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Eye, The
Lionsgate

Eye, The reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 36 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
7.5 out of 10
based on 13 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 27 votes
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Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for violence/terror and disturbing content

Starring Jessica Alba, Parker Posey, Alessandro Nivola, Tamlyn Tomita, and Chloe Moretz

Sydney Wells is an accomplished, independent, Los Angeles-based concert violinist. She is also blind, and has been so since a childhood tragedy. Sydney undergoes a double corneal transplant, a surgery she has waited her whole life to have, and her sight is restored. After the surgery, neural ophthalmologist Dr. Paul Faulkner helps Sydney with the difficult adjustment, and with the support of her older sister Helen, Sydney learns to see again. But Sydney's happiness is short-lived as unexplainable shadowy and frightening images start to haunt her. Are they a passing aftermath of her surgery, Sydney's mind adjusting to sight, a product of her imagination, or something horrifyingly real? As Sydney's family and friends begin to doubt her sanity, Sydney is soon convinced that her anonymous eye donor has somehow opened the door to a terrifying world only she can now see. (Lionsgate)


GENRE(S): Drama  |  Horror  |  Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: Sebastian Gutierrez
Jo Jo Yuet-chun Hui (2002 screenplay Jian gui)
 
DIRECTED BY: David Moreau
Xavier Palud
 
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: February 1, 2008 
RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole
A quirkily efficient genre exercise that knows exactly where and when to administer its cattle-prod shivers.
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50
Entertainment Weekly Leah Greenblatt
It's as if, on the umpteenth Asian-horror Xerox, the ink has run dry.
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50
Variety Dennis Harvey
This slick effort is effectively creepsome until it bogs down somewhat in plot explication.
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50
ReelViews James Berardinelli
Unfortunately, the final act (the Mexico sequences) illustrate where to take a ghost story if you want to exchange old-fashioned horror for a grilled cheese sandwich.
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50
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
Their movie is watchable - never more gratuitously so than when Alba is filmed showering and slipping into a tank top. But we've been here before, no?
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50
Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The most vivid aspect of The Eye is its poster image, that of a huge female eye with a human hand gripping the lower lid from the inside. The least vivid aspect is the way Jessica Alba delivers a simple line of expository dialogue.
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42
The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson
The major problem is the death of a horror film: It's startling, but not particularly scary.
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40
The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis
Louder and more literal than its inspiration, The Eye benefits from a spiky performance by Alessandro Nivola as Sydney’s rehabilitation counselor. “Your eyes are not the problem,” he tells her at one point. He is so, so right.
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40
The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
Sacrifices the quietly creepy qualities of the original in favor of ramped-up horror film techniques that by now seem distressingly familiar.
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38
Premiere Glenn Kenny
A tediously noisesome English-language remake of an Asian horror picture that wasn't any great shakes to begin with.
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38
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
It's hard to know who bears the brunt of the blame for The Eye's stunning dullness.
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20
LA Weekly Jim Ridley
The entire movie is an object lesson in diminishing returns: of nagging shock cuts and blaring sound cues used as indiscriminately as joy buzzers; of “look out behind you!” scares that wouldn’t make a Cub Scout flinch; of a blurry visual scheme that was far more terrifying in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," where it sought empathy rather than empty sensation.
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20
Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Most unforgivably, this Eye culminates not with the mounting dread and spectacular tragedy of the original film's decidedly downbeat vision, but with the trademark LASIK laziness of Hollywood's stylistically blank remake factory.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 27 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Marc K. gave it a5:
Not bad! Maybe I had low expectations.

Mike P. gave it a4:
Not completely terrible, but there wasn't very much to like!

Rob S. gave it a4:
Lot of "been here done that" feel. Some jumps in there for sure, and from what I could get from the audience the elevator scene was the creepiest. The movie has a slow build, starts to confuse you, then throws Sydney into survival mode while her "friends" do the cliched horror movie "there's nothing wrong, it must be you". There could of been some devious twists near the end of the movie, but instead they take the safe route. Alba/Sydney would of made a great villain in the end because the sugar and spice Sydney never really changes as a character. Love the death escort guys...evil looking grim reapers that no one has ever reported from real near death experiences, but at least they're creepy. Rent it, unless you enjoy sitting around annoying teenage kids. One last thing movie makers: please put an end to ghost kids and their echoy sounding voices. I truly have had my fill of the ghost kids and think "cheap" instead of "creep".

Ryencoke gave it a0:
This had to quite honestly the worst movie I have ever seen. The Chinese version of this film is awesome. But this movie was so overly horrible. They are shooting the Camera on Jessica's ass in so many angles. It's really pathetic. In a scene she is getting into a vehicle and the camera is on her ass. Honestly, what a horrid movie.

Ramblino C. gave it a1:
Dull, insipid, horrendous, pathetic Hollywood remade (AGAIN) of very good Asian Horror movie. Avoid unless you have a taste for the naff.

Perspicacious Critic gave it a3:
"The major problem is the death of a horror film: It's startling, but not particularly scary," writes The Onion's Tasha Robinson. Well, it's a PG-13 film, Ms. Robinson; that should be your clue.

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