jpowell2

I adored this movie. I've always liked stories about people trapped in cars in the dead of night, (and if you do too, also check out the new release "Wind Chill") but this one is especially creepy. Ray Wise and Lin Shaye are very good actors and they had some moments that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. There's a lot of creepiness in general with the woman in white, the black hearse and just the desolate shots of traveling the same stretches of road over and over and over. I've seen this film three times now because I watched it with both of my daughters also, and it still got to me. They both enjoyed it too, and they're tough critics. Check it out. It's a fun little spine tingler with some very cool moments, yet manages to keep the gore under control.

After getting creeped out by "Dead End", I thought another film about ghosts on the highway might be entertaining. Wrong! There were a few eerie moments here and there, but the acting is so atrocious that you can't ever get engrossed in the story. Particularly bad is the girl portraying "Yumi" who must have been told that speaking in a sing-song baby voice is the key to brilliant characterization. There also seems to be many shots of the guy traveling the same stretch of highway over and over again, even though he's supposed to be going from point A to point B. I saw the same trees and rocks many times, and the trees all seem to be white birches for some inexplicable reason. Not worth the price of the rental. See "Dead End" for a good scare.

I know I'm probably in the minority here, but this movie was a lot of hype over nothing. It's slow, it's tedious, the characters are unsympathetic, and the plot is too predictable. I didn't care whether Joel and Clementine ever got together again or not, I just wanted out of that theatre. My husband felt exactly the same way. Sure Jim Carrey plays a much more serious role here. The problem is, everything is so low key, it's an exercise in sheer boredom. The movie also seems to go out of its way to make every character slightly off and every situation rather odd. Give me a straightforward plot without the artsy crap any day. Don't waste your ten bucks on this movie. Wait for the video, and then don't rent that either.