Movie Review: The Ring

I work with kids, and it's amazing how, in the press, all I hear are organizations screaming about violence and sex in the movies. And they're probably right, I agree. But what's truly amazing? How many of the kids I see get to see these kinds of movies with full knowledge of their parents.

It's like the time I worked in a flicka and we had the movie Fantasia. Boring stuff, excellent art. Mickey's in it for five minutes too. There have been textbooks written about this movie, I'm sure UCLA offered a course on it as well.

And the parents came streaming in to drop off kids at this "Disney" movie. None of them thought it through; nor did they care.

The Ring, when it came out, was the topic of my kids I worked with--well under the age of 17. They were scared, it was that good, they told me. And their parents dropped them off, sometimes even buying the tickets.

Whatever.

The point is, this is NOT a movie for kids. And then next time a kid tells me they saw this kind of movie, I'm calling the police for abuse charges. It's the only answer.

And no, I don't mind violence and sex in movies. That's my choice to see the movie, I'm the adult. There's warnings for reasons, people. The director, writer and production team makes decisions on a movie on what would best carry a scene or a story. Sometimes that does involve things we don't wish to acknowledge.

Which brings us to the Ring. Obiviously a horror movie--and one the kids do not need to be seeing.

This is an excellent production. I really got into the design of the film. All of the colors are shades of black, gray or white. Even the blood is painted dark, as if nothing is what it seems. Much attention was paid to detail. David Finchner would be proud. He's a filmmaker that I've noticed who has the same style. If you've seen Se7en or Alien 2 or the Game, you'll noticed many of the same details.

They even used real actors. Naomi Watts? She's acting, so rare in horror flicks. And they even scored, IMHO, our generation's Vincent PRice, Brian Cox. Have you seen this guy? He could be cutting up your dog and you'd watch him with zeal. Every time I've seen him, from XMen2 to L.I.E. I had to hear what he was saying. The dude's got presence.

Such a high value production, however, why didn't they pay, I don't know, just a teensy bit more attention to the script? Probably because the Japanese version of the film did so well, they had to hurry--gotta make money ya know? But really, around the time of the
Scream titles and Silence of the Lambs I noticed something wonderful happening with a few horror flicks. They added in a storyline that was chock full of mystery. The characters onscreen had no idea what was going on, and instead of running away, they investigated--and brought us with them. That's great spooky stuff. Why don't they know to do it more often? Audiences don't need a huge body count to get the usual creepiness going.

So this is surely a good movie and an excellent horror flick. I'd give it 3.5. You have to see it yourself and decide, unless you like horror--then it's a five stars.