Review #62: One Missed Call (2008)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Eric Valette (Director)

Shannyn Sossamon (Beth): Catacombs (2007)

Edward Burns (Jack): Saving Private Ryan (1998), Sound of Thunder (2005)

Ana Talancon (Taylor): Alone with Her (2006)

Ray Wise (Ted): Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), Swamp Thing (1982)

Azura Skye (Leann): Red Dragon (2002)

Johnny Lewis (Brian): AVP2

Margaret Cho (Mickey): Face/Off (1997)

Meagan Good (Shelley): Saw 5, Venom, D.E.B.S. (2004) (Pictured to the right)

Trailer:



Plot:
College coeds receive mysterious missed phone calls on their cell phones. The caller I.D. of the missed phone calls tells them the date and time they will die. Why can't they ever relay important things like...winning Lotto numbers? It's always got to be doom and gloom.

In the mean time, the recipients of the calls see weird dead Japanese people. When the time comes....they die. At least you can say they didn't get fair warning. Oh…one other thing...they cough up a little piece of red candy. Which I thought was a marble for about thirty minutes of the film. Who could blame me?

The rest of the film has the “evil phone spirit” going through that person's cell phone book and then calls the next dude or chick in the list to kill. Something like a chain-letter-cell-phone-book-killer. That's why it's important to remember phone numbers and not store them in those little electronic devices, you'll save a life or two. So…who’s in your Fav-5?

Villain:

AT&T, T-Mobile, Cingular, Verizon and any other cell phone company...that's the true villain of the film. Is the movie industry trying to hint something to us? Throw in the unexplained "evil spirit world" which seeks revenge on college coeds to the mix and we get another technology demon. Bottom line...you probably won't get a cool free T-shirt for signing up.

Cast:

The dude from Saving Private Ryan who looks like Ben Affleck takes the male lead for this movie. He plays Jack, the detective leading the case of the Fav-5 murders. I swear Edward Burns is Ben Affleck...it's got to be an alternative name or something like that.

Shannyn Sossamon (Pictured Below) plays the lead female Beth in the film. I wasn't too impressed with her performance or character...sometimes it's not the actor/actress's fault. Beth was a cardboard cut-out of many poorly done horror movies lead females of late. She was just pleasant on the eyes, but everything else about the character sucked.

The film also has the little kid brother from AVP 2. All the chicks are basically…hot and never been in any big projects to note with the exception of Megan Good. And based their performances in this film…they shouldn’t expect the phone to be ringing off the hook either.

SFX/Gore:

Not as many deaths as there should have been. Three out of the five were dead in the first twenty minutes. Coolest death was the explosion that sent a metal rod through someone’s chest. Reminded me of kill that has/or could take place in a Final Destination movie. I guess the next "best death" is a chick throwing herself in front of a moving train.

TNA:

About five or six hot chicks, no sex acts or boobies. Blah blah blah. Here are two pictures of the movie stars...or actresses. Azura Skye and Ana Talacon. Hot, but no boobies.

T.Gun's Take:

Japan-o-rip-off strikes America part…5…6…10? Whatever. Same type of atmosphere that has been established in previous Japanese horror movies.

Someone has flashes of dead people, spooky music, gloomy settings, internet research to explain everything from the past…and a pissed off troubled spirit killing people. Through a cell phone. Right. Find the source and defeat the spirit.

I think it's time for America to move on from (or at least take a long break) the Japanese horror film formula and move on to something else…like to the return of the slasher movies! Have I mentioned B.H.A.?

One Missed Call is a movie I should have just...missed. Boredom. Nothing I haven't seen before. I was thinking that it was a mix between the Final Destination movies and the Ring.

Common sense says: "Why don’t you get rid of the cell phone or take out the battery? Or at least break it?" But noooo...it can't be that easy. The producers decided to get around that by saying...well, once you get the call, you’re pretty much screwed. Just like once you press play on the DVD player for this movie…you’re pretty much screwed.

Yet again, technology comes back to kill us. This time it's disguised as a cell phone. That's why you need to get an i-phone. That way you can receive evil death spirits, and watch the video of them and die seven days later. It's like this movie and the Ring in one! Hint for the next Japanese/American horror movie compilation.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened January 4, 2008 and $26.8 million ($12.5 million opening weekend)
-The 508 area code is from Brockton, Massachusetts and apparently what the studio exec got on his SAT's.