Supelice Dreadfully Boring

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Connianatu How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Sandoz I rented this film (which was packaged on DVD under the name The Eternal, which is, I believe, a much better title--and one less open to pithy put-downs than Trance) without really knowing anything about it...This film was intriguing for many reasons, among them: Chris Walken is in it (albeit too briefly, just a couple of scenes--must have been a weekend's work for Chris here); it was made in Ireland (I wish it had more exterior scenes, though--most of it takes place inside a not-so-creepy old mansion out in the countryside, with just a few meager establishing shots at the beginning, and a couple of brief forays to the local beach for a couple of flashback shots); and, most importantly (to me, anyway, since it's one of my favorite genres), it's about the supernatural.But ultimately, while I think the story has a decent (if not particularly original) premise, the final version of the script still needed LOTS of work before production began, because something very important was missing from the completed movie, and that is some enveloping mood of dread and foreboding that a story about Druid witch's spirit possessing and inhabiting a young wife's body should have had. Trance seemed to me like a series of scenes with actors going through the motions of a poorly conceived thriller, with never a sense of menace or even of concern for the fate of the family. The only real menace the film achieved was when the local Irish lads (one of whom Allison Elliott's character had a "history" with before she left town) showed up to harass and threaten her and her family. However, this side-tracked the film into Straw Dogs territory and added little to the progression of the real plot, except to show that when Elliott was possessed by the Druid's spirit she was more than able to defend herself than when she wasn't (and became slightly comical, too, because all her husband managed to do was keep getting himself hit on the head and knocked out).Don't get me wrong--there's plenty of movies out there that are ten or fifty times worse than this one is, but still...Trance just doesn't quite make the cut for me (and by that I mean I don't wish to own this film on DVD to watch again). Being generous, I'd rate this a 5 out of 10.Oh, and one last note, I have to credit this film with introducing me to two Irish musical acts which I had never known of before, but because of Trance, managed to download their songs that are used in the film because I liked both of them very much (even though they are completely opposite each other on the spectrum of musical tastes): Stiff Little Fingers--an Irish Punk band whose cover version of a reggae song called "Johnny Was" is a fantastic hard-edged guitar 7-minute epic jam fest; and Joe Dolan, of whom I had never heard of before, but was evidently the Tom Jones of Ireland back in the 60's and 70's, and whose "Good Looking Woman" sounds exactly like the kind of cheesy, horn-blaring over-produced song Jones and even Elvis would have sung in their Vegas heyday periods.and a P.S.... Check out Allison Elliott in Steven Soderbergh's little seen The Underneath. She plays the femme fatale in a modern film-noir that, like Trance, isn't a complete success, but has some good moments which show what it might have been, if...

dr_mabeuse A good cast and they do their best with what they're given, but the story makes no sense, the characters' actions are inexplicable, and there are too many moments of unintentional humor, as when a man is killed by being pierced with pieces of a phonograph record or when they get the witch drunk to a hip hop beat and then hit her over the head with a bottle and she grabs her hostage and pouts off. The scene when the two witch and her victim (played by the same actress) are in the house together sets up like a 3 Stooges routine, and the plot begs the question: if the witch wants to possess this other woman's soul, why doesn't she just do it instead of leading these people on this elaborate chase? Not to be missed is Christopher Walkin's eyeglasses and his automotive explanation of the afterlife (paraphrased): "The ancient Egyptianas - they wee materialists. They expected the body to last through eternity, like a used car that you souped up. But the Druids, they knew you couldn't drive in the afterlife. You had to get out and walk." Huh? The ending is absolutely indecipherable. Seems like they just ran out of film.

detoxadams The film opens with Nora the drunk and her husband Jim the slightly-lesser drunk cavorting around, drunkenly. "Thank God we're not alcoholics," says Jim. "Oh, I know," says Nora. At least, they do in my recollections of the movie, but sadly not in the actual movie itself. Nora, oddly enough, suffers from blackouts. The obvious cure for her is to go to Ireland and continue drinking heavily, which she does, accompanied by voice-over narration supplied by Alice, the movie's stock creepy little girl. (This movie has two of the most foolproof ingredients for creepiness: a spooky little girl and Christopher Walken.) "They weren't going to be serious," Alice tells us, in the actual movie this time, "because seriousness was reserved for people in tragic countries. Like Africa. And Poland." If this alone isn't worth the rental price, you've got The Bog!, which is only referenced about seventeen thousand times. This is very economical as far as shooting is concerned, since a thousand words are worth one picture, so that's seventeen fewer times we need to actually see the bog. And who wants to look at a lousy old bog when they can watch Christopher Walken hanging onto his title as America's Scary Uncle It Never Talks About by attempting to make out with a long-undead mummy? The only thing that could have made this movie any better would have been if Jared Harris had still been playing Andy Warhol: "Well, gee, Nora, I don't know. I mean, gosh, I don't know about...mummies, or anything. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Well, if you want to, greaaaat."This is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. Seriously. And seriousness is reserved for me, because I live in California, which, as we all know, is a very tragic country indeed. In the bog!

Infofreak I watched 'Trance' on the strength of Almereyda's arty vampire flick 'Nadja' and the presence of Christopher Walken, a great favourite of mine. I shouldn't have bothered. The movie starts off interestingly enough with the New York sequences, and the all-too-brief appearance of the late Jason Miller ('The Exorcist'/'The Ninth Configuration'), but as soon as they hit Ireland, it all goes rapidly downhill.To add insult to injury, Walken's role is basically nothing more than a glorified cameo! Bigger than 'Sleepy Hollow' say, nothing to get your teeth into. I've liked Jared Harris in the past, in 'Happiness' and yes, 'Nadja', but he's quite poor in places here, as is the main female lead who I wasn't familiar with.Overall, mediocre and unsuccessful in holding your attention. I actually nodded off at one stage, which is always a warning sign! A major disappointment when compared with the potential Almereyda showed with 'Nadja'. Even 'Cherry 2000' is better!!