Hanging Up
Added 12/31/2009
Once in a great while I will watch a movie that completely surprises me. One that comes out of nowhere to be a bit of rousing entertainment. One that is pure fun from beginning to end. Well folks, When A Stranger Calls is NOT that movie. It is an unbelievable stupid and far fetched remake of the much better 1979 horror camp classic. Our lead heroine Jill is forced to babysit after going over her cell phone minutes and is harassed by telephone calls from a mysterious caller. Every cliché in the world is used here from the stupid cat-jumping-out-of-a-hidden-spot to the car that won't start to the killer can be anywhere at anytime. This movie is bad...not even bad in a "so bad it's good way" more in a "so bad it's boring way." Skip this godawful film and save your movie for something else. You'll thank me later, trust me on this.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
0 stars actually
Added 6/28/2009
Does not bring anything new to the table. Acting is flat and uninspired. Situations are predictable and contrived...such as...Jill is knocked to the floor by the killer, Jill grabs a bottle of booze and throws it at the fire place, killer throttles Jill as she also managers to grab the remote control for the fireplace, find the right button, presses it, and light the fireplace all the while getting the life choked out of her. There are other instances throughout the film where Jill, who didn't even know how to get to the house she was to baby sit at knew how to work instantly the phones, the security system, the fire place, the watering system...but the owners never even met her before or took time to show her how this stuff worked.
And, as for parents, why do you put your kids down for a nap right before bedtime? Wouldn't you want them tired so they would sleep through the night?
My advice...AVOID
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
When a psycho calls
Added 3/18/2009
When 16 year old Jills' boyfriend kisses her best friend she spends an excess of about 700 minutes on her mobile discussing it with him and so her parents make her get a baby-sitting job to pay the money back. And (surprise, surprise) the house she is babysitting at is a deserted mansion in the middle of (the woods?) nowhere.
At first the babysitting is a pretty enjoyable experience for Jill - the house is massive and full of fun and impressive gadgets and furniture, plus the children are already asleep in bed when she gets there so she hasnt really got any work to do either. But then the creepy phone calls begin and she cant contact any of her friends for help because they are all at this bonfire-party on the top a hill somewhere in town. At first she dissmissed the calls as a sick joke but then she discovers that the caller is watching her and he asks if she's checked the children...
This horror movie is more suspencefull than scary because nothing really happens for quit a while apart from her receiving creepy calls. In the last 20 minutes there is some horror and action as she discovers dead bodies and tries to escape the caller etc and the ennding is pretty chilling, too.
Overall this is quite a good horror movie (especially if you prefere suspence over gore) that I would reccomend if you are looking for a good horror/thriller movie.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Unplug the d##n phone already
Added 2/15/2009
This is without a doubt the first movie i have ever watched in my life that actually irritated me. From the beginning of the movie all the way to the end, it was the phone constantly ringing. I didn't count how many times the phone rang at the house where ( Jill ) was babysitting or how many phone calls she made, but it was in the dozens ! By the time the phone call came from the police to tell Jill that the creep was in the house, i was ready to turn the movie off and throw away the dvd.
This movie has so many flaws in it, they are beyond counting, just like the number of phone calls. The loud screeching music, the black cat jumping into a scene and the birds loudly fluttering about were just a few of the also irritating and over used bits to try to muster up a scare. I even found myself getting sick of hearing Jill's panting as she ran all over trying to get away from El-Creepo.
I only paid one penny for this dvd and the shipping was $2.98. I thought i made a good purchase, but after having to sit through this poorly made movie and the bad acting and all it's flaws, i regret the purchase. Bottom line : if you see the previews to this movie, you've seen the best of it and all you need to see. Save your money and don't rent or buy it.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
God forbid she takes the phone off the hook.
Added 12/17/2008
WHEN A STRANGER CALLS is about a guy who likes to make obscene phone calls to teenage girls and then eventually break into their house and kill them. His victim in particular for this movie is Jill (Camilla Belle), a high school girl who is babysitting at a home out in the middle of nowhere. She's been grounded for a month (no cell phone and no car) which sets up the fact that she's REALLY stuck at this isolated house when all heck breaks loose toward the end. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much out of this movie and only saw it because I found out Camilla Belle was in it. Other than that, it probably would have been added to the list of the other lame PG-13 Horror movies that I would have entirely skipped altogether (PULSE, ONE MISSED CALL, PROM NIGHT, etc.).
