The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
 
Features  |  Reviews
Best2012Vote-1000x50

Pulse

Has a draining effect
By CHRIS WANGLER  |  August 17, 2006
0.5 0.5 Stars

A hacker (Jonathan Tucker) kills himself under bizarre circumstances. It falls to his frazzled girlfriend (Kristen Bell, a/k/a Veronica Mars) and another chiphead (Ian Somerhalder) to get answers about what he’d uncovered: a confusing wireless portal through which the digitally deceased somehow threaten to sap the entire world of its desire to live. That’s also the effect of Jim Sonzero’s tepid remake of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 Kairo: it slowly drains the viewer of any desire to watch. None of the characters is at all compelling, and those flickering lightbulbs and four-armed digi-spooks just aren’t scary. It’s a shame, because the idea (only hinted at, both here and in the original) that students should have to suffer for all their impersonal technophilia is worth exploring.

On the Web
The official Web site of Pulse: http://www.pulsethemovie.net/

Related: The Ruins, October lite, Review: When In Rome, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Movies, Movie Reviews,  More more >
| More

 Friends' Activity   Popular   Most Viewed 
[ 02/16 ]   Boston Conservatory Dance Division  @ Boston Conservatory Theater
[ 02/16 ]   Jim Gaffigan  @ Wilbur Theatre
[ 02/16 ]   "Raw Milk Debate"  @ Harvard Law School
More Information
ARTICLES BY CHRIS WANGLER
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE  |  April 21, 2009
    Chinese triads. Corey Haim. Porn actors on strike. REO Speedwagon. Yes, the creators of this nearly unwatchable sequel will use anything to achieve their twisted goal: to shock ADHD teenagers.
  •   REVIEW: SUNSHINE CLEANING  |  March 18, 2009
    What lifts this tasty little dramedy above Sundance mediocrity is a pathos that overcomes all the "quirky" dysfunctional contrivance.
  •   REVIEW: PUSH  |  February 11, 2009
    Teens with special powers? A government conspiracy?
  •   REVIEW: CHANDNI CHOWK TO CHINA  |  January 13, 2009
    Director Nikhil Advani's quirky Chinese-Indian collaboration is the widest release ever of a Bollywood film, and the first ever kung fu Bollywood comedy.
  •   CADILLAC RECORDS  |  December 12, 2008
    Cadillac Records writer/director Darnell Martin lets the music speak for itself

 See all articles by: CHRIS WANGLER

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed