ringu Tagged Articles at Cinematical

3 - 2 - 1 ... There's nothing like a ticking time bomb to give any movie a sense of urgency. Whether it's a literal set of explosives (as in Speed), a new ice age (The Day After Tomorrow), alien attack (Independence Day), hostage execution (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three), fatal poison (Crank), or the threat of loved ones being killed (Nick of Time), it's an honorable tradition to ratchet up the tension by pitting heroic characters in a relentless race against the clock.

This week marks the home video release of Alex Proyas' Knowing, a somewhat insane thriller in which astrophysicist Nicolas Cage comes to believe that future disasters can be predicted -- and races against time to stop the next one. You have to see it to believe (or mock) it. If you're in a countdown frame of mind, here are seven more entertaining thrillers that feature seriously motivated heroes trying to avert disaster. Consider this a starter list; see if you can be the first one to list your favorite(s) in the comments section. Go!

7. Back to the Future (1985)

Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is just an ordinary high school student, doing a favor for good old Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) when he finds himself transported back in time 30 years. Before he knows what's happening, he's dodging Oedipal issues and trying to make sure his parents fall in love before he is gone, baby, gone. He is highly-motivated, to say the least, resulting in a pulse-quickening race in which a literal clock plays a major role.

Everybody loves evil children! Judging from its trailer, the wide release of The Unborn this weekend promises to unleash a new terrifying tot upon a nation of unsuspecting teens. But the idea of scary juveniles extends far beyond the expected audience for David Goyer's jolt-fest.

One writer suggested that the idea of evil children originated "in the biblical tale of Elisha's mockery," in which 42 small boys disrespected a prophet of God -- and were promptly torn to pieces by two bears. The silver screen featured dozens of bratty kids in the 30s and 40s (e.g. the Dead End Kids/Bowery Boys) but none as murderously terrifying as 10-year-old Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack) in Mervyn LeRoy's The Bad Seed (1956), a rebel yell against a conformist generation of "perfect" suburban families.

The 50s also produced Jerome Bixby's short story "It's a Good Life," featuring a three-year-old with more super powers than anyone at Marvel or DC could dream up. First adopted as an episode of The Twilight Zone (with Billy Mummy), Joe Dante added layers of suburban subversion when he used it as the basis for his segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (with Jeremy Licht as the kid).

Which tots, tykes, and teens have terrified you? Here's my personal countdown of evil children that have inspired nightmares or, at least, made me shiver.

7. Darby O'Gill and the Little People

I was five or six years old and had never seen little people before -- I freaked out because I couldn't understand why kids my age had wrinkles and beards, and were dancing and drinking liquids my Dad said never to touch. The wailing banshee gave me nightmares, but those little people made my hair stand up.

Despite the fact that I love both movies, and despite the fact that they're nothing alike, I often confuse the titles of Don't Look Back and Don't Look Now. Soon I will be able to confuse them with another film, Don't Look Up, which is going into production at the end of this year in Romania and South Africa. According to Variety, the film will be a remake of Hideo Nakata's 1996 horror pic, Joyû-rei. For those not paying close attention to Japanese remakes, this came before even Nakata's original Ringu, which was redone as The Ring (he also did an original sequel, Ringu 2, helmed the remake sequel, The Ring Two, and is set to do The Ring 3). For Don't Look Up, the director is Hong Kong filmmaker Fruit Chan, who is most familiar to Western audiences for his segment Dumplings in Three ... Extremes. Chan possibly hopes to break out bigger with the remake; he told Variety that he's too often considered an art-house director and would like to be considered, simply, a director.

The original Don't Look Up (aka Ghost Actress, as Joyû-rei has also been called in English translations) dealt with a haunted movie studio and focused on the production of a war film. The ghost of a woman begins appearing on the set and even shows up in the dailies (reminds me of that Three Men and a Baby legend). Also, footage from an older film keeps inserting itself into the film. This is all the plot info I could get out of review sites Black Hole DVD Reviews and Flipside Movie Emporium -- the movie is currently unavailable in the States. Variety gives the new version's plot as being about a film production shooting in Transylvania haunted by an old piece of celluloid depicting a woman's murder. Don't Look Up will be produced by Brian Cox (Pulse) and Yôko Asakura. As for the other Don't Look movies, Don't Look Back recently got a sorta-sequel called 65 Revisited, which must be seen, and Don't Look Now is also being remade.

• Breakfast On Pluto - The Crying Game writer-director Neil Jordan never really does get into why Patrick “Kitten” Braden becomes a transvestite, but he does manage to save his film from being a rote and self-indulgent celebration of uniqueness when he bobs and then weaves a political cry (for Irish independence) into it. The criminally attractive Cillian Murphy plays Kitten a little too much like Mrs. Doubtfire, though he does sustain the character, and an incredible glam-packed soundtrack helps create an energetic sense of time and place.
• Deep Blue - While not as stunning as the likes of Winged Migration or March Of The Penguins, this BBC-produced nature film sure is pretty to look at. With a calming, minimalist narration by Pierce Brosnan (supplanting Michael Gambon's from the UK release) and a dreamy score by George Fenton, the underwater photography is stunning. The beast-on-beast violence is a bit intense, with one hapless sea lion meeting his end when two orcas play hacky-sack with his mangled corpse (in slow-motion, no less).