|
| The Forgotten | 
| Category: Movie
Buy New: $2.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  280 reviews
Sales Rank: 2726
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: Video Download
Running Time: 95 minutes
ASIN: B000T4349G
Theatrical Release Date: September 23, 2004
Release Date: August 13, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Good Concept, Badly Played Out December 11, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Forgotten has a very good plot about kids who go missing, and their parents are the only ones who remember them However, the played-outedness (not a word, yes, I know) is very poor. I thought some parts were SO confusing, such as when the woman is pulled through the air. Like, WHAAAAAAAAT???? Why the heck did she just fly into nothingness. Anyway, this is a very mediocre movie. I think that it could have been good if the productionists had a better director.
 Well done but it lacks meaning December 2, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
A small film that is suspenseful and well done as altogether. But... Some extraterrestrials are alluded at as experimenting on human beings. But nothing is really shown of them, about them, concerning them. They are a total mystery. They are trying to erase the memory of human beings but we will never know why nor how nor what for. They are doing some experiment for the sake of doing it. Then what kind of appreciation can we put forward? Memory is both erasable and un-erasable. When we are dealing with children, abducted children, the mother has an advantage because she is going to remember the child physiologically in her own body from even before he was born. But that is rather trite. It leads to no kind of conclusion. So who can have any interest, and what interest, in erasing people's memory, that memory people love forgetting, disguising and losing as fast as they can invent some substitute recollection to replace the truth? The end then is like a happy unexplainable return of the lost and the forgotten and appears like a vague fragrance, taste or perfume wafting along in some windy corridor. The technique of the film is good but it has no depth, hence no real meaning.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
I'll Never Forget Whassaname November 18, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
There are those among us who cast a jaundiced, skeptical eye upon the heavens and conclude that there is nothing out there but blank, frigid emptiness, the occasional congealed dust bunny and/or burning orb, and astronaut flotsam and jetsam. These heathens believe that the rational beings on earth are alone, unique among the galaxies, masters of all. But The Forgotten begs to differ. Indeed, individuals unwilling to concede that malevolent forces interfere in the lives of mankind and treat human beings with the same dispassionate cruelty scientists reserve for lab rats would have a hard time explaining the W. Bush administration. But then, so would the W. Bush administration, should it ever feel the need to do so.
Critics and audiences alike seem to have held The Forgotten up to a rather high standard and consequently missed the boat. Undoubtedly this was due to the presence of Julianne Moore, a marquee actress. They astutely pointed out the lack of concrete proof that space aliens control our lives! They also pointed out that being the editor of children's books doesn't exactly qualify you to outmaneuver Federal Agents! Zut alors! Imagine this, improbability in a film! However, they failed to light on the nice idea that memories themselves play a large role in shaping who and what we are - and stealing them away not only will drive us mad - it will make us malleable and easy to exploit. This interesting notion is elegantly wrapped in a dressy psychological thriller that features good acting, cracker-jack special effects, and excellent pacing.
Yes it is implausible that space aliens are using human beings as part of a science project to be presented at an inter-galactic parent's night. But let's just say that the sci-fi angle is in there for purposes of plot convenience, and the "aliens" in question are the top 1% who very conveniently sit on the same boards of the same companies and shuffle quietly in between government posts and lucrative private sector appointments with an uncanny knack for attracting government contracts. Does the idea of erasing collective memory seem quite as improbable now?
The Forgotten is not a great movie, but it's a good and well made movie that's a lot of fun to watch - and recall.
Forgettable mess of C-Grade cinema... September 18, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Supposedly Julianne Moore is a good actress. She has a strong fan base that glorifies her with godlike titles and stand behind her work one-hundred percent. She may be a good actress, but I present to you exhibit A as proof that she is a dumb one. I don't know what distresses me more about `The Forgotten', the fact that I expected more out of the plot or the fact that I expected more out of Moore herself. I remember vividly when this film was released and being intrigued by the way the trailer emphasized the creepy atmosphere of the film, and atmosphere this is all but absent in the actual film. I remember being excited by the premise, a premise with lots of potential that quickly evaporates in the climatic scenes and fails to live up to its potential. I remember saying to myself, Julianne Moore is supposed to be a good actress, a great actress even so this has got to be good. Like I said, good actress or not, this film is just one of many that prove she's pretty stupid.
`The Forgotten' plays out like a C-Grade alien flick complete with fields of tall grass (you ever notice how they always tend to show up in alien films). The story revolves around Telly Paretta, a young woman who has lost her son in a plane crash. She's still in the thick of the grieving process and has to see a shrink to help deal with the pain. She spends hours in her son's room looking through his things, feeling his baseball glove, staring at his photographs until one day they all disappear. There is nothing in his drawers and his face has been removed from all the family photographs. She thinks her husband is trying to force her to move on but he insists that she never had a son, that she had suffered a miscarriage and has been pretty much batty ever since.
The remainder of the film consists of Telly and another grieving parent Ash trying to find their children they claim have been taken from them. The feds are after them and so they must stay in hiding, and then there's this strange man who keeps showing up, a man they are just certain had something to do with their children's disappearance. The film to me starts to fall apart the minute Telly's husband forgets who she is. To me that was just too far because it really has nothing to do with the end result of the film. This is about a world forgetting about a child and a mother being the only one to remember him. Having her husband forget who she is was just out of place and unnecessary. Maybe it was just a way to eliminate the need for his character anymore, but it was just stupid. In fact, the character of Ash as well was a little to open ended. He really has nothing to do with the final outcome. This is a story about Telly and having another parent, especially a male, going through her turmoil was pointless.
I think what really did it for me though was the way the film ends. We're waiting for this explosive conclusion, something really earth shattering and in the end it's utterly disappointing. It leaves the audience feeling ripped off, seriously ripped off. The alternate ending provided on the DVD is even worse than the one used in the film. I'll say this, to me this film works like a loose plot build around a cool special effect. It's almost like some kid was sitting at his computer messing with some video feed and figured out a way to make people fling carelessly into the sky and said "this would look awesome in a movie" and so they found a way to use it. And that's just it. The scenes where people are being extracted into space is actually pretty cool, especially when the whole cabin room flings off, but aside from a cool special effect `The Forgotten' is a forgettable mess of C-Grade cinema.
Sorry Moore, but in this case less, or none at all, would have been preferable. Here's to hoping you smarten up because what I saw in `Far From Heaven' or even `Boogie Nights' is far removed from the poor excuse I see in this drivel.
*I just want to say that I'm really struggling with a rating for this film. I can see how some would find some satisfaction within but overall it is a messy and somewhat boring endeavor. I'm going with 2 stars against my better judgment (my instinct says 1) based solely on the fact that those special effects are spectacularly used and Dominic West actually does some convincing acting no matter how unnecessary his character really was.*
Is Moore's character going schizophrenic? September 12, 2007
Symbolism to notice in the movie includes blue and gold light, with blue representing a potential mysterious alien presence or Moore's character, Telly, becoming delusional. Gold light being Telly's memories with her son. As the memories keep growing, the gold light gets brighter. Alien symbolism includes helicopter shots (at the beginning especially), cloud effects, slight eerie sounds, and even the scene of the rooftop playground around 35:00. Library lights are like saucers.
A factoid is that the motel in the movie had prostitutes in it. Also, the Wall St. bull is in it, and apparently is a tourist monument.
As an actress, Moore is really flexible being able to show joy or determination, and apparently able to be facetious off camera only about 3 seconds before acting. She seems perfectly in character and fits well with the situation at all times. Dominic West (Ashe Correll) also felt played his role as a former hockey player very well.
There is no overly done romance except for a predictable hollywood kiss when they are in a bed scene together.
Telly escapes a little too easily from Shineer's house which makes the story not cohesive enough. That is the only thing that really sticks out as questionable in the movie, otherwise the plot and the suspense work well to keep some movie viewers interested.
The alternate ending for the movie was too confusing with too many details, but more interesting than the ending used. After seeing the ending one can see why it was left as an extra on the DVD rather than becoming the original ending used.
|
|
|
Wildlife, nature and the Environment
Sponsored Links
Learn how to get your own Amazon Book shop | |
