Bloodtype Online

    Whilst watching One Missed Call I found myself asking myself what the point in it was. Now, I wasn't asking this due to it being a remake, because let's face it Miike's version wasn't exactly mindblowing, no, I was asking it because it was such a non-event of a movie. Maybe it was the source material, maybe not. To me though it just seemed that it existed purely as a paycheck to just about everyone involved. It wasn't a particularly bad movie, it just wasn't very good either. In-fact One Missed Call was very much like fast food; you eat it, it gives you gas and then you forget about it. I just didn't get gas watching this. 

    The plot, which has potential, involves people receiving a missed call on their cell phones, which once the voicemail is played back has an audio of the phone's owner dying, along with the date and time of it. To make the situation stranger the calls all come from the previous person that died; after they have died. The victims start to have strange visions up until the moment of the demise. 

    Beth (Shannon Sossamon) is a student who becomes increasingly unnerved as one by one her friends receive missed calls. So, hoping that she won't be next, decides to try and investigate what is going on. And along with Detective Jack Edwards (Edward Burns) they try to piece together the mystery before she receives a missed call. 

    Now, I did say that the plot had potential, and this is true, the trouble is though that it is brought to the screen in such a bland and mundane, not to mention predictable, fashion that it is incredibly hard to feel any sense of fear for any of the characters. This is due in part to most of the cast having no real personalities, and the ones that do come across as particularly aggravating. Which isn't all that bad as these ones tend to die off fairly quickly. Not so good though when the leads of the movie, Sossamon and Burns, just seem to be coasting through events. 

    What did work in this movie, and yes something did, was some of the special effects in regards to the ghostly images that some of the characters see once they receive their calls. However, if you have seen any Asian horror flicks then you will have seen this kind of thing before. They were done well though for the most part. 

    One Missed Call was just a bland, uneventful and uninspired movie, that I really don't know who I would recommend it to. Granted, it isn't as bad as the remake of Dark Water but then that isn't saying much.  

* 1/2

- Jude Felton