R E V I E W S
Bless The Child (2000)
Starring: Kim
Basinger, Jimmy Smits Studio: Paramount Pictures Review Posted: 8.13.00 Rating: 5/10
By Stephen.
"A blessing for being on the edge of average"
There's a growing tendency of horror/scary movies coming out of Hollywood's film factory. The good thing is that most people come to see those movies because they want to be scared shitless, but do they really come to see them because of the story? My guess would be "no."
Take End of Days and Stigmata and compare them to The Sixth Sense and Stir of Echoes. How are they different? While End of Days and Stigmata had sub-scary moments, TSS and SOE had scary moments throughout but also provided a great story with a twist at the end.
The newest supernatural horror flick right now is Bless The Child, starring Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, and Rufus Sewell. It's not scary enough, people will argue, but the story is enough to entertain bored minds. Kim Basinger did a good job provided her rather dull character.
In Bless The Child, Maggie O'Connor (Kim Basinger), a nurse, finds out that members of a satanic cult have kidnapped her autistic 6-year-old neice, Cody (Holliston Coleman). O'Conner does everything she can, like endangering herself in no time and ighting off evil looking CGI ghosts. Her commitment to get Cody back is absolute. John Travis (Jimmy Smitts), a local police detective, makes the connection that Cody has the same birthday as several other missing children in town, and sets a course for tracking down the satanists.
Chuck Russel, who previously directed Eraser, sat behind the lens in Bless The Child doing an OK job. Somehow his work here was limited as there was nothing new to explore. Also, certain plot holes existed throughout. Most of the characters in Bless The Child were introduced with patience and care, but in retrospect we couldn't care much for them because they just seemed a little too bland.
Bless The Child is not a great movie. It's not entirely worth $8 so try and catch a matinee show. It might even be on video level, but it's far better than End of Days and Stigmata. Bless The Child qualifies as a modest horror entertainer but has nothing else left to offer. Well, maybe the glimpse of someone's decapitated head. Take that however you want.
|
