I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

There are a section of people that will more than likely put this American remake of the original Thai movie down purely BECAUSE it's an American remake, which is ridiculous in all honesty. There are plenty of remakes of Asian horror that have still been as enjoyable as the originals and it's actually quite sad people will not like the remake purely because it's an American version. If you go into this version with an open mind, even after seeing the original, then you should still quite enjoy it.This one sticks pretty close to the original in storyline as well, which is a good thing because with it being a remake you sometimes kind of expect them to change things around, and end up ruining it but they don't. The ironic thing is with that though, is if you've seen the original then you know what to expect at the end so it kind of takes that surprise element away slightly.Anyway, this one felt like it was a bit slower for the first half of the movie that what the original did, but thankfully it picks up enough within the last 30 minutes or so to make up for that. The story unravels nicely enough as it goes along, keeping your interest peaked to keep you watching until the very end with a decent amount of tension & suspense, which again gets better as the film goes on. There are also some nice creepy moments here and there and while none of them will seriously freak you out, they do enough just to make you feel that wee bit uncomfortable.The cast are OK and they do a decent enough job, but there's just something about Joshua Jackson that is out of place with his role of Ben. It's not that he does a bad job with the part, but I do feel that someone else might have done a better job. Then again it could have been worse...they could have got the emotionless Mark Wahlberg in instead.Overall, while this won't go down as being one of the best horrors of all time, it's still a very decent movie. Ignore any of the hate you read about it and judge for yourself.

I do not particularly like Hollywood remakes of Asian films, especially Asian horror films, as Hollywood tends to sacrifice subtlety with shock tactics.However, this is a passable remake. It mostly keeps to the original storyline, and while some suspense is lost, it is still enjoyable.The acting is a little over the top though. The original Thai actors are able to convey fear and disgust almost effortlessly, but the American version seems to need its stars to over-emote to convey the same feelings.The surprise reveal at the end however, is still preserved, thank goodness.(Sorry if I keep comparing versions, but since I usually watch the original versions first, I can't help comparing the Hollywood versions to the ones I watched earlier.)

I'm not a fan of remakes, but I'll watch them out of interest if I see them on television (the main point being that I don't have to pay for the privilege). I absolutely loved the original Thai horror film, SHUTTER, and I thought that this film might be interesting because of the new setting (Japan) and the presence of a Japanese director to give it some Asian sensibility. Sadly, while the film does have some flashes of inspiration here and there, these are few and far between and for the most part it ploughs the same old tired and familiar furrows.DAWSON'S CREEK actor Joshua Jackson takes over the leading role, a newlywed photographer on assignment in Japan who brings along his unfeasibly pretty wife too. Of course, there's hidden tragedy in his past, relayed to us via some plot contrivances and coincidences, involving his ex-girlfriend Megumi (played by Megumi Okina, who gives the only decent performance in the whole movie). Every major set-piece already happened in SHUTTER, especially the excellent twist ending from that film, so I found this movie bereft of surprise, originality and inspiration.It's well shot, but it feels hollow. Jackson plays a bland, self-loving character who frankly bored me, and his wife just seemed dim. The scares are signposted far in advance, and the old schtick involving spirit photography was frankly tiresome. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more had it been a truly original movie, but like most remakes this one just seems to have no point in existing.

This is a richer cousin of films like "One Missed Call", where Hollywood remakes a successful Asian horror film trying to gather more audiences since there are people in the world who hates reading captions of foreign films, so they film a English version and everybody gets happy (or not which is my case). And the similarity between both films does not stop right there. This is also a story where ghosts from the past comes back to life to scare and kill away a bunch of people, deaths that seems random and with no connection but there is one goal to be achieved by these ghosts. Instead of an cell-phone, the ghosts come out of photographs in bizarre moments; spirits ruining the photos taken by Joshua Jackson while enjoying honeymoon with his wife (Rachael Taylor), and also taking photos (that will be ruined too!) for his work making a great advertisement for a big company.Their problem started after accidentally run over a girl in the woods, and it looks like the girl's spirit is chasing them and killing some of their friends. The photographer's wife decides to investigate ghost appearances trying to understand what's behind all this, becoming an expert out of nowhere."Shutter" has an style that is becoming a trend in horror films with a unfair fight between real world and imaginary world or people versus spirits, where one can attack and the other can only run and hide; Father Merrin and Van Helsing are not here to help them, and charismatic and intelligent guys like them does not exist in films like these and that is a shame. Worst than this: it's not a scary film and not even funny. It's just morose. But the plot twist at the ending, reminding of "Ghost Story" (1981) was amazing, lift up the movie a little bit, but not enough to make a good film. The main couple has a charm and a good presence but that's it, with the help of embarrassing special effects they'll be scared for life with a strange ghost behind their backs. Bad, bad, bad. 4/10