The Ring Two | | Cast : | Naomi Watts, Simon Baker, David Dorfman, Sissy Spacek | | Director : | Hideo Nakata | | Studio : | Dreamworks / Universal Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | March 18, 2005 | | DVD Released Date : | August 23, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 09, 2005 | | Summary | The ONLY horror movies that give me nightmares! | Content
 | Back in the 1980's, when I was in Elementary School, I saw my very first horror movie, Nightmare on Elm Street part 4. After that, I didn't see another horror movie until Middle School in the early 90's, I saw Friday The 13th part 7. After seeing Friday the 13th, I started really liking horror movies and started watching everything from Stephen King, every Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th, a lot more that aren't so popular and of course the Halloween movies. I was able to watch horror movies for years and years without being affected really. It was to the point that some horror movies were just putting me to sleep because they weren't scary. That is, until I saw The Ring and The Ring Two!
I saw The Ring in the theatre and from that first time, it scared me to death. I literally jumped during many scenes and after it was over, it wasn't really over for me. That night after I got back home, I couldn't sleep with the light off. I didn't want to see any static on my TV because I was so scared. My friend who I saw it with kept mentioning a static TV just to scare me and it worked. I have also had a few nightmares about Samara coming after me since I saw The Ring and especially, The Ring Two. The scariest thing that has happened to me was right after I saw The Ring Two in the theatre and that evening after I fell asleep, I swear I heard Samara speaking to me!! I swear it!!! It was her same voice that you hear in The Ring and it was like she was talking right in my ear!! The only thing I actually heard her say was the very first thing and very last thing she said. I heard her talking for a while but everything in the middle, I just didn't understand because it was like I was half awake and half asleep. All I was able to hear her say was "I never sleep because I'm not dead yet" and the very last thing she said was "wake up." After this happened, I decided to get rid of The Ring DVD, Rings DVD and not even buy The Ring Two because apparently, these films are going to just scare me to where I'll be terrified for the rest of my life!!
You know that saying, be careful what you wish for because you might just get it? Well I got a lot more than I wished for all right!!! For years before The Ring came out, I was wishing for a horror movie that would really scare me and this movie scaring me is an understatement!! I never wanted to be scared so bad by having nightmares!! Just the other day, I was watching The Travel Channel and there was this show on about different haunted places and this one mansion was built by an Opera singer who used to perform in her house to people and I thought it was interesting and it didn't scare me in the least UNTIL they had to show the Opera singer's ghost and the ghost looked EXACTLY like Samara, had her long black hair over her face like Samara and she started walking toward the camera which meant, towards me as well. For a second I was freaking out thinking she was going to come out of the TV!!! Before she got too close, I covered my eyes and then they showed another part in the mansion and I just changed the channel!! I think the part that freaks me out the most is when Samara is out of the well and coming toward the TV and in The Ring Two when you see her climbing the well, that creepy way she climbs the well!! For some reason, I cannot get those visions out of my head!!! So to say this movie is still affecting me to this day is a HUGE understatement!!! The thing I just cannot understand is WHY any other horror movie just either puts me to sleep or just wonderful to watch because of the acting or just cool to watch?? I'll NEVER understand what it is about Samara and The Ring and The Ring Two that just terrifies me!! Maybe it's the static TV and the fear of Samara actually coming out of the TV!
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| Rating | | | Date | August 04, 2005 | | Summary | First you see the Ring... then you see the sequel | Content
| As a rule, sequels are terrible. And "The Ring Two" is not so much terrible as it is ordinary. It's graced with an outstanding performance by Naomi Watts and some truly creepy scenes, but it lacks the visceral direction of the first movie. In short, it's a sequel.
As the story opens, we see a slimy-looking boy tricking his girlfriend into watching (drumroll please) The Tape (anyone who saw the short film "Rings" will see the backdrop). As we know from "The Ring," if you get someone else doomed by the tape, you get to live and they die. But things don't turn out so well for the boy. Meanwhile, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) is fleeing to a rural town with her son Aidan (David Dorfman). They thought they had managed to destroy the evil Samara's curse, but of course they were wrong.
And no sooner have they settled down, than Rachel finds signs of Samara's presence. A young boy has died inexplicably, left with a hideous facial deformity. When Rachel confirms that it was Samara who killed him, she finds that Samara is now targeting Aidan's. In a nutshell, she wants to possess him. Now Rachel must delve into Samara's past to find a possible way to stop him -- or risk losing her son to Samara.
"The Ring" revamped the modern horror genre, casting aside CGI ghosts and machete-wielding wackos in favor of subtle horror and demon-children. Not to mention getting Hollywood interested in Japanese horror movies. In short, it was a horror hit that deserved to be one. But "The Ring Two" is merely adequate, not really good.
Maybe the biggest problem of "The Ring Two" is that it has no bedrock to stand on. Author Koji Suzuki wrote a sequel called "Spiral," which was then adapted into the movie "Rasen." But "The Ring Two" has no such grounding. It's just a free-floating Hollywood sequel, to a movie which was remake of a Japanese movie adapted from a book. Given those stats, it's amazing that it's as good as it is.
Director Hideo Nakata, of the Japanese "Ringu" films, was brought in to replace Gore Verbinski. But while he does a competant job, the film lacks the quick cuts, fast-forwarding and sense of pervasive horror. Instead, we get water on the ceiling -- pretty and moderately creepy, but very obvious. The laughable deer attack was just random, especially as Samara has no connection with deer. And Samara's occasional "boo!" appearances take away from her creepiness -- whatever happened to "less is more"?
Not to say that there is no creepiness and no subtlety. Samara alone accounts for much of them -- she slinks around like a less deteriorated version of Gollum, and seeks a "mommy." Nakata does a good job with the odd symbolism injected into the film, such as the ever-present water all over the place. (Interestingly, Nakata also directed the Japanese adaptation of Suzuki's "Dark Water." A bit of seepage?)
Samara aside, much of the creepiness comes from Naomi Watts' performance -- as in the first "Ring" movie, she exudes a taut, quietly frantic demeanor, while keeping herself focused. She gives what is undoubtedly the best performance here. Sissy Spacek gives a solid if brief performance as Samara's birth mother, but Dorfman is pallid as Watts' son.
It quite obviously is leaving the way open for "Ring Three," which is either a thrill or a chill. Taken alone, "The Ring Two" isn't a bad movie, but it suffers badly when set next to its predecessor. |
| Rating | | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | A splendid "horror flick," indeed! | Content
| When I first saw the original Ring, I have to be honest and say that I was scared out of my mind. My friends both down to five years younger and up to ten years older had all told me that it was going to be the most frightening horror film I would ever see, so I sat down to watch it thinking to myself, "HA! It won't scare me! These movies never scare me!"...after watching this film, I did not sleep well for (slightly more than...) seven days. The suspense kept my eyes wide open and the plot drew me in quickly. Even the music and that eerie song Samara Morgan (Daveigh Chase) sings (Here we go...the world is spinning...when it stops, it's just beginning...Sun goes up we laugh and we cry...sun goes down and we all die) could make you drop dead in terror and complete fear. Goodness that can send the chills down your spine. The acting was excellent, and I had very few -- if any -- bad things to say about this spectacular terror of a film.
Ah, silly me -- I am reviewing the first film. I suppose I ought to now reveal my opinions on the second movie. I am hesitant to give any film five stars, because usually that means that I believed that the film is flawless and without any room for improvement: completely perfect. Unfortunately, in the case of this film, there was room for improvement. The effects were quite marvelous, and for quite a long time in the movie the suspense has a great effect on the viewer. However, by the middle of the movie the suspense is boring and begins to get old. Scary images are used repetitively and it is no longer the spectacular, epic, horrifying sequel many fans of the original Ring and of Ringu had expected it and hoped it to be.
However, I still give this film four stars for "So nearly perfect." The acting was once again simply inspiring, from both the new actors and actresses and those that starred in the original adventure. While the suspense and the terror became quite "old," by the middle of the film, it still lingered there long enough to keep one watching it slightly on the edge of his or her seat, or to keep a couple on a date to the cinema practically glued to each other, praying that the dreadful ghost of a Samara Morgan will not come into existence and harm them. The lingering suspense came to quite a climax at the very end of the film, leaving you fearful and afraid but completely oblivious to the fact that there was perhaps a moment during the flick that you were nearly...bored. I would primarily recommend this film for teenagers and young adults, and that definetly goes for most horror 'flicks, or at least in my opinion, but all would find this mind-bending, blood-curdling film quite entertaining, intriguing, and unimaginably terrifying and horrific. I highly suggest that everyone who can see this movie, starting of course with the first movie in the series if that has not been previously viewed already. Enjoy this masterpiece of a horror story! |
| Rating | | | Date | August 01, 2005 | | Summary | GOOD,BUT WILL NEVER BE AT THE LEVEL OF THE FIRST. | Content
| THIS MOVIE IS SCARY BUT IT TRIES NOT TO BE LIKE THE FIRST ONE A LOT,AND I TOUGHT THAT WAS STUPID BECAUSE THE REASON PEOPLE WENT TO SEE THIS MOVIE WAS BECAUSE PEOPLE TOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO BE THE SAME.THIS MOVIE IS SO HOLLYWOOD AND COMERCIAL NOT LIKE THE OTHER ONE WHICH WAS ORIGINAL.
IS STILL SCARY TOUGH,AND IT WILL MAKE A GOOD RENTAL. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 31, 2005 | | Summary | If you love comedies you'll love this! | Content
| If I could rate lower...i would.
I went to go see this...because i wanted to see if the american version of Ringu could pull through and try to learn from mistakes from the first one...sadly...they just made worst mistakes.
I went to the movie to watch this...and could not stop laughing. And the whole audience agreed with me...it was a hillarious film. So if you love to laugh at movies that try desperatly, a little too desperatly, to become a work of art...then i would pick this up.
If your expecting to get scared? Well you better be extremlly sensitve to seeing blood... |
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