Saw this last night, the way it started I thought it was going to head down the same route as other "paranormal" films, but thankfully it took a different course.
7/10 - I thought Weaver, De Niro and Murphy were all excellent, still a little confused by the ending though.
Started off well enough with Weaver and Murphy, the proverbial 'ghostbusters', setting off to debunk supposed paranormal activity. There's fun to be had as the duo, also aided by Elisabeth Olsen, expose your typical evangelical / spiritual types for the charlatans they normally are.
Along comes De Niro as the mysterious Simon Silver who then becomes the focal point for the movie; is this guy genuinely gifted or another hack?
Not quite sure what this film really was. Part-shocker, part-expose, part-thriller.. really, all it was, was part-boring. I think the film lost the plot when one of the characters fell by the wayside and it became then, a battle of psychic wills between Silver and the remaining investigators. Red Lights also squarely falls into the bracket of low rent shockers that has to signify each 'shock' with an exponential increase in the soundtrack. Annoying.
The final third sees a faux-documentary, that places Silver in some rather dubious control conditions as his powers are investigated. And, a grand-standing showdown with Silver really does bring the house literally down.. and this is effectively your Sixth Sense revelation. But at this point, I was beyond caring. The cast are all adequate, but I just felt this movie was really beneath them all. The tacky scare tactics became wearing by the end and I couldn't help but laugh at some of De Niro's ramblings.
There are enough clues in the movie and ala the Shyamalan classic, these are handily presented in flashback.. just in case you missed them. If you like playing guess-the-twist, you might enjoy Red Lights. As for a decent film, I came out wishing I'd watched Red Tails instead....
Started off well enough with Weaver and Murphy, the proverbial 'ghostbusters', setting off to debunk supposed paranormal activity. There's fun to be had as the duo, also aided by Elisabeth Olsen, expose your typical evangelical / spiritual types for the charlatans they normally are.
Along comes De Niro as the mysterious Simon Silver who then becomes the focal point for the movie; is this guy genuinely gifted or another hack?
Not quite sure what this film really was. Part-shocker, part-expose, part-thriller.. really, all it was, was part-boring. I think the film lost the plot when one of the characters fell by the wayside and it became then, a battle of psychic wills between Silver and the remaining investigators. Red Lights also squarely falls into the bracket of low rent shockers that has to signify each 'shock' with an exponential increase in the soundtrack. Annoying.
The final third sees a faux-documentary, that places Silver in some rather dubious control conditions as his powers are investigated. And, a grand-standing showdown with Silver really does bring the house literally down.. and this is effectively your Sixth Sense revelation. But at this point, I was beyond caring. The cast are all adequate, but I just felt this movie was really beneath them all. The tacky scare tactics became wearing by the end and I couldn't help but laugh at some of De Niro's ramblings.
There are enough clues in the movie and ala the Shyamalan classic, these are handily presented in flashback.. just in case you missed them. If you like playing guess-the-twist, you might enjoy Red Lights. As for a decent film, I came out wishing I'd watched Red Tails instead....
I've just watched this. It was weird, because there seemed to be a point in the middle of the movie that just jumped into a completely different plot point .. i was watching it then found myself saying aloud "have i missed something here ?".
I'll spoiler it ..
When Murphy's character rushed to the Theatre to try and spy on DeNiro and all the equipment started blowing up, swiftly followed by Weaver's character dying.
I had to re-watch that section again and it turned out I hadn't missed anything, but it just kind of threw me out for the rest of the film really.
Watched this today and thought it was brilliant, with a twist at the end. Plus all good performances from Sigorney Weaver and Robert De Niro. Was truly creepy as well:eek:
Also seen this and thought it was brillliant. DeNiro in certain scenes seemed to be hamming it up, otherwise i thought it was a cracker with a great ending! Really liked it because it was something different from the norm and it impressed.
Comments
http://www.stazoo.com/movie/movie_profile.php?movie_id=2339&movie_title=Red%20Lights&movieor_id=771219292
Fyi....its pretty crappy
7/10 - I thought Weaver, De Niro and Murphy were all excellent, still a little confused by the ending though.
Started off well enough with Weaver and Murphy, the proverbial 'ghostbusters', setting off to debunk supposed paranormal activity. There's fun to be had as the duo, also aided by Elisabeth Olsen, expose your typical evangelical / spiritual types for the charlatans they normally are.
Along comes De Niro as the mysterious Simon Silver who then becomes the focal point for the movie; is this guy genuinely gifted or another hack?
Not quite sure what this film really was. Part-shocker, part-expose, part-thriller.. really, all it was, was part-boring. I think the film lost the plot when one of the characters fell by the wayside and it became then, a battle of psychic wills between Silver and the remaining investigators. Red Lights also squarely falls into the bracket of low rent shockers that has to signify each 'shock' with an exponential increase in the soundtrack. Annoying.
The final third sees a faux-documentary, that places Silver in some rather dubious control conditions as his powers are investigated. And, a grand-standing showdown with Silver really does bring the house literally down.. and this is effectively your Sixth Sense revelation. But at this point, I was beyond caring. The cast are all adequate, but I just felt this movie was really beneath them all. The tacky scare tactics became wearing by the end and I couldn't help but laugh at some of De Niro's ramblings.
There are enough clues in the movie and ala the Shyamalan classic, these are handily presented in flashback.. just in case you missed them. If you like playing guess-the-twist, you might enjoy Red Lights. As for a decent film, I came out wishing I'd watched Red Tails instead....
Rating 6/10. Only if there's nothing better on...
Thats one film i dont need to see then!
Good performances from Cillian Murphy, Sigourney Weaver and Robert de Niro though.
Sigourney Weaver was the best thing about it, and
'How did you do that?' was also awful.
I'll spoiler it ..
I had to re-watch that section again and it turned out I hadn't missed anything, but it just kind of threw me out for the rest of the film really.