Genres

Visitors Review

Dan Phillips 2012-05-25 10:30:56

I should have followed my gut and bailed out early

I really regret the time I spent watching this movie.I'm actually a very forgiving viewer, willing to accept a movie on itsown terms; and I like Ann Hathaway and David Morse a lot, other thingsbeing equal. They weren't equal. From the very start, Hathaway'scharacter is acting so unprofessionally and incompetently, and herlines are so poorly (insultingly!) written, that I wondered if it allcovered some worthwhile payoff.It did not.The pacing was so slow, the male lead was such an insultinglyobnoxious, unattractive personality, my gut kept saying "Bail! Bailout!" Yet the cognitive dissonance effect took hold. I'd alreadyinvested so much time, I wanted to see it through.Whew. Should have gone with the gut.Don't bother.

Jason McKiernan 2012-05-25 01:18:07

spends too much time concealing its secret to fully realize its potential as a human drama.

micdunnah 2012-05-16 14:07:34

Very Surprised

I really loved this movie. The ending is a total surprise. Maybe thewriter could have worked a little more on the characters, but overall Ithought their performances were terrific. Anne Hathaway was great. Itwas a change from the typical movies I watch, and was a refreshingsurprise to see something different. I also thought it was filmed verywell, and definitely agree that it is a drama with some special effectsadded. The story keeps you going, wondering what is going on all thetime. No real dry spots anywhere. I am surprised that this movie didnot get a better rating by movie buffs. I would definitely give it athumbs up to see this movie as it was very entertaining and intriguingto watch. I will definitely recommend it to my friends.

tchockythegreat 2012-05-16 05:06:30

A completely derivative premise that wastes a talented cast

Why such a talented cast, which includes rising stars Anne Hathaway andPatrick Wilson, would waste their time with such an obviously terriblefilm is a better mystery than the one this movie tried to conjure up.By far the biggest problem with this movie is the premise. If you'veseen Peter Weir's Fearless, M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense, andJames Wong's Final Destination (or even merely know what all of thosemovies are about), then you already know 95% of the plot of Passengers,including how it ends. However, the completely derivative premise isonly one of an endless amount of problems with this movie. The scriptitself was barely passable at its best and absolutely atrocious at itsworst. In other words, you have likely already seen most of what thismovie has to offer, and you've seen it done far better.In terms of how well the actors performed, Patrick Wilson did the bestjob. He does the best he can with what he had to work with, but he canonly do so much with such a rotten script. I expected more out of AnneHathaway, who in the past has made weak characters in weak movies atleast a little compelling (Havoc, Get Smart). Here she's woodenthroughout most of the movie and seems to be going through the motions,almost like she's bored. Most of the film's excellent supporting cast(including Dianne Wiest, David Morse and William B. Davis) is givenlittle to do and is all but completely wasted.The movie finally picks up steam in its final 20 or so minutes, but thefact is, even the most casual moviegoer will be able to see the "twist"at the end of the movie coming from a mile away. Plus, the "twist,"when thought about, is completely absurd and makes no sense.Among the few bright spots of the film are the soundtrack (which doescapture the mood the movie tries to present rather well) and thecinematography, which recalls the slow-simmering, ever-presentgloominess of Gore Verbinski's The Ring.Overall though, this movie has all the makings of a direct-to-videostinker that likely only received the perfunctory theatrical releasethat it did due to the fact that it came from the same studio that hadreleased the critically-acclaimed Rachel Getting Married merely weeksearlier, which, like this film, starred Anne Hathaway.

2012-05-11 22:56:31

"...I Know You From Somewhere..."

I've watched so many films this year - and the really good ones you can count on two hands - "Passengers" is one of them.At first it's a little frustrating as Anne Hathaway struggles with her therapist assignment - five men and women who've survived a crash-landed jet on American soil. They may or may not have acquired powers because of the crash - and people and odd things appear around them? Or perhaps the airline is being less than truthful about its planes and their maintenance records when she confronts them (David Morse)? Why is Patrick Wilson (one of the bloodied survivors who has recovered remarkably quickly) so determined to woe and date Anne? And why do others around Anne now want all manner of things from her - her boss wants a speedy report put in (Andre Braugher) - the suddenly way too friendly neighbor (Dianne Wiest)? To say too much is to give too much away, and I wouldn't want to spoil it - suffice to say - like many other reviewers, I was strangely moved by this film. "Passengers" is directed by Rodrigo Garcia - the same man who brought us the brilliant Gabriel Byrne psychiatrist drama "In Treatment". Hire this movie and bear with it - it's a gem in a sea of mediocrity.

