SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

davidklein-06399 Its premise is simple enough... some college computer nerds try to track down a hacker that nearly gets them expelled. And the adventure begins!Its a very linear plot. Easy to follow. The Brenton Thwaites (sp)? character (Nick) is the protagonist, but he tends to reach a bit too much and sort-of overacts the protagonist archetype - becoming nearly unlikable. But his stubbornness with the role actually works to his advantage when viewing the film in its entirety.For Lawrence Fishbourne, this role is old-hat. He's been playing this character since "the Matrix." Speaking of that movie... there are some parallels to be found in here. The rest of the cast are mostly mannequins - the typical GF, the best buddy, some quirky locals, etc. The settings are pretty standard, but the editing and effects are well done and the ending will surprise you.

anotherandyinla Needlessly slow. Mistakes meandering for mystery. Boring. Lacks tension. Payoff doesn't make anything that came before it worthwhile. An unfortunate waste of a a few good actors and a few good ideas.

Tss5078 By it's very nature, science fiction is going to be unusual, confusing, and sometimes just plain weird. When it's done correctly, that can be a very good thing, but when it's not done the right way, audiences are left confused and annoyed. In 2014's The Signal, three friends are on a road trip, headed back to school for another semester of higher education. To their disbelief, a hacker who had been bothering them for months is still at it and is making things personal. Nic, Haley, and Jonah have some tricks of their own and ultimately track down the hackers address. To no ones surprise, it's on their way to school and they decide to pay them a visit. What should have been a fun moment, turned into something more sinister, when a deadly scream leads to darkness, and Nic (Brenton Thwaits) winds up in a quarantined hospital with no memory of what happened that night. I enjoyed the premise of this movie and as far as story goes, the idea wasn't all that terrible, what was terrible was the way in which it was presented. This buddy road trip film ends up in a hospital, where the friends are held for way too long. The hospital scenes are just strange, unexplained, and kill the movies momentum. Towards the end there are some better scenes, hinting that the film may be building up to an epic conclusion, but it's just more of the same, as things take an even stranger turn, and an anti-climatic one at that. As for the stars of the film, Laurence Fishburn gives yet another flat robotic performance. Morpheus was the perfect character for this guy, but he never seemed to be able to leave him behind, and now plays this same role in every film. On the other side, Brenton Thwaites, somewhat known for his breakout performance in The Giver, made this film for me. He was enigmatic, on target, and just fun to watch. I said it in my review of the Giver and I'll say it agin, this kid is going places. The Signal had all the ingredients for a great science fiction film, but when the cake was done it didn't taste so good. Most of the acting was flat, the story went off in too many different directions, and it was frequently anti-climatic.

Judith McKenzie From its agonizingly slow beginning to its thunderously stupid end, dragging you through hack writing, a thin and ill-resolved plot, to its predictable and vacuous ending. Just. BAD.