Rings

Director - F. Javier Gutierrez (Before the Fall, Brazil)
Starring - Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz (Summertime, Crossing Lanes), Alex Roe (The 5th Wave, Hot Summer Nights), and Johnny Galecki (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, The Big Bang Theory)
Release Date - 2017
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "First you watch it.  Then you die"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     There's something to watching a movie in a theater.  I've seen some pretty bad films in a theater but the experience is always fun.  I wanted to watch Rings when it was in theaters but work and my home life got the best of me.  Before I knew it the movie was no longer in theaters and was scheduled for home release.  This gave me the perfect reason to revisit The Ring and watch The Ring Two for the first time.  As the date got closer for the release I reached out and requested a review copy of Rings.  If I knew that The Ring Two was as bad as it was I would have skipped this release.  Nothing is worth than sitting through what I watched with Ring Two.  Hopefully Rings was an improvement.
     The film follows a young girl who is staying at home to take care of family matters while her boyfriend leaves town to attend college.  One night she receives a crazy Skype call from a frantic girl looking for her boyfriend but disconnects before she could get answers about the strange call.  She tries to contact her boyfriend but is unable to forcing her to make to trip to his college.  When she arrives she learns that a professor has found the Samara tape and is using students to uncover the truth about Samara and the afterlife.  She finds her boyfriend and learns that he is on his 7th day and is about to die so she watches the video to spare him but unwillingly plays into Samara's game to be resurrected.  She must now fight for her life and stop Samara.
     When the first Ring film was released I really enjoyed it.  It doesn't stand up that well over time but I really liked it when it was first release.  I never watched the sequel until recently but it was complete shit.  One of the worst films I've had to sit through.  I didn't have a lot of hope for Rings but the film actually surprised me.  It was a fun watch even with the flaws it has.  It was a big improvement over The Ring Two and I look forward to a sequel.  The acting in this one is not the best but easily the worst in the series.  The only exception is Vincent D'Onofrio.  His performance is intense to say the least but it does remind the viewer of Don't Breathe and Stephen Lang's character.  I was very disappointed in Johnny Galecki and his performance.  His character was very dry and flat almost as if his version of Rusty had grown into a man.  The story for this one does a great job incorporating the story set up in the first two films while making it more modern.  The film is able to keep the same suspense, dark tone, and atmosphere unlike modern sequels/reboots do like Blair Witch.  The story does a great job at establishing the unknown like the first film.  We also get even more of a backstory to Samara which even predates her birth.  This added even more to the character and worked very well for the overall film.  Finally, the film has several scenes that use CGI and visual effects.  Some are very noticeable and stand out while others were very subtle and worked for the desired effect.  No real gore in this one but the CGI is nowhere near as bad as part two.  Overall, Rings was a surprisingly entertaining film.  It had a lot of room for improvement but fans of the first film in the series will really enjoy it.  Check it out.