When a Stranger Calls it Hurts Inside

My wife and I watched When a Stranger Calls a while back. We had seen the original and the sequel to the original back when we were dating. The only reason why we watched the original in the first place was because we were wanting to watch something and we were at her house and it was there and neither one of us had seen it before. One of those movies that people own and don't know why thing. So, we watched it and we were surprised that it was pretty good. Especially, that opening sequence... whew, genius. So we watched the sequel as well and naturally it wasn't as good as the first.

The remake, though, I'm sad to say, was pretty painful. Okay, really painful. I know a movie is really bad when I can start blurting out mistakes and laughing and my wife doesn't stop me. You see, we usually give movies a good chance, a nice run for their money. But, sometimes movies are just so bad you can't help but start blurting things out. Grant it, I can be bad about pointing things out and talking to the characters on screen, but I control it. Usually.

But this time, I couldn't. You just can't do what they did and expect me to sit back and take it. For the first time, I think, after the film was over we went back to scenes and reviewed them to point out mistakes. One of my favorites was a shot that clearly had some guy in a white T-shirt in the background. Go crew; you rock! And go editor for not seeing the obvious dude in the background! And it was more than that... a lot more than that. And let me clarify that I am not demeaning crew and editors. I myself am often a crew member on our productions and the main editor for our company.

What really disturbs me the most though is how a movie can be so inconsistent and painful yet somehow those involved in the production are proud of it. How do they not see these things? I realize people have different tastes and there may be some of you that read this that will have enjoyed the movie; but seriously... from a stand point of inconsistency and mistakes, how can people say this is a good script? How can they honestly look at all the inconsistencies and feel fine with it that way? When we're working on a project the actors, crew and anybody else involved in the production are always keeping us in line. Because, honestly, no one wants to make a bad movie. So what if that means changing the script a little? When it comes to quality, it's worth it! There's been things that I've really wanted in some of my scripts before, but I had to drop them, because it just didn't work with the story or the characters. Ah, well.

The bad movies bring out some good, though. It makes me think about these things and try very hard not to make the same mistakes and to watch out for certain things. But, at any rate... I have attacked this film quite enough.