The Call Isn't One To Miss

RATED- R

RUNE TIME- 94 MINS

WRITER(S)- RICHARD D'OVIDIO, NICOLE D'OVIDIO AND JON BOKENKAMP

STARRING- HALLE BERRY, ABIGAIL BRESLIN AND MORRIS CHESTNUT

DIRECTOR- BRAD ANDERSON

Synopsis taken from IMDb

When a veteran 911 operator takes a life-altering call from a teenage girl who has just been abducted, she realizes that she must confront a killer from her past in order to save the girl's life.

Being totally truthful, I had less than no expectations going into this film. I had written it off altogether, there are things about it that instantly turned me off about it, like the WWE pictures logo attached to the film. When this film was in theaters I didn't hear a single word about it! I didn't know if it sucked, or if no one went to see it.

However, now that it's out and everyone's been watching it on video, I started to hear things about it. I started to catch breeze of a little rumor that it's actually not a bad film. And like always, curiosity killed the cat, and I decided to give this film a view.

This film has it's flaws, but it is actually not that bad! One of the flaws being that Jordan's (Halle Berry) retirement from  being a 911 operator lasts all of five minutes. I didn't feel any excitement when she started using her communication skills again to save Casey (Abigail Breslin). I know some time had passed since Jordan had been an operator, but they just throw her back into it. So her hiatus isn't really effective.

I wish they would have gone deeper into the killers head, exposing more of his background. The way he was portrayed came off like a good episode of Criminal Minds, but without the back story. Nonetheless, the killer Michael Foster (Michael Eklund) was a crazy cat. Though the character is over acted in several scenes, the suspense never stops rolling. I was actually kind of shocked by how into this movie I was!

For the majority of the film to be taking place over the phone and in the trunk of a car, the crew of this film really rocked it. They turned up the heat and turned this thriller into a real pressure cooker. And while some of the film is obvious and predictable, other things about the film aren't, and it's a pleasant rebound.

I was also shocked that this film wasn't PG-13! There's very little blood shown on screen, so the majority of it's rating comes from the intensity and violence of the film. There's some pretty high-paced violence and action scenes going on in this film. The one thing, that I think is my biggest downfall of the film, is that they do the quick montage shots, like in a "The Fast and the Furious" film. Sometimes what's going on is enough, you don't need to add more action and speed to what's already happening.

The whole first 70-80 minutes of the film I really liked, but I agree with a friend of mine who said that he felt like once Jordan left the call station, the movie spun out of control. I think they had the right idea, but didn't know how to end the film, so it gets a bit drawn out and unbelievable.

Then the ending of the film just comes totally out of left field! Can't say that what happens isn't deserving, but it's a bit uncharacteristic, and I don't feel it meshed well with the film. To me, it is obvious that they put that into the film to get a shock value reaction out of the audience, and maybe it did. But it didn't make the movie any better.

It was cool to not be let down and totally bored by a film that I had no intentions of even seeing, but it's still not worthy of overpraise. It's a good , suspenseful roller coaster ride. It's worth at least a one time watch.