Hilary Swank takes on the Biblical plagues in The Reaping
Written: May 07 '08
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Bang For The Buck |
 |
|
|
Pros: Nice special effects, some exciting scenes
Cons: Too reliant on effects, too short
The Bottom Line: Now that it is available on DVD, it's worth renting.
|
|
|
| phungus's Full Review: The Reaping |
The Reaping is a pretty decent thriller about an atheist college professor who travels to rural swampland Louisiana to study what appears to be signs of the Ten Biblical Plagues. It stars Oscar winner Hilary Swank and was directed by Stephen Hopkins, who previously made The Ghost and the Darkness and helped created the TV series 24.
Hilary Swank plays a former missionary who lost her faith after he husband and child were killed in a remote village where they were working. She now works for Louisiana State University and spends a lot of her time travelling the world to disprove purported ‘miracles’ as scientific anomalies. Basically, her goal is to prove that the Bible is false. Her expertise calls her to a small Louisiana town after a local river turns completely red…with blood.
Swank and her assistant arrive to find the small town in an uproar, with many locals pointing fingers at an odd family that lives way out in the swamp. They seem to think the family’s young daughter is some kind of demon, and it is clear that overblown religious beliefs abound in the small town. For that reason, Swank mostly keeps her atheism to herself. However, when she finds no plausible scientific explanation for the Biblical plague-like phenomena, she begins to wonder what exactly is happening.
I thought this was a pretty cool movie although it didn’t have a lot of depth to it. If you are already familiar with the Biblical plagues, watching this movie is like a waiting game to see what comes next. It does have a good bit of special effects and they do look good, especially the excellent locust sequence where thousands upon thousands of them swarm a house and smother some people outside.
Where this movie could have been better is the length. It’s just too tight a story to start and end in 90 minutes, so the whole thing seems a little rushed. Director Stephen Hopkins did still manage to deliver plenty of exciting moments and the story has some nice plot twists. The fairly weak box office numbers for this movie are a pretty good indication that it just didn’t have wide appeal. It is basically a B-movie with upgraded special effects and a lead actor who should have known better.
I already respected Hilary Swank as an actress, but it wasn’t until seeing her in this movie that I realized how gorgeous she is. I think she accepts a lot of roles that make her appear overly tough (Million Dollar Baby) or not feminine at all (Boys Don’t Cry), but she brings back the sexy for this role. She spends most of the movie in a skin-tight tank top to show off her chiseled body, and she has gotten quite a few message board threads dedicated to it on IMDb.com. After winning two Oscars, I think she could have picked a better movie than this.
In the end, I liked The Reaping, but it winds up relying too much on explosions and special effects to make up for a weak story. It has some neat moments and a few scares, but I found the whole thing fairly predictable. It’s at least worth a rental.
Recommended:
Yes
Movie Mood: Scary Movie
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.