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Premonition Movie Review

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By , About.com Guide

Sandra Bullock and Julian McMahon Photo Premonition Movie Photo

Sandra Bullock and Julian McMahon in "Premonition."

© TriStar Pictures

The Bottom Line

Sandra Bullock may want to take a pass on ever doing a movie involving time travel again. At least with The Lake House, another disastrous film with a silly plot, Bullock got to spend some time with her Speed co-star Keanu Reeves.

In the convoluted thriller (and I use that term loosely) Premonition, directed by Mennan Yapo and written by Bill Kelly, Bullock looks like she’s suffering from a migraine the entire film. I’m sure after sitting through an hour and a half of this mind-numbingly tedious production, audiences will truly empathize with her.

Pros

  • The acting's not half bad

Cons

  • I foresee a lot of ticked off Sandra Bullock fans
  • Absolutely ridiculous plot leaves at least half the dots unconnected
  • The score is overwhelming
  • If smoking's not integral to the plot, then why show Bullock doing it?

Description

  • Starring Sandra Bullock, Julian McMahon, Nia Long, Peter Stormare, and Amber Valletta
  • Filmed in Louisiana
  • PG-13 for some violent content, disturbing images, thematic material and brief language
  • Theatrical Release Date: March 16, 2007

Guide Review - Premonition Movie Review

The Story

Linda Hanson (Bullock) goes through her usual morning tasks of preparing her girls for school and going for a jog and then...cue the 'something dramatic is about to happen' music...there's a knock on her door. A policeman, backed by more ominous music, tells her that her husband (Julian McMahon in an underutilized role) died in a car accident. She receives this news and reacts in a way just about any person would who learned his or her spouse is dead.

Up to this point in the story things are flowing along fairly normally. Too bad that can't be said of the remainder of the film. The next hour is filled with Linda alternately believing her husband's dead or she's going crazy or it's all a bad dream and she's actually starring in an enjoyable romantic comedy full of laughter and silly dialogue (we can wish this for Bullock, can't we?).

To Sum It Up

There's a lot of cheating going on in Premonition and I'm not talking about the husband's possible infidelity. The Memento-ish flow of Premonition will have your head spinning and not in a good way. At least in Memento things eventually tied together and made sense. Don't expect that of Premonition and don't expect a big payoff if you make it through to the end.

Premonition is a Lake House knock-off without Keanu Reeves, a cute dog, or even an iota of logic. If you're into smartly made movies, avoid Premonition at all costs.

Grade: D

User Reviews

 4 out of 5
Not what I expected but very enjoyable..., Member Brainofmyown

I think the previous reviewer obviously doesn't have spell checker and I think the film was ""Convoluted"" as it had many twists and turns, I bought this film thinking it was something else of Sandra's that I had seen a while back, as I started to watch the film I realized it was new to me and put down the item I was making to watch more closely... This is definitely not Lake house, but funnily enough that is why it’s called Premonition, it was entertaining and kept you guessing till the end and if you are a person who likes to see a deeper message in a film rather than the shallow entertainment factor of something I think you would enjoy this film… it is disturbing in places, especially when Sandra’s character is committed for the injuries to her daughters face and the feeling of being out of control is something that would terrify most... it covers all the aspects of the conflict of thoughts you go through when faced with a plethora of choices and I think as long as you start watching this film knowing it is not a piece of light hearted trashy entertainment then you will enjoy the overall story line. Sandra is as captivating as ever and in my humble opinion, I feel the story line flowed as it needed to and portrayed the confusion and fear experienced by Sandra’s character perfectly. I enjoyed it and was hooked till the end….

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