Charger Arts & Entertainment

Before you die, you see the ring

Erin McMillan, Charger Staff

“The Ring was awesome. The end stunk, but the rest was great.”

Basically, this quote sums up the movie perfectly.

The Dreamworks flick opens with two teenaged girls at home. One of the girls starts talking about a videotape where, at the tape’s completion, you get a phonecall predicting your death at the end of a week. The other girl, terrified, reveals that seven days ago, she watched the movie.

Within minutes the girl’s heart simply stops.

At the girl’s memorial service, her mother asks her aunt, the journalist Rachel, played by Naomi Watts, to investigate the sudden death. This leads Rachel to her own viewing of the disurbing tape and her own phone call with a mysterious voice saying that in exactly one week, she will die.

Rachel is, of course, cynical of the whole thing and wants to track the origins of this video.
One thing leads to another, and when she comes to believe her demise is near, she becomes determinded to save her life by solving the tape’s mystery. Her race against time to end the killing and solve the puzzle becomes more urgent when her young son views the film as well.

The story she uncovers is twisted, tragic, horrific and unbelievable.

The end is lacking and comes near to ruining the entire movie,though it does avoid falling into the trap of cliche Hollywood endings.

The plot itself is not particularly scary, but the images stay with you . Rated P-13 for thematic elements, disturbing images, language, and some drug references, this is a movie you will want to watch in the company of others.