How sad is this?

As Good As It Gets

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Photographer Ben Shaw (Joshua Jackson) marries Jane (Rachael Taylor) in NYC. They go to Tokyo for him to return to his job. She's a fish out of water. While driving on a deserted road, she runs into a woman. Both Ben and Jane pass out in the crash. Upon waking, nobody could find the woman. However they start to be haunted by her. A spirit shows up in their photographs and they are hounded by her.It's a horror based on a Thai original that is inspired by Japanese horrors. With photography going digital, this one is on the verge of being obsolete. It's a rather bland horror and not a scary one. There is no new visual ideas in this. I do like the Japanese locations which is made into a cold foreign place. There is something obvious about the final twist although the particulars have some bite. Overall, the movie isn't interesting for too long and never gets that compelling anyways.

There are a section of people that will more than likely put this American remake of the original Thai movie down purely BECAUSE it's an American remake, which is ridiculous in all honesty. There are plenty of remakes of Asian horror that have still been as enjoyable as the originals and it's actually quite sad people will not like the remake purely because it's an American version. If you go into this version with an open mind, even after seeing the original, then you should still quite enjoy it.This one sticks pretty close to the original in storyline as well, which is a good thing because with it being a remake you sometimes kind of expect them to change things around, and end up ruining it but they don't. The ironic thing is with that though, is if you've seen the original then you know what to expect at the end so it kind of takes that surprise element away slightly.Anyway, this one felt like it was a bit slower for the first half of the movie that what the original did, but thankfully it picks up enough within the last 30 minutes or so to make up for that. The story unravels nicely enough as it goes along, keeping your interest peaked to keep you watching until the very end with a decent amount of tension & suspense, which again gets better as the film goes on. There are also some nice creepy moments here and there and while none of them will seriously freak you out, they do enough just to make you feel that wee bit uncomfortable.The cast are OK and they do a decent enough job, but there's just something about Joshua Jackson that is out of place with his role of Ben. It's not that he does a bad job with the part, but I do feel that someone else might have done a better job. Then again it could have been worse...they could have got the emotionless Mark Wahlberg in instead.Overall, while this won't go down as being one of the best horrors of all time, it's still a very decent movie. Ignore any of the hate you read about it and judge for yourself.

I have not seen the original, so I can't compare the two films. From what I have read on this site, the remake is virtually the same to the original. My biggest complaint was that Megumi wasn't scary at all, she just looks like a normal girl, lets compare her to Kayako from The Grudge, Kayako looks frightening and her classic vocals will haunt you, but Magumi doesn't offer anything scary, all she wants to do is hang around Ben. The acting was bland, much like the script, but thats to be expected. I thought a film like this would have a great atmosphere, but no, they dropped the ball big time. And once again the ghost just wants revenge and then it's done, how's that scary, I prefer the idea of a ghost being a curse and will kill anyone it pleases, thats scary. I guess what happened to Magumi was somewhat disturbing, she was a timid girl and didn't deserve what she got. Now I would bet money that the original was the film I should have watched, because this one wreaks of being designed for American audiences. Give it a watch if you want, don't expect anything good though.

Stop all the Bashres in the name of god!!I will advise you to take their reviews in a limited way. They are biased by prejudmental expectations about the movie.and now to the REAL review: Well made creepy ghost story - creeped the hell out of me, had a pleasantly interesting unexpected ending.There's no "been there done that" although it's a "Grudge" stile. Scared me all the way - and more and more with every development in the plot.And for The bashers who doesn't like something with Ghosts and remakes? don't watch it please. Let the non prejudges audience enjoy the movie!Again - well made horror movie. See it. 8/10