josh1138

I read Juliet Farmer's DVD review of The Grudge 2 at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=26249 and...
you have got to be kidding me.

writnkitten

apparently people don't get that reviews are personal opinions.

clearly we don't have the same taste, as i'm sure your tastes don't mesh with 100 percent of the population either.

it's my opinion, and to reiterate, i prefer the less-is-more approach in horror films.

what movies do you like, josh1138?

MovieExchange

I wanted to ask for my money back after seeing Grudge 2... and I saw it on a free pass.

As I said in the older movie review thread for the film, apparently the Japanese idea of horror is pasty-faced kids crouching in a corner screaming at you.

With all respect, if you believe "less is more," then Grudge 2 is certainly the movie for you... because it had absolutely nothing. There wasn't much psychology for it, and the "scares" were things jumping out at you... and after seeing it the first time and knowing when it will happen, it loses its ability to scare.

Granted, I have a healthy dislike for remade Japanese horror, so maybe I'm missing something. I also sat through The Ring and found it to be one of the most boring films ever made.

writnkitten

yeah, and i liked the ring as well.

so what are your all-time scary movie favs, movie exchange?

MovieExchange

I like pretty much everything except this American-ized Japanese "horror" and most of the other modern PG-13 horror films (which I believe sacrifice horror to get a lower rating and bring in more viewers).

My aunt started me down the path of horror in the late 70's, when I would stay the night at her house and we'd stay up until 2 in the morning watching the late night creature features.

My collection contains everything from early Universal and Hammer horror to the 70's B-grade splatter films / Romero-era zombies to Troma to the franchises like Friday the 13th / Nightmare on Elm Street / Halloween to things like Argento films and much of the Asian horror put out on video by Tartan.

I'm hard-pressed to name any particular favorites, as I like so many of them. I even enjoyed the first Blair Witch Project because of the psychological horror story about the kids slowly going crazy.

writnkitten

blair witch (the first one) scared the crap out of me. i dragged my husband to the theater to see it the night it came out, and i remember thinking that i would never have that movie in my house because i was so freaked out by it. same with carrie (the original). ever seen jodie foster in the little girl who lived down the lane? talk about psycho(logical)--she was fantastic in it.

i will definitely check out some of your favs--thanks for the info.

CinemaNut

The majority of "J" horror B.L.O.W.S..just like the majority of American horror...only J sucks MUCH MORE imo.

Grudge 1 was more than enough. Will never watch G2

Ralph Jenkins

There is some good Japanese horror. I recommend Nobuo Nakagawa's Ghost Story of Yotsuya (a region-free DVD is available from xploitedcinema.com) if you're interested in seeing a classic. Yasuzo Masumura's Blind Beast (available on R1 DVD from Fantoma) is a great flick from the late '60s. For more modern horror, I like Hideo Nakata's original Ring, and to a lesser extent, Dark Water. There are a few solid entries from Takashi Miike, such as Audition, Gozu, and Ichi the Killer (his Masters of Horror episode didn't do much for me, though). The J-horror movie I'm looking forward to most right now is Nightmare Detective, by Shin'ya Tsukamoto (director of Tetsuo and A Snake of June). Of course, remake rights have already been snapped up.

There is a lot of bad Japanese horror, too. Most of the bad ones are simply trying to copy the formula of Ring. The best thing to do is some research before ordering a DVD to see what word-of-mouth is like.

Takashi Shimizu has essentially made the same movie six times now with The Grudge 2. I hope he moves on to something new after this one.

camncal

i thought this movie was a completely waste of time and so did most critics and general public. The franchise is dead in America and it was a failure at the box office. It was repetitive and the acting was not up to the par of the first one.

MovieExchange

Well, there was one good thing about the movie....

Josh Z

The Grudge
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0391198/business
Budget: $10,000,000 (estimated)
Gross: $110,175,871 (USA)

The Grudge 2
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433386/business
Budget: $20,000,000 (estimated)
Gross: $39,143,839 (USA)

The sequel didn't do nearly as well as the original, but it turned a profit and there will likely be a Grudge 3. The main reason these horror movies are so popular with the studios is that they're cheap to produce and almost always guarantee a return on investment.

MovieExchange

The PG-13 rating helps also, as it lets them get teens into theaters (which are getting a little more strict in enforcing the ratings system) and then the inevitable "unrated" DVD (which has about 5-10 seconds of new material) suckers them out of even more money.

ianholm

I was hoping for a remake of the Japanese Ju-on 2 (which I liked better than the original), but was pleasantly surprised with this one.

mzupeman2

Here's what I find to be kind of disturbing about the review. It's amazon link (at least the picture there) is that of the unrated edition. What I'd like to know more than anything, is if this is worth the extra money for the extra six minutes or so that's been added. Yet, there's not a SINGLE mention of the unrated cut. If she didn't review the unrated cut, she didn't even mention that one exists and that maybe it would be a little more beneficial to only 'recommend' this title instead of giving it a near perfect score... based on the fact that there's a longer version out there. With how the extended cut for the first Grudge was much better, I find it hard to believe that nothing was mentioned.

