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'THE ROOMMATE': Two Stars (Out of Five)

New variation on 'SINGLE WHITE FEMALE', this one revolving around two college freshmen living on campus together at ULA. It stars 'GOSSIP GIRL's Leighton Meester as the psycho student and Minka Kelly as the good girl. The film is directed by Christian E. Christiansen and written by first time writer Sonny Mallhi. It's mildly amusing at times but for the most part it's routine and devoid of thrills or any real action.

Kelly plays Sara Matthews and Meester plays Rebecca Evans. When the two first meet in the dorm room they've both been given they immediately hit it off. What Sara doesn't realize is that she's made too much of an impression on Rebecca and she quickly becomes obsessed with her. Sara is also troubled by an ex-boyfriend (Matt Lanter) who keeps calling but has met a new love interest in drummer Stephen Morterelli (Cam Gigandet). This doesn't sit well with Rebecca who wants Sara all to herself. Her obsession turns to creepy and dangerous really fast.

The film is very light on thrills and violence (for a thriller). The first two thirds of the film actually play out more like a depressing character study drama leaving the viewer feeling more sorry for Rebecca than afraid of her but then of course the end turns to routine third act 'B' movie trash and we finally get some action. Meester is somewhat good as the troubled student and Kelly looks beautiful but for the most part the movie has no real acting to speak of. The dialogue is weak and scares and thrills, like I said, are nearly nonexistent. The movie fails on almost every count but it's still mildly amusing. I give it some credit for not putting me to sleep but it's mostly a waste.

Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sd0S1srQ9T8

I gave this movie a 4/10 score. The Story centers around Sara (Minka Kelly), a college student from Des Moines, who starts her freshman year at UCLA. She meets her roommate Rebecca (Leighton Meester), only to find out that she's not as nice as she seems...

That's about it. There is almost nothing more to add to the story. There are several "subplots" involving Sara's old and new friends, however these are about as uneven, unnecessary and uninspired as the rest of the movie. I felt pretty much nothing throughout the entire 90 minutes. It's not scary or suspenseful or moving at all. The dialog is about as dull as it gets, especially the cheesy lines between Sara and her new boyfriend Stephen (Cam Gigandet).

I never felt any kind of sympathy for any of the characters, so it pretty much did not matter to me, who lived and who died, which results in a 90 minute waste of time. The "fighting" scenes especially towards the end are beyond ridiculous and the "suspense" is created by a close-up shot of the character looking suspicious in a room without proper lighting.

The reasons why I still decided to give this one 4 out of 10 are that it's relatively easy to watch and does not demand a lot of attention, so I guess it might work for some people as a decent way to kill time if you lower your standard. Leighton Meester also has her moments, especially during her mood swings. It's a forgettable film, which does pretty much nothing to entertain you, but at least it's not too long and the (poor) story moves forward. It certainly doesn't hurt that the girls are easy on the eyes. I don't recommend watching this if you have any standards regarding suspenseful entertainment at all.

Sara Matthews (Minka Kelly) is starting her freshman year of college at ULA. Upon arrival, she meets Tracy Morgan (Alyson Michalka), an avid party-goer, and Stephen Morterelli (Cam Gigandet), a drummer who plays in a band for a fraternity who later begins to date Sara. After a party at Stephen's fraternity house that lands Tracy drunk, Sara arrives back at her dorm late at night and meets Rebecca Evans (Leighton Meester), her new roommate, whose parents live only 20 minutes away and who is great at drawing portraits of people. Initially, the girls begin to bond very well as Rebecca learns more about Sara's life. Sara had an older sister, Emily, who died when Sara was nine. She keeps a necklace that belonged to Emily as well as her sister's name tattooed on her chest.

She also has an ex-boyfriend, Jason (Matt Lanter), who keeps calling her to try to get back together with her.The history behind their breakup is that Jason and Sara agreed to both go to Brown University or not, and when only Sara got a spot, she declined it and chose ULA. However, when Jason got accepted to Brown at the last minute, he accepted to go without Sara, reneging on their agreement. Against dorm regulations, the two girls secretly adopt a stray kitten which Sara found. As time goes on, though, Rebecca begins to become more obsessed with spending time with Sara and wants to have her all to herself. She is willing to keep at bay anyone who wronged Sara or who she thinks is stealing Sara away from her....

The Roommate is your run of the mill thriller. There is absolutely nothing new or original here. The film slowly builds up to reveal that a certain character is the "bad guy", well, it builds up to reveal how bananas the character truly is because, you know from the beginning where each character stands, and then comes the action which is predictable and not very exciting. The acting wasn't bad although I wish Minka Kelly had a little more personality.She's great too look at but she's also somewhat boring. Leighton Meester did a fine job. All in all it's a decent little film, but I wouldn't waste my time on it.

6/10

Movies like this get a bad rap because you know exactly whats going to happen.

But this was shot in a film-noir style and didn't resort to being a slasher-esque movie, unknown foreign director christensen builds the suspense up well, there's nothing long winded here and the 90 minute running time is perfectly paced.

No harm that all the characters are easy on the eye, and while no-one stood out, there wasn't any cringeworthy or cheesy performances.

Its unfair to compare this to other "obsession" movies, I feel this film stands out on its own and is a solid thriler much better than the 4.5 rating on here

How bad was your college roommate? After Sara (Kelly) meets her new college roommate Rebecca (Meester) she thinks she has found a new friend. When Sara starts to do things without Rebecca strange things begin to happen. Let me first start by saying that this is not a bad movie, but it is definitely geared toward a specific age group, and it's not mine. For the 19-20 year olds this will be very creepy. For the older crowd this is a definite remake of "Single White Female", but in my opinion not as good. For those who have not seen that movie this will be very creepy. For those that have seen that movie you will notice the very similar scenes and ideas. Again this is actually not a bad movie, but if I was 10 years younger and a girl this would really scare me. If you are older like me and want to be creeped out by a movie like this one, I'd stick with the original "Single White Female". I will say the Leighton Meester, in a departure from her usual roles, did a really great job of playing a creepy stalker. I just could not really get in to this movie. I give it a B-.

Would I watch again? - I don't think I would, but it made me want to watch "Single White Female" again.

*Also Try - Kalamity & Single White Female