Stoutor
It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Kirandeep Yoder
The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.
Marva
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
fedor8
When I saw Marina Sirtis in the opening scenes I thought that she looked familiar, but couldn't pinpoint where I saw her. But then I checked her bio and realized she was in one of those really awful "Star Trek" spin-offs. Naturally, she gets cast in a cheesy horror/drama/comedy(?). The movie was so forgettable that I kept focusing on Marina's lips, simply because they look exactly like Meg Ryan's, post-lip-enlargement. And Lauren Birkell looks a lot like Thora Birch.Anyway...The movie promises at the very outset that it will do its best to rip off "The Sixth Sense" and it doesn't disappoint in that regard. However, while TSS remains somber throughout, something strange happens in this low-budget little movie: half-way through the film, the characters get quite smart-ass-like, things get decidedly tongue-in-cheek, so for a moment there I thought this might become a sitcom. However, dormant comedic passions of the writer and actors settle down, and the movie ends dramatically, without comedy.The problem with this movie is that after the quick, effective introduction, things move at a slow pace. Plus, there are several scenes that do very little for the plot or characters but just serve as fillers. There are also lines in the dialogue that sound awkward. The best example would be the black psychic saying "How dare you?!" to the shrink; I thought that was worthy of a MST3K stinger! More problems come in the form of bad acting, and I'm referring to the Asian kid and his father. And guess whom they cast in this "serious" movie to play the long-lost Daddy? That IDIOT from that 90s MTV dating show with Jenny McCarthy! What were they thinking? Btw, that "hot-shot" is the son of a bowling "legend". I know, I know: yet more nepotism in movies. And yes, I KNOW: "bowling" and "legend" can't possible go together, it's an oxymoron.For a movie that is about ghosts, lost souls, and haunted houses where things go "bump", there sure is a severe lack of atmosphere. When a cup of coffee is spilled on the ground it's just boring. The movie just looks and feels flat. As flat as Keira Knightley's pitiful pair...
sol
**SPOILERS** Even though the advertising for the movie "Spectres" makes it look like a ghost story it's a lot deeper and philosophical then you would have first expected it to be. The film is about two persons who become connected through death and how it in the end fulfills both of their wants and dreams that they couldn't have while they were still alive. Kelly Webber, Lauren Birkell, is very depressed over the loss of her dad at an early age and the loss of her mom Laura, Marina Sirtis, who never has time for her due to her job as a CPA at a large accountant firm in the city.As we see Kelly watering her front lawn at the beginning of the movie Linda, Renee Hansen, pull up with her van asking Kelly for directions to the local mall. Linda, together with her young son C.J ,Alexander Agate, seems to be a bit concerned with Kelly as if she could read her mind. Later that evening Linda get's killed in a car accident, her son C.J survived, and Kelly attempts to kill herself only to be brought back to life at the hospital.After recovering from her suicide attempt Mrs. Webber takes her teenage daughter Kelly to their summer home in the country to spend more time with her but just then things start to happen to both of them that are beyond the world of the living. At first thinking that Kelly is suffering from the aftermath of her suicide attempt Laura sends her to a psychiatrist Dr. Halsey, Dean Haglund. Dr. Halsey after examining her and seeing for himself what's happening to Kelly, and her mom back home, feels that whatever Kelly is suffering from is out of the realm of science and reality and goes to his friend Will Franklin, Tucker Smallwood, a psychic for help. It turns out that something strange and paranormal happened when both Kelly and Linda died,Kelly was resuscitated back to life,and it's that incident in death that somehow connected the two in life. "Spectres" is a lot like the famous James Stewart film "It's a Wonderful Life" in that it shows how precious one's life really is and, no matter how bad things are, throwing it away would not make things any better but make them much worse when one realizes what a mistake he, or she, made by doing that. You start to see, like Kelly does, what a waste it is when you give up the most precious gift that God gave you. At the same time you see through Linda, how after losing her life, how she took advantage of Kelly's mistake to make life better for her orphaned young son, C.J. Linda did this by getting Kelly to, sub-consciously, track down C.J and find his dad Sam Philips, Chris Hardwick; so that C.J can have someone to look after and care for him as he grows up into adulthood. The ending of the movie "Spectres" turns out to be a happy one for both Kelly and the deceased Linda with Linda's son C.J reunited with the father that he never knew. Kelly and her mom end up finally being together and spending more time with each other like they should have before the loneliness and void of being alone and unloved drove Kelly to kill herself at the beginning of the movie.
The-Kurgan
With the name and the description, it's easy to mistake this as being another edge-of-your-seat, thrill-ride horror movie. It's anything but. Apart from having a supernatural aspect to it, it's pretty much an after-school special sort of film. Its PG-13 rating isn't even needed. The suicide element is so brief and tame, that this could still easily be rated G (remember, G doesn't have to mean kids, it just means General Audiences). The interesting thing is that, when the credits finally rolled, I was satisfied with what I'd seen. Imagine that, a movie that doesn't go for the kill and just wants to entertain you with a decent story for an hour or two. The script is...OK, the dialogue is... acceptable, the acting is good, for the most part (this movie is rife with underrated actors that are much more talented than they've ever been given credit for). What I find interesting is that everyone comes across as real people. Not "good actors," just your regular, flawed bozos found on every street corner. When Julia Roberts or Tom Cruise are on a screen, you get drawn-in, but it's always "them." Marina Sirtis, on the other hand, makes you believe you're watching a typical house-mom type, not an actress, who's both kind and overbearing under different circumstances --just as a real person might be. There's a scene towards the end that'll have you wanting to give her a medal for realistically portraying someone in emotional agony, and not simply "oh, the script says I'm supposed to scream here." So, overall it's not a blockbuster, and it's not something you'll want to rush out and tell your friends about. Heck, some of the metaphysical/religious concepts used are so... well, let's just say I don't subscribe to them and politely leave it there, suffice to say they're a bit corny and detracting, in an amalgamated "I've read a lot of spiritual books, but don't really know a thing about it" sort of way. But, I gave this one an "8" score for one very good reason: It accomplished what it set out to do, and it did leave me happy that I'd watched it. With Hollywood pumping out multi-million dollar blockbusters with tons of FX and no story on a regular basis, how often can we really say that about a film these days?
ainfante
Just came from the North American premiere, that happened at Cinequest in San Jose.Marina Sirtis, as well as Tucker Smallwood, Linda Park, the director (Phil Leirness) and script writer (Bud Robertson) were there, and we had a nice Q&A session with them at the end.The movie was very good - I'd say excellent if it weren't for one thing:The actors and director basically took the script in a completely different direction than the writer wanted initially. Which is a good thing, for the most part. However the end result is that the film cannot really define itself as a thriller/ghost story (like it originally was supposed to be) nor a like anything, really. It has ingredients of thriller, but it is mostly about a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship with some details of paranormal but without taking itself too seriously.What makes it a very good movie is basically two things: wonderful performances by an ensemble cast that was hand picked (and will definitely attract lots of sci-fi fans, with well-known Trek alumni plus Alexis Cruz from Stargate/Stargate SG-1) and the fact that the underlying plot of the mother daughter relationship IS very interesting and very well played out.The ghost story basically comes out as a plot device. This no Six Sense, no X-Files. :-) The actors and the director didn't take the ghost story seriously and that shows. :-) But that's OK - honestly, it makes the movie more interesting and fun to see.Anyway, they said they've found an international distributor and a national one may be in the works - as soon as they figure out how to categorize this movie. If they do find a way - go see it. Even if you're not a fan of any of the actors, their work really deserves your 90 minutes (and $9).