I guess what I'm trying to say here, is that the review wasn't really poorly written. It was written fine... but as a blurb. As a review however, it wasn't really too informative. You really didn't express enough opinion as much as you basically just recapped the film. My real issue though, as said already, was that I find it hard to believe without the proper backing behind it... that this movie could have recieved the rating it got without even mentioning that a 'unrated' cut was out there and could probably be more worth your money. Not sure how the extras can rate so high when there's much more to be seen. That is of course, if your review wasn't about the unrated cut... but again, we have on idea because you don't tell us if it is or isn't.

Just not enough information, not in your 'explanation', and not for information either.

writnkitten

just for the record, i did review the unrated cut, but didn't realize it--on the back packaging, they mention the unrated director's cut "exclusives" to be "extra scenes too scary for the theater."

as i did not see it in the theater, i don't know what was extra and what was not.

all i know is that i liked the film and based my review on the unrated version (and have amended my review to mention that as well).

in short, i really liked the film, i seem to be in the minority, and i think we've all beaten this dead horse for far too long.

mzupeman2

A minority yes, but it's understandable. I'm part of that minority. I can't yet speak about the second installment in this series, but I like the first part where many did not. I don't care that it's simplistic. It delivered the jump scares quite well and it freaked me out quite a bit. Not really often can a movie do that, usually only a film like The Exorcist can pull a fright out of me. I'm hoping that the Grudge 2 doesn't become 'too predictable' as many people have said. The first one was quite predictable as well but I was still pretty freaked. I'm thinking I'll probably side with you soon enough in this minority when I get to see it later this week

jedisuperstar

The entire Asian Horror boom was pretty solid for the most part until too many hacks jumped on board, but Shimizu was an originator and a good story is to be had here - the only issue I had with the review was that I would like to have had a real comparison between the rated and unrated cuts and I would like to have had you reserve the Saw bashing for that film's review.

I liked the Saw franchise and still do, and though it is very different, it still deserves some amount of respect for being better than most fright fare we have in theaters these days - and it could be LOTS worse - anyone remember the SCREAM sequels and all the crap trendo Horror that followed for two years???

jedisuperstar

camncal - there is no reason to say that Grudge 2 was hated by critics and fans alike - that is simply not true. You talked to us all? The final grosses for the film were $42,443,839 and induustry insiders say it was released against too much heavy competition and on only 2/3 of the screens than the first - that means that one third of the screens that helped the first one make so much bank were not showing Grudge 2 but rather some fun family film!

Keep in mind that how much money a film makes DOES NOT REFLECT on the quality of the film - ever.

Did you know that EVIL DEAD only grossed $2,400,000 total to DATE at the box office - yet it is my favorite Horror film of all time.

I liked Grudge 2 - I say - make a better movie for the same money with the same conditions. I was entertained and that's all I can ask - you can keep your "I know the Urban Legend You Screamed For Last Summer" - I'll take ANY Asian horror over that dull dreck any day!

And I also suggest people watch SLITHER - an incredible film.

jedisuperstar

Your racism is not only proof of your ignorance but a sad sad statement on what is really wrong with people who pay for movie tickets in this country - go back and watch the Ricky Bobby sequels and leave true Horror to those of us that know it when we see it. Asians rule - you wish you could be this cool.

Ethan VanSciver

Well, I just bought this today at Walmart: They packaged it with a free copy of the first Grudge movie, and it seemed like a good bargain.

I am alarmed that this reviewer gave this movie 4 and a half stars, half a star more than was given to FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS on this very same website...I haven't watched GRUDGE 2 yet, but surely this film doesn't deserve that kind of acclaim. I'm a fan of horror movies, and still, I can count the number of horror films that would actually deserve that kind of "star rating" on one hand. It doesn't seem like an objective review.

Not to be too critical, writnkitten, because your rave review helped me to decide to check the dvd out, but you've basically declared that this movie can stand shoulder to shoulder with The Exorcist and the original OMEN. Will we still be talking about GRUDGE 2 thirty years from now, like we are with those films? Or is GRUDGE 2 in actuality just a really well-made and fun diversion to be enjoyed and forgotten?

Keep writing!
-EVS

writnkitten

i think some people seem to overlook the fact that reviews are subjective. i haven't seen flags of our fathers, and it's entirely possible that i may not like it as much as the reviewer did.

a review is an opinion...nothing more.

but thanks for the encouragement. and i think you got a hell of a deal at walmart!

Adam Tyner

Review scores aren't meant to be absolute, though.

Personally, I'd be happy to do away with the star ratings altogether, but users really seem to like 'em.

mzupeman2

Yeah, you can't say the ratings here are alarming because it got a similar score to another film that was reviewed by someone entirely different.

Reviews are based on opinion, and because reviews are opinionated, you can't expect the scores to be militarized to follow the same structure for rating person to person.

Also, I don't think reviews always need to be compared to what other classic films in a similar genre have recieved. There's always a bar set for those classic films, you can't compare every movie to those classics... that's why they're classic. They're timeless, you can' tcompare everything to that. What matters here, is, how the reviewer felt about said film, and hopefully they gave you the honest review that the film deserved from their point of view. Films should be reviewed on their own, and the rating comes from how much the reviewer did or didn't appreciate the film. So I don't think the ratings for everything this review gave high ratins to was done wrong... she apparantly really really enjoyed the flick. You don't have to, but she did so she rated things appropriately.

writnkitten

AMEN!