So with that being said, I think my low expectations were met in full. WHEN A STRANGER CALLS was about an hour of Jill overreacting to nothing and about a half an hour of her getting chased around. Nothing special. There's no real explanation as to WHY the "Stranger" in the film did what he did or what the motive for his past cases was. And on a personal level nothing in the movie struck me as being scary and I think that the fact that I'm not a high school girl could have played a part in that, because I'm pretty sure any adult will watch this film and automatically pick apart its flaws and come up with solutions to many of Jill's problems. And even when you look at this film from the perspective on someone suspending their disbelief and just accepting it for what it is... it's still not very entertaining. WHEN A STRANGER CALLS is not necessarily a remake, per se, but more of a different version of an older film called WHEN A STRANGER CALLS BACK. In the original film, it used a lot of different things to create suspense and terror, such as plot twists, weird characters, atmosphere, etc. and most importantly it let you KNOW who the antagonist was and what kind of person he was, where as this film doesn't do that. You don't know anything about him other than the fact that he killed a girl in the beginning of the film.
Overall, I didn't like this movie at all. I would watch it again if it was on TV and nothing else was on. It's not entertaining, but it's not COMPLETELY unbearable. The film quality is great, the photography is really nice, and the cast is pretty. It's also not necessarily a Horror film, it's more of a Drama with elements of Horror (a damsel in distress, a psychopathic killer). Ultimately, I think my handicap with this film is that I don't fall into the whole PG-13 demographic. This is a movie for teenagers and that's all there is to it. So if you're a teen, you may like this or if you're smart enough you may see past it's stupidity. If you're an adult looking for something creepy, you should just skip this one and not think twice about it.
2 stars
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Hanging Up
Added 12/31/2009
Once in a great while I will watch a movie that completely surprises me. One that comes out of nowhere to be a bit of rousing entertainment. One that is pure fun from beginning to end. Well folks, When A Stranger Calls is NOT that movie. It is an unbelievable stupid and far fetched remake of the much better 1979 horror camp classic. Our lead heroine Jill is forced to babysit after going over her cell phone minutes and is harassed by telephone calls from a mysterious caller. Every cliché in the world is used here from the stupid cat-jumping-out-of-a-hidden-spot to the car that won't start to the killer can be anywhere at anytime. This movie is bad...not even bad in a "so bad it's good way" more in a "so bad it's boring way." Skip this godawful film and save your movie for something else. You'll thank me later, trust me on this.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
0 stars actually
Added 6/28/2009
Does not bring anything new to the table. Acting is flat and uninspired. Situations are predictable and contrived...such as...Jill is knocked to the floor by the killer, Jill grabs a bottle of booze and throws it at the fire place, killer throttles Jill as she also managers to grab the remote control for the fireplace, find the right button, presses it, and light the fireplace all the while getting the life choked out of her. There are other instances throughout the film where Jill, who didn't even know how to get to the house she was to baby sit at knew how to work instantly the phones, the security system, the fire place, the watering system...but the owners never even met her before or took time to show her how this stuff worked.
And, as for parents, why do you put your kids down for a nap right before bedtime? Wouldn't you want them tired so they would sleep through the night?
My advice...AVOID
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
When a psycho calls
Added 3/18/2009
When 16 year old Jills' boyfriend kisses her best friend she spends an excess of about 700 minutes on her mobile discussing it with him and so her parents make her get a baby-sitting job to pay the money back. And (surprise, surprise) the house she is babysitting at is a deserted mansion in the middle of (the woods?) nowhere.
At first the babysitting is a pretty enjoyable experience for Jill - the house is massive and full of fun and impressive gadgets and furniture, plus the children are already asleep in bed when she gets there so she hasnt really got any work to do either. But then the creepy phone calls begin and she cant contact any of her friends for help because they are all at this bonfire-party on the top a hill somewhere in town. At first she dissmissed the calls as a sick joke but then she discovers that the caller is watching her and he asks if she's checked the children...
This horror movie is more suspencefull than scary because nothing really happens for quit a while apart from her receiving creepy calls. In the last 20 minutes there is some horror and action as she discovers dead bodies and tries to escape the caller etc and the ennding is pretty chilling, too.
Overall this is quite a good horror movie (especially if you prefere suspence over gore) that I would reccomend if you are looking for a good horror/thriller movie.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
