Movie Reviews

Review in a Hurry:  Schlocky, obvious fight-flick that gets the shock job done, but at the expense of subtly, fun and, possibly, Hilary Swank's career.

The Bigger Picture:  The Reaping is a thriller about what happens when a professor who specializes in debunking "religious" phenomena around the world is faced with inexplicable occurrences. So, of course she's a former minister who no longer believes in God. And of course her partner is a true believer who, in case you miss this fact, is tattooed with gigantic crosses all over his body (even his neck!), wears a cross and does the sign of the cross practically every time he crosses the street. And of course her next assignment is investigating a demonized little town called—no, really—Haven.

Director Stephen Hopkins (The Life and Death of Peter  Sellers) scares the poop out of you, but he uses every cheap trick in the book—his favorite being the "long, eerie silence interrupted by sudden crash/attack, accompanied by bombastic music cue." Hopkins should have taken a different kind of cue from past horror classics like Rosemary's Baby and...Totally. Underplayed. Everything. Instead, he's turned the volume up to 11 at every turn. Maybe he figures the devil doesn't need subtlety, but the truth is audiences do.

Hilary Swank, what the, er, heck are you doing here? Doesn't a two-time, even one-time, Oscar winner have better scripts than this piling up on her agent's desk?

The Reaping is so schlocky that the presence of outstanding actors like Swank and Stephen Rea perversely cheapens it; what fun it'd be with B-listers chewing the scenery on late-night cable. From the overtly symbolic clichés to villains you can spot in the first frame, The Reaping only sows disbelief and chortles from the audience.

The 180—a Second Opinion:  I did nearly chew my hand off from fright, so there's that.