Deprecated: mb_convert_encoding(): Handling HTML entities via mbstring is deprecated; use htmlspecialchars, htmlentities, or mb_encode_numericentity/mb_decode_numericentity instead in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/super-cool-ad-inserter/inc/scaip-shortcode-inserter.php on line 37
Eric Vallette’s thriller is a half-hearted remake of a 2003 Japanese film, in which some cell phones are calling their owners from the future to report their deaths. The cause of phones calling ahead with your death gurgle is never fully explained, though the sort-of reasons run the gamut from child abuse to computerized address books to people who aren’t quite dead yet. Once-hot actor Edward Burns continues his descent into C-listdom; he plays the cop who believes in random-murder-by-voicemail. But he may just be macking on the lovely nursing student (Shannyn Sossamon) whose extensive Dead-Friends-and-Family list has her seriously imperiled. If there’s one keeper moment from this unsatisfying mess, it’s watching a TV preacher try to delete a deadly voicemail message via exorcism: “I command you by all the heavenly angels to leave this cell phone!”
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2008.
