£16 in premium fund, thanks Ciao :-). You can also read my reviews at http://lou-reviews.blogspot.co...
£16 in premium fund, thanks Ciao :-). You can also read my reviews at http://lou-reviews.blogspot.co m/
Member since:25.11.2008
Reviews:137
Members who trust:24
Synopsis
The film begins with a security guard running through an empty underground. He comes across a mirror and starts apologising to his reflection, but then suddenly it seems like he's not talking to himself, he's talking to the mirror. He tries to clean the mirror but accidentally breaks it, then everything changes, his reflection is no longer following him, but picking up the shard of glass. As the reflection pulls the shard across its throat, a gaping wound begins to appear on the security guard's throat.
Jump along an unspecified amount of time, and we meet Ben Carson, an ex police officer, who's just about to start his new job as a security guard/night watchman at a burnt out department store, which is awaiting insurance claims before work can start on refurbishment.
Ben is estranged from his wife, Amy, and their two children, Michael and Daisy, because he's had trouble with alcohol since having to shoot a man in the line of duty.
When Ben begins to see strange things in the mirrors at the department store he tries first to explain it to his sister Angela, and then to his wife, but neither believe him. So he must discover the secret behind the mirrors himself.
Cast
Kiefer Sutherland as Ben Carson Paula Patton as Amy Carson Cameron Boyce as Michael Carson Erica Gluck as Daisy Carson Amy Smart as Angela Carson Mary Beth Peil as Anna Esseker John Shrapnel as Lorenzo Sapelli Jason Fleming as Larry Byrne Tim Ahern as Dr. Morris
The only cast member I recognise either by name or sight is Kiefer Sutherland, the rest were newcomers to me.
My Thoughts
It was an okay film, not great, but not absolutely awful either. The storyline was a bit clichéd and typical horror movie gumph, and when I say clichéd , I mean even down to the church roof being partly destroyed and needing repairs, which was a huge eye rolling moment. And it had every well worn horror stereotype going.
There was nothing scary about the film, a couple of small jumpy moments, caused by the unsuspecting appearance of animals, but there was nothing that even warranted an 'eww, gross!', never mind an' OMG, that's freaky'. It was all a little tame and I don't think it justified the 18 rating, I doubt any 15 year old would be scared by this film.
One good thing was there wasn't a load of unnecessary swearing. There was a little at the beginning, and it seemed like the film was going to follow the trend of having the actor swear for no good reason. But apart from the bit at the beginning and the odd swear word later on, it was pretty much language free.
I'm not sure it was my imagination, but I'm sure at one point a cut on Ben's hand moved from the palm of his hand to the back!!
The one big thing that annoyed me with this film was the noisiness of the film itself, and there were flares which were highly distracting, that I'm sure could have been removed, if they couldn't have been avoided during filming.
I found the story quite slow to start, there was an awful lot of Ben and his flashlight just wandering around in the dark, I was actually very close to turning it off. After about half way the whole thing sped up and the film became more interesting. The ending was pretty obvious from early on.
The acting was reasonably good from all involved, although I think Kiefer has been cast as Jack Bauer far too long, because I kept expecting him to phone Chloe at CTU for help. The children weren't the best child actors I've seen, but they were by no means the worse, and given the small role they had they did a pretty good job.
The special effects were nothing to write home about, there were some good ones,but there were some absolutely appalling ones too.
All in all, it was a decent film, northing lost by watching it, and it filled an hour or so on an otherwise dull Friday night, but I wouldn't buy it, because it's not good enough to watch more than once.
There are no extras on the DVD, just a choice of languages and scene selections.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Out of a choice of this film and Mamma Mia! my boyfriend chose that latter...sounds like it was a lose-lose situation, as neither film is particularly wonderful. Great review x
worf22 14.08.2009 15:00
I like bits of it, I thought the ending was predictable and totally agree it is not worth buying, great review!
jinxyjo 09.08.2009 12:55
I agree with youon this one....not a great film, but I've certainly seen alot worse! Thanks for sharing :)
Aug 8th, 2009
very helpful by (100%):
