The Good

The film attempts to broach an interesting hot button issue.

The Bad

Robert De Niro and just about everything else.

When I saw that Robert De Niro was playing a doctor in this movie I immediately became skeptical of Godsend. This story about parents (Greg Kinnear and Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) who lose their child and then have him cloned back to life, could have worked better if it had only taken itself more seriously. It is one of those movies that is fine for the first two thirds and then somewhere along the way in the final third it just loses itself.

Who knows? Maybe the film set itself up so well that it couldn't help but falter at the end? Ultimately, a Godsend this movie isn't.

Features

Alternate Endings

With four alternate endings to choose from, I decided to make things interesting for myself and watch them in the opposite order from how they were listed on the UMD. Without giving anything away, I think there are a few endings here that might have made this film a bit better. I am not saying it would have saved it but some of these endings could have elevated things.

Video

16:9 Widescreen Version - 2.35:1 Aspect Ratio. This movie may not be that great but it sure looks darn good on my PSP player. With bars on the top and bottom of the screen, I was really excited when this movie started just because it looked so good. The compression on this UMD disc has really made this film look crisp. The sad part is that this in no way helps the movie itself.

Audio

Digitally Mastered. Even though this is a quiet movie, there is something about it's almost deliberate tone that works in it's favor. Like the picture, everything about the audio is spot on. I just get tired of being jolted every five seconds only to have nothing happen (until the next jolt). From a purely cinematic (aka viewing and listening) standpoint this movie gets everything right.

Package

Kinnear and Stamos are in the back of this front cover, giving Robert De Niro his rightful place in the front, I guess. The cover art for this movie has an ominous feel to it so this should intrigue people who know nothing about the film. The back features a sepia toned shot of the young boy who is at the center of this movie's plot. There are three critics quotes (two from critics I have never heard of and one from Netflix!), a "Special Features"/technical specs listing, a description of the movie and a cast list.

Final Word

I have a very low tolerance for many of today's horror movies. I know that a big part of the genre is predicated on creating fear and moments where the audience is going to jump, but do these movies always have to be so quiet and morbid? In my opinion the biggest reason why movies like Friday the 13th were so scary is because it was a normal film, showing normal people with horror mixed in. While I do know that Godsend is a completely different film, that doesn't mean it shouldn't attempt to be different than today's current horror offerings.

Godsend was released April 30, 2004.