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Synopsis:
    Rachel Keller (Naomi 'Jet Girl' Watts) is a driven scandal-rag reporter who is currently conducting Love Deprivation Experiments on her son, Aidan (David 'I Can Out-Intense Halley Joel Osmot' Dorfman) by staying out all the time, leaving him with a sitter, letting him call her Rachel, and leaving him to rot in school even when the last bell has rung. At a funeral for a friend, Rachel discovers that several teens all died at exactly the same moment, all in very mysterious circumstances. Being a reporter, Rachel decides that it might just not kill her to do a little investigation, and so she finds herself on the trail of the mysterious video tape that kills people (not to be confused with the cat who scares people) in exactly seven days from view. As one might imagine, Naomi sees the tape, aquires a countdown on her stay in this veil of tears, and searches all the harder for a cure. When her son accidentally sees the tape, Naomi realises that she actually does give a fig about the little man and goes to the ends of the Earth to search for the mystery of the tape.

Commentary:
    Very little can actually be said about The Ring. It's a wonderful film that pulls absolutely none of its punches in delivering a very creepy, very intense story to its audience. Nearly every scene in the movie accomplishes one of two goals: intensifying the Creep factor of the film or crafting another revelation to throw at the viewers like a giant spitball of discovery. As such, nearly anything that I can say about this movie would spoil some degree of your enjoyment of the film, and thus, I will spare your tender little souls this indignityt by holding my tongue.
    What I can say, however, is that The Ring is an Americanized version of a Japanese film about the same subject matter (A little phenomenon called Ringu) which itself was based upon a book of the same name. The original japanese version of The Ring took more than a few liberties with the book's plot, largely to make the thriller a more visual experience, given that movies are... y'know... visual and all. It was an amazing success. And I'm pleased to report that the American version actually retains most, if not all, of the Japanese film's visual effectiveness. Certain elements of the story have been Westernized, but here's the kicker... there has been no dumbing down of the plotline. There has been some streamlining of the plot, but for my money, this was for the best. In all, The Ring is a very intelligent, very visually powerful movie that's almost guaranteed to keep you sleeping with the lights on for at least two nights.     If you enjoy horror... or if you enjoy creep-factor... or if you're just looking for a Smart film, you could do far worse than to check out The Ring. This movie is really one of a kind: most movies that we translate over to our Western Market wind up dumbed down and watered down into pap (witness what happend to Vanilla Sky). We've been presented with the chance to announce to Hollywood that hey... we're honestly capable of dealing with films which do not pander. I for one intend to do everything I can to impart this message to the Powers that Be.

Moments to Watch For

• Get a haircut, you hippy chick!
• The kid who could out-stare Audie Murphy.
• The horse-whisperer.
• Does absolutely no one in this cinemaverse love their child?

Recommended: Give it a ring. You'll be glad you did.

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