DVD Review: Mothman Prophecies (C-)

Mothman Prophecies (2002)
Directed by Mark Pellington
Starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney
MPAA: PG-13
Review By Scott Standish
Grade: C-

Based on true events that happened in Virginia, this film created an initial buzz at the box office but didn't create the long standing word of mouth to make it an actual hit. I remember being psyched to see this movie based on it's cool movie poster, it had letters that were blurred out, making your vision seem out of focus. Unfortunately, the DVD is not as cool as the poster, folks.

Its easy to see why this film didn't take off as they probably hoped. Not scary enough to merit itself as a true horror film but not tight enough to be a great mystery movie, The Mothman Prophecies comes up a bit short no matter how you approach it.

Feeling like a story lifted right out of an old X-Files episode, Mothman Prophecies tells the story of Washington Post reporter John Klein, played by Richard Gere. Klein's wife dies from complications arising out of a mysterious car accident. Before her death she draws weird pictures of evil mothmen. Two years later, Klein finds himself drawn to a small town in Virginia where people are experiencing strange "mothman" influenced hallucinations and premonitions.

Laura Linney plays the local cop that has seen too much to let this all slide, she knows there is something to all of this. Plus, she might be a little interested in Gere, you never really can tell. Their chemistry is good, and the acting is fairly decent.

But what drags this film down is the made for TV like script. The film doesn't really push the envelope in any direction and frankly, even though it was rated PG-13, it really could have gotten away with a PG (I think they stuffed the movie with a couple swear words just to avoid the PG rating).

If you like old X-Files episodes (and hey those were pretty good actually), then you might want to give this one a shot, but don't get your hopes up too high.

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