[.ca] The Ring Two (Unrated Edition)

What the hell is this!!:
This is a classic example of how Hollywood has to screw up something that should've been left alone. But money talks and since "The Ring" did so well at the box-office..ching ching...make a hopeless, quick and stupid sequel and let's party. I have to say that the original "Ring" was one of my favorite horror films since the first "Halloween" and now i can't even look at the first one the same way cause of this ridiculous sequel. Wanna know what goes on in Part 2? Ready...follow me, the mother and son team move to this town to escape everything that's happened in the first movie and start a new life, get a new job and try to forget and just to start over again. Long behold, a few days in her new job, there's a weird death of a teenager and it revolves about something with a videocassette (aren't we all using DVD's now?)and water. "Why this is odd", she's thinking and she's goes and investigate, and that's where all the fun and laughs start! Instead of telling you the story, let's hear what's actually good and bad about this film. GOOD: the dvd box cover, the trailor, the movie theatre's very confortable seating while watching "Ring 2", my Hot date, and what else, let me think, come on.. there has to be one more good thing..hmmm, well...actually no! BAD: The story, the acting, that annoying kid calling his mother Rachel thoughout the whole film (i lost count at 38 times in the first hour), Noami Watts for actually reading the script and accepting it, the editing, the direction, time wasted that i'll never get back and finally DESTROYING the original Ring's over all reputation (well for me anyways). So anyways thanks to everyone that contributed to this film, great job in screwing up a great original story in the first to make a fast money grab for the second. Hey guys, When's RING 3 coming out?

Ringing out:
As a rule, sequels are terrible. And "The Ring Two" is not so much terrible as it is ordinary. It's graced with an outstanding performance by Naomi Watts and some truly creepy scenes, but it lacks the visceral direction of the first movie. In short, it's a sequel. As the story opens, we see a slimy-looking boy tricking his girlfriend into watching (drumroll please) The Tape (anyone who saw the short film "Rings" will see the backdrop). As we know from "The Ring," if you get someone else doomed by the tape, you get to live and they die. But things don't turn out so well for the boy. Meanwhile, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) is fleeing to a rural town with her son Aidan (David Dorfman). They thought they had managed to destroy the evil Samara's curse, but of course they were wrong. And no sooner have they settled down, than Rachel finds signs of Samara's presence. A young boy has died inexplicably, left with a hideous facial deformity. When Rachel confirms that it was Samara who killed him, she finds that Samara is now targeting Aidan's. In a nutshell, she wants to possess him. Now Rachel must delve into Samara's past to find a possible way to stop him -- or risk losing her son to Samara. "The Ring" revamped the modern horror genre, casting aside CGI ghosts and machete-wielding wackos in favor of subtle horror and demon-children. Not to mention getting Hollywood interested in Japanese horror movies. In short, it was a horror hit that deserved to be one. But "The Ring Two" is merely adequate, not really good. Maybe the biggest problem of "The Ring Two" is that it has no bedrock to stand on. Author Koji Suzuki wrote a sequel called "Spiral," which was then adapted into the movie "Rasen." But "The Ring Two" has no such grounding. It's just a free-floating Hollywood sequel, to a movie which was remake of a Japanese movie adapted from a book. Given those stats, it's amazing that it's as good as it is. Director Hideo Nakata, of the Japanese "Ringu" films, was brought in to replace Gore Verbinski. But while he does a competant job, the film lacks the quick cuts, fast-forwarding and sense of pervasive horror. Instead, we get water on the ceiling -- pretty and moderately creepy, but very obvious. The laughable deer attack was just random, especially as Samara has no connection with deer. And Samara's occasional "boo!" appearances take away from her creepiness -- whatever happened to "less is more"? Not to say that there is no creepiness and no subtlety. Samara alone accounts for much of them -- she slinks around like a less deteriorated version of Gollum, and seeks a "mommy." Nakata does a good job with the odd symbolism injected into the film, such as the ever-present water all over the place. (Interestingly, Nakata also directed the Japanese adaptation of Suzuki's "Dark Water." A bit of seepage?) Samara aside, much of the creepiness comes from Naomi Watts' performance -- as in the first "Ring" movie, she exudes a taut, quietly frantic demeanor, while keeping herself focused. She gives what is undoubtedly the best performance here. Sissy Spacek gives a solid if brief performance as Samara's birth mother, but Dorfman is pallid as Watts' son. It apparently is going to be followed up by another "Ring" movie which is either a thrill or a chill. Taken alone, "The Ring Two" isn't a bad movie, but it suffers badly when set next to its predecessor.

The Second Ring Of Terror:
This film is great with no question. i am not going to waste my time writing the story like other reviewers , but just writing the review. It does have some jumpy scenes ,but this film is more great story,wanna watch kinda film.

Far more impressive than it may appear on first viewing:
Producing a successful sequel to such a truly new and unusual (not to mention highly successful) film as The Ring is a daunting task. You can't just tell the same story over again, yet any moves in a new direction are apt to be decried by loyal fans of the original. I usually try to review a film immediately after watching it, but in the case of The Ring Two, I have allowed several days to go by -- and thankfully so because my appreciation for this film has grown over that time. Certainly, this film is not as good as the original -- how could it be? After all, we've already seen Samara in all of her glory, and we've even spent some time in the well. The shock value of The Ring Two just can't compare with that of the original. Believability also rears its ugly head here, as Samara's unreal powers have grown and, in a real sense, taken flight in the sequel. This is no longer about people watching the tape and dying seven days later; remember, Rachel freed Samara from the well at the end of the first movie. She's more dangerous than ever now, and her desires have changed -- she wants more than vengeance now. I think it was quite a coup to get Hideo Nakata, the director of Ringu and Ringu 2, to direct here, but I think the vision he brings to this film also explains part of the disconnect we've seen with some fans of The Ring. The Japanese approach to horror is quite different from our own. American audiences are used to being shown things, oftentimes explicitly, while Japanese horror is much more subtle, symbolic, and spiritual. It is this cultural divide, I believe, that leads some Ring fans to label this film a poor sequel. Adapting Japanese horror for an American audience is quite a challenge -- just look at The Grudge, a film that even I felt just didn't work. In The Ring, all of the symbolic clues, especially those in the videotape, basically led to something -- namely, Samara's story and the location of her body. The Ring Two does not lay out such a clear pathway for the hero or the viewer; the symbology is much deeper and abstract this time around. It's not that this causes confusion on the part of the viewer; it's just that much of the story plays out on a level that many viewers are not culturally suited to experience. That's why I would recommend watching all of the bonus features on this DVD -- they certainly helped hone my appreciation for what I had just seen. As for the story, you have Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan (David Dorman) leaving Seattle and moving to Astoria, Oregon shortly after the events of the first movie played out (it's supposedly six months later, but Hideo Nakata says two years in the production notes). Rachel is still suffering somewhat from a sense of guilt (over passing the tape on to other innocents in order to save her son), but she and Aidan are both trying to start their lives anew and forget about Samara. That's all well and good, but Samara has not forgotten about them. That's obvious after a local youth dies a horrible death under mysterious circumstances -- and Rachel is quickly left with no doubt whatsoever that Samara has found them. We quickly move beyond the cursed videotape, however, as Samara works to exploit her unique connection to Aidan. This time around, Rachel cannot save her son through anything approaching conventional means, nor can she rely on the help of anyone else, now including her son. Increasingly desperate, she decides to trace Samara's history before her adoption by the Morgans, eventually finding and speaking to the girl's actual birth mother (Sissy Spacek in quite a memorable cameo). It looks like all the drama is leading up to a fairly predictable ending -- but just remember that a film is never over until it's over. Naomi Watts basically carries this movie on her back, as she is the filter through which we view everything that happens. Up until now, I never really appreciated Watts as an actress, but I do now. David Dorman is another story for me, though. While he is able to deliver some very effective scenes, at times I can't help but think that he attended the Hayden Christensen school of acting. Sure, he's a little creepy, but now it's in a televangelistic way -- to me, he looks like a combination of Jim Bakker and a young Macaulay Culkin. I love Samara, though; thankfully, Nakata chose not to go the CGI route with her at all (even still, she's not half as creepy as her original Japanese counterpart), which would have made a mockery of the whole creep factor. CGI is used, unfortunately, on the deer that dominate one memorable scene. I can understand how real deer could not be used, but this particular scene, after starting out very effectively indeed, is ultimately ruined by the ridiculous obviousness of the CGI animation. Unlike The Ring, The Ring Two is packed with special features (although we still don't get a commentary, unfortunately). Easily the best of the bunch is a short film called Rings, which is sort of a prequel to The Rings Two. I really liked the idea played with over these 15-20 minutes - that of an underground network of teens who have watched the videotape, recorded their increasingly disturbing experiences for as long as they could stand it, and then passed it on to a fellow newbie before their seven days were up. Along with this impressive short film, you get a series of excellent making-of featurettes featuring a surprisingly lengthy set of production notes, information on the cast and crew, and some nineteen minutes of deleted scenes. Altogether, it's an impressive package for a truly excellent and, to some degree, misunderstood motion picture.