Review of Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005) by Diana S — 05 Oct 2005

Guess Who = more serious than I thought it was going to be. Pitched in the previews as a purely comedic version of the classic Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, this Ashton Kutcher (?The Butterfly Effect?) vehicle actually examined some of the conflicts of interracial dating. Most of the funny scenes were in the preview, but I found myself chuckling and Kutcher did have a good rapport with Bernie Mac (?Ocean's Twelve?). However, it still lacks the relevance of its much nobler predecessor.

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary = bloody awful. The third in the Urban Legend slasher series went straight-to-video, and for good reason. Though it starts out moody and creepy, it ends in laughable special effects and terrible plot. This one is hinged around the bloody Mary legend, but when the girls say her name three times, they unleash the ghost of a girl who was murdered decades earlier. The thing that upsets me the most about the Urban Legend series is that some urban legends are scary and why couldn't they make a frightening film out of this material?

Flight Plan = tense. I do enjoy Jodi Foster (?Panic Room?), so that should be taken into consideration when reading this review. She carries the movie as a woman who is taking her husband's body home from burial. Her young daughter accompanies her on the flight. But when Foster wakes up mid-journey and the girl is missing, no one on the plane even remembers the daughter being on board. The rest of the movie follows Foster's frantic search of the plane and many close-ups of her face as she runs the emotional gamut and freaks out all the other passengers. I found the tension to be palpable and the directing tight to keep a movie taking place in this one location interesting. One of my new favorite actors, Peter Sarsgaard (?The Skeleton Key?), costars as an air marshal, and Sean Bean (?The Island?) actually plays a good guy in the captain concerned for his crew.

Brothers Grimm = a bit of a disappointment. It just moved a little slow for my tastes, even though I love the fantastical genre. Matt Damon (?Ocean's Twelve?) and Heath Ledger (?Lords of Dogtown?) star as the real life fable writers, who at this point in their careers, are making a living swindling ignorant townspeople by battling imaginary monsters. But when they are forced to deal with actual mystical creatures, they find themselves terrified and out of their depths. Despite the slow pacing, I found director Terry Gilliam's ( world amazing. The enchanted forest was beautiful and at times grotesque. I do wish the film had done better at the box office, so we could be treated to more films of this genre.

P.s = moving. This review will include much gushing over Laura Linney (?The Exorcism of Emily Rose?). She really is an amazing actress. The first time I saw her, I didn't think so. I found her cold and off-putting, but as I think back, that must have been the character. The more I watch her, the more I am stunned by her adaptability. I believe her in every role. In p.s, she stars as a recently divorced admissions officer at an art college. She receives an application from someone with a similar name as that of her deceased high school sweetheart. Then when he turns up for an interview, the similarities continue and she is left reeling over the possibilities and implications as she starts an affair with this young man. This film runs through many emotions, from the often uncomfortable encounters between Linney and her young lover, Topher Grace (?In Good Company?), to extreme painful confrontations over the past. But the film has stuck with me over this past week. And the acting is extraordinary. Grace exhibits a depth not before seen. And seeing Linney share scenes with another great actress, Marcia Gay Harden (?Bad News Bears?), was delightful.