The Ring (Full Screen Edition)

An inquisitive reporter views a mysterious videotape that is linked to several deaths she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her life in danger. Now she is in a race against time to solve the mystery before its too late. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/01/2007 Starring: Naomi Watts Brian Cox Run time: 115 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Gore Verbinski

Disturbing images and a few good shocks don't stop The Ring from being a hash of half-baked ideas. It's the kind of frightfest you'll watch to set a chilling mood or spook your susceptible friends, but when you try to sort it out, this well-mounted American remake (of the 1998 Japanese hit Ringu, based on Koji Suzuki's popular novel) collapses into a heap of incoherent parts. The negligible plot follows a Seattle reporter (Naomi Watts) as she investigates the death of her niece, the victim of a mysterious videotape that, according to vague urban legend, causes the viewer's death seven days later. (Fear Dot Com borrowed the same idea while avoiding this film's lofty pretensions.) The reporter, her son, and her estranged boyfriend view the tape, and the film's countdown structure follows them into deepening layers of terror--all quite effective until the movie attempts to explain itself. At that you're better off shutting down your brain and letting the creepy visuals take over. --Jeff Shannon