Visitors (2003)

best movie i've ever seen.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Did you ever stop to think how dull Hollywood product would be without Brits (Anthony Hopkins) Canadians (Bill Murray, Jim Carrey) and Aussies (Mel Gibson, Radha Mitchell, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman)? Mitchell had already distinguished herself in the international hit Pitch Black but that was an ensemble piece and Vin Diesel stole the show. This was the part that any actor would kill for -- a chance to carry an entire movie on your back, sink or swim (sorry for the pun). And Mitchell pulled it off. Other reviewers have talked about the plot, but really this kind of film is not about plot at all. It is simply and purely about the ability of one actor to hold your attention for 90 minutes (not counting the cat, respects to the other reviewer who felt he was the real star, see my review of MY CAT FROM HELL). And, again, Mitchell pulled it off. That's all there is to this film. (Other than the really creepy dream sequences, which, to be fair, really popped.) Really. That is the entire point of this movie. Would I lie to you?

i didn't like this movie.to me,it didn't make much sense.it was hard to figure out what was really happening.i also didn't think it was scary.i did however,think it was silly,even absurd,but not in a good way.Radha Mitchell is the main character in the movie,which cam out in 2003.She was also,coincidently in 2006's "Silent Hill"which i hated.it too i found confusing and pointless."Visitors" isn't as bad,but i think it is certainly below average.there is just nothing special about it.the script is just too muddled and there are things in the movie which don't need to be there,in my opinion.I think Radha Mitchell is probably a good actress,if she has more to work with.my vote for "Visitors" is 4/10

Visitors is a hard, hard movie to enjoy. It's so slow and leaden in it's pacing that at times I was drifting off during the film. This was about 11AM on a hot, sunny day, I might add, not midnight on a cold winter evening, so you get an idea of just how slow this movie is.Strange thing is, it's not long. At 100 minutes it's only ten minutes longer than the average straight to video, and it's only fifteen minutes longer than the superior Darkwolf that I'd quite happily watched the day before. It just drags an awful lot, enough for you to lose interest.When it's not mistaking S-L-O-O-W development for atmosphere, Visitors is good enough at action to almost make it excusable how slowly things happen. While the flashbacks are both cheap and annoying as a way to round out Radha Mitchell's boats-woman, the hauntings/aliens/whatever are actually quite creepy and effective, especially when her suicidal mother turns up and starts groaning in the night. Full marks for not splurging make-up all over the shop too. The single person boat is a creepy place, and at times the movie uses the full power of the location and the deserted sea to scare the hell out of you.Still though, I find it hard to recommend Visitors. I came out of it not only feeling like I'd just watched a 4 hour film, not a 100 minute one, but also feeling like I'd been cheated somehow, as while offering many explanations as to the hauntings (Mind games? Real ghosts? Space aliens?) Visitors doesn't pick one for definite. All that watching Radha Mitchell talk to her cat and Dominic Purcell smoulder for no obvious reason about some unexplained horrific event in the past, for nothing?. Say what you like about Shyamalan, but at least he tells you what happened, however crazy/stupid you might think it. If you don't watch a lot of these movies, your fresh perspective will probably improve matters somewhat, but I found this slow, boring and highly derivative. If you want to scare yourself silly there are much better places to do it, if you want a clever thriller there are many that are smarter.

The general premise of this film is a time-worn reliable gimmick: the lone woman in jeopardy. In this case, an interesting slow-build up to the main plot device keeps audiences engrossed: a 25 year old adventuress embarks upon a solo sailboat journey around the globe. While suffering through an extended period of being becalmed in tropical waters, she begins to believe she is being visited by ghostly apparitions who intend to kill her. Initially, the plot is intriguing as we wonder whether these nocturnal fears are real or imagined. However, as the film progresses, it deviates from being a straight forward thriller and introduces a lot of awkward goobledy-gook in which our heroine is visited by ghosts of her departed parents, menacing pirates, long dead relatives, and ultimately some over-sized spiders! Before long, the tiny vessel is as crowded as the S.S. Poseidon. The acting is very credible and the photography is also admirable, but director Richard Franklin makes the cardinal sin of showing us far too much of the mysterious visitors and their omnipresent status eventually makes them no more menacing than party guests who refuse to leave even though it's the wee small hours of the morning. The cumbersome screenplay degenerates into a confusing mess, and a completely unsatisfying climax that betrays our expectations that there will be a "sting in the tail" ending that explains most of what has preceded it. In all, a noble effort, but a failed one.