When one usually thinks of “The Grudge II’s” executive producer, Sam Raimi, they either think of the nonstop action of the recent Spider-man films he produced, or the scary, yet witty storylines of the Evil Dead films. Unfortunately for movie-goers, “The Grudge II” has neither.
The movie is so bad that Raimi may want to take this film off his resumé.
Taking place after the end of the first film, “The Grudge II” does succeed in the sense that it uncovers some very interesting back story. However, the acting of Amber Tamblyn [The Ring, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants] and Edison Chen is rather flat and equally as boring, provoking nothing but yawns and sighs of frustration.
The supporting cast isn’t nearly as bad, powered by Jennifer Beals [Flashdance], who still looks amazing nearly 25 years after her first movie appearance and former Soap Opera star Christopher Cousins. However, it isn’t long until the storyline ruins their solid performances as well, leaving one to think what the director of this film, Takashi Shimizu was thinking.
Considering the horrid starring performances, one would obviously expect the storyline to suffer as well and it does. Many fans of the first film will enjoy the fact that they now understand the story a little better, but will be looking for something much more potent as far as the structure of the film is concerned and will be horrendously disappointed my the film’s end, feeling so emotionally exhausted by the verbosity of it all that they wish the ghost would kill them instead of everyone else.
However, the biggest ingredient in the flopping of this sequel isn’t the haphazard starring performances or the spotty storyline that constantly jumps from one place to another [not allowing the viewer to get a grasp of what’s going on], it’s the fact that the movie is not scary at all.
The first film had its fair share of frightful moments, but “The Grudge II” is completely void of them and in the end, that’s what hurts the film the most. Fans of the first film will enjoy the attention paid to the origins of the story, but will nevertheless be frustrated and appalled at the quality of this film, wishing they never paid to see it at all.
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