Pulse (2006)

--Reviewed by Lindy Loo

Plotline: When Mattie's love-interest inexplicably kills himself and then other friends of hers begin to become distant and depressed, she knows that something is up. As she begins to search for answers as to why her love-interest did himself in, she realizes that it appears to have something to do with images that have begun to show up on his computer--images of distraught individuals doing themselves in. When suddenly people begin showing up dead by the hordes, she knows that she needs to figure out what precisely is going on. And fast.

Scariness factor: It has its moments.

Gross-Out Factor: Nothing too terrible--most people just end up poofing into clouds of ash.

Complaints: Kristen Bell, the lead, irritates the piss out of me for some reason. Perhaps because she always seems to be pouting. And perhaps because she is kind of bird-like. The acting is not so good in this movie. And it isn't ashamed to beat you over the head with its symbolism and plot. Both of these get old.



High Points: I am a sucker for apocalyptic-type movies (which is why I heart zombie flicks so much). And this took a weird and startling turn into that arena, which I dug. Also, despite beating you over the head with its message, I DID kind of find its distrust of technology and its awareness that it has taken over our lives so much that there is nowhere we can go to escape it to be kind of interesting.

Overall: Take it or leave it. If you can get your hands on it for free, it might be worth your while. Otherwise there's better stuff out there. (Though I would like to see the original Asian version as somehow the themes and messages of the movie seem like they'd be more fitting given the culture.)

Grade: C