AND THATS BOTH OF THEM X

Report as inappropriate
Lozzy said...

Posted on Apr 18 2008 16:09 thought this film was gonna be pretty scary, how wrong was i?! if u like cheap thrills then defo go watch it. all it does is make u jump out ur seat a few times, the actual story wasnt scary at all!!

Report as inappropriate
Kirsty, Sheffield said...

Posted on Apr 16 2008 17:55 Oh my god how scary. Enjoyed this film but not my kind of thing to watch again. Worth watching!

Report as inappropriate
zdgfhgzd said...

Posted on Apr 15 2008 13:17 tht movie was so borin i practically fell asleep if it wasnt for the sugar high i was under wen i watched it!! the most interrestin thing bout tht movie was the chik in the 3rd row. got her no. cin her 2moro!!! wohoo

Report as inappropriate
usman khawaja said...

Posted on Apr 14 2008 14:24 its a satire on the mobile culture ?OR IS IT
for a moment i thought i was watching a satire on our mobile culture with everyone abusing everyone else and stampedeing over public civilities and pricacy nuances in metros and theatres ,the symphonic to horrid ringtones that you hear in the social context of having to pay for the price of going out for a meal in the public domain is phenomenal,and someone with more sense needs to address that issue -but not here,
this was really awfully acted ,though technically brilliant -hence 3 stars ,
the director knew the medium well and used sound and light to create a claustrophibic presence ,but the script was as predictable as any american horror genre ,
the child abuse angle came as a surprise but was then wasted in a terribly cliched finale,
someone out there can think of a better plot then this for sure ,the sound and editing and light looked really eerie and were wasted ,but still it is better than a lot of present hokum.
the plot borrows from poltergeist, here the dead can communicate via mobile phones compared to the television horror by tab hooper,
the mayhem is just as awful though but the satire got lost somewhere ,and the message too -while poltergeist still can dazzle you by technique and content -here it is void of anything except a haunting by an evil child who died because she could not use her seretide inhaler while having an iexplicable acute asthma attack,
the anticipated vulgarity of the ending gets you ready for heralding an imminent sequel .god forbid the makers and bless the souls of the dead cast and us -the audience.
this is really a wasted oppurtunity with a child haunting where the possible scope to extend the horror genre with mobile phones was enormous but you needa creative writer with some origonal ideology too,
which unfortunately is horribly missing in the horror of today
can someone watch orfanato and take some clues for the next hooror flick from hollywood

Report as inappropriate
mel said...

Posted on Apr 14 2008 13:15 what a load of rubbish!!! very poor. its sooooo crap, its actually funny!

Report as inappropriate
Phil said...

Posted on Apr 12 2008 10:42 Dog excrement.

Report as inappropriate
the W said...

Posted on Apr 12 2008 08:26 Good film i watched last night and kept on thinking about it.
so its doing something right (rubbish review though, tell us more about the film and less of your wit!)

Report as inappropriate
karlos said...

Posted on Apr 11 2008 10:55 apparantly its sheises.......not scary at alll....i guess its an opinion.....

Report as inappropriate
brunette said...

Posted on Apr 10 2008 22:48 i haven't watched it yet seeing it on wednesday but aparently it's mucked with people's minds a bit already! &+ My mate got kicked out for screaming!

Report as inappropriate
peter file said...

Posted on Apr 09 2008 18:03 oh my god i loved it!!!! yeah baby!! :d:d;d

Report as inappropriate
Shaf said...

Posted on Apr 08 2008 17:18 Rubbish film, saw the first on telly a couple of months ago the only thing enjoyable was the popcorn

Report as inappropriate
..Just Me... said...

Posted on Apr 08 2008 08:41 i havent watched the film yet but iis it true you get 1 missed call when you come out the cinema ...

Report as inappropriate