White Noise | | Cast : | Michael Keaton, Deborah Kara Unger, Ian McNeice | | Director : | Geoffrey Sax | | Studio : | Universal Studios | | Format : | Color, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | January 07, 2005 | | DVD Released Date : | May 17, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), Spanish (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 13, 2005 | | Summary | Keaton is back! | Content
 | I love Michael Keaton and he was great in this movie. The story is creepy
and at times a bit far fetched, but Keaton keeps it very believable.
Really liked it! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 11, 2005 | | Summary | Sometimes the dead talk back | Content
| I know some people think this film is seven kinds of awful, but I was not disappointed in the slightest by it. Maybe it's the fact that I was already familiar with the subject of EVP. If you're introduced to this sort of phenomenon in a vacuum, it does sound incredibly hokey. I'm not saying it's real, but I've heard some pretty spooky stuff on some professional recordings. If you can't suspend your disbelief and allow yourself to imagine that the events taking place in this movie are possible, I daresay it's impossible to enjoy the film. Of course, White Noise goes far beyond EVP as we know it. The main character not only hears voices from those who have passed on, he starts seeing and hearing things that have yet to take place. But I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself here.
Michael Keaton plays architect Jonathan Rivers, whose very happy life is torn asunder when his wife goes missing and is later found dead. Before the body is found, he's visited by a doughy stranger who tells him that his wife is dead and that she has been trying to communicate with him. He leaves the disbelieving Jonathan his card, but eventually Jonathan goes to see him. This fellow Raymond (Ian McNeice) is basically obsessed with EVT, and he has used all sorts of high-dollar recording equipment to record white noise TV signals; the tapes, when played later, often contain sounds and images of the dead, and he has helped communicate messages from the beyond to those left behind. He also picks up a good bit of hostile language and images of rather disquieting manifestations, but that just goes with the territory (dying doesn't make a mean person any nicer). Jonathan changes his tune (albeit a little too quickly and easily) when he hears his wife's voice on one of Raymond's tapes, and he immediately becomes obsessed with EVT himself, setting up all sorts of recording equipment of his own. He is perplexed when he learns that he has been receiving some signals from folks before their imminent deaths, and he interprets all of this as a charge from his dead wife to try and help these people. I myself would interpret his wife's injunctions as a warning against the dangerous manifestations increasingly making their presence felt in the recordings, but I'm not the heroic sort of fellow that Jonathan seems to be. Everything leads up to a perfectly satisfying conclusion; it would have been easy to blow the whole movie at the end, but that didn't happen.
White Noise features a number of jump-worthy moments, and certain scenes are eerie enough to make you feel unsettled. I also happen to think the plot holds together quite well, although it's definitely out there. I have sort of an indifferent attitude toward Michael Keaton, but I thought he played his part very effectively in this movie. I can't see how some lose sympathy with his character, a man obsessed with contacting his recently deceased and greatly loved wife. This film does not deliver an accurate accounting of EVP, but it's a movie, not a documentary. In my opinion, this is a highly suspenseful, intriguing, pretty darn impressive little thriller. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | Disregard the one star on the left, this gets NO STARS!! | Content
| Guess what i was doing on Monday Night, August 1, 2005? Yep, you guessed it...watching this horrible movie that WAS NOT scary, WAS NOT interesting, WAS NOT keeping my boredom level to a minimum, and WAS NOT making me proud to have liked Michael Keaton as an actor. Want more? Wait till you see the ending? You'll laugh, you'll cry and be proud to press stop on your dvd player, put it back in it's box and 3-point it straight in the garbage (like i did!), unless you rented it..then please bring it back fast, don't you dare keep it in your home or pay a late fee for this movie! Can't believe i missed "Fear factor" for this! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | Thrilling , lacking and slightly predictable | Content
| I was excited to see this movie because the previews were intense and I'm always interested in fiction that has to do with the paranormal (not because I believe any of it, mind you), but because i feel being spooked is much more entertaining in a scarey movie than simply being grossed out.
Sometimes, however, you come across a movie that tries so hard to be creepy and dark it ends up being, well, silly. This is one such film.
A man grieving over the death of his wife is suddenly contacted by her through EVP and is directing him in places that three beings are causing death and devastation... and he's never quite there on time. Of all the spirits coming through why is hers the only one to seem to see what the three beings are going to do next, or is she trying to lead her husband to the truth of her death? And what are the three beings? Aliens? Ghosts? Demons? Larry, Moe and Curly? There are quite a few awesome connections Michael Keaton's character seems to share with women, but what is it and why?
If you like your thrillers to weave, mystify, frighten and wrap up, then this clearly is not the best movie for you. If you're more into being creeped out and drawing your own conclusion, then perhaps catch this on your cable network or borrow it from a friend before adding it your movie collection. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 07, 2005 | | Summary | What Noise? | Content
| I was so excited to se this film, but am disappointed for several reasons. One, I didn't have any sympathy for the protagonist, especially during this recession when he lives in a palatial home and loves his job. Second, The sound quality of this DVD is TERRIBLE. I am not sure if it was this poor in theatres, but if it was, audiences were deafened by the sound of the cell phone ringing and a cabinet door suddenly slamming, but could not hear most of the background in-scene sounds (low volume conversations, background music,...) To hear these sounds, I had to crank my DVD player's sound up to 10, much higher than most movies (which are fine at say 23-25). The sudden "jump out at you" sounds would boom deafeningly, and then I had to strain to catch a conversation. Third, the ending was truly terrible and made no sense. Perhaps it was written to perplex audience members who are unwilling to think about how a solution fits the proposed problem, you know, the audience members who just say "wow - deep!" Lastly, the treatment of EVP was a bit moralistic. The film might have been titled "Just say NO to EVP!!!" It felt like an after-school special about why little mary and ted should not play with tape recorders. PATRONIZING!!!! I did enjoy the corny extras on Special Features, especially the "actual EVPs," but by that time the film had convinced me that if I listened, Lucifer's three henchmen would come and break my legs before giving me a heart attack for no reason.
For those who actually enjoyed the film, wait for a definitive edition with MUCH better sound quality - this DVD's sound ratios are a joke. |
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