I like foreign films. See, in the United States, most movies that come outta Hollywood are just that, "Hollywood." They all seem to follow the same formula. You don't get that with foreign films. I'm not saying that all foreign films are great, but if you watch some of the really good ones, such as "Amélie," "Run Lola Run," "Life is Beautiful," or a classic like "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," it's obvious that foreign films don't follow the same tired rules that most Hollywood movies seem to follow. Sometimes, Hollywood will remake a foreign film, and the result tends to be pretty horrific. A shining example is "City of Angels," which is a horrible remake of a great German film called "Wings of Desire."
"The Ring" is a remake of the 1998 Japanese horror film, "Ringu," which is one of Japan's highest grossing box-office hits ever. I've never seen "Ringu," nor have I seen it's sequel, "Ringu 2," but I would really like to. Once those movies are available here on DVD, I'll probably rent them. As for "The Ring," though I can't say whether or not it's as good as the Japanese film it's based on, I CAN tell you that it's a solid, entertaining film that I really enjoyed. There's still hope for Hollywood.
The premise of the movie, I must admit, is stupid. There's a videotape that when watched, the person who watched it dies after seven days. I know, it seems pretty lame, but that's just the jumping off point of the movie. What follows is an investigation of who made the videotape, what the footage was, where it was shot, who were the people in it, etc. As everything starts to unfold and all the pieces come together, questions are answered, and it's all very fascinating. The only problem is that a lot of the questions remain unanswered. Will there be "The Ring 2," where all of these other questions are finally answered? I guess that depends on the success of this movie.
By the way, I wanna mention some trivial stuff. For one thing, though I could be wrong, I think I saw one or two moments where there was a single frame of a ring hidden somewhere in the film, sorta like how there were single-frame shots of "Tyler Durden" hidden in "Fight Club." Also, there was supposedly a subplot in the film involving a child murderer that was edited outta the film. The child murderer, assuming that this rumor is true, was played by the great character actor, Chris Cooper, who was in "American Beauty" as Kevin Spacey's neighbor.
"The Ring" stars Naomi Watts, who delivered an awesome performance in "Mulholland Drive." She's very good in this movie, too, but she's not as impressive as she was in "Mulholland Drive." It's not that she was bad in this movie, because she wasn't. It's just that she was so good in "Mulholland Drive," it's gonna be tough for her to top that performance. Go see that movie, if you wanna know what I'm talking about. Her son in the movie is played by David Dorfman (he was Gwyneth Paltrow's younger son in "Bounce"), and he's very good. Very creepy, too. Martin Henderson, an actor I've never seen before, plays a video geek who helps Naomi Watts try to figure out the origin of the footage in the videotape, and he's good, too. Brian Cox (a veteran character actor who has been in tons of movies... he played "Hannibal" in "Manhunter," the first film based on the novel "Red Dragon") has a small role in the movie, and though it IS a small role, it leaves quite an impact. Finally, there's Daveigh Chase (she was in "Donnie Darko" as the youngest child in the Darko family... she was also the voice of "Lilo" in "Lilo & Stitch"), who also has a small role, but it's the most memorable performance in the film. As creepy as David Dorfman is, Daveigh Chase is even more so.
This movie was directed by Gore Verbinski (he previously directed "Mouse Hunt" and "The Mexican"... he's also the creator of the Budweiser frogs), and he did an excellent job with the movie. It's stylized without going over the top, and everything looks beautifully eerie. The images Verbinski created are stunning, especially when the footage of the videotape is shown. Gore Verbinski proved that he has a lotta talent. The screenplay was written by Ehren Kruger, who, I must admit, I'm not a fan of. He wrote "Reindeer Games" and "Scream 3," two movies I was very disappointed with. He also wrote "Arlington Road," which I never saw. His work on this movie surprised me, though some of it WAS kinda cheesy. Still, that may not be his fault. His screenplay was an adaptation of the "Ringu" screenplay by Hiroshi Takahashi, so maybe it was elements of the original that I found cheesy. Then again, even the original Japanese film wasn't TRULY original, because it was based on the novel "Ringu" by Kôji Suzuki.
I liked "The Ring" a lot, but like I said, there were some cheesy moments. Also, I walked outta the theater somewhat frustrated that some of the questions in the film were left unanswered. But if you wanna sit back and enjoy a very creepy movie, I definitely think that this is a flick you should see.
Scale of 1-10: 8