A housewife (Sandra Bullock) finds out that her husband was in a car crash, but when she sees him the next day, she realizes that she saw a premonition and will do anything she can to keep it from coming true. (from MovieWeb.com)

I don't get it. Critics and reviewers alike gave the movie 12 Monkeys a really good rating. You hop from site to site regarding the film and everyone agrees that it was a top notch film. However, you take a film with a similar synopsis and change it a bit and it becomes one of the worst films of the year according to critics. This latter film of course is Premonition, which is similar along the lines of the movies 12 Monkeys and Deja Vu. Overall, I found it better than the former but not as good as the latter; much to the majority of the critics chagrin.

Premonition rises and falls on the back of the whole "What is going on?" idea- similar to movies like The Prestige and Deja Vu - where you, the viewer, are given a completely complex idea, story, etc, but a promise that by the end of the movie that everything will be explained, much to your satisfaction. However, some movies take an alternative route and deliver a more unsatisfying ending with no room for real potential to grow. Therein lies the difference, in this case, of a good movie and a bad movie.

To reveal much of the plot detail would, to some extent, spoil the movie. Premonition pretty much works as both a thriller and a sci-fi movie (if you want to call it that), not a spooky horror film like some of you may have assumed. The film tries to be of the edge-of-your-seat brand, but much of the movie is spent dragging the eerie feeling out, and as so tends to run a little bit long even for a movie a little under two hours. If you haven't seen a movie like this before, you will probably appreciate it a lot more than I did.

As the film's credits rolled, most of the audience were scratching their heads with an "I still don't get it" feeling, as I can attest to it. It wasn't because they were ignorant, it's because that while the movie was suspenseful, in the long run, it didn't make any sense. Keep in mind that Bullock has a premonition of what is going to happen, not the fact that it already happened and she is trying to prevent it from happening. Looking back, had I originally known that, I would've enjoyed it a bit more.

Sandra Bullock's role in the film was highly criticized by the box office media, stating that she fit more of the romance-flick role a la Two Weeks Notice or The Lake House (both fantastic films, by the way). I would, however, like to remind the critics that if they had seen the Bullock thriller The Net, they'd recall that she did manage to pull of the role genuinely. Apparently, they show no regard for her and chop the movie's integrity up with her "dull" performance. For the second time so far in this review, I am going to break away from the critics. I thought Bullock's performance was believable and wonderfully chilling at the same time. Her and the supporting cast (headlined by Nip/Tuck star Julian McMahon) give the movie a nice edgy feeling that doesn't hurt the film but rather adds depth to it.

Premonition works up a bit of cautionary elements. While language isn't a major problem, Bullock does say "f---ed up" in one scene. There is no nudity, although Bullock and McMahon are seen in bed in one implied after-sex scene (they are married). Violence is also sporadic, but thanks to the dark tone (similar to The Prestige), it seems more hyped when it happens. We see blood in several scenes, but nothing particularly graphic.

While I found the film somewhat entertaining, I kept being dogged by two thoughts, "Where is this going?" and "Tell me this isn't going to be like 12 Monkeys!" Unfortunately, the answers to both questions were ones I didn't want to hear. The film manages to rack up a wanna-be climactic ending. but instead drops like a sack of potatoes for a very hard-to-swallow resolution (think the ending of Lady in the Water). However, while the movie fails on several fronts, it may prove to be a piece of entertainment that just may give you the thrills and chills, no matter how sloppy they may be.

Till the next film,

- Zachary Anderson (reviewed: 3/17/07)