Gothika Rating: Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Halle Berry Robert Downey Jr. Penélope Cruz Charles Dutton Complete Cast (10 total)

Gothika Reviews

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A Supernatural Thriller Ed Wood Would Have Loved
I know when you go to certain kinds of movies you have to be wiliing to suspend your disbelief in order to be entertained. Not this time. Gothika is a suspense movie with so many holes in the plot that it resembles Charlie Brown's Halloween costume.

First things first...the story. Halle Berry plays a woman named Anna who is a shink at a mental institution. She happens to be married to Doug played by Charles S. Dutton who is also her boss. Anna drives home on a rainy night to almost run down a girl. That is the last thing she remembers before she wakes up as a patient in her own institution and accused of murdering her husband.

Okay, now, I don't know of any real life examples of this happening but I seriously doubt that if a woman was in that situation they would put her in the same facility where she worked. Most likely she would have been transfered to another facility for her safety. But being held in the facility is conveinent for the plot of this ridiculous story.

Another thing about that facility..it's dark and dreary. The exact kind of atmosphere those places try to avoid. It would be well lit.

As I said, Anna being held in the facility in which she works provides convienence for the plot. Anna knows her way around and that makes it easier for her to escape. First thing, the guards at this institution are very stupid. They cannot find as she is trying to escape. IN one of the worst scenes in the movie she hides in an indoor swimming pool at night with the lights off. She's in the corner and the cops are looking for her with flashlights and after a few seconds they determine she's not here. No, the did not bother turning on the lights which would make her visible. If anyone in this story were quick witted this would be a very short movie.

I'll skip a lot and just say the showdown with the villian is just absurd. This is a mental institution. There is a struggle and a shoot out. Convienently the entire hospital staff disappears for this sequence.

This is pretty much a film dedicated with trying to get some cheap scares out of it's audience. You know, owls flying out of nowhere and people reaching out of the dark with loud noises on the soundtrack to increase the shock effect. If you want a good scare the original Dawn of the Dead is now on DVD. And the new one in the theater is good also. But save your hard earned money on this mess.

Gothika-it was awesome till the end, what happened????
Gothika is a fun thriller with a fast pace. Protagonist Halle Berry stars as a psychiatric doctor working in a modern day mental institution. Things get fun when she encounters what seems to be a demon and passes out, then awakens inside the mental institution as a patient and learns that she is being accussed of killing her husband(which she has no memory of)...

Gothika starts a bit slow, but heats up with a heart pounding pace. Halle does a great job of keeping her audience, as she plays a strong female character(that female audiences will embrace), while Male audiences will embrace Berrys curvy body running and bouncing around in tight clothes. Penelope Cruz(although with a annoying accent) pulls off a superb Co-starring performance, but unfortunatly she had less screen time then she deserved.

There was many times watching this film when I thought (wow, this is the best film I've seen this year), but the end of the movie ruins everything. For such a strange and unique movie, the cheezy ending is not what you crave. It's the biggest dissapointment in a ending since M. Night Shyamalans Signs. There is nothing worse then a great movie that completely falls apart at the end.

acting=4 stars
FX=4
ending=1 star
atmosphere=5 stars
Directing and Editing=3.5 stars
storyline=3.5 stars
meaningfullness=NA
replay value=2 stars

OVERALL= 3.29 stars

Gothika isn't perfect, but its still very much worth a look. While it's not worth purchasing on DVD, its worth a rent or a movie ticket purchase. Go for fun, not a masterpiece

More Customer Reviews (3 total)