Playback

I don't usually do this, but some of you might stumble upon a review by IMDb username tlsmith-569-716188 as the visible review on this film's page. Aside from mistaking Christian Slater for Christian Bale, it's obviously biased and written by either someone who took part in the making of this film, or someone to related to such a person. Do your part and click "no". We deserve more integrity.

Having said that, let's get back to "Playback". I must say that while I did enjoy watching it, I couldn't help but finding the screenplay and story lacking. The idea is nice while not all that original (The Ring has already given us "evil from a videotape" and this was simply too similar), but the twist was too obvious and predictable. A good plot twist is one where the balance between the hints given and the element of surprise upon the discovery is kept. In this case - the hints were too thick, and the surprise was gone. That might be because I'm a Horror freak and have watched many Horror and Thriller films, but I can't help but expect more.

The second thing, which was really sad for me, was Christian Slater's roll. Oh my, how the great ones have fallen and been humbled to a shady background role of a semi-pedophile creep. I'd hate to think that after his illustrious career Slater has been degraded to his role here. Depressing.

However, while not being the best film ever, Playback is far from being bad. The effects and cinematography were very impressive, the original indie-rock soundtrack was great and is in my opinion good enough to purchase if available, and the way some of the scenes shot by the kids in the movie end up realized by the killer was very nice. But the best thing about this film is for sure Toby Hemingway's acting (and a great job by the make-up department). Hemingway was superb, and I look forward to seeing him in other films!

All in all, like I've mentioned, Playback wasn't the best film ever, nor the worst. It had its moment, and while it could have been a lot better - it could have been a lot worse too. I personally rate it a 6, but recommend that you give it a shot.

The only thing great about this movie is probably the over rated movie poster. The movie itself was absolute crap with glitter wrapping on it. i hope to never ever come across another load of crap again. The plot was none existent, the characters where incredibly watered down to the point where you will find yourself not caring about them at any level and the scares where just loud noises like a loud truck or dog suddenly barking. This is not even a movie you consider if you where bored. Majority of the time i found myself looking away from screen and just wondering how the directors can get away with releasing movie like this. At the end of it i felt i had wasted over 1:30 minutes of my life for no reason. Do your self a favor and don't bother watching this crap.

I was not expecting much but the coming to theaters March 3rd post gave me some hope and I also thought it would be kind of like "The Ring", but this is just another DTV ball of crap. The acting was harsh and the characters were so random and extremely hard to care for. Half the time I could barely even recognize who was getting offed so the empathy scale is a 0. So many questions are left unanswered and plot points unexplained. The adding of Christian Slater's character just cheapened the entire film, when is the last time one of his movies hit the big screen? I really usually love & enjoy horror/thrillers but this one seemed really forced with very little thought in the direction area. Of course the ending is just another cheap horror cliché, with their intent for a sequel already primed I'm sure. If you have nothing to do go for it , but I warned you. This is a VERY generous 5/10

Just to be fair, movies I watch on the net I add a extra point to just to put things in the right prospective.

This is a low budget genre flick that has countless flaws but also a rather interesting story and a decent payoff. You could tell that the budget was not very high which honestly kind of drags the movies watching experience down. The acting is okayish and the effects are somewhere between good and pretty bad at times. The movie definitely borrows some material from other more famous flicks but never straight up copies anything and tries to be its own twisted little story. Overall it's decent and if the plot synopsis sounds interesting to you, you might enjoy this, however don't expect something great out of this because it is not. [4,7/10]

I'm a humongous horror fan. Hostel and Saw are amazing. So when I saw this at family video, I thought why not? I absolutely love Johnny Pacar, so I knew it had to be decent, right?

Right I was! The acting is solid, the gore is realistic, and the plot twists are believable. I read all the reviews beforehand and expected a stinker, but do NOT read most of the reviews. They're either making fun or they were expecting something else.

Yes, there are plot holes. Yes, the ending is predictable. But it's fun, it made me jump a couple times, and the gore doesn't look ridiculously fake like most B movies!

Will I watch it again? Heck yeah! Will I buy it? Possibly. Do I recommend it? Absolutely.