MOVIE REVIEWS: PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2
October 22, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times calls Paranormal Activity 2 “an efficient delivery system for Gotcha! Moments,” which he describes as those moments in a movie “when something is sudden, loud and scary.” The dialogue in the movie, he says, simply functions as “Gotcha! separators.” It is what it is, Ebert allows. “My audience jumped a lot and screamed a lot, and then laughed at themselves, even after one event that wasn’t really funny. Then they explained things to one another, and I could overhear useful lines like, ‘She got the $#!+ scared outta her!’ … I don’t have a problem with Paranormal Activity 2. It delivers what it promises, and occupies its audiences. Win-win.” Joe Neumaier in the New York Daily News writes that “eagle-eyed audiences watching every corner of the screen are rewarded with spooky “did-you-see-that?” moments, and the actors are bland on purpose, making their dragged-down-the-stairs scenes cathartic as well as creepy.” Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel suggests that while the producers of the movie attempt to provide the same low-tech feel of the original, the millions spent on the sequel do show. He says they have produced “a more polished, more ‘studio’ looking film the second time around.” His take on it: “It’s not a bad movie.” Claudia Puig in USA Today describes how the sequel is different from the original: “[It] amplifies the sense of claustrophobia and panic with terrifying sounds _ ominous thudding, slamming doors, creepily tuneful toys.” But Liam Lacey concludes in the Toronto Globe and Mail, “The best sequences are too familiar from the first movie, leaving a disappointing sense of déjà boo.”
