Reviews

Code46 was horrible. I don't know where to begin, there were so many problems with it. Truly terrible directing, there is no cohesive story. From the beginning to the end of the movie the audience (me included) wore the puzzled, quizzical look and loud whispers of "do you know whats happening?" The movie starts without developing the central character, so you're guessing the whole movie about his "special power(s)" -- what are they? how does it work? how powerful is it? Just as bad, the beginning of the movie defines a code of law called "Code 46" but the movie never relates what transpires to why it falls under the "code 46" rule. Then there's the undeveloped central character, who has a logical, problem-solving, law-enforcing side to his personality paradoxically blended into a love-struck, amoral, unremorseful, flandering dolt.

The female lead is unattractive, plays the same character as she did in the movie Minority Report, and does her shower (!) and sex scenes fully clothed. Do you know anyone that takes a shower with a bra and shirt on? -- Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset at the lack of nudity, it's just that scenes like this don't engross the viewer because we're too distracted by the oddity of the situation (and we turn to our mate and ask "why is she wearing a shirt and bra in the shower?") to focus on the movie.

To give the impression of a melded multi-cultural future world, they mix phrases from several languages. unfortunately, it's not carried off well, because every fourth sentence of spoken dialog someone from the audience was whispering "huh?" "what'd he say?"

Code 46 had some good ideas and potential, but ultimately the story lacked cohesion, had poor early character development, some terrible acting, a language barrier, and scenes which were so odd that they took you out of the story. All these elements worked to keep the viewer from being absorbed in the story.

See this movie if you are interested in knowing how to botch the role of director. 2/10

I was eager to view this movie; given that some people had commented on it being the scariest movie they had ever seen. I thought Ringu was fantastic, and was looking forward to more of the same.

However, Ju-on was a horrible film on many levels -- sure it had a creepy scene or two, but this is a film that you can put a one-minute reel/trailer together for and dump the rest of the movie.

Take an event that you could hear on your nightly news: a parent goes nutty and brutally kills his family and himself -- now add to the notion that this grisly murder creates some kind of embodiment of evil psychic energy-spirit that seeks to end any life with which it comes in contact. This frames what this movie is about. The story of Ju-on is told as a series of very thinly connected scenes (a bunch of short stories), shown out of order. The theme remains constant, in that if you come in contact with the spirit, you die.

The problems with this movie are many, there is no character development, and when the audience doesn't care about the characters, they don't get sucked in, and they don't care when said characters meet their demise. This whole movie is a collection of 5 minute short stories where a character is introduced, they somehow connect them to the house/spirit, then they die. Over and over, same thing.

As I stated earlier, Ju-on has a theme, but is missing a plot. Since the movie is a narrative about the evil spirits and the scenes change every 5 minutes, you'd think it'd be a great opportunity to go all out to maximize the scariness, but this movie is actually quite boring. There are a couple creepy moments, but nothing downright scary.

The biggest complaint you'll have if you watch it is the time-line bounces around so much it discombobulates you from the movie. It doesn't help that the characters are so briefly introduced, and a few of them look alike and are wearing the same outfit, so you can expect an enhanced feeling of frustration as you watch it trying to figure it out; Who just got killed? The girl? Her sister? Her brother's girlfriend?

Ju-on isn't really a haunted house movie, it isn't really a supernatural slasher (ala Freddy Kruger/Jason), it isn't really a straight horror movie; but has some of each these elements. The movie Fallen (1998, Denzel Washington) is an example of more successfully combining these themes.

I wouldn't have been happy paying $10 to see this movie, catch it on cable if you can, if not, wait for the inevitable Hollywood remake.