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Overall Rating : 3.5/10
Directed By : Mennan Yapo
Sandra Bullock (The Lake House)
Julian McMahon (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer)
Shyann McClure
Courtney Taylor Burness (Thank You For Smoking)
Supplied By : Sony Pictures
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : June. 26, 2007
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| PLOT Linda Hanson has a beautiful house, a loving husband and two adorable daughters. Her life is perfect, until the day she gets the devastating news that her husband Jim has died in a car accident. When she wakes up the next morning to find him alive and well, she assumes it as all a dream. Or was it? Suddenly, her perfect life is turned upside down as she begins a desperate scramble to save her family and uncover the truth. Racing against time and fate, Linda will stop at nothing to discover the true meanings of reality and destiny. |
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| THE REVIEW In PREMONITION, Linda Hanson one day receives some very bad news. The news is that her husband has been killed in a fatal car crash. Devastated by the news, Linda can't imagine life without her husband, so imagine her shock the next day when she finds him alive and well? From then on as days go by Jim is alive....and then dead again. The up and down roller coaster, that is PREMONITION, ends in Linda's race to save her husband from his foreseen death, after the events from the hectic days she has been experiencing, have provided her with visions and information of the crash, that in reality, has yet to happen. Like I have seen other reviewers mention, and I agree, is that when Sandra Bullock stars in a film, you basically know what to expect - a chick flick, and it's likely no matter the plot or genre it would involve a love story in some shape or form. Because yes, Bullock has starred in such kinds of these thrillers, but even MURDER BY NUMBERS had a love element to rely on. With this said, PREMONITION is a love story about a woman whom is trying to keep her family together, wrapped up in a suspense thriller,mystery, horror, and even faith driven plot - it tries to be all things above. I'll admit, at the beginning I was pretty interested in what was going on, but suddenly, a once interesting plot, becomes, a purposeless repetitive mess. We watch as Linda goes through various days, over and over again, one day we find her Husband Jim alive, the next day he's dead, and etc. etc,....you get it by now. Throughout the film's run time, I didn't at all get the since that Linda was having premonitions about anything, in fact many of the actions that occurred within the character of Linda's chaotic week, just don't match up, in fact, i'm still not sure how a number of these scenes relate to the film's less than pleasing, not to mention stupidly plotted ending. Like with many film's by the time the film's ending rolls around, and it happens, you get the utterly disappointing feeling of being robbed of precious minutes of your life. PREMONITION, is such a film, as I felt that very way. To tell the truth, most of the film is somewhat smart at times, i'll give it that, but to end the film the way the filmmakers did, in such a simplistic, unclever way is the real disappointment. After seeing the ending, the only thoughts in my head at the time, were "If you were going to end this in the most uncreative way, in which you did, why waste the rest of the time developing a build-up, in which you accomplish nothing beneficial to the story in the first place?" In other words, PREMONITION could've been a 20 minute film, and had it been, it would've accomplished the same things in 20 minutes that it did in it's hour and a half runtime, saving both you and I from sitting from the inconsistent mess that it becomes. I have to however give the film a few points, and that's for it's slick appearance. The direction as well as editing is all very seamless and crisp, but it's not enough to save a movie that seemed to have little hope from the start. Of course the filmmakers also did wonderfully by casting someone with box office draw like Bullock - because no matter how good or bad the film is, it's still sure to make some money. But in my eyes Bullock misses the mark here, as it's her job to be on the brink of psychological insanity, but you get none of that, not once to you since that the world is closing in on her slowly - which I believe, that's what we were supposed to be getting. It also doesn't help that co-stars Julian Mcmahon and Sandra Bullock seem to have very little chemistry together....but enough on that. Overall, I found PREMONITION to be rather confusing and redundant, from start to finish, making little sense at all in the end, because of it's forced manner of trying to be shocking and what have you. It spends most of it'd time shamelessly building up to supposedly something big, come to find out that it isn't, leaving the viewer having learned nothing at all from the events this film makes them repeatedly replay on screen, other than that they have wasted their time. |
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| GORE
METER 1/10 The film is not gory at all, blood on one's hands and a bloody face is all I recall seeing... |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10 The score alternates from both creepy and progressive themes, offering a pretty decent back-drop, if nothing more. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM PREMONITION is really nothing more than a love story within a psychological suspense story, as it concentrates on the chick-flick angle just as much as it does the suspense. Some have even said the love angle somewhat saves this from being a complete waste, but I couldn't disagree more. This is advertised as a chilling thriller, although they forgot to mention that it's nothing but, and those expecting one will be surprisingly let down. (This is off topic, but I was also disappointed by the change of cover art for the DVD release, the theatrical poster was brilliant in my opinion) I wouldn't say I recommend. This DVD will be released on July 17, 2007 |
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