Movie Reviews: "Orphan" - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

JamesG · 07-27-2009, 08:03 PM

Movie Reviews: Orphan
27 July 2009 12:05 PM, PDT

Horror films rarely are screened for critics -- let alone get positive reviews from them.

Orphan is an exception.

No less a critic than Roger Ebert has awarded the film 3 1/2 stars. He calls the film "shamelessly effective" -- shameless, apparently, because it concerns a child -- benign on the surface, but with evil powers lurking below. Ebert concedes that the movie "would probably have offended" his late television colleague Gene Siskel, "who had a thing about movies exploiting children in danger."
Yet he concludes: "You want a good horror film about a child from hell? You got one."

Mick Lasalle in the San Francisco Chronicle praises the film for providing "everything you might expect in a psycho-child thriller, but with such excess and exuberance that it still has the power to surprise."

Likewise Claudia Puig remarks in USA Today that Orphan "is a cut above most spooky-kid movies, with a twist that sets it apart."

Likewise Tirdad Derakhshani in the Philadelphia Inquirer concludes: "Orphan, with a perverse plot twist at the end, will keep you on tenterhooks from its nightmarish opening scene to its chilling last frame."

But Kyle Smith in the New York Post says that "the film mangles its twist and fails to deliver an interesting coup de grace or a sharp line of dialogue.

And Manohla Dargis in the New York Times faults the movie for its two-hour length, which she says, "is absurd for a dopey 'boo' movie."
She concludes, "The young actors are very good ... but there's something creepy, and not pleasurably so, about watching children pantomime so much malice and fear."

-IMDB News

browneyes106 · 07-27-2009, 08:21 PM

I saw it this weekend and it was a well done horror thriller movie.

JamesG · 07-27-2009, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by browneyes106

I saw it this weekend and it was a well done horror thriller movie.

Yeah, I haven't heard many negative things about this one. I will def. be checking it out soon.

I'm very curious to see what this plot twist is all about.

I wonder what they'll all be saying about The Collector. heh

browneyes106 · 07-28-2009, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesG

Yeah, I haven't heard many negative things about this one. I will def. be checking it out soon.

I'm very curious to see what this plot twist is all about.

I wonder what they'll all be saying about The Collector. heh

The twist was sort of weird but it makes sense at the end. The Collector looks really good too.

browneyes106 · 07-28-2009, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesG

Yeah, I haven't heard many negative things about this one. I will def. be checking it out soon.

I'm very curious to see what this plot twist is all about.

I wonder what they'll all be saying about The Collector. heh

The twist was sort of weird but it makes sense at the end. The Collector looks really good too.

JamesG · 08-02-2009, 03:48 AM

I saw this tonight. It wasn't a bad film at all; this family sure takes a lot of abuse.

I picked up on where they were going with the twist at the end because

Spoiler: (Highlight this box to see the hidden message.)

some time ago I heard about the medical condition that the "orphan" has

but it was good overall.

07-27-2009, 08:03 PM	#1
JamesG Freakshow Moderator Forum Icon Join Date: Feb 01, 2008 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 57,179	Movie Reviews: "Orphan" Movie Reviews: Orphan 27 July 2009 12:05 PM, PDT Horror films rarely are screened for critics -- let alone get positive reviews from them. Orphan is an exception. No less a critic than Roger Ebert has awarded the film 3 1/2 stars. He calls the film "shamelessly effective" -- shameless, apparently, because it concerns a child -- benign on the surface, but with evil powers lurking below. Ebert concedes that the movie "would probably have offended" his late television colleague Gene Siskel, "who had a thing about movies exploiting children in danger." Yet he concludes: "You want a good horror film about a child from hell? You got one." Mick Lasalle in the San Francisco Chronicle praises the film for providing "everything you might expect in a psycho-child thriller, but with such excess and exuberance that it still has the power to surprise." Likewise Claudia Puig remarks in USA Today that Orphan "is a cut above most spooky-kid movies, with a twist that sets it apart." Likewise Tirdad Derakhshani in the Philadelphia Inquirer concludes: "Orphan, with a perverse plot twist at the end, will keep you on tenterhooks from its nightmarish opening scene to its chilling last frame." But Kyle Smith in the New York Post says that "the film mangles its twist and fails to deliver an interesting coup de grace or a sharp line of dialogue. And Manohla Dargis in the New York Times faults the movie for its two-hour length, which she says, "is absurd for a dopey 'boo' movie." She concludes, "The young actors are very good ... but there's something creepy, and not pleasurably so, about watching children pantomime so much malice and fear." -IMDB News

07-27-2009, 08:21 PM	#2
browneyes106 Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Apr 01, 2008 Posts: 6,094	I saw it this weekend and it was a well done horror thriller movie.