The Eye, 2008

The Eye is a safe and unassuming horror movie with few thrills or original ideas (it is after all a remake of an Asian horror movie). I would say that the only reason to see it is to ogel Jessica Alba, but I won't sink to that level of depravity. Although there is a rather tastefully gratuitous shower scene (hey! I already said that the movie plays it safe even with the sex). Our star Alba plays a successful classical musician who has been blind since the age of 5. She once had a retinal procedure but it did not take. Now as a result of stem-cell research a successful transplant operation has been performed (the stem-cell plot point is not pursued I guess it was too politico). It turns out that our star did not particularly want the operation but her sister feeling guilty persuaded her to have it (this angle is also not pursued leaving Parker Posey little to do). After a short period of blurry shaky cam shots our star's vision returns with the added ability to see spirits. The rest of the film follows similar plot lines of other Asian horror imports (think Dark Water/the Ring). The film could have used some character development. I'm reminded of a party scene early in the movie where we are introduced to several acquaintances of our star, however most are never heard of again. I guess they are there to prove that our highly attractive and successful star has loads of friends. I could have figured that out myself; what I would have liked to see is why these friends liked this woman (other than the fact that she is highly attractive). A similar scene during the opening of Cloverfield introduced several people and set up an emotional connection with the characters that was developed throughout the picture - in the Eye it is just a throw away scene. I also did not care for the Reaper/Spirits. They are computer generated garbage. Not scary/not believable. In final analysis this movie scared the crap out of me.

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I was pleasantly surprised with Jessica Alba's acting in The Eye. I was convinced that she was blind in the time that she is shown as such. Even after the surgery to transplant her eyes, you definitely feel like you're getting your own sight back with her. That is partly because of her acting, and a lot due to the good camera direction. Maybe I'm dumb to think that cellular memory (The idea of an organ donor's body parts having a memory of past events, such as if the person was a heavy-smoker) could happen, but I thought the story based on this was very intriguing and original. This movie is pretty depressing - despite Jessica receiving her successful transplant - but it is a fine thriller, and that is what I wanted to see. The Eye is a very good movie that stands on its own (No pale children crawling on floors like in every Japanese horror movie and its remake), please check it out.

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Sydney receives a pair of eyes after spending most of her life blind. The eyes give her sight but also the supernatural ability to SEE ghosts. The eyes are even more special than that! The eyes give her the ability to HEAR ghosts. Good grief, Two cheap shot spots made me jump.

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