The Return (DVD, 2007)

The Return

When I started watching this film I quickly realized it was not going to play out the way I thought it was going to. It was a lot different than I expected and that's a very good thing.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is great in this creepy pyschological thriller and even though it starts slow there is plenty of action, excitement, and thrills to please even the most skeptical fan.

I expected this movie to suck since I hated both Grudge films but this was completely different and was actually scary in many spots. The filmakers do a great job using visuals and sound effects to scare the pants off you.

The Return is a great thriller full of mystery, confusion, and jump out of your seat moments. It's got a great cast and a really original story.

Final Verdict:

4/5

Worth buying?: Tough call... I won't buy it, but in my opinion it's one of the best single viewing thriller films in the past 3 years.

What got into Sarah Michelle Geller?? Man, she either needed the money or she owed someone a serious favor and had to pay up doing the lead in this film. This movie will do NOTHING for her resume or career.

She should have stuck with slaying vampires. At least there the paycheck was steady and the stories were much better than this movie. OK, here we go...

In The Return, Gellar plays Joanna Mills, a successful traveling salesperson in a blue-collar industry. Despite having some sort of personal rule about not traveling to Texas, where she grew up, she decides to make her next sales pitch close to her former home. As a result, she begins having strange flashbacks, not all of which belong to her.

As she tries to discover the truth behind the memories, she unearths an unsolved murder mystery that grows WAY so slow. I grew bored of an all to predictable plot assembled from convenient moments and ideas from other movies that told the same story better using actors who were able to convey the frightening situation they were in much better than Gellar.

This film is being sold as a supernatural thriller, akin to Gellar’s other franchise The Grudge. The sales campaign is so effective that I thought The Return was also based on a Japanese horror film, like The Grudge. Don’t believe it. The “thriller” moments that exist are primarily created through artificial scares irrelevant to the story and out of place jumps in the music designed solely to make the audience jump in their seats. There is nothing
even remotely sublime at play here however.

Mostly The Return is just a murder mystery with a few supernatural elements that really have very little point to being there. Sure, theoretically Joanna wouldn’t even discover this mystery if it wasn’t for another character’s memories, but What little supernatural aspects there are to the story are there for plot convenience and an effort to confuse you a little. It doesn’t work.

Thanks to the lack of originality, anyone can guess what’s going on before the half-way point of the film fairly easily, leaving the movie’s detailed final explanation for those who either weren’t paying attention, haven’t seen enough of these near-formulized plots, or fell asleep. Considering the PG-13 rating which clearly states the targeted audience for the film, my bet is on the latter. The explanation, which works so hard to explain to us what has been going on all along, emphasizes the upernatural parts of the movie that were thrown in for convenience – since they don’t mean anything, they aren’t explained.

The good news is that The Return is set up in such a way that there is no real room for a sequel, making this a stand-alone film instead of an attempt at a new franchise. Unless, of course, someone stupid tosses enough money in the right direction. For my tastes, the only Return I’m looking forward to from Gellar is the return of Buffy after Gellar realizes it’s the only place she can get away with this kind of work and call it a career.

Scooby FUC*in' Doo was better than this !!! Don't buy unless you can get it for less than $5.00 on Ebay INCLUDING S&H and you are in love with Sarah Michelle Geller.

DTD

this movie wont satisfy you if you are loking for a suspensful scary thriller. it too confusing and boring. really slow and not scary at all. dont buy it or you will waste your money for nothing.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is known for her popular horror movies but this movie is far from stellar. Looking for another Grudge or I Know What You Did Last Summer, save your money, because the bottom line is its not the actress its the director that makes it what it is. This was a very slow movie, no twists and turns just a simple story that gets to the end and leaves you pretty unsatisfied or unscared like we would hope to be after seeing the previews.

Still waiting for the item to come to me. It never arrived. I had almost forgotten that I ordered the item that it been so long ago.

Great prompt service!!! Would buy from again!
The only thing I missed was that there was no DVD case with the movie. It also skipped in a couple of places (in the bonus features).

For you drama loving people.. This is a good flick... It starts out slow.. and at times makes you wonder where all of it connects... At the end , things come together and now you know where all the people intersect... It makes me want to watch it again... now knowing where everyone is involved.. it will come together with a lot more reason... I think you will enjoy this movie....

As horror flicks go, this was better than I expected it to be. Gellar did a fine job and the storyline was decent. Would recommend to other thriller fans.

i bought the return with Sara Michelle Gellar and it was very good i really enjoyed it. It was very suspenseful from beginning to end could not take my eyes off of it. The only downfall was the end was predictable but that wasn't until the end. Great movie thumbs up!!!!!

I liked this movie. sarah michelle gellar is a very good actress. the plot was very confusing at times, althought the story moved along very well. the deleted scenes should never have been put on this DVD. please keep in mind deleted scenes were deleted for a reason. also alternate ending should have remained on the cutting room floor. All in all this Movie was great by itself, with out all the added extra's and fluff.