Movie Review Pulse

Pulse (2006) 

Directed by Jim Sonzero 

Written by Wes Craven 

Starring Kristen Bell, Ian Somerhalder, Christina Millian, Zach Grenier, Octavia Spencer 

Release Date August 11th, 2006 

Published August 12th, 2006 

After The Grudge and The Ring became major hits Harvey Weinstein the imperial head of Miramax/Dimension films put the film Pulse in turnaround meaning he did not want to make it. Weinstein saw that the film had nothing new to offer and was merely a sad retread of J-horror cliches. When Weinstein and his brother Bob left Miramax for their own company the new owners decided to make the movie.

If only they had listened to Harvey. Pulse is just what Weinstein saw when he pulled the plug on the film, a dull, uninspired horror retread.

Mattie Webber (Kristen Bell) has not seen her boyfriend Josh (Jonathan Tucker) in days. He doesn't answer his phones or respond to email. When she finally finds him at his apartment he is ashen and bruised. He disappears into another room and when Mattie follows him she finds him hanging himself with a phone cord.

Josh's suicide is part of a rash of suicides in the area that are linked to a creepy website that invites viewers to see ghosts. Visitors to the site are soon ghosts themselves, turning to ash, melting into walls and walking off buildings. With her friends disappearing one by one Mattie seeks the help of the man who bought Josh's old computer, Dexter (Ian Somerhalder) to find out just what caused Josh and everyone else to want to die.

Pulse is based on the incomprehensible japanese horror flick Kairo which I watched and was completely baffled by. The Americanization of Kairo at the very least clarifies the plot but that is really the film's only positive quality. Director Jim Sonzero crafts a typically murky, gray-green horror film that mimics the look of The Ring and The Grudge right down to the perky blonde lead.

I don't mean to write off Kristen Bell as merely perky and blonde. The feisty star of TV's Veronica Mars is a terrific young actress with a very bright future who simply made a bad choice in accepting a Japanese horror film off the scrap heap of dozens of J-horror flicks still awaiting an American adaptation. Bell has all american girl looks with a smart sexy smirk that is sadly dimmed by the dreary scare free atmospherics of Jim Sonzero's uninspired direction.

There is an interesting idea lost in the morass of Pulse. The film's plot combines vague assertions to George Romero and The Matrix. The dead emerging from our technology to suck out our souls is an anti-technology message right after the heart of any luddite or technophobe. Unfortunately director Jim Sonzero lacks the imagination to give this idea a proper examination. Instead, what we get is gray-green fuzziness and typical horror movie tropes.

All of the film's attempts at scares are hackneyed horror cliches in which friends and ghosts jump out from dark corners just as the film's soundtrack reaches a stilted, screeching crescendo causing our heroes to leap and scream. Maybe if you haven't seen this before you might get a bit of a jump but by the 10th or 15th time this scene repeats in Pulse you will be more irritated than jumpy.

Murky, dreary and dull, Pulse is a tension free horror slog through tame PG-13 scares. An interesting idea of the horrors of our modern Wi-Fi society squandered by direction that lacks imagination and ingenuity. When even the spunky, sexy Kristen Bell cannot break free of the dank, gloomy listlessness you know the film must be truly awful.

Not even hardcore horror fans, or fans of the Japanese original Kairo, will find anything worth watching in Pulse.

Movie Review Rules of Attraction

Rules of Attraction (2002) 

Directed by Roger Avary 

Written by Roger Avary

Starring James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Kip Pardue, Jessica Biel, Kate Bosworth, Ian Somerhalder, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Faye Dunaway

Release Date October 11th, 2002 

Published October 11th, 2002 

From the twisted mind of Bret Easton Ellis comes The Rules of Attraction, a dyspeptic look at college life that is as bleak as Van Wilder was ridiculous. Ellis was the mind behind American Psycho, which became a movie starring Christian Bale. Not surprisingly the movie was a pale imitation of the book, but then to truly adapt American Psycho for the screen would be to garner the hardest NC-17 rating ever. The same could be said of The Rules of Attraction, a pale imitation of the book that also is unlikely to ever reach a true screen adaptation.

The film stars James Van Der Beek as Sean Bateman. If the name sounds familiar it should be Sean is the brother of Psycho’s Patrick Bateman. Sean Bateman isn’t the nutball his brother is but he has his moments, he’s a drug dealer who sells cocaine to classmates for twice what it’s worth. Bateman has a growing obsession with a classmate named Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon). Lauren on the other hand is obsessed with Victor (Kip Pardue, a long way away from Remember The Titans) who has no idea who she is. Victor has spent the past semester in Europe, and upon his return is screwing Lauren’s slutty roommate Lara (Jessica Biel). Rounding out the cast is a predatory gay man named Paul (Ian Somerhalder). Paul has a thing for straight guys and turns his sights on Bateman.

Each character is introduced in flashback, at a party. We begin with Lauren losing her virginity to some loser while the guy she had intended on being with filmed it. Rewind to months earlier and Lauren is doing all she can to keep from having sex including staring at pictures of people with venereal diseases. Sean meanwhile is in trouble with his drug supplier Rupert (Clifton Collins Jr.) for some money he owes.

The plot description is a waste of time, as there didn’t seem to be a plot. What we really have is a collection of scenes intended to shock the audience with audacious visuals and over the top characters. However, the scenes aren’t shocking, they are well visualized but without any context or point of view.

Despite what you may have heard about James Van Der Beek shedding his Dawson persona, the film clearly trades on Van Der Beek’s image. This is especially obvious in a scene between Van Der Beek and Fred Savage that is supposed to be funny because it’s Dawson and the kid from Wonder Years working out details of a drug deal. There are also scenes in which Bateman is seen masturbating which seem to wink at the audience and to say you would never see Dawson do that. In all honesty I don’t mean to rip Van Der Beek, his performance is strong, however it is undercut by Director Roger Avary’s desperate attempts at irony.

The film does have its strengths including a very cool montage of Victor’s trip to Europe. With cool European techno backing him up, Kip Pardue’s narration consists of his character screwing his way across Europe, slurping whatever drugs he can find and judging his destinations by the quality of women he could sleep with. The scenes shot on DV are edited to the killer techno beat, which gives the narration a beat poetry vibe. Very cool.

Though at times the film's visuals are self consciously arty, such as close up of a water faucet that is dripping water into a bathtub full of blood, they are, for the most part, visually exciting and by far the film’s greatest strength. If only the story and the characters were as exciting and interesting as the visuals, Rules Of Attraction could have been great. As it is the film is a mean spirited picture about unlikable characters that looks good on the outside but is entirely hollow.