edwagreen 2012-05-11 06:16:38

Passengers-Wow! Did They Crash? *

A really awful film.Anne Hathaway has such potential. How did she ever get mixed up in sucha mess like this?A psychiatrist or psychologist is sent to investigate the survivors ofa plane accident. It soon appears that the airlines is engaging in acover-up, blaming the pilot for the disaster. Sounds good so far.Unfortunately, that was not to be. We're dealing with a bunch of weirdsurvivors including one who has Hathaway go over the ethical line inpatient-doctor relationships.Dianne Wiest appears as a neighbor who talks and acts like akindergarten teacher.What's going on here? Finally, we come to realize that Hathaway is morethan a Ph.D here. Yes, she is a victim of circumstances. You mean thatno one survived? You can't survive this awful film either.

monalyssia 2012-05-09 03:42:48

Original ,deep and sensitive.

I was very impressed by this film, it means something special to me, Iconsidered it as a revelation of another existence beyond ordinarylife, where even a good psychiatrist trades her every day role inexchange for immortality, and needs to understand the process ofdying,as a spirit.The dead ones help each other to discover theserenity and the eternal love.I entirely forgot about the need to bescared,would it make any sense,as long as I was purely invaded by sucha fascinating story? I want to congratulate the director of thefilm-that includes the choice of the subject,the inspired cast,themusic that led me to the heart of the subject.

Mark Chen 2012-05-08 15:53:07

Another thriller that is not scary, yet not too bad.

First of all, the movie was kind of spoiled by the translated title inmy own language. The title had revealed the twist before I watched themovie. Yet I was still surprised at the end of it.Good to see the two main characters standing out quite well, they havevery memorable personalities. However, it's not scary at all. Instead,I feel like it more like a romantic movie. If any, the other charactersseemed sort of creepy and not natural.And some plots are even not very reasonable. The whole movie is just alittle loosely-connected. I wasn't very curious about what was going tohappen. There is creativity for sure, but the movie itself is not tooimpressive.Still, it's a relatively enjoyable movie if you just want to see athriller that is not going to scare your heart out.

2012-05-02 06:42:10

When the random, the future and the fate join forces!

The Mexican writer Octavio Paz stated once :"The past is function of the future. The future's will stands up the dead ...". Words more, words less this clever idea invites us to rethink what's our role in this world and somehow allows us to establish the chaos has a clever, even unknown order that we use to call coincidence, intersections of the fate or simply tragedy. Passengers- is without hesitation- one of the most surprising and smart movies of the year. Without being a great movie, it's a good one, due the curious plot. A febrile therapist begins to averíguate the in and outs of a weird crash plane. Through the film advances she will find some several clues that will lead us to an unexpected finale.Anne Hattahaway and Patrick Wilson exhibit an overwhelming chemistry along the story that surely will captivate you. Touching performances and fine direction make of this work a must-see.

soger 2012-05-01 10:29:10

Does not reach the standard

*** SPOILERS ***Don't read my comment until you actually watched the movie!There was a movie 10 years ago, The 6th Sense, we all watched it, weall loved it. There is nothing wrong in trying to create a similarmovie but you have to surpass the original. This movie is extremelysimilar to The 6th Sense, except that instead of a gifted child, yourdead loved ones help you, the doctor was a woman, and the horror scenesare replaced with emotional crap.I'm not saying this movie is bad, maybe someone who has not seen The6th Sense will enjoy it but I figured out almost the full story halfwayafter that it was just plain boredom. The movie delivered nothing newto me; I wasted 80 minutes of my life.

ueyy 2012-04-27 23:52:59

Interestiong movie!!

If you expect this movie is only thriller movie, you will be surprisedby the ending of this movie!!I think no one expect it! I have neverseen such a mysterious but heart-warming story. Moreover,AnneHathaway's performance is great. I think her role is too difficult andonly she can play it. However, I think it should be more specific abouthuman relations. Although sometimes I was confused of it, direction isstill good. Especially I think it is particular about detail. Itproduce uncanny atmosphere with characters. Casting is also great. Itis well-balanced!! I like this movie, but still I scared to get on theplane..

anil_lip 2012-04-27 19:51:02

Umm....Not so good

As far as my opinion this movie is based on an impossible story. But Ienjoyed the last 20 minutes. According to the genre this is not antypical horror movie.Its a full of drama and little bit thrill and action. It's a singletime watching movie. Since there was no publicity for this film, my expectations for it werepretty low.A film where only cast makes the difference, in fact without the skillsof Patrick Wilson and Anne Hathaway "Passengers" would have just been amelodramatic mess. ITS LACK OF ORIGINALITY...See it guys but its not a typical Anna's movie. Have a good time. Maythis comment will helpful to others.

Michael DeZubiria 2012-04-26 11:09:52

Uninspired emotional drama gets totally lost in the second half…

I have heard that Passengers received little marketing effort becausethe studio didn't want it to overshadow Anne Hathaway's other 2008film, the highly depressing Rachel Getting Married. I can only imaginethat they would do this because they didn't want her outstandingperformance in that film to be juxtaposed with her performance in thisone, where she is wildly, horrifically miscast. She is definitely atalented actress, but like it or not, she is just not an adult actressyet, and to cast her in a role as a grief counselor with, ladies andgentlemen, two Master's degrees and a freaking Ph.D is an action ofsuch vacuous logic that I can only imagine it was a blind stab atcatapulting her into a mature role that she simply isn't ready for yet. And it doesn't help matters that the first half of the movie is anemotional drama laden with every post-traumatic movie clichéimaginable, and the second half is almost entirely incomprehensible.It's one of those things where after the movie ends you can tell whatthey were trying to do, but you find yourself trying to figure out howthey went so wrong rather than trying to piece together a complexstoryline. Anne Hathaway plays Claire Summers, a grief counselor assigned to thetask of single- handedly providing group therapy to an entire planefull of crash survivors. I'm immediately lost as soon as the therapysessions begin, because Claire begins right off the bat byinterrogating the survivors about the crash as though they are suspectsin a crime. Do grief counselors really force trauma victims to relivetheir traumatic events in such detail? Even when they so clearly don'twant to? Seems a little counter-productive to me.At any rate, she soon meets Eric, one of the crash survivors who is"feeling a little too good." She walks into his hospital room where shefinds him naked as the day he was born with an ear to ear grin, and hecontinues this behavior for much of the rest of the movie, charming hisway into Claire's personal life through his clear and deep love of lifethat seems to be unique to people who have recently been reminded howfragile it all is.The movie begins with a subplot that suggests that the airline istrying to cover up the accident, which Claire begins to believe was theresult of shoddy maintenance (which, if revealed to the public, couldeasily put the airline out of business), by blaming it on the pilot.Shady characters show up in the bushes watching Claire's therapysessions, and she is confronted by ominous businessmen who warn her notto get too involved with the stories she's hearing from her patients,who seem to remember a mid-flight explosion, which doesn't really goalong with the sleepy-pilot story that the airline was pushing.The relationship between Claire and Eric is the most important thing inthe movie. It evolves from a therapist/patient relationship (althoughEric continuously insists that he's not a patient) to a romantic oneuntil the third act of the film, which is a bizarre attempt at a SixthSense-style twist that totally cancels out everything that we have seenso far. Don't be surprised if you spend most of the last 30 minutes ofthe movie trying to figure out what you saw in the first hour that youcan actually believe. It's a noble effort to throw a little mysteryinto the mix, but the new direction that the story takes at the enddoesn't really fit too well with what we've seen so far. The moviesimply jolts us out of the story and asks us to go along with it. Unfortunately, despite some good performances, Claire and Eric haveabsolutely no chemistry. He seems like a guy in his mid-thirtieshooking up with a high school girl, and their love scene might be themost thoroughly stale and generic one that I've seen in a movie inyears. He moves in for a kiss, she relents, and then we cut to aclose-up of her pillow as her head moves on screen, slowly laying downand looking into Eric's loving eyes. YAWN.There is also the matter of Eric's painting. He has always wanted topaint but has always been afraid to (??), but thankfully the crash hasmade him brave enough to pick up a brush. I'm all for adding a littledimension to characters, but I just can't get behind scenes like theone where he is showing Claire his newfound love of painting, and thenexperiences a flood of emotion which he deals with by franticallyflinging that brush across the canvas with all his might until hefinally dissolves into a tearful breakdown. I'm going to go ahead andsuggest that no one in film history has ever made a scene like thiswork. If you've seen one, please let me know, I would love to see areason why people keep filming them.Fans of the film will have a blast trying to reconstruct the events ofthe ending, but personally I just never was able to generate enoughinterest in the movie to invest the effort into deciphering the twistsand turns, who's alive, who's dead, and why people know what they knowand who they know at different times throughout the movie. It does havea lot to say about death, but unfortunately it doesn't say anything newor interesting and it even proves to be a huge amount of to discoverthe tired message. If the movie is going to be so disappointing, theycould at least have made it mildly exciting, like Turbulence…

2012-04-25 20:16:16

Very Solid, Paranormally Oriented Movie

If you liked SIXTH SENSE, you should like this film. Although it doesn't have quite the dramatic punch of that film, it certainly has punch enough over the course of it. The plot line is that there is a plane crash. There are only a handful of survivors and psychologist Anne Hathaway is called in to do group therapy with that small group. However, strange things begin to happen to the survivors and Hathaway becomes very suspicious. She is sure that the airline is trying to conceal some pertinent facts from her and everyone else. She delves further into this while getting closer and closer to one of the male patients in her small group. Anne Hathaway is a very lovely and talented actress.

2012-04-25 15:47:18

Facinating and imaginative storyline

This review is from: Passengers (DVD) What makes an interesting film is a theme that plays off the title without giving away the conclusion too early. In this film, Ann Hathaway is a very vunerable and believable character investigating a tragedy that unfolds before the viewers eyes.The interaction among the various characters hightened the plot as it eventually turned each corner.It is a film that tugs that one's emotions and concludes with a logical and pulsating rate. I truly enjoyed this film!

Nick Pinkerton 2012-04-25 00:02:28

The biggest shock (aside from seeing how arbitrarily movies are chosen for theatrical release) is provided by an intrusively blown newspaper.

2012-04-23 01:48:01

More a Drama Than a Thriller; Either Way "Passengers" Doesn't Work

"Passengers" would have been a straight-to-DVD film had it not been for the name of Anna Hatherway ("Rachel Getting Married") I am not saying that "Passengers" (of which story reminds me of Peter Weir's 1993 film "Fearless") is a horrible film. Actually its final chapter impressed me, but despite that and film's nice cinematography, the process to the resolution needs improvement.Anna Hatherway is Claire Summers, a therapist who is assigned to counsel the five survivors of a major airline crash. Claire is intrigued by one survivor Eric (Patrick Wilson), whose personality it is obvious has drastically changed after the devastating event. While Claire is attracted to nice and handsome Eric, perhaps more than she should be, Eric experiences strange sensations. "Passengers" has an ambitious premise - which I am not allowed to reveal it all - but still I can say Rodrigo García as a director is trying to make a moving character-driven drama and intriguing thriller as the same time. Some of the survivors say there was an explosion before the crash, but the airline represented by David Morse's character strongly denies that. Claire smells a cover up, but she is not perfectly sure who is right.One major problem is the character Anne Hatherway plays, a grief counselor whose behaviors are too immature and unprofessional. Rodrigo García, probably better known for his critically acclaimed film "Nine Lives," did create more credible characters in the past, but here Hatherway's therapist is simply unbelievable, repeatedly committing mistakes that no professional therapist would do. "Passengers" is less a thriller than a drama, but to be a decent drama a film need a better protagonist you can relate to.As to the film's thriller part, there is nothing intriguing about what the film shows or suggests. It gives us hints, certainly - a barking dog, a stranger standing in the street and so on - but these are thrown in at random, not strong enough to make us keep guessing. Of course everything will be explained in the film's wrap-up - things about young Claire and her sister who is away from the town; about Dianne Wiest's character, always gentle and smiling; or about Andre Braugher's Perry, Claire's "mentor." As I said, the film's conclusion is powerful and emotional. Unfortunately it takes a long time to reach there.

DICK STEEL 2012-04-22 16:17:20

A Nutshell Review: Passengers

Anne Hathaway stars in no less than three films being released thismonth alone in Singapore. There's Rachel Getting Married, the upcomingBride Wars, and Passengers. Amongst the three, and I'm counting mychickens before they hatch, Rachel Getting Married is a must watch tosee how Hathaway has nailed it as a credible actress, while Bride Warsfrom the trailer does suggest she has some comedic flair, and this one,well, is one of those attempts at her trying to diversify.She did credible, but still couldn't shun away from being a pretty vasein her Claire Summers role. But she uses it to her advantage here, asher struggling grief councilor character uses her charm to disarm, andis getting used to all the unwanted male attention courtesy of patientEric (Patrick Wilson), who is one amongst the group of an airplanecrash survivors that she's tasked to work with. Two separate threadsdevelop here, one on the romantic front with a clash of morals given aconflict of interest with a patient, and the other some creepy mysterywith regards to the shrinking size of her group therapy class.The former thread is easy to follow, since it's all about Eric andClaire playing games with each other, with every approach met with icycold defense, until of course persistence finally paying off. Don'texpect any sparks to fly as both Hathaway and Wilson felt as if they'regoing through the motions with their characters. The latter thread iswhere the fun should be, with its brewing conspiracy theory with theairline's involvement to something sinister, given contradictoryreports with the survivors' experience, as well as shadowy figuresfollowing everyone's movement.However, Ronnie Christensen's sleight of hand technique can be detectedand seen a mile away. In its buildup, suspense wasn't considered, andit plodded on with issues and unfinished business being piled one ontop of another, though credit must be given to David Morse in hiscreepy rendition as an airlines representative, as do Andre Braugherand Dianne Wiest. By the time the movie rolls around its half way mark,those alert can already know what the big revelation will be. Which isnothing groundbreaking already since a number of films already usesimilar plot devices and revelation that it's no longer surprising, butthe norm. I only felt that the revelation could have been less clumsyand made clearer, given the many bewildered responses heard all aroundthe cinema hall.Passengers is one of those films that you don't expect to see on aplane's inflight entertainment system, together with the likes ofFlightplan and the first Final Destination. It does boast a spectacularplane in distress scene, though it dangled that prospect for thelongest time before delivering its effects laden payload to theaudience.

doug-697 2012-04-16 13:50:13

A decent drama, but not really a "horror-thriller"

I enjoyed this movie, but you need to be wary about how it's beingdescribed as a drama- horror-thriller. It's far more a drama thanthriller, and I can't think of any horror elements in it at all. Idon't want to give any of the movie away, so I'd like to describe whatmight make it more likely that you'd enjoy it.Passengers concentrates on character development and primarily onClaire Summer (Anne Hathaway), a therapist who suspects she'sdiscovered a cover-up while treating the survivors of an airplanecrash, but also deals with her awakening to the reality that she'ssacrificed too much personal life for her career. Her loneliness is asimportant to this movie as the mystery she's trying to unravel.I liked Hathaway in this role. I wouldn't normally have thought of heras playing the part of a professional woman with two Masters degrees,as she usually conveys beauty and warmth instead of intellect. However,she's portraying a young academic on her first real-world case andshe's convincing when she spouts the predictable, psychobabble aninexperienced therapist would likely spout. I also liked herrelationship with her mentor Perry (Andre Braugher). The only weaknessin the film might be insufficient scenes exploring her loneliness. It'sthe reason she gets involved with Eric (Patrick Wilson) but it shouldhave been set up better. I'm not sure we're entirely convinced shewould have gotten involved with him. Her isolation from family andfriends should have been developed more.It's not a great movie, but I did enjoy it, and I don't find thecomplaints I've heard about the movie credible; that it's slow andderivative. North Americans have developed such short attention spans,"slow" often only means there's not a car crash every few minutes. Yes,it's derivative, but so is Eagle Eye, a film currently doing very wellat the box-office, which is obscenely derivative, but it doesn't seemto bother anyone since it's loaded with car crashes and other mindlessaction. (Eagle Eye is also appallingly dumb!)If you're looking for a drama with some elements of suspense whichtakes it's characters seriously, then I would recommend it.

CaptainSpaulding 2012-04-16 00:10:47

Very Engaging Movie

I found this movie to be well done and kept my interest right up to the unexpected ending. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys being surprised by good story telling.