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Gothika
Warner Bros.
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for violence, brief language and nudity
Starring
Halle Berry,
Penélope Cruz,
Robert Downey Jr.,
Charles Dutton,
Bronwen Mantel,
and
Bernard Hill
This supernatural thriller is the chilling tale of a brilliant psychiatrist (Berry) who experiences an unwelcome awakening when she is accused of committing a heinous murder she cannot remember. (Warner Bros.)
| GENRE(S): |
Horror
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Sebastian Gutierrez
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Mathieu Kassovitz
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: March 23, 2004
Video: March 23, 2004
Theatrical: November 21, 2003
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
97 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
In trash as in art there is no accounting for taste, and reader, I cherished this movie in all of its lurid glory.
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Kassovitz directs with an unrelenting intensity that helps you to suspend disbelief almost all the way to the credits.
70
Dallas Observer
Luke Y. Thompson
Delivers genuine scares.
50
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Comes from the same jolly homage-to-schlock-shock producers who remade ''House on Haunted Hill,'' and the emphasis is shamelessly on ornate scares. But with its high-gloss cast and French art-house actor and director Mathieu Kassovitz (''Hate'') in charge, the movie also shoots for class.
50
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
Given her (Halle Berry) biggest part since winning Oscar, she responds with a zeal that's more than the movie deserves.
50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Great cast, great atmosphere, little sense or first-rate suspense.
50
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
A plot that insults, betrays, and cheats every member of the audience. Stupidity to a degree can sometimes be forgiven. Stupidity to this degree can not and should not.
50
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
For a while there, Mathieu Kassovitz's atmospherically charged direction sucks the viewer into the story's hellish vortex. That is until the film becomes possessed by an increasingly ludicrous beyond-the-grave element from which there is no rational return.
50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
May try to revive the eerie spirit of the Gothic novel, but, unless you're suffering from amnesia yourself, it probably won't surprise or thrill you.
50
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
Gothika was supposed to provide proof that she (Berry) could carry a film as a leading lady, but it doesn't. That's not entirely her fault, since nobody can fetch a drink of water in a sieve.
50
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
If you try hard enough, you might be able to forget that the story doesn't make a lot of sense or provide adequate thrills, although it tries to scare you a couple of times in the cheapest possible way.
50
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
For those who want nothing more than a thorough scare, Gothika is effective. But for those of us who want some psychological insight with our frightfests, the film is sadly lacking.
50
USA Today
Mike Clark
The movie gets a mild boost when her escape briefly takes it from just another crummy supernatural thriller into an OK escape melodrama, albeit one dependent on a whopper of an unlikely occurrence.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
There must be something about the thriller/horror genre that attracts writers with exactly the same dysfunctional tendencies: They're all great at the foreplay but keep on messing up the climax.
50
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
Silly stuff, made all the more regrettable by the apparent skill with which the movie was made everywhere but in the screenplay department. The sheer lunkheadedness of Sebastian Gutierrez's script is impossible to ignore.
50
Portland Oregonian
Kim Morgan
Kassovitz can't control the ridiculous script and messy tone. And though it's not exactly hard to watch Berry run around in a hospital robe (Cruz and Berry: That's one good-looking mental ward), it's not particularly profound.
50
Premiere
Laine Ewen
Gothika deserves credit for embracing the ghost story genre so whole-heartedly, but as any ten-year-old girl can tell you, there's nothing original here to see.
40
Empire
Adam Smith
Gothika never delivers anything more than the occasional, cynically engineered jolt and often drifts close to provoking giggles.
40
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
While stylistic excess keeps Gothika mildly diverting, though suspense-and horror-free, Kassovitz can't do anything to keep the film's ending from degenerating into camp.
40
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
A film that is long on atmosphere, but short on smarts: Plot points are easily unraveled 20 minutes in advance (no fun sleuthing for the audience here), the ending is an unsatisfying pastiche off too many horror tropes, and it would take a week to plug all of Gothika’s gaps in logic.
40
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
A gloomy-doomy ghost story that gets off to a creepy start and then spirals into flat-out preposterousness.
40
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Dopey, violent horror thriller.
40
Variety
David Rooney
Hampered by thinly developed characters and pedestrian plotting.
40
Village Voice
David Ng
Quickly abandoning the psychological for the supernatural, the movie collapses its premise into one painfully derivative pitch.
40
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Ms. Berry works hard in her role, generating some excitement in the course of her distress. But the story's convolutions can't cover a deficit of substance, or sense.
40
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
More of a women's-prison movie than a supernatural thriller, and not a very good one at that.
38
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
French director Mathieu Kassovitz Frenches this flimsy tale to death. No scene goes underplayed, no performance (save one, from Robert Downey Jr.) lacks volume, no horror cliche is forgotten.
38
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
For most of the movie, however, Halle sprints, Halle swims (55 laps!), and Halle screams. It's a two-hour fitness video -- a portrait of the Oscar winner as personal trainer.
30
Film Threat
Rick Kisonak
The best they were able to manage, apparently, was a grabbag of spectral sights and spooky touches grabbed from better horror films and a final act that raises more questions than it answers.
30
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
An unsurprising, undistinguished piece of post-summer, pre-holiday detritus.
30
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
They go about scaring you, but only in the most hackneyed and cheap-shock manner.
30
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
They go about scaring you, but only in the most hackneyed and cheap-shock manner.
30
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Proves to be both too much and not enough: yet another slick, empty package of ersatz entertainment.
30
Los Angeles Times
Manohla Dargis
How anyone in the cast manages to keep a straight face is one of the film's innumerable mysteries.
25
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
Stupefyingly stupid thriller.
25
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
The movie spins further and further into coincidence and incoherence.
25
San Francisco Chronicle
Peter Hartlaub
Tolerable for undiscriminating horror fans but should be shunned by everybody else.
 The average user rating for this movie is 4.6 (out of 10) based on 41 